huania, and recompose an invincible army; then, if peace
should not come to seek us in our winter quarters, we will go and
conquer it at Moscow."

He then told the marshal in confidence, that his motive for ordering him
to proceed beyond Smolensk, was only to drive off the Russians to the
distance of a few marches; but he strictly forbade him to involve
himself in any serious affair. At the same time, it is true, he
committed the vanguard to Murat and to Ney, the two rashest of his
officers; and, unknown to Davoust, he placed that prudent and
methodical marshal under the command of the impetuous king of Naples.
Thus his mind seemed to be wavering between two great resolutions, and
the contradictions in his words were communicated to his actions. In
this internal conflict, however, it was remarked, what an ascendence his
enterprising genius had over his prudence, and how the former so
disposed matters as to give birth to circumstances which must
necessarily hurry him away.

CHAP. VII.

Meanwhile the Russians still defended the suburb on the right bank of
the Dnieper. On our side, the 18th, and the night of the 19th, were
employed in rebuilding the bridges. On the 19th of August, before day,
Ney crossed the river by the light of the suburb, which was on fire. At
first, he saw there no enemies but the flames, and he began to climb the
long and rugged declivity on which it stands. His troops proceeded
slowly and with caution, making a thousand circuits to avoid the fire.
The Russians had managed it with skill: it met our men at every point,
and obstructed the principal avenues.

Ney, and the foremost of his soldiers, advanced in silence into this
labyrinth of flames, with anxious eye and attentive ear, not knowing but
that the Russians might be waiting on the summit of the steep, to pour
suddenly upon them, to overthrow and drive them back into the flames and
the river. But they breathed more freely, relieved from the weight of a
great apprehension, when they perceived on the crest of the ravine, at
the branching-off of the roads to Petersburgh and Moscow, nothing but a
band of cossacks, who immediately fled by those two roads. Having
neither prisoners nor inhabitants, nor spies, the ground was, as at
Witepsk, the only thing they could interrogate. But the enemy had left
as many traces in one direction as in the other, so that the marshal
paused in uncertainty between the two until mid-day.

During this interv