teen hundred men. There the struggle
began again; for three days fifteen hundred Frenchmen kept thirty
thousand Russians at bay. Souvarow raged like a lion trapped in a snare,
for he could not understand this change of fortune. At last, on the
fourth day, he heard that General Korsakoff, who had preceded him and who
was to rejoin him later, had been beaten by Molitor, and that Massena had
recaptured Zurich and occupied the canton of Glaris. Souvarow now gave
up the attempt to proceed up the valley of the Reuss, and wrote to
Korsakoff and Jallachieh, "I hasten to retrieve your losses; stand firm
as ramparts: you shall answer to me with your heads for every step in
retreat that you take." The aide-de-camp was also charged to communicate
to the Russian and Austrian generals a verbal plan of battle. Generals
Linsken and Jallachieh were to attack the French troops separately and
then to join the forces in the valley of Glaris, into which Souvarow
himself was to descend by the Klon-Thal, thus hemming Molitor in between
two walls of iron.

Souvarow was so sure that this plan would be successful, that when he
arrived on the borders of the lake of Klon-Thal, he sent a bearer with a
flag of truce, summoning Molitor to surrender, seeing that he was
surrounded on every side.

Molitor replied, to the field-marshal that his proposed meeting with his
generals had failed, as he had beaten them one after the other, and
driven them back into the Grisons, and that moreover, in retaliation, as
Massena was advancing by Muotta, it was he, Souvarow, who was between two
fires, and therefore he called upon him to lay down his arms instead.

On hearing this strange reply, Souvarow thought that he must be dreaming,
but soon recovering himself and realising the danger of his position in
the defiles, he threw himself on General Molitor, who received him at the
point of the bayonet, and then closing up the pass with twelve hundred
men, the French succeeded in holding fifteen to eighteen thousand
Russians in check for eight hours. At length night came, and Molitor
evacuated the Klon Thal, and retired towards the Linth, to defend the
bridges of Noefels and Mollis.

The old field-marshal rushed like a torrent over Glaris and Miltodi;
there he learnt that Molitor had told him the truth, and that Jallachieh
and Linsken had been beaten and dispersed, that Massena was advancing on
Schwitz, and that General Rosenberg, who had been given the defence