te their ranks, and fell, wounded, to the
earth; their bodies, and those of their horses, added to the
difficulties of the ground. At length they became discouraged, and took
to flight. The joyful shouts of our army, the crosses of honour, which
the emperor instantly sent to the bravest of the group, his words,
afterwards perused by all Europe,--all taught these valiant soldiers the
extent of a glory, which they had not yet estimated; noble actions
generally appearing quite ordinary to those who perform them. They
imagined themselves on the point of being killed or taken; and found
themselves almost at the same instant victorious and rewarded.

Meanwhile, the army of Italy and the cavalry of Murat, followed by three
divisions of the first corps, which had been confided, since they left
Wilna, to count Lobau, attacked the main-road and the woods which formed
the support of the enemy's left. The engagement was, in the first
instance, very animated; but it terminated abruptly. The Russian
vanguard retreated precipitately behind the ravine of the Luczissa, to
escape being thrown into it. The enemy's army was then entirely
collected on the opposite bank, and presented a united body of 80,000
men.

Their determined countenance, in a strong position, and in front of a
capital, deceived Napoleon; he conceived that they would regard it as a
point of honour to maintain their ground. It was only eleven o'clock; he
ordered the attack to cease, in order to have an opportunity of
exploring the whole front of the line, and preparing for a decisive
battle on the following day. In the first instance, he proceeded to post
himself on a rising ground among the light troops, in the midst of whom
he breakfasted. Thence he observed the enemy's army, a ball from which
wounded an officer very near him. The subsequent hours he spent in
reconnoitring the ground, and in waiting for the arrival of the other
corps.

Napoleon announced a battle for the following day. His parting words to
Murat were these:--"To-morrow at five o'clock, the sun of Austerlitz!"
They explain the cause of that suspension of hostilities in the middle
of the day, in the midst of a success which filled the army with
enthusiasm. They were astonished at this inactivity at the moment of
overtaking an army, the pursuit of which had completely exhausted them.
Murat, who had been daily deluded by a similar expectation, remarked to
the emperor that Barclay only made a demonstrati