ealed to positive documents,
those which had been sent to him by Lauriston; they had been altered,
under the idea of correcting them: for the estimate of the Russian
forces by Lauriston, the French minister in Russia, was correct; but,
according to accounts less deserving of credit, though more flattering,
this estimate had been diminished one-third.

After talking to himself for an hour, the emperor, looking at the
heights on the right bank, which were nearly abandoned by the enemy,
concluded with exclaiming, that "the Russians were women, and that they
acknowledged themselves vanquished!" He strove to persuade himself that
these people had, from their contact with Europe, lost their rude and
savage valour. But their preceding wars had instructed them, and they
had arrived at that point, at which nations still possess all their
primitive virtues, in addition to those they have acquired.

At length, he again mounted his horse. It was then the Grand-marshal
observed to one of us, that "if Barclay had committed so very great a
blunder in refusing battle, the emperor would not have been so extremely
anxious to convince us of it." A few paces farther, an officer, sent not
long before to Prince Schwartzenberg, presented himself: he reported
that Tormasof and his army had appeared in the north, between Minsk and
Warsaw, and that they had marched upon our line of operation. A Saxon
brigade taken at Kobrynn, the grand-duchy overrun, and Warsaw alarmed,
had been the first results of this aggression; but Regnier had summoned
Schwartzenberg to his aid. Tormasof had then retreated to Gorodeczna,
where he halted on the 12th of August, between two defiles, in a plain
surrounded by woods and marshes, but accessible in the rear of his left
flank.

Regnier, skilful before an action, and an excellent judge of ground,
knew how to prepare battles; but when the field became animated, when it
was covered with men and horses, he lost his self-possession, and rapid
movements seemed to dazzle him. At first, therefore, that general
perceived at a glance the weak side of the Russians; he bore down upon
it, but instead of breaking into it by masses and with impetuosity, he
merely made successive attacks.

Tormasof, forewarned by these, had time to oppose, at first, regiments
to regiments, then brigades to brigades, and lastly divisions to
divisions. By favour of this prolonged contest, he gained the night, and
withdrew his army from the field