e grand army marched to the Niemen, in three
separate masses. The king of Westphalia, with 80,000 men, moved upon
Grodno; the viceroy of Italy, with 75,000 men, upon Pilony; Napoleon,
with 220,000 men, upon Nogaraiski, a farm situated three leagues beyond
Kowno. The 23d of June, before daylight, the imperial column reached the
Niemen, but without seeing it. The borders of the great Prussian forest
of Pilwisky, and the hills which line the river, concealed the great
army, which was about to cross it.

Napoleon, who had travelled in a carriage as far as that, mounted his
horse at two o'clock in the morning. He reconnoitred the Russian river,
without disguising himself, as has been falsely asserted, but under
cover of the night crossing this frontier, which five months afterwards
he was only enabled to repass under cover of the same obscurity. When he
came up to the bank, his horse suddenly stumbled, and threw him on the
sand. A voice exclaimed, "This is a bad omen; a Roman would recoil!" It
is not known whether it was himself, or one of his retinue, who
pronounced these words.

His task of reconnoitring concluded, he gave orders that, at the close
of the following day, three bridges should be thrown over the river,
near the village of Poniemen; he then retired to his head-quarters,
where he passed the whole day, sometimes in his tent, sometimes in a
Polish house, listlessly reclined, in the midst of a breathless
atmosphere, and a suffocating heat, vainly courting repose.

On the return of night, he again made his approaches to the river. The
first who crossed it were a few sappers in a small boat. They approached
the Russian side with some degree of apprehension, but found no obstacle
to oppose their landing. There they found peace; the war was entirely on
their own side; all was tranquil on that foreign soil, which had been
described to them as so menacing. A single officer of cossacks, however,
on patrole, presented himself to their view. He was alone, and appeared
to consider himself in full peace, and to be ignorant that the whole of
Europe in arms was at hand. He inquired of the strangers who they
were?--"Frenchmen!" they replied.--"What do you want?" rejoined the
officer; "and wherefore do you come into Russia?"--A sapper briskly
replied, "To make war upon you; to take Wilna; to deliver Poland."--The
cossack then withdrew; he disappeared in the woods, into which three of
our soldiers, giving vent to their ardour,