himself. He remarked that the Russian lines
had at their back a muddy ravine, across which there was an unsafe
bridge. This only way of retreat, in the sight of an enemy, appeared to
him to be impracticable. Kutusoff was now in such a situation that he
must either conquer or perish; and the Englishman was hugging himself at
the prospect of a decisive engagement: whether its issue proved fatal to
Napoleon or dangerous to Russia, it must be bloody, and England could
not but be a gainer by it.

Still uneasy, however, he went at night through the ranks: he was
delighted to hear Kutusoff swear that he was at length going to fight;
he triumphed on seeing all the Russian generals preparing for a terrible
conflict; Beningsen alone had still his doubts on the subject. The
Englishman, nevertheless, considering that the position no longer
admitted of falling back, at length lay down to wait for daylight, when
about three in the morning a general order for retreat awoke him. All
his efforts were ineffectual. Kutusoff had resolved to direct his flight
southward, first to Gonczarewo, and then beyond Kalouga; and at the Oka
every thing was by this time ready for his passage.

It was at that very instant that Napoleon ordered his troops to retire
northward on Mojaisk. The two armies therefore turned their backs on
each other, mutually deceiving each other by means of their rear-guards.

On the part of Kutusoff, Wilson asserts, that his retreat was like a
rout. Cavalry, cannon, carriages, and battalions thronged from all sides
to the entrance of the bridge, against which the Russian army was
backed. There all these columns, hurrying from the right, the left, and
the centre, met, clashed, and became blended into so enormous and so
dense a mass, that it lost all power of motion. It took several hours to
disentangle it and to clear the passage. A few balls discharged by
Davoust, which he regarded as thrown away, fell among this confused
crowd.

Napoleon needed but to have advanced upon this disorderly rabble. It was
after the greatest effort, that of Malo-Yaroslawetz, had been made, and
when he had nothing to do but to march, that he retreated. But such is
war! in which it is impossible to attempt too much or to be too daring.
One army knows not what the other is doing. The advanced posts are the
exterior of these two great hostile bodies, by means of which they
overawe one another. What an abyss there is between two armies that are
i