and take too long a circuit.

Disappointed in this last hope of glory, Napoleon then decided for
Borizof. He ordered General Eble to proceed with eight companies of
sappers and pontonniers to secure the passage of the Berezina, and
General Jomini to act as his guide. But he said at the same time, "that
it was cruel to retreat without fighting, to have the appearance of
flight. If he had any magazine, any point of support, which would allow
him to halt, he would still prove to Europe that he always knew how to
fight and to conquer."

All these illusions were now destroyed. At Smolensk, where he arrived
first, and from which he was the first to depart, he had rather been
informed of, than witnessed his disaster. At Krasnoe, where our miseries
had successively been unrolled before his eyes, the peril had distracted
his attention; but at Orcha he could contemplate, at once and leisurely,
the full extent of his misfortunes.

At Smolensk, thirty-six thousand combatants, one hundred and fifty
cannon, the army-chest, and the hope of life and breathing at liberty on
the other side of the Berezina, still remained; here, there were
scarcely ten thousand soldiers, almost without clothing or shoes,
entangled amidst a crowd of dying men, with a few cannon, and a pillaged
army-chest.

In five days, every evil had been aggravated; destruction and
disorganization had made frightful progress; Minsk had been taken. He
had no longer to look for rest and abundance on the other side of the
Berezina, but fresh contests with a new enemy. Finally, the defection of
Austria from his alliance seemed to be declared, and perhaps it was a
signal given to all Europe.

Napoleon was even uncertain whether he should reach Borizof in time to
meet the new peril, which Schwartzenberg's hesitation seemed to have
prepared for him. We have seen that a third Russian army, that of
Wittgenstein, menaced, on his right, the interval which separated him
from that town; that he had sent the Duke of Belluno against him, and
had ordered that marshal to retrieve the opportunity he had lost on the
1st of November, and to resume the offensive.

In obedience to these orders, on the 14th of November, the very day
Napoleon quitted Smolensk, the Dukes of Belluno and of Reggio had
attacked and driven back the out-posts of Wittgenstein towards
Smoliantzy, preparing, by this engagement, for a battle which they
agreed should take place on the following day.

The French