esides, the provisions concealed the
booty, and could he, who could not give his troops the subsistence which
he ought to have done, forbid their carrying it along with them? Lastly,
in failure of military conveyances, these vehicles would be the only
means of preservation for the sick and wounded.

Napoleon, therefore, extricated himself in silence from the immense
train which he drew after him, and advanced on the old road leading to
Kalouga. He pushed on in this direction for some hours, declaring that
he should go and beat Kutusoff on the very field of his victory. But all
at once, about mid-day, opposite to the castle of Krasnopachra, where he
halted, he suddenly turned to the right with his army, and in three
marches across the country gained the new road to Kalouga.

The rain, which overtook him in the midst of this manoeuvre, spoiled
the cross-roads, and obliged him to halt in them. This was a most
unfortunate circumstance. It was not without difficulty that our cannon
were drawn out of the sloughs.

At any rate the Emperor had masked his movement by Ney's corps and the
relics of Murat's cavalry, which had remained behind the Motscha and at
Woronowo. Kutusoff, deceived by this feint, was still waiting for the
grand army on the old road, whilst on the 23rd of October, the whole of
it, transferred to the new one, had but one march to make in order to
pass quietly by him, and to get between him and Kalouga.

A letter from Berthier to Kutusoff, dated the first day of this flanking
march, was at once a last attempt at peace, and perhaps a _ruse de
guerre_. No satisfactory answer was returned to it.

CHAP. II.

On the 23rd the imperial quarters were at Borowsk. That night was an
agreeable one for the Emperor: he was informed that at six in the
evening Delzons and his division had, four leagues in advance of him,
found Malo-Yaroslawetz and the woods which command it unoccupied: this
was a strong position within reach of Kutusoff, and the only point where
he could cut us off from the new road to Kalouga.

The Emperor wished first to secure this advantage by his presence; the
order to march was even given, but withdrawn, we know not why. He passed
the whole of that evening on horseback, not far from Borowsk, on the
left of the road, the side on which he supposed Kutusoff to be. He
reconnoitred the ground in the midst of a heavy rain, as if he
anticipated that it might become a field of battle. Next day, th