e, in a loud voice, and addressing
himself to some of his officers, "we shall not repeat the folly of
Charles the Twelfth." But his actions in a short time belied his words;
and there was a general astonishment at his indifference to giving the
necessary orders for so great an establishment. To the left no
instructions were sent to Macdonald, nor was he supplied with the means
of obtaining possession of Riga. To the right, it was Bobruisk which it
was necessary to capture; this fortress stands in the midst of an
extensive and deep marsh; and it was to a body of cavalry that the task
of besieging it was committed.

Napoleon, in former times, scarcely ever gave orders without the
possibility of being obeyed; but the prodigies of the war of Prussia had
since occurred, and from that time the idea of impossibility was not
admitted. His orders were always, that every thing must be attempted,
because up to that time every thing had succeeded. This at first gave
birth to great exertions, all of which, however, were not equally
fortunate. Persons got discouraged; but their chief persevered; he had
become accustomed to command every thing; those whom he commanded got
accustomed not to execute every thing.

Meantime Dombrowski was left before that fortress with his Polish
division, which Napoleon stated at 8000 men, although he knew very well
that it did not at that time amount to more than 1200; but such was his
custom; either because he calculated on his words being repeated, and
that they would deceive the enemy; or that he wished, by this
exaggerated estimate, to make his generals feel all that he expected
from them.

Witepsk remained for survey. From the windows of its houses the eye
looked down perpendicularly into the Duena, or to the very bottom of the
precipices by which its walls are surrounded. In these countries the
snow remains long upon the ground; it filters through its least solid
parts, which it penetrates to a great depth, and which it dilutes and
breaks down. Hence those deep and unexpected ravines, which no
declination of the soil gives reason to foresee, which are imperceptible
at some paces from their edge, and which on those vast plains surprised
and suddenly arrested the charges of cavalry.

The French would not have required more than a month to render that city
sufficiently strong as even to stand a regular siege: the natural
strength of the place was such as to require little assistance from art,
bu