id he to them, "have been beaten; you are surrounded
by twenty thousand Russians: you have no means of safety but in
accepting honourable conditions, and these Miloradowitch proposes to
you."

At these words, Guyon, one of the generals whose soldiers were either
all dead or dispersed, rushed from the crowd, and with a loud voice
called out, "Return immediately to whence you came, and tell him who
sent you, that if he has twenty thousand men, we have eighty thousand!"
The Russian, confounded, immediately retired.

All this happened in the twinkling of an eye; in a moment after the
hills on the left of the road were spouting out lightning and whirlwinds
of smoke; showers of shells and grape-shot swept the high road, and
threatening advancing columns showed their bayonets.

The viceroy hesitated for a moment; it grieved him to leave that
unfortunate troop, but at last, leaving his chief of the staff with
them, he returned back to his divisions, in order to bring them forward
to the combat, to make them get beyond the obstacle before it became
insurmountable, or to perish; for with the pride derived from a crown
and so many victories, it was not to be expected that he could ever
admit the thought of surrender.

Meanwhile, Guilleminot summoned about him the officers who, in this
crowd, had mingled with the soldiers. Several generals, colonels, and a
great number of officers immediately started forth and surrounded him;
they concerted together, and accepting him for their leader, they
distributed into platoons all the men who had hitherto formed but one
mass, and whom in that state they had found it impossible to excite.

This organization was made under a sharp fire. Several superior officers
went and placed themselves proudly in the ranks, and became once more
common soldiers. From a different species of pride, some marines of the
guard insisted on being commanded by one of their own officers, while
each of the other platoons was commanded by a general. Hitherto the
Emperor himself had been their colonel; now they were on the point of
perishing they maintained their privilege, which nothing could make them
forget, and which was respected accordingly.

These brave men, in this order, proceeded on their march to Krasnoe: and
they had already got beyond the batteries of Miloradowitch, when the
latter, rushing with his columns upon their flanks, hemmed them in so
closely, as to compel them to turn about, and seek a positi