ook advantage of the ground,
supported himself against a height, and covered himself with a palisaded
house. His generals and his colonels, among whom he himself remarked
Fezenzac, strenuously seconded him; and the enemy, who expected to
pursue, was obliged to retreat.

By this action, Ney gave the army a respite of twenty-four hours; it
profited by it to proceed towards Smolensk. The next day, and all the
succeeding days, he manifested the same heroism. Between Wiazma and
Smolensk he fought ten whole days.

CHAP. XIII.

On the 13th of November he was approaching that city, which he was not
to enter till the ensuing day, and had faced about to keep off the
enemy, when all at once the hills upon which he intended to support his
left were seen covered with a multitude of fugitives. In their fright,
these unfortunate wretches fell and rolled down to where he was, upon
the frozen snow, which they stained with their blood. A band of
Cossacks, which was soon perceived in the midst of them, sufficiently
accounted for this disorder. The astonished marshal, having caused this
flock of enemies to be dispersed, discovered behind it the army of
Italy, returning quite stripped, without baggage, and without cannon.

Platof had kept it besieged, as it were, all the way from Dorogobouje.
Near that town Prince Eugene had left the high-road, and, in order to
proceed towards Witepsk, had taken that which, two months before, had
brought him from Smolensk; but the Wop, which when he crossed before was
a mere brook, and had scarcely been noticed, he now found swelled into a
river. It ran over a bed of mud, and was bounded by two steep banks. It
was found necessary to cut a way in these rough and frozen banks, and to
give orders for the demolition, during the night, of the neighbouring
houses, in order to build a bridge with the materials. But those who had
taken shelter in them opposed their destruction. The Viceroy, more
beloved than feared, was not obeyed. The pontonniers were disheartened,
and when daylight appeared with the Cossacks, the bridge, after being
twice broken down, was abandoned.

Five or six thousand soldiers still in order, twice the number of
disbanded men, sick and wounded, upwards of a hundred pieces of cannon,
ammunition waggons, and a multitude of other vehicles, lined the bank,
and covered a league of ground. An attempt was made to ford through the
ice carried along by the torrent. The first guns that trie