on this side it could
not be easily attacked. But the Kologha, both banks of which he
followed, while it covered the right of the position, left their left
exposed.

The maps of the country were insufficient; at any rate, as the ground
necessarily sloped towards the principal stream, which was the most
considerable merely from being the lowest, it followed, that the ravines
which ran into it must rise, become shallower, and be at length lost, as
they receded from the Kologha. Besides, the old road to Smolensk, which
ran on its right, sufficiently marked their commencement; why should it
have been formerly carried to a distance from the principal stream of
water, and consequently from the most habitable places, if not to avoid
the ravines and the hills which bordered them?

The demonstrations of the enemy agreed with these inductions of his
experience,--no precautions, no resistance in front of their right and
their centre; but before their left a great number of troops, a marked
solicitude to profit by the slightest accidents of the ground, in order
to dispute it, and finally, a formidable redoubt; this was, of course,
their weak side, since they covered it with such care. Nay, more; it was
on the flank of the high-road, and on that of the grand army, that this
redoubt was situated; it was therefore of the utmost importance to
carry it, if he would advance: Napoleon gave orders to that effect.

How much the historian is at a loss for words to express the _coup
d'oeil_ of a man of genius!

The villages and the woods were immediately occupied; on the left and in
the centre were the army of Italy, Compans's division, and Murat; on the
right, Poniatowski. The attack was general; for the army of Italy and
the Polish army appeared at once on the two wings of the grand imperial
column. These three masses drove back the Russian rear-guards upon
Borodino, and the whole war was concentrated on a single point.

This curtain being withdrawn, the first Russian redoubt was discovered;
too much detached in advance of their position, which it defended
without being defended by it. The nature of the ground had compelled the
choice of this insulated situation.

Compans skilfully availed himself of the undulations of the ground; its
elevations served as platforms to his guns for battering the redoubt,
and screened his infantry while drawing up into columns of attack. The
61st marched foremost; the redoubt was taken by a single effo