d between Minsk, Slonim, Grodno, and Wilna--in short, that
seventy thousand men; would not allow sixty thousand Russians to gain
possession of his magazines and to cut off his retreat.

CHAP. VI.

Napoleon, reduced to such hazardous conjectures, arrived quite pensive
at Vereia, when Mortier presented himself before him. But I perceive
that, hurried along, just as we then were, by the rapid succession of
violent scenes and memorable events, my attention has been diverted from
a fact worthy of notice. On the 23d of October, at half-past one in the
morning, the air was shaken by a tremendous explosion which for a moment
astonished both armies, though amid such mighty expectations scarcely
any thing now excited astonishment.

Mortier had obeyed his orders; the Kremlin was no more: barrels of
powder had been placed in all the halls of the palace of the Czars, and
one hundred and eighty-three thousand pounds under the vaults which
supported them. The marshal, with eight thousand men, had remained on
this volcano, which a Russian howitzer-shell might have exploded. Here
he covered the march of the army upon Kalouga and the retreat of our
different convoys towards Mojaisk.

Among these eight thousand men there were scarcely two thousand on whom
Mortier could rely: the others were dismounted cavalry, men of different
countries and regiments, under new officers, without similar habits,
without common recollections, in short, without any bond of union, who
formed rather a rabble than an organized body; they could scarcely fail
in a short time to disperse.

This marshal was looked upon as a devoted victim. The other chiefs, his
old companions in glory, had left him with tears in their eyes, as well
as the Emperor, who said to him, "that he relied on his good fortune;
but still in war we must sometimes make part of a fire." Mortier had
resigned himself without hesitation. His orders were to defend the
Kremlin, and on retreating to blow it up, and to burn what yet remained
of the city. It was from the castle of Krasnopachra, on the 21st of
October, that Napoleon had sent him his last orders. After executing
them, Mortier was to march upon Vereia and to form the rear-guard of the
army.

In this letter Napoleon particularly recommended to him "to put the men
still remaining in the hospitals into the carriages belonging to the
young guard, those of the dismounted cavalry, and any others that he
might find. The Romans," ad