by dint of
importunity. At length he strove to get some rest: but a feverish
anxiety prevented him from closing his eyes. During all the rest of that
cruel night he kept rising, lying down again, and calling incessantly,
but yet not a single word betrayed his distress: it was only from the
agitation of his body that the anguish of his mind was to be inferred.

About four in the morning, one of his orderly officers, the Prince
d'Aremberg, came to inform him that under favour of the night, the woods
and some inequalities of ground, Cossacks were slipping in between him
and his advanced posts. The Emperor had just sent off Poniatowski on his
right to Kremenskoe. So little did he expect the enemy from that side,
that he had neglected to order out any scouts on his right flank. He
therefore slighted the report of his orderly officer.

No sooner did the sun appear above the horizon on the 25th, than he
mounted his horse, and advanced on the Kalouga road, which to him was
now nothing more than the road to Malo-Yaroslawetz. To reach the bridge
of that town, he had to cross the plain, about a league in length and
breadth, embraced by the bend of the Louja: a few officers only attended
him. The four squadrons of his usual escort, not having been previously
apprised, hastened to rejoin, but had not yet overtaken him. The road
was covered with sick-waggons, artillery, and vehicles of luxury: it was
the interior of the army, and every one was marching on without
mistrust.

In the distance, towards the right, a few small bodies of men were first
seen running, and then large black lines advancing. Outcries were
presently heard: some women and attendants on the army were met running
back, too much affrighted and out of breath, either to listen to any
thing, or to answer any question. At the same time the file of vehicles
stopped in uncertainty; disorder arose in it: some endeavoured to
proceed, others to turn back; they crossed, jostled and upset one
another: and the whole was soon a scene of complete uproar and
confusion.

The Emperor looked on and smiled, still advancing, and believing it to
be a groundless panic. His aides-de-camp suspected that it was Cossacks
whom they saw, but they marched in such regular platoons that they still
had doubts on the subject; and if those wretches had not howled at the
moment of attack, as they all do to stifle the sense of danger, it is
probable that Napoleon would not have escaped them. A cir