een carried to intoxication; people embraced one
another in the streets, and considered themselves as saved.

When Napoleon had learned these particulars, and given his orders, he
awaited the event with that tranquillity of mind peculiar to
extraordinary men. He quietly employed himself in exploring the environs
of his head-quarters. He remarked the progress of agriculture; but at
the sight of the Gjatz, which pours its waters into the Wolga, he who
had conquered so many rivers, felt anew the first emotions of his glory:
he was heard to boast of being the master of those waves destined to
visit Asia,--as if they were proceeding to announce his approach, and to
open for him the way to that quarter of the globe.

[Illustration: Portrait of Murat, King of Naples]

On the 4th of September, the army, still divided into three columns, set
out from Gjatz and its environs. Murat had gone on a few leagues before.
Ever since the arrival of Kutusof, troops of cossacks had been
incessantly hovering about the heads of our columns. Murat was
exasperated at seeing his cavalry forced to deploy against so feeble an
obstacle. We are assured that on that day, from one of those first
impulses worthy of the ages of chivalry, he dashed suddenly and alone
towards their line, stopped short a few paces from them, and there,
sword in hand, made a sign for them to retire, with an air and gesture
so commanding, that these barbarians obeyed, and fell back in amazement.

This circumstance, which was related to us immediately, was received
without incredulity. The martial air of that monarch, the brilliancy of
his chivalrous dress, his reputation, and the novelty of such an action,
caused this momentary ascendancy to appear true, in spite of its
improbability; for such was Murat, a theatrical monarch by the splendor
of his dress, and truly a king by his extraordinary valour and his
inexhaustible activity; bold as the attack, and always armed with that
air of superiority, that threatening audacity, which is the most
dangerous of offensive weapons.

He had not marched long, however, before he was forced to halt. At
Griednewa, between Gjatz and Borodino, the high-road suddenly descends
into a deep ravine, whence it again rises as suddenly to a spacious
height, which Kutusof had ordered Konownitzin to defend. That general at
first made a vigorous resistance against the foremost troops of Murat;
but as the army closely followed the latter, every momen