its march.

The old and young guard had not then more than from nine to ten thousand
infantry, and two thousand cavalry; Davoust and the first corps, from
eight to nine thousand; Ney and the third corps, five to six thousand;
Prince Eugene and the army of Italy, five thousand; Poniatowski, eight
hundred; Junot and the Westphalians, seven hundred; Latour-Maubourg and
the rest of the cavalry, fifteen hundred; there might also be about one
thousand light horse, and five hundred dismounted cavalry, whom we had
succeeded in collecting together.

This army had left Moscow one hundred thousand strong; in
five-and-twenty days it had been reduced to thirty-six thousand men. The
artillery had already lost three hundred and fifty of their cannon, and
yet these feeble remains were always divided into eight armies, which
were encumbered with sixty thousand unarmed stragglers, and a long train
of cannon and baggage.

Whether it was this incumbrance of so many men and carriages, or a
mistaken sense of security, which led the Emperor to order a day's
interval between the departure of each marshal, is uncertain; most
probably it was the latter. Be that as it may, he, Eugene, Davoust, and
Ney only quitted Smolensk in succession; Ney was not to leave it till
the 16th or 17th. He had orders to make the artillery saw the trunnions
of the cannon left behind, and bury them; to destroy the ammunition, to
drive all the stragglers before him, and to blow up the towers which
surrounded the city.

Kutusoff, meanwhile, was waiting for us at some leagues distance from
thence, and preparing to cut in pieces successively those remnants of
corps thus extended and parcelled out.

CHAP. III.

It was on the 14th of November, about five in the morning, that the
imperial column at last quitted Smolensk. Its march was still firm, but
gloomy and silent as night, and mute and discoloured as the aspect of
the country through which it was advancing.

This silence was only interrupted by the cracking of the whips applied
to the poor horses, and by short and violent imprecations when they met
with ravines; and when upon these icy declivities, men, horses, and
artillery were rolling in obscurity, one over the other. The first day
they advanced five leagues. The artillery of the guard took twenty-two
hours to get over that ground.

Nevertheless, this first column arrived, without any great loss of men,
at Korythinia, which Junot had passed with his