no bounds, and he proclaimed it treason.

Discord reigned in the Russian camp as well as in our advanced guard.
Confidence in their commander, that strength of armies, was wanting; his
every step seemed a blunder; each resolution that was taken the very
worst. The loss of Smolensk had soured all; the junction of the two
_corps d'armee_ increased the evil; the stronger the Russian force felt
itself, the weaker did its general seem to it. The outcry became
general; another leader was loudly called for. A few prudent men,
however, interposed: Kutusof was announced, and the humbled pride of the
Russians awaited him in order to fight.

The emperor, on his part, already at Dorogobouje, no longer hesitated;
he knew that he carried every where with him the fate of Europe; that
wherever he might be, that would always be the place where the destiny
of nations would be decided; that he might therefore advance, fearless
of the threatening consequences of the defection of the Swedes and
Turks. Thus he neglected the hostile armies of Essen at Riga, of
Wittgenstein before Polotsk, of Ertell before Bobruisk, and of
Tchitchakof in Volhynia. They consisted of 120,000 men, whose number
could not but keep gradually augmenting; he passed them, and suffered
himself to be surrounded by them with indifference, assured that all
these vain obstacles of war and policy would be swept away by the very
first thunderbolt which he should launch.

And yet, his column of attack, which was 185,000 strong at his departure
from Witepsk, was already reduced to 157,000; it was diminished by
28,000 men, half of whom occupied Witepsk, Orcha, Mohilef, and Smolensk.
The rest had been killed or wounded, or were straggling, and plundering
in his rear our allies and the French themselves.

But 157,000 men were sufficient to destroy the Russian army by a
complete victory, and to take Moscow. As to his base of operation,
notwithstanding the 120,000 Russians by whom it was threatened, it
appeared to be secure. Lithuania, the Duena, the Dnieper, and lastly
Smolensk, were or would soon be covered towards Riga and Duenabourg by
Macdonald and 32,000 men; towards Polotsk, by Saint-Cyr, with 30,000; at
Witepsk, Smolensk, and Mohilef, by Victor and 40,000; before Bobruisk,
by Dombrowski and 12,000; and on the Bug by Schwartzenberg and Regnier,
at the head of 45,000 men. Napoleon reckoned besides on the divisions of
Loison and Durutte, 22,000 strong, which were already ap