t, the enemy
descended in force from their height, and drove him back to the very
brink of the ravine, into which they had well-nigh precipitated him. But
Murat persisted in his error; he braved it out, and converted it into a
success. The 4th lancers carried the position, and the Russians went to
pass the night not far off; content with having made us purchase at a
dear rate a quarter of a league of ground, which they would have given
up to us for nothing during the night.

At the moment of the most imminent danger, a battery of the prince of
Eckmuehl twice refused to fire. Its commanding officer pleaded his
instructions, which forbade him, upon pain of being broke, to fight
without orders from Davoust. These orders arrived, in time, according to
some, but too late according to others. I relate this incident, because,
on the following day, it was the occasion of a violent quarrel between
Murat and Davoust, in presence of the emperor, at Semlewo.

The king reproached the prince with his tardy circumspection, and more
especially with an enmity which dated from the expedition to Egypt. In
the vehemence of his passion he told him, that if there was any quarrel
between them they ought to settle it by themselves, but that the army
ought not to be made the sufferers for it.

Davoust, irritated in his turn, accused the king of temerity; according
to him "his thoughtless ardour was incessantly compromising his troops,
and wasting to no purpose, their lives, their strength, and their
stores. It was right that the emperor should at last know what was daily
occurring in his advanced guard. Every morning the enemy had disappeared
before it; but this experience led to no alteration whatever in the
march: the troops, therefore, set out late, all keeping the high-road,
and forming a single column, and in this manner they advanced in the
void till about noon.

"The enemy's rear-guard, ready to fight, was then discovered behind some
marshy ravine, the bridges over which had been broken down, and which
was commanded from the opposite bank. The light troops were instantly
brought into action, then the first regiments of cavalry that were at
hand, and then the artillery; but in general out of reach, or against
straggling cossacks, who were not worth the trouble. At length, after
vain and sanguinary attempts made in front, the king took it into his
head to reconnoitre the force and position of the enemy more accurately,
and to manoeuvre