xercised over the affairs of Europe."

This tone, which was at that time deemed prophetic, befitted an
expedition of an almost fabulous character. It was quite necessary to
invoke Destiny, and give credit to its empire, when the fate of so many
human beings, and so much glory, were about to be consigned to its
mercy.

The Emperor Alexander also harangued his army, but in a very different
manner. The difference between the two nations, the two sovereigns, and
their reciprocal position, were remarked in these proclamations. In
fact, the one which was defensive was unadorned and moderate; the other,
offensive, was replete with audacity and the confidence of victory. The
first sought support in religion, the other in fatality; the one in love
of country, the other in love of glory; but neither of them referred to
the liberation of Poland, which was the real cause of contention.

We marched towards the east, with our left towards the north, and our
right towards the south. On our right, Volhynia invoked us with all her
prayers; in the centre, were Wilna, Minsk, and the whole of Lithuania,
and Samogitia; in front of our left, Courland and Livonia awaited their
fate in silence.

The army of Alexander, composed of 300,000 men, kept those provinces in
awe. From the banks of the Vistula, from Dresden, from Paris itself,
Napoleon had critically surveyed it. He had ascertained that its centre,
commanded by Barclay, extended from Wilna and Kowno to Lida and Grodno,
resting its right on Vilia, and its left on the Niemen.

That river protected the Russian front by the deviation which it makes
from Grodno to Kowno; for it was only in the interval between these two
cities, that the Niemen, running toward the north, intersected the line
of our attack, and served as a frontier to Lithuania. Before reaching
Grodno, and on quitting Kowno, it flows westward.

To the south of Grodno was Bagration, with 65,000 men, in the direction
of Wolkowisk; to the north of Kowno, at Rossiana and Keydani,
Wittgenstein, with 26,000 men, substituted their bayonets for that
natural frontier.

At the same time, another army of 50,000 men, called the reserve, was
assembled at Lutsk, in Volhynia, in order to keep that province in
check, and observe Schwartzenberg; it was confided to Tormasof, till the
treaty about to be signed at Bucharest permitted Tchitchakof, and the
greater part of the army in Moldavia, to unite with it.

Alexander, and, under him,