rch in its retreat. It was in
want of provisions and overtaken by the winter.

Some men had already sunk under these hardships. In the first days of
the retreat, on the 26th of October, carriages, laden with provisions,
which the horses could no longer draw, were burned. The order for
setting fire to all behind the army then followed; in obedience to it,
powder-waggons, the horses of which were already worn out, were blown up
together with the houses. But at length, as the enemy had not again
shown himself, we seemed to be but once more setting out on a toilsome
journey; and Napoleon, on again seeing the well-known road, was
recovering his confidence, when, towards evening, a Russian chasseur,
who had been made prisoner, was sent to him by Davoust.

At first he questioned him carelessly; but as chance would have it, this
Russian had some knowledge of roads, names, and distances. He answered,
that "the whole Russian army was marching by Medyn upon Wiazma." The
Emperor then became attentive. Did Kutusoff mean to forestall him there,
as at Malo-Yaroslawetz, to cut off his retreat upon Smolensk, as he had
done that upon Kalouga, and to coop him up in this desert without
provisions, without shelter, and in the midst of a general insurrection?
His first impulse, however, inclined him to reject this notion; for,
whether owing to pride or experience, he was accustomed not to give his
adversaries credit for that ability which he should have displayed in
their place.

In this instance, however, he had another motive. His security was but
affected: for it was evident that the Russian army was taking the Medyn
road, the very one which Davoust had recommended for the French army:
and Davoust, either from vanity or inadvertence, had not confided this
alarming intelligence to his dispatch alone. Napoleon feared its effects
on his troops, and therefore affected to disbelieve and to despise it;
but at the same time he gave orders that his guard should march next day
in all haste, and so long as it should be light, as far as Gjatz. Here
he proposed to afford rest and provisions to this flower of his army, to
ascertain, so much nearer, the direction of Kutusoff's march, and to be
beforehand with him at that point.

But he had not consulted the season, which seemed to avenge the slight.
Winter was so near at hand, that a blast of a few minutes was sufficient
to bring it on, sharp, biting, intense. We were immediately sensible
that it w