e 24th,
he learned that the Russians had disputed the possession of
Malo-Yaroslawetz with Delzons. Owing either to confidence or uncertainty
in his plans, this intelligence gave him very little concern.

He quitted Borowsk, therefore, late and leisurely, when the noise of a
very smart engagement reached where he was; he then became uneasy,
hastened to an eminence and listened. "Had the Russians anticipated him?
Was his manoeuvre thwarted? Had he not used sufficient expedition in
that march, the object of which was to pass the left flank of Kutusoff?"

In reality there was in this whole movement a little of that torpor
which succeeds a long repose. Moscow is but one hundred and ten wersts
from Malo-Yaroslawetz; four days would have been sufficient to go that
distance; we took six. The army, laden with provisions and pillage, was
heavy, and the roads were deep. A whole day had been sacrificed to the
passage of the Nara and its morass, as also to the rallying of the
different corps. It is true that in defiling so near the enemy it was
necessary to march close, that we might not present to him too long a
flank. Be this as it may, we may date all our calamities from that
delay.

The Emperor was still listening; the noise increased. "Is it then a
battle?" he exclaimed. Every discharge agitated him, for the chief point
with him was no longer to conquer, but to preserve, and he urged on
Davoust, who accompanied him; but he and that marshal did not reach the
field of battle till dark, when the firing was subsiding and the whole
was over.

The Emperor saw the end of the battle, but without being able to assist
the viceroy. A band of Cossacks from Twer had nearly captured one of his
officers, who was only a very short distance from him.

It was not till then that an officer, sent by Prince Eugene, came to him
to explain the whole affair. "The troops had," he said, "in the first
place, been obliged to cross the Louja at the foot of Malo-Yaroslawetz,
at the bottom of an elbow which the river makes in its course; and then
to climb a steep hill: it is on this rapid declivity, broken by pointed
crags, that the town is built. Beyond is an elevated plain, surrounded
with wood from which run three roads, one in front, coming from Kalouga,
and two on the left, from Lectazowo, the entrenched camp of Kutusoff.

"On the preceding day Delzons found no enemy there; but he did not think
it prudent to place his whole division in the upper t