p clefts with which the soil of Russia is intersected stopped
them in the midst of a destructive fire, their ranks opened, the enemy's
cavalry attacked them, and they were driven back to the very gardens of
the suburb. There they paused and rallied: all, both French and
Italians, obstinately defended the upper avenues of the town, and the
Russians, being at length repulsed, drew back and concentrated
themselves on the road to Kaluga, between the woods and
Malo-jaroslavetz.

In this manner did 18,000 Italians and French, crowded together at the
bottom of a ravine, defeat 50,000 Russians, posted over their heads, and
seconded by all the obstacles that a town built on a steep declivity is
capable of presenting.

The army, however, surveyed with sorrow this field of battle, where
seven generals and 4000 French and Italians had been killed or wounded.
The sight of the enemy's loss afforded no consolation; it was not twice
the amount of ours, and their wounded would be saved. It was moreover
recollected, that in a similar situation, Peter I., in sacrificing ten
Russians for one Swede, thought that he was not sustaining merely an
equal loss, but that he was gaining even by so terrible a bargain. But
what caused the greatest pain was the reflection that this sanguinary
conflict might have been spared.[162]

Sec. 11. Napoleon holds a council of war and decides to retreat northward.

Do you recollect, comrades, that fatal field? Can you still figure to
yourselves the blood-stained ruins of that town, those deep ravines, and
the woods which surround that elevated plain, and mark it, as it were,
for a field of combat? On the one side were the French, quitting the
north, from which they sought to fly; on the other, at the entrance of
the wood, were the Russians, guarding the south, and striving to drive
us back upon their all-subduing winter. In the midst of this plain,
between the two armies, was Napoleon, his steps and his eyes wandering
from south to west, along the roads to Kaluga and Medyn, both which were
closed against him. On that to Kaluga were Kutusoff and one hundred and
twenty thousand men, ready to dispute with him sixty miles of defiles;
towards Medyn he beheld a numerous cavalry: it was Platoff and those
same hordes which had just penetrated the flank of the army, traversed
it through and through, and burst forth, laden with booty, to form again
on his right flank, where re-enforcements and artillery were waiting