vertheless they had suffered severely. The savage ferocity with which,
in spite of repeated proclamations and orders, the invading army treated
the people, had exasperated the peasantry almost to madness, and taking
up arms, they cut down every straggler, annihilated small parties,
attacked baggage trains, and repeated in Russia the terrible retaliation
dealt by the Spanish guerillas upon their invaders.

On the right of the French advance there had been heavier fighting.
There General Schwarzenberg with his 30,000 Austrians had advanced
against the third Russian army, under Tormanssow. A brigade of the
division under Regnier, which was by Napoleon's order marching to join
Schwarzenberg, entered Kobrin, where it was surrounded by Tormanssow,
and after a brave resistance of nine hours, in which it lost 2000 killed
and wounded, the remainder, 2300 in number, were forced to surrender.
Tormanssow then took up a strong position with his 18,000 men, and
awaited the attack of the united forces of Schwarzenberg and Regnier,
38,000 strong.

The battle lasted all day, the loss on either side being between four
and five thousand. Tormanssow held his position, but retired under cover
of night. On the 3rd of August the armies of Barclay and Bagration at
last succeeded in effecting a junction at Smolensk, and towards that
town the French corps moved from various quarters, until 250,000 men
were assembled near it, and on the 15th of August, Murat and Ney arrived
within nine miles of the place.

Smolensk, a town of considerable size, on the Dnieper, distant 280 miles
from Moscow, was surrounded by a brick wall thirty feet high and
eighteen feet thick at the base, with loopholed battlements. This wall
formed a semicircle of about three miles and a half, the ends resting on
the river. It was strengthened by thirty towers, and at its forts was a
deep dry ditch. The town was largely built of wood. There were no heavy
guns upon the walls, and the city, which was completely commanded by
surrounding hills, was in no way defensible, but Barclay de Tolly felt
himself obliged to fight.

The greatest indignation prevailed in Russia at the retreat of the
armies without attempting one determined stand, the abandonment of so
large a tract of country to the French, and the suffering and ruin
thereby wrought among the population of one of the richest and most
thickly-peopled districts of Russia. Barclay's own plan had been to draw
the enemy farthe