e lest the extreme left of the Russians should escape from
the Poles, and return to take possession of the field of battle in the
rear of Ney and Murat. This at least was one of the causes of his
retaining his guard in observation upon that point. To such as pressed
him, his answer was, "that he wished to have a better view; that his
battle was not yet begun; that it would be a long one; that they must
learn to wait; that time entered into every thing; that it was the
element of which all things are composed; that nothing was yet
sufficiently clear." He then inquired the hour, and added, "that the
hour of his battle was not yet come; that it would begin in two hours."

But it never began: the whole of that day he was sitting down, or
walking about leisurely, in front, and a little to the left of the
redoubt which had been conquered on the 5th, on the borders of a
ravine, at a great distance from the battle, of which he could scarcely
see any thing after it got beyond the heights; not at all uneasy when he
saw it return nearer to him, nor impatient with his own troops, or the
enemy. He merely made some gestures of melancholy resignation, on every
occasion, when they came to inform him of the loss of his best generals.
He rose several times to take a few turns, but immediately sat down
again.

Every one around him looked at him with astonishment. Hitherto, during
these great shocks, he had displayed an active coolness; but here it was
a dead calm, a nerveless and sluggish inactivity. Some fancied they
traced in it that dejection which is generally the follower of violent
sensations: others, that he had already become indifferent to every
thing, even to the emotion of battles. Several remarked, that the calm
constancy and _sang-froid_ which great men display on these great
occasions, turn, in the course of time, to phlegm and heaviness, when
age has worn out their springs. Those who were most devoted to him,
accounted for his immobility by the necessity of not changing his place
too much, when he was commanding over such an extent, in order that the
bearers of intelligence might know where to find him. Finally, there
were others who, on much better grounds, attributed it to the shock
which his health had sustained, to a secret malady, and to the
commencement of a violent indisposition.

The generals of artillery, who were surprised at their stagnation,
quickly availed themselves of the permission to fight which was just