he felt himself uncomfortable. And,
besides, to obtain their assent to his plan, was in some degree to make
them share the responsibility which possibly weighed upon his mind.

But all the officers of his household opposed his plan, each in the way
that marked his peculiar character; Berthier, by a melancholy
countenance, by lamentations, and even tears; Lobau and Caulaincourt, by
a frankness, which in the first was stamped by a cold and haughty
roughness, excusable in so brave a warrior; and which in the second was
persevering even to obstinacy, and impetuous even to violence. The
emperor repelled their observations with some ill-humour; he exclaimed,
addressing himself more especially to his aid-de-camp, as well as to
Berthier, "that he had enriched his generals too much; that all they now
aspired to was to follow the pleasures of the chase, and to display
their brilliant equipages in Paris: and that, doubtless, they had become
disgusted with war." When their honour was thus attacked, there was no
longer any reply to be made; they merely bowed and remained silent.
During one of his impatient fits, he told one of the generals of his
guard, "you were born in a _bivouac_, and in a _bivouac_ you will die."

As to Duroc, he first signified his disapprobation by a chilling
silence, and afterwards by terse replies, reference to accurate reports,
and brief remarks. To him the emperor replied, "that he saw clearly
enough that the Russians wanted to draw him on; but that, nevertheless,
he must proceed as far as Smolensk; that there he would establish his
head-quarters; and that in the spring of 1813, if Russia did not
previously make peace, she would be ruined; that Smolensk was the key
of the two roads to Petersburgh and Moscow; that he must get possession
of it; and that he would then be able to march on both those capitals at
the same time, in order to destroy every thing in the one, and preserve
every thing in the other."

Here the grand marshal observed to him, that he was not more likely to
make peace at Smolensk, or even at Moscow, than he was at Witepsk; and
that in removing to such a distance from France, the Prussians
constituted an intermediate body, on whom little reliance could be
placed. But the emperor replied, that on that supposition, as the
Russian war no longer offered him any advantageous result, he ought to
renounce it; and if so, he must turn his arms against Prussia, and
compel her to pay the expenses o