eight hundred leagues, to find
nothing but muddy water, famine, and bivouacs on heaps of ashes: for
such were all their conquests; they possessed nothing but what they had
brought with them. If it was necessary to drag every thing along with
them, to transport France into Russia, wherefore had they been required
to quit France?"

Several of the generals themselves began to tire: some stopped on
account of illness, others murmured: "What better were they for his
having enriched them, if they could not enjoy their wealth? for his
having given them wives, if he made them widowers by a continual
absence? for his having bestowed on them palaces, if he forced them to
lie abroad incessantly on the bare ground, amidst frost and snow?--for
every year the hardships of war increased; fresh conquests compelling
them to go farther in quest of fresh enemies. Europe would soon be
insufficient: he would want Asia too."

Several, especially of our allies, ventured to think, that we should
lose less by a defeat than by a victory: a reverse would perhaps disgust
the emperor with the war; at least it would place him more upon a level
with us.

The generals who were nearest to Napoleon were astonished at his
confidence. "Had he not already in some measure quitted Europe? and if
Europe were to rise against him, he would have no subjects but his
soldiers, no empire but his camp: even then, one-third of them, being
foreigners, would become his enemies." Such was the language of Murat
and Berthier. Napoleon, irritated at finding in his two chief
lieutenants, and at the very moment of action, the same uneasiness with
which he was himself struggling, vented his ill-humour against them: he
overwhelmed them with it, as frequently happens in the household of
princes, who are least sparing of those of whose attachment they are
most sure; an inconvenience attending favour, which counterbalances its
advantages.

After his spleen had vented itself in a torrent of words, he summoned
them back; but this time, dissatisfied with such treatment, they kept
aloof. The emperor then made amends for his hastiness by caresses,
calling Berthier "his wife," and his fits of passion, "domestic
bickerings."

Murat and Ney left him with minds full of sinister presentiments
relative to this war, which at the first sight of the Russians they were
themselves for carrying on with fury. For in them, whose character was
entirely made up of action, inspiration, and firs