each instant;
and only by a miracle did the Grand-Duke escape our hussars, who
followed him till he was lost to view in the flying ranks of the allies.

As we gained the crest of the hill, we were in time to see Soult's
victorious columns driving the enemy before them; while the Imperial
Guard, up to that moment unengaged, reinforced the grenadiers on the
right, and broke through the Russians on every side.

The attempt to outflank us on the right we had perfectly retorted on the
left; where Lannes's division, overlapping the line, pressed them on two
sides, and drove them back, still fighting, into the plain, which, with
a lake, separated the allied armies from the village of Austerlitz. And
here took place the most dreadful occurrence of the day.

The two roads which led through the lake were soon so encumbered and
blocked up by ammunition wagons and carts that they became impassable;
and as the masses of the fugitives thickened, they spread over the lake,
which happened to be frozen. It was at this time that the Emperor came
up, and seeing the cavalry halted, and no longer in pursuit of the
flying columns, ordered up twelve pieces of the artillery of the
Imperial Guard, which, from the crest of the hill, opened a murderous
fire on them. The slaughter was fearful as the discharges of grape and
round shot cut channels through the jammed-up mass, and tore the dense
columns, as it were, into fragments.

Dreadful as the scene was, what followed far exceeded it in horror;
for soon the shells began to explode beneath the ice, which now, with a
succession of reports louder than thunder, gave way. In an instant
whole regiments were ingulfed, and amid the wildest cries of despair,
thousands sank never to appear again, while the deafening artillery
mercilessly played upon them, till over that broad surface no living
thing was seen to move, while beneath was the sepulchre of five thousand
men. About seven thousand reached Austerlitz by another road to the
northward; but even these had not escaped, save for a mistake of
Bernadotte, who most unaccountably, as it was said, halted his division
on the heights. Had it not been for this, not a soldier of the Russian
right wing had been saved.

The reserve cavalry and the dragoons of the Guard were now called up
from the pursuit, and I saw my own regiment pass close by me, as I stood
amid the staff round Murat. The men were fresh and eager for the fray;
yet how many fell in that p