y turning about, tore himself from this scene of
carnage, like a man who is suffering violence.

Meanwhile a general assault had been ordered. Ney had to attack the
citadel, and Davoust and Lobau the suburbs, which cover the walls of
the city. Poniatowski, already on the banks of the Dnieper, with sixty
pieces of cannon, was again to descend that river to the suburb which
borders it, to destroy the enemy's bridges, and to intercept the retreat
of the garrison. Napoleon gave orders, that, at the same time, the
artillery of the guard should batter the great wall with its
twelve-pounders, which were ineffective against so thick a mass. It
disobeyed, and directed its fire into the covered way, which it cleared.

Every manoeuvre succeeded at once, excepting Ney's attack, the only
one which ought to have been decisive, but which was neglected. The
enemy was driven back precipitately within his walls; all who had not
time to regain them perished; but, in mounting to the assault, our
attacking columns left a long and wide track of blood, of wounded and
dead.

It was remarked, that one battalion, which presented itself in flank to
the Russian batteries, lost a whole rank of one of its platoons by a
single bullet; twenty-two men were felled by the same blow.

Meanwhile the army, from an amphitheatre of heights, contemplated with
silent anxiety the conduct of its brave comrades; but when it saw them
darting through a shower of balls and grape shot, and persisting with an
ardour, a firmness, and a regularity, quite admirable; then it was that
the soldiers, warmed with enthusiasm, began clapping their hands. The
noise of this glorious applause was such as even to reach the attacking
columns. It rewarded the devotion of those warriors; and although in
Dalton's single brigade, and in the artillery of Reindre, five chiefs of
battalion, 1500 men, and the general himself fell, the survivors still
say, that the enthusiastic homage which they excited, was a sufficient
compensation to them for all their sufferings.

On reaching the walls of the place, they screened themselves from its
fire, by means of the outworks and buildings, of which they had gained
possession. The fire of musketry continued; and from the report,
redoubled by the echo of the walls, it seemed to become more and more
brisk. The emperor grew tired of this; he would have withdrawn his
troops. Thus, the same blunder which Ney had made a battalion commit the
preceding d