hich were nearly
confounded together, got disentangled; the accumulation of troops
gradually moved off in the direction of Ostrowno, or were distributed in
Beszenkowiczi; and the most profound silence succeeded the most
frightful tumult.

This great concentration, the multiplied orders which came from all
parts, the rapidity with which the various corps were pushed forward,
even during the night--all announced the expectation of a battle on the
following day. In fact, Napoleon not having been able to anticipate the
Russians in the possession of Witepsk, was determined to force them from
that position; but the latter, after having entered by the right bank of
the Duena, had passed through that city, and were now come to meet him,
in order to defend the long defiles which protect it.

On the 25th of July, Murat proceeded towards Ostrowno with his cavalry.
At the distance of two leagues from that village, Domon, Du Coetlosquet,
Carignan, and the 8th hussars, were advancing in column upon a broad
road, lined by a double row of large birch trees. These hussars were
near reaching the summit of a hill, on which they could only get a
glimpse of the weakest portion of a corps, composed of three regiments
of cavalry of the Russian guard, and six pieces of cannon. There was not
a single rifleman to cover their line.

The colonels of the 8th imagined themselves preceded by two regiments of
their division, which had marched across the fields on the right and
left of the road, and from the view of which they were precluded by the
bordering trees. But these corps had halted; and the 8th, already
considerably in advance of them, still kept marching on, persuaded that
what it perceived through the trees, at 150 paces' distance, in its
front, were these two regiments, of which, without being aware of it, it
had got the start.

The immobility of the Russians completed the error into which the
chiefs of the 8th had fallen. The order to charge seemed to them to be a
mistake; they sent an officer to reconnoitre the troop which was before
them, and still marched on without any distrust. Suddenly they beheld
their officer sabred, knocked down, made prisoner, and the enemy's
cannon bringing down their hussars. They now hesitated no longer, and
without losing time to extend their line under the enemy's fire, they
dashed through the trees, and rushed forward to extinguish it. At the
first onset they seized the cannon, dispersed the regiment t