d placed himself across it
at the entrance of a wood; he had covered himself by two heights, on
which he had planted artillery.

But this was of little consequence, because, between this detached corps
and the last Russian redoubt, there was a space of five or six hundred
fathoms and a covered ground. If we did not begin with overwhelming
Tutchkof, we might therefore occupy it, pass between him and the last of
Bagration's redoubts, and take the left wing of the enemy in flank; but
the emperor could not satisfy himself on this point, as the Russian
advanced posts and the woods forbade his farther advance, and
intercepted his view.

Having finished his reconnoissance, he formed his plan. "Eugene shall be
the pivot!" he exclaimed: "it is the right that must commence. As soon
as, under cover of the wood, it has taken the redoubt opposite to it, it
must make a movement to the left, and march on the Russian flank,
sweeping and driving back their whole army upon their right and into the
Kologha."

The general plan thus conceived, he applied himself to the details.
During the night, three batteries, of sixty guns each, must be opposed
to the Russian redoubts; two facing their left, the third before their
centre. At daybreak, Poniatowski and his army, reduced to five thousand
men, must advance on the old Smolensk road, turning the wood on which
the French right wing and the Russian left were supported. He would
flank the one and annoy the other; the army would wait for the report of
his first shots.

Instantly, the whole of the artillery should commence upon the left of
the Russians, its fire would open their ranks and redoubts, and Davoust
and Ney should rush upon them; they should be supported by Junot and his
Westphalians, by Murat and his cavalry, and lastly, by the emperor
himself, with 20,000 guards. It was against these two redoubts that the
first efforts should be made; it was by them that he would penetrate
into the hostile army, thenceforth mutilated, and whose centre and right
would then be uncovered, and almost enveloped.

Meanwhile, as the Russians showed themselves in redoubled masses on
their centre and their right, threatening the Moscow road, the only line
of operation of the grand army; as in throwing his chief force and
himself on their left, Napoleon was about to place the Kologha between
him and that road, his only retreat, he resolved to strengthen the army
of Italy which occupied it, and joined with