his surprise that Beningsen had
not been preferred to him. He thought of the critical situation into
which he had brought himself, and added, "that a great day was at hand,
that there would be a terrible battle." He asked Rapp if he thought we
should gain the victory? "No doubt;" was the reply, "but it will be
sanguinary." "I know it," resumed Napoleon, "but I have 80,000 men; I
shall lose 20,000, I shall enter Moscow with 60,000; the stragglers
will there rejoin us, and afterwards the battalions on the march, and we
shall be stronger than we were before the battle." In this estimate he
seemed to include neither his guard nor the cavalry.

Again assailed by his first anxiety, he sent once more to examine the
attitude of the Russians; he was informed that their fires burned with
equal brightness, and that by the number of these, and the moving
shadows surrounding them, it was supposed that it was not merely a
rear-guard, but a whole army that kept feeding them. The certainty of
their presence at last quieted the emperor, and he tried to take some
rest.

But the marches which he had just made with the array, the fatigues of
the preceding days and nights, so many cares, and his intense and
anxious expectation, had worn him out; the chillness of the atmosphere
had struck to him; an irritating fever, a dry cough, and excessive
thirst consumed him. During the remainder of the night, he made vain
attempts to quench the burning thirst which consumed him. This fresh
disorder was complicated with an old complaint; he had been struggling
since the day before with a painful attack of that cruel disorder[18],
which had been long threatening him.

[Footnote 18: A retention of urine.]

At last, just at five o'clock, one of Ney's officers came to inform him
that the marshal was still in sight of the Russians, and wished to begin
the attack. This news seemed to restore the strength of which the fever
had deprived him. He arose, called his officers, and sallied out,
exclaiming, "We have them at last! Forward! Let us go and open the gates
of Moscow!"

CHAP. IX.

It was half-past five in the morning, when Napoleon arrived near the
redoubt which had been conquered on the 5th of September. There he
waited for the first dawn of day, and for the first fire of
Poniatowski's infantry. The sun rose. The emperor, showing it to his
officers, exclaimed, "Behold the sun of Austerlitz!" But it was opposite
to us. It rose on the Russian