to sleep, but to prepare their food.
Overwhelmed with fatigue, they cursed the hardships they had to endure,
till daylight and the enemy came to rouse them again.

"It was not the advanced guard alone that suffered in this manner, but
the whole of the cavalry. Every evening Murat had left behind him 20,000
men on horseback and under arms, on the high-road. This long column had
remained all day without eating or drinking, amidst a cloud of dust,
under a burning sky; ignorant of what was passing before it, advancing a
few paces from one quarter of an hour to another, then halting to deploy
among fields of rye, but without daring to take off the bridles and to
allow their famished horses to feed, because the king kept them
incessantly on the alert. It was to advance five or six leagues that
they thus passed sixteen tedious hours--particularly arduous for the
cuirassier horses, which had more to carry than the others, though
weaker, as the largest horses in general are, and which required more
food; hence their great carcasses were worn down to skeletons, their
flanks collapsed, they crawled rather than walked, and every moment one
was seen staggering, and another falling under his rider, who left him
to his fate."

Davoust concluded with saying, that "in this manner the whole of the
cavalry would perish; Murat, however, might dispose of that as he
pleased, but as for the infantry of the first corps, so long as he had
the command of it, he would not suffer it to be thrown away in that
manner."

The king was not backward in replying. While the emperor was listening
to them, he was at the same time playing with a Russian ball, which he
kicked about with his foot. It seemed as if there was something in the
misunderstanding between these chiefs which did not displease him. He
attributed their animosity entirely to their ardour, well aware that of
all passions glory is the most jealous.

The impatient ardour of Murat gratified his own. As the troops had
nothing to live upon but what they found, every thing was consumed at
the moment; for this reason it was necessary to make short work with the
enemy, and to proceed rapidly. Besides, the general crisis in Europe was
too strong, his situation too critical to remain there, and himself too
impatient; he wished to bring matters to a close at any rate, in order
to extricate himself.

The impetuosity of the king, therefore, seemed to suit his anxiety
better than the methodical p