their quarters in the mansions and villages adjacent to the military
road. There they lived in abundance. Among them there were fewer French
than Germans; but it was remarked, that the leader of each of these
little independent bodies, composed of men of several nations, was
invariably a Frenchman.

Rapp had witnessed all these disorders: on his arrival, his blunt
honesty kept back none of these details from his chief; but the emperor
merely replied, "I am going to strike a great blow, and all the
stragglers will then rally."

With Sebastiani he was more explicit. The latter reminded him of his own
words, when he had declared to him, at Wilna, that "he would not cross
the Duena, for to proceed farther this year, would be hurrying to
infallible destruction."

Sebastiani, like the others, laid great stress on the state of the army.
"It is dreadful, I know," replied the emperor: "from Wilna, half of it
consisted of stragglers; now they form two-thirds; there is, therefore,
no time to be lost: we must extort peace; it is at Moscow. Besides, this
army cannot now stop: with its composition, and in its disorganization,
motion alone keeps it together. One may advance at the head of it, but
not stop or go back. It is an army of attack, not of defence; an army of
operation, not of position."

It was thus that he spoke to those immediately about him; but to the
generals commanding his divisions, he held a different language. Before
the former, he manifested the motives which urged him forward, from the
latter he carefully concealed them, and seemed to agree with them as to
the necessity of stopping. This may serve to explain the contradictions
which were remarked in his own language.

Thus, the very same day, in the streets of Smolensk, surrounded by
Davoust and his generals, whose corps had suffered most in the assault
of the preceding day, he said, that in the capture of Smolensk he was
indebted to them for an important success, and that he considered that
city as an excellent head of cantonments.

"Now," continued he, "my line is well covered; we will stop here: behind
this rampart, I can rally my troops, let them rest, receive
reinforcements, and our supplies from Dantzic. Thus the whole of Poland
is conquered and defended; this is a sufficient result; it is gathering,
in two months, the fruit that might be expected only from two years of
war: it is therefore sufficient. Betwixt this and the spring, we must
organize Lit