with watching our motions in order to profit by them, and for
having proved that, most frequently, nations are saved in spite of
themselves.

Barclay showed himself still greater during the rest of the campaign.
This commander in chief, and minister at war, who had been deprived of
the command, that it might be given to Kutusof, voluntarily served under
him, and was seen to obey with as much zeal as he had commanded.

CHAP. V.

The Russian army at length halted. Miloradowitch, with sixteen thousand
recruits, and a host of peasants, bearing the cross and shouting, "_'Tis
the will of God!_" hastened to join its ranks. We were informed that the
enemy were turning up the whole plain of Borodino, and covering it with
entrenchments, apparently with the determination of rooting themselves
there, and not falling back any further.

Napoleon announced a battle to his army; he allowed it two days to rest,
to prepare its arms, and to collect subsistence. He merely warned the
detachments sent out in quest of provisions, that "if they did not
return the following day, they would deprive themselves of the honour of
fighting."

The emperor then endeavoured to obtain some information concerning his
new adversary. Kutusof was described to him as an old man, the
groundwork of whose reputation had been formerly laid by a singular
wound. He had since skilfully profited by circumstances. The very defeat
of Austerlitz, which he had foreseen, added to his renown, which was
further increased by his late campaigns against the Turks. His valour
was incontestable, but he was charged with regulating its vehemence
according to his private interest; for he calculated every thing. His
genius was slow, vindictive, and, above all, crafty--the true Tartar
character!--knowing the art of preparing an implacable war with a
fawning, supple, and patient policy.

In other respects, he was more an adroit courtier than an able general:
but formidable by his renown, by his address in augmenting it, and in
making others concur in this object. He had contrived to flatter the
whole nation, and every individual of it, from the general to the
private soldier.

It was added, that there was in his person, in his language, nay, even
in his very dress, his superstitious practices and his age, a remnant of
Suwarrow,--the stamp of an ancient Muscovite, an air of nationality,
which rendered him dear to the Russians: at Moscow the joy at his
appointment had b