rt, and
with the bayonet; but Bagration sent reinforcements, by which it was
retaken. Three times did the 61st recover it from the Russians, and
three times was it driven out again; but at length it maintained itself
in it, covered with blood and half destroyed.

Next day, when the emperor reviewed that regiment, he inquired where
was its third battalion? "In the redoubt," was the reply of the colonel.
But the affair did not stop there; a neighbouring wood still swarmed
with Russian light troops, who sallied every moment from this retreat to
renew their attacks, which were supported by three divisions: at length
the attack of Schewardino by Morand, and of the woods of Elnia by
Poniatowski, completely disheartened the troops of Bagration, and
Murat's cavalry cleared the plain. It was chiefly the firmness of a
Spanish regiment that foiled the enemy; they at last gave way, and that
redoubt, which had been their advanced post, became ours.

At the same time the emperor assigned its place to each corps; the rest
of the army formed in line, and a general discharge of musketry,
accompanied at intervals with that of a few cannon, ensued. It continued
till each party had fixed its limit, and darkness had rendered their
fire uncertain.

One of Davoust's regiments then sought to take its rank in the first
line. Owing to the darkness, it passed beyond it, and got into the midst
of the Russian cuirassiers, who attacked it, threw it into disorder,
took from it three pieces of cannon, and killed or took three hundred
men. The rest immediately fell into platoons, forming a shapeless mass,
but making so formidable a resistance, that the enemy could not again
break it; and this regiment, with diminished numbers, finally regained
its place in the line of battle.

CHAPTER VI.

The emperor encamped behind the army of Italy, on the left of the
high-road; the old guard formed in square around his tents. As soon as
the fire of small arms had ceased, the fires were kindled. Those of the
Russians burned brightly, in an immense semicircle; ours gave a pale,
unequal, and irregular light,--the troops arriving late and in haste, on
an unknown ground, where nothing was prepared for them, and where there
was a want of wood, especially in the centre and on the left.

The emperor slept little. On General Caulaincourt's return from the
conquered redoubt, as no prisoners had fallen into our hands, Napoleon
surprised, kept asking him repeate