t
appearance given to it by the snow.

Mortier's officers here exclaimed, "that it was in that very position
that the Emperor and they had waited for them on the 17th, fighting all
the time." Very well, replied those of Ney, Kutusoff, or rather
Miloradowitch, occupied Napoleon's place, for the old Russian general
had not yet quitted Dobroe.

Their disbanded men were already retrograding, pointing to the snowy
plains completely black with the enemy's troops, when a Russian,
detaching himself from their army, descended the hill; he presented
himself alone to their marshal, and either from an affectation of
extreme politeness, respect for the misfortune of their leader, or dread
of the effects of his despair, covered with honied words the summons to
surrender.

It was Kutusoff who had sent him. "That field-marshal would not have
presumed to make so cruel a proposal to so great a general, to a warrior
so renowned, if there remained a single chance of safety for him. But
there were eighty thousand Russians before and around him, and if he had
any doubt of it, Kutusoff offered to let him send a person to go through
his ranks, and count his forces."

The Russian had not finished his speech, when suddenly forty discharges
of grape shot, proceeding from the right of his army, and cutting our
ranks to pieces, struck him with amazement, and interrupted what he had
to say. At the same moment a French officer darted forward, seized, and
was about to kill him as a traitor, when Ney, checking this fury, called
to him angrily, "A marshal never surrenders; there is no parleying under
an enemy's fire; you are my prisoner." The unfortunate officer was
disarmed, and placed in a situation of exposure to the fire of his own
army. He was not released until we reached Kowno, after twenty-six days
captivity, sharing all our miseries, at liberty to escape, but
restrained by his parole.

At the same time the enemy's fire became still hotter, and, as they
said, all the hills, which but an instant before looked cold and silent,
became like so many volcanoes in eruption, but that Ney became still
more elevated at it: then with a burst of enthusiasm that seemed to
return every time they had occasion to mention his name in their
narrative, they added, that in the midst of all this fire that ardent
man seemed to breathe an element exclusively his own.

Kutusoff had not deceived him. On the one side, there were eighty
thousand men in complete ra