o rash to turn the
Berezina at its sources, in order to join Tchitchakof; for a vague
rumour had already reached us of the march of this army from the south
upon Minsk and Borizof, and of the defection of Schwartzenberg.

It was at Mikalewska, on the 6th of November, that unfortunate day when
he had just received information of Mallet's conspiracy, that Napoleon
was informed of the junction of the second and the ninth corps, and of
the unfortunate engagement at Czazniki. Irritated at the intelligence,
he sent orders to the Duke of Belluno immediately to drive Wittgenstein
behind the Duena, as the safety of the army depended upon it. He did not
conceal from the marshal that he had arrived at Smolensk with an army
harassed to death and his cavalry entirely dismounted.

Thus, therefore, the days of good fortune were passed, and from all
quarters nothing but disastrous intelligence arrived. On one side
Polotsk, the Duena, and Witepsk lost, and Wittgenstein already within
four days march of Borizof; on the other, towards Elnia, Baraguay
d'Hilliers defeated. That general had allowed the enemy to cut off the
brigade of Augereau, and to take the magazines, and the Elnia road, by
the possession of which Kutusoff was now enabled to anticipate us at
Krasnoe, as he had done at Wiazma.

At the same time, at one hundred leagues in advance of us,
Schwartzenberg informed the Emperor, that he was covering Warsaw; in
other words, that he had uncovered Minsk and Borizof, the magazine, and
the retreat of the grand army, and that probably, the Emperor of Austria
would deliver up his son-in-law to Russia.

At the same moment, in our rear and our centre, Prince Eugene was
conquered by the Wop; the draught-horses which had been waiting for us
at Smolensk were devoured by the soldiers; those of Mortier carried off
in a forage; the cattle at Krasnoe captured; the army exhibiting
frightful symptoms of disease; and at Paris the period of conspiracies
appeared to have returned; in short, every thing seemed to combine to
overwhelm Napoleon.

The daily reports which he received of the state of each corps of the
army were like so many bills of mortality; in these he saw his army,
which had conquered Moscow, reduced from an hundred and eighty thousand,
to thirty thousand men, still capable of fighting. To this mass of
calamities, he could only oppose an inert resistance, an impassable
firmness, and an unshaken attitude. His countenance remained th