ated, but without effect. All the roads were
abortively reconnoitred. Were the Russians gone to Smolensk? Had they
re-ascended the Duena? At length, a band of irregular cossacks attracted
us in the latter direction, while Ney explored the former. We marched
six leagues over a deep sand, through a thick dust, and a suffocating
heat. Night arrested our march in the neighbourhood of Aghaponovcht-china.

While parched, fevered, and exhausted by fatigue and hunger, the army
met with nothing there but muddy water. Napoleon, the King of Naples,
the Viceroy, and the Prince of Neufchatel, held a council in the
imperial tents, which were pitched in the court-yard of a castle,
situated upon an eminence to the left of the main road.

"That victory which was so fervently desired, so rapidly pursued, and
rendered more necessary by the lapse of every succeeding day, had, it
seemed, just escaped from our grasp, as it had at Wilna. True, we had
come up with the Russian rear-guard; but was it that of their army? Was
it not more likely that Barclay had fled towards Smolensk by way of
Rudnia? Whither, then, must we pursue the Russians, in order to compel
them to fight? Did not the necessity of organizing reconquered
Lithuania, of establishing magazines and hospitals, of fixing a new
centre of repose, of defence, and departure for a line of operations
which prolonged itself in so alarming a manner;--did not every thing,
in short, decidedly prove the necessity of halting on the borders of old
Russia?"

An affray had just happened, not far from that, respecting which Murat
was silent. Our vanguard had been repulsed; some of the cavalry had been
obliged to dismount, in order to effect their retreat; others had been
unable to bring off their extenuated horses, otherwise than by dragging
them by the bridle. The emperor having interrogated Belliard on the
subject, that general frankly declared, that the regiments were already
very much weakened, that they were harassed to death, and stood in
absolute need of rest; and that if they continued to march for six days
longer, there would be no cavalry remaining, and that it was high time
to halt.

To these motives were added, the effects of a consuming sun reflected
from burning sands. Exhausted as he was, the emperor now decided; the
course of the Duena and of the Boristhenes marked out the French line.
The army was thus quartered on the banks of these two rivers, and in the
interval between them;