h were
surrounding him in all directions; at least he sent no orders to the
three corps which had halted at Smolensk to expedite their march, and he
himself waited for daylight to proceed.

His column was advancing, without precaution, preceded by a crowd of
stragglers, all eager to reach Krasnoe, when at two leagues from that
place, a row of Cossacks, placed from the heights on our left all across
the great road, appeared before them. Seized with astonishment, these
stragglers halted; they had looked for nothing of the kind, and at first
were inclined to believe that relentless fate had traced upon the snow
between them and Europe, that long, black, and motionless line as the
fatal term assigned to their hopes.

Some of them, stupified and rendered insensible by the misery of their
situation, with their eyes mentally fixed on home, and pursuing
mechanically and obstinately that direction, would listen to no warning,
and were about to surrender; the others collected together, and on both
sides there was a pause, in order to consider each other's force.
Several officers, who then came up, put these disbanded soldiers in some
degree of order; seven or eight riflemen, whom they sent forward, were
sufficient to break through that threatening curtain.

The French were smiling at the audacity of this idle demonstration, when
all at once, from the heights on their left, an enemy's battery began
firing. Its bullets crossed the road; at the same time thirty squadrons
showed themselves on the same side, threatening the Westphalian corps
which was advancing, the commander of which was so confused, that he
made no disposition to meet their attack.

A wounded officer, unknown to these Germans, and who was there by mere
chance, called out to them with an indignant voice, and immediately
assumed their command. The men obeyed him as they would their own
leader. In this case of pressing danger the differences of convention
disappeared. The man really superior having shown himself, acted as a
rallying point to the crowd, who grouped themselves around him, while
the general-in-chief remained mute and confounded, receiving with
docility the impulse the other had given, and acknowledging his
superiority, which, after the danger was over, he disputed, but of which
he did not, as too often happens, seek to revenge himself.

This wounded officer was Excelmans! In this action he was every thing,
general, officer, soldier, even an artillery