Koenigsberg, but at Eylau turned on his pursuers and fought the bloodiest battle fought in Europe since Malplaquet.  The numbers on both sides were probably about equal, numbering some 75,000 men, the Russians having a slight superiority in men and still more in artillery.  Driven from Eylau on the night of February 7th after confused fighting, the Muscovite withdrew to a strong position formed by an irregular line of hills, which he crowned with cannon.

As the dawn peered through the snow-laden clouds, guns began to deal death amongst the hostile masses, and heavy columns moved forward.  Davoust, on the French right, began to push back the Russians on that side, whereupon Napoleon ordered Augereau’s corps to complete the advantage by driving in the enemy’s centre.  Gallantly the French advanced.  Their leading regiment, the 14th, had seized a hillock which commanded the enemy’s lines,[123] when, amidst a whirlwind of snow that beat in their faces, a deadly storm of grape and canister almost annihilated the corps.  Its shattered lines fell back, leaving the 14th to its fate.  But a cloud of Cossacks now swept on the retiring companies, stabbing with their long spears; and it was a scanty band that found safety in their former position.  Russian cannon and cavalry also stopped the advance of Davoust, and the fighting for a time resolved itself into confused but murderous charges at close quarters.  As if to increase the horrors of the scene, snowstorms again swept over the field, dazing the French and shrouding with friendly wings the fierce charges of Cossacks.  Yet the Grand Army fought on with devoted heroism; and the chief, determined to snatch at victory, launched eighty squadrons of horse against the Russian centre.  Sweeping aside the Cossacks, and defying the cannon that riddled their files, they poured upon the first line of Russian infantry:  for a time they were stemmed, but, finding some weaker places, the cuirassiers burst through, only to be thrown back by the second line; and, when furiously charged by Cossacks, they fell back in disorder.  “These Russians fight like bulls,” said the French.  The simile was just.  Even while Murat was hacking at their centre a column of 4,000 Russian grenadiers, detaching itself from their mangled line, marched straight forward on the village of Eylau.  With the same blind courage that nerved Solmes’ division at Steinkirk, they beat aside the French light horse and foot, and were now threatening the cemetery where Napoleon and his staff were standing.

“I never was so much struck with anything in my life,” said General Bertrand at St. Helena, “as by the Emperor at Eylau when he was almost trodden under foot by the Russian column.  He kept his ground as the Russians advanced, saying frequently, ’What boldness.’”

But, when all around him trembled, and Berthier ordered up the horses as if for retreat, he himself quietly signalled for his Guards.  These sturdy troops,