ow themselves into that gap,
behind a line still formidable, they called aloud for the guard: "The
young guard! only let it follow them at a distance! Let it show itself,
and take their place upon the heights! They themselves will then be
sufficient to finish!"

General Belliard was sent by them to the emperor. He declared, "that
from their position, the eye could penetrate, without impediment, a far
as the road to Mojaisk, in the rear of the Russian army; that they could
see there a confused crowd of flying and wounded soldiers, and carriages
retreating; that it was true there was still a ravine and a thin copse
between them, but that the Russian generals were so confounded, that
they had no thought of turning these to any advantage; that in short,
only a single effort was required to arrive in the middle of that
disorder, to seal the enemy's discomfiture, and terminate the war!"

The emperor, however, still hesitated, and ordered that general to go
and look again, and to return and bring him word. Belliard, surprised,
went and returned with all speed; he reported, "that the enemy began to
think better of it; that the copse was already lined with his marksmen:
that the opportunity was about to escape; that there was not a moment to
be lost, otherwise it would require a second battle to terminate the
first!"

But Bessieres, who had just returned from the heights, to which Napoleon
had sent him to examine the attitude of the Russians, asserted, that,
"far from being in disorder, they had retreated to a second position,
where they seemed to be preparing for a fresh attack." The emperor then
said to Belliard, "That nothing was yet sufficiently unravelled: that to
make him give his reserves, he wanted to see more clearly upon his
chess-board." This was his expression; which he repeated several times,
at the same time pointing on one side to the old Moscow road, of which
Poniatowski had not yet made himself master; on the other, to an attack
of the enemy's cavalry in the rear of our left wing; and, finally, to
the great redoubt, against which the efforts of prince Eugene had been
ineffectual.

Belliard, in consternation, returned to the king of Naples, and informed
him of the impossibility of obtaining the reserve from the emperor; he
said, "he had found him still seated in the same place, with a suffering
and dejected air, his features sunk, and a dull look; giving his orders
languishingly, in the midst of these dreadfu