king enthusiastically of their marshal, and making us sharers of
their admiration of him; for even his equals had no idea of being
jealous of him. He had been too much regretted, and his preservation had
excited too agreeable emotions, to allow envy to have any part in them;
besides, Ney had placed himself completely beyond its reach. As to
himself, in all this heroism, he had gone so little beyond his natural
disposition, that had it not been for the eclat of his glory in the
eyes, the gestures, and the acclamations of every one, he would never
have imagined that he had done a sublime action.

And this was not an enthusiasm of surprise. Each of the latter days had
had its remarkable men; amongst others, that of the 16th had Eugene,
that of the 17th Mortier; but from this time, Ney was universally
proclaimed the hero of the retreat.

The distance between Smolensk and Orcha is hardly five days' march. In
that short passage, what a harvest of glory had been reaped! how little
space and time are required to establish an immortal renown! Of what
nature then are these great inspirations, that invisible and impalpable
germ of great devotion, produced in a few moments, issuing from a single
heart, and which must fill time and eternity?

When Napoleon, who was two leagues farther on, heard that Ney had just
re-appeared, he leaped and shouted for joy, and exclaimed, "I have then
saved my eagles! I would have given three hundred millions from my
treasury, sooner than have lost such a man."

BOOK XI.

CHAP. I.

The army had thus for the third and last time repassed the Dnieper, a
river half Russian and half Polish, but of Russian origin. It runs from
east to west as far as Orcha, where it appears as if it would penetrate
into Poland; but there the heights of Lithuania oppose its farther
progress, and compel it to turn towards the south, and to become the
frontier of the two countries.

Kutusoff and his eighty thousand Russians halted before this feeble
obstacle. Hitherto they had been rather the spectators than the authors
of our calamities; we saw them no more; our army was released from the
punishment of their joy.

In this war, and as always happens, the character of Kutusoff availed
him more than his talents. So long as it was necessary to deceive and
temporize, his crafty spirit, his indolence, and his great age, acted of
themselves; he was the creature of circumstances, which he ceased to be
as soon a