ed to advance ran back on meeting grapeshot; soldiers
ordered to remain where they were, suddenly, seeing Russians
unexpectedly before them, sometimes rushed back and sometimes forward,
and the cavalry dashed without orders in pursuit of the flying Russians.
In this way two cavalry regiments galloped through the Semenovsk hollow
and as soon as they reached the top of the incline turned round and
galloped full speed back again. The infantry moved in the same way,
sometimes running to quite other places than those they were ordered to
go to. All orders as to where and when to move the guns, when to send
infantry to shoot or horsemen to ride down the Russian infantry--all
such orders were given by the officers on the spot nearest to the
units concerned, without asking either Ney, Davout, or Murat, much less
Napoleon. They did not fear getting into trouble for not fulfilling
orders or for acting on their own initiative, for in battle what is at
stake is what is dearest to man--his own life--and it sometimes seems
that safety lies in running back, sometimes in running forward; and
these men who were right in the heat of the battle acted according to
the mood of the moment. In reality, however, all these movements forward
and backward did not improve or alter the position of the troops. All
their rushing and galloping at one another did little harm, the harm of
disablement and death was caused by the balls and bullets that flew over
the fields on which these men were floundering about. As soon as they
left the place where the balls and bullets were flying about, their
superiors, located in the background, re-formed them and brought them
under discipline and under the influence of that discipline led them
back to the zone of fire, where under the influence of fear of death
they lost their discipline and rushed about according to the chance
promptings of the throng.

CHAPTER XXXIV

Napoleon's generals--Davout, Ney, and Murat, who were near that region
of fire and sometimes even entered it--repeatedly led into it huge
masses of well-ordered troops. But contrary to what had always happened
in their former battles, instead of the news they expected of the
enemy's flight, these orderly masses returned thence as disorganized
and terrified mobs. The generals re-formed them, but their numbers
constantly decreased. In the middle of the day Murat sent his adjutant
to Napoleon to demand reinforcements.

Napoleon sat at the f