on of Borizof, and went to take position with the rest of
his corps at Studzianka. They marched in the most profound obscurity,
without making the least noise, and mutually recommending to each other
the deepest silence.

By eight o'clock at night Oudinot and Dombrowski had taken possession of
the heights commanding the passage, while General Eble descended from
them. That general placed himself on the borders of the river, with his
pontonniers and a waggon-load of the irons of abandoned wheels, which at
all hazards he had made into cramp-irons. He had sacrificed every thing
to preserve that feeble resource, and it saved the army.

At the close of the night of the 25th he made them sink the first
tressel in the muddy bed of the river. But to crown our misfortunes, the
rising of the waters had made the traces of the ford entirely disappear.
It required the most incredible efforts on the part of our unfortunate
sappers, who were plunged in the water up to their mouths, and had to
contend with the floating pieces of ice which were carried along by the
stream. Many of them perished from the cold, or were drowned by the ice
flakes, which a violent wind drove against them.

They had every thing to conquer but the enemy. The rigour of the
atmosphere was just at the degree necessary to render the passage of the
river more difficult, without suspending its course, or sufficiently
consolidating the moving ground upon which we were about to venture. On
this occasion the winter showed itself more Russian than even the
Russians themselves. The latter were wanting to their season, which
never failed them.

The French laboured during the whole night by the light of the enemy's
fires, which shone on the heights of the opposite bank, and within reach
of the artillery and musketry of the division Tchaplitz. The latter,
having no longer any doubt of our intentions, sent to apprise his
commander-in-chief.

CHAP. V.

The presence of a hostile division deprived us of all hope of deceiving
the Russian admiral. We were expecting every instant to hear the whole
fire of his artillery directed upon our workmen; and even if he did not
discover them until daylight, their labours would not then be
sufficiently advanced; and the opposite bank, being low and marshy, was
too much commanded by Tchaplitz's positions to make it at all possible
for us to force a passage.

When he quitted Borizof, therefore, at ten o'clock at night, Napoleon