ound that he had attempted an impossibility, and he waited until
the flight of his men had once more placed the ravine between them and
the enemy, that ravine which was now his sole resource; there, equally
hopeless and fearless, he halted and rallied them. He drew up two
thousand men against eighty thousand; he returned the fire of two
hundred cannon with six pieces, and made fortune blush that she should
ever betray such courage.

She it was, doubtless, who then struck Kutusoff with the palsy of
inertness. To their infinite surprise, they saw this Russian Fabius
running into extremes like all imitators, persisting in what he called
his humanity and prudence, remaining upon his heights with his pompous
virtues, without allowing himself, or daring to conquer, as if he was
astonished at his own superiority. Seeing that Napoleon had been
conquered by his rashness, he pushed his horror of that fault to the
very extreme of the opposite vice.

It required, however, but a transport of indignation in any one of the
Russian corps to have completely extinguished them; but all were afraid
to make a decisive movement; they remained clinging to their soil with
the immobility of slaves, as if they had no boldness but in their
watchword, or energy but in their obedience. This discipline, which
formed their glory in _their_ retreat, was their disgrace in _ours_.

They were for a long time uncertain, not knowing which enemy they were
fighting with; for they had imagined that Ney had retreated from
Smolensk by the right bank of the Dnieper; they were mistaken, as is
frequently the case, from supposing that their enemy had done what he
ought to have done.

At the same time, the Illyrians had returned completely in disorder;
they had had a most singular adventure. In their advance to the left
flank of the enemy's position, these four hundred men had met with five
thousand Russians returning from a partial engagement, with a French
eagle, and several of our soldiers prisoners.

These two hostile troops, the one returning to its position, the other
going to attack it, advanced in the same direction, side by side,
measuring each other with their eyes, but neither of them venturing to
commence the engagement. They marched so close to each other, that from
the middle of the Russian ranks the French prisoners stretched out their
arms towards their friends, conjuring them to come and deliver them. The
latter called out to them to come to th