h together; but their very first step was like a signal
given to the enemy, who immediately discharged the whole of his
artillery at them: all his squadrons also put themselves in movement at
once.

At the noise occasioned by this, the disarmed stragglers, of whom there
were yet between three and four thousand, took the alarm. This flock of
men wandered here and there; the great mass of them kept reeling about
in uncertainty, sometimes attempting to throw themselves into the ranks
of the soldiers, who drove them back. Ney contrived to keep them between
him and the Russians, whose fire was principally absorbed by these
useless beings. The most timid, therefore, in this instance, served as a
covering to the bravest.

At the same time that the marshal made a rampart of these poor wretches
to cover his right flank, he regained the banks of the Dnieper, and by
that covered his left flank; he marched on thus between the two,
proceeding from wood to wood, from one turning to another, taking
advantage of all the windings, and of the least accidents of the soil.
Whenever he ventured to any distance from the river, which he was
frequently obliged to do, Platof then surrounded him on all sides.

[Illustration: Portrait of Marshal Ney]

In this manner, for two days and a distance of twenty leagues, did six
thousand Cossacks keep constantly buzzing about the flanks of their
column, now reduced to fifteen hundred men in arms, keeping it in a
state of siege, disappearing before its sallies, and returning again
instantly, like their Scythian ancestors; but with this fatal
difference, that they managed their cannon mounted on sledges, and
discharged their bullets in their flight, with the same agility which
their forefathers exhibited in the management of their bows and the
discharge of their arrows.

The night brought some relief, and at first they plunged into the
darkness with a degree of joy; but then, if any one halted for a moment
to bid a last adieu to some worn out or wounded comrade, who sunk to
rise no more, he ran the risk of losing the traces of his column. Under
such circumstances there were many cruel moments, and not a few
instances of despair. At last, however, the enemy slackened his pursuit.

This unfortunate column was proceeding more tranquilly, groping its way
through a thick wood, when all at once, a few paces before it, a
brilliant light and several discharges of cannon flashed in the faces of
the men in th