mainder proceeded without a single man quitting the body of his
troop, which no Russian was bold enough to venture near. Few of these
unfortunate men again saw the viceroy and their advancing divisions.
Then only they separated; they ran and threw themselves into these
feeble ranks, which were opened to receive and protect them.

For more than an hour the Russian cannon had been thinning them. While
one half of their forces had pursued Guilleminot and compelled him to
retreat, Miloradowitch, with the other half, had stopped Prince Eugene.
His right rested on a wood which was protected by heights entirely
covered with cannon; his left touched the great road, but more in the
rear. This disposition dictated that of Eugene. The royal column, by
degrees, as it came up, deployed on the right of the road, its right
more forward than its left. The viceroy thus placed obliquely between
him and the enemy the great road, the possession of which was the
subject of contest. Each of the two armies occupied it by its left.

The Russians, placed in a position so offensive, kept entirely on the
defensive; their bullets alone attacked Eugene. A cannonade was kept up
on both sides, on theirs most destructive, on ours almost totally
ineffective. Tired out with this firing, Eugene formed his resolution;
he called the 14th French division, drew it up on the left of the great
road, pointed out to it the woody height on which the enemy rested, and
which formed his principal strength; _that_ was the decisive point, the
centre of the action, and to make the rest fall, _that_ must be carried.
He did not expect it would; but that effort would draw the attention and
the strength of the enemy on that side, the right of the great road
would remain free, and he would endeavour to take proper advantage of
it.

Three hundred soldiers, formed into three troops, were all that could be
found willing to mount to this assault. These devoted men advanced
resolutely against hostile thousands in a formidable position. A battery
of the Italian guard advanced to protect them, but the Russian batteries
immediately demolished it, and their cavalry took possession of it.

In spite of the grape-shot which was mowing them rapidly down, the three
hundred French kept moving on, and they had actually reached the enemy's
position, when, suddenly from two sides of the wood two masses of
cavalry rushed forth, bore down upon, overwhelmed and massacred them.
Not one escape