was supposed to doubt whether the system of retreat had not been far enough persisted in.  The new general at length resolved to comply with the clamorous entreaties of his troops, and fixed on a strong position between Borodino and Moskwa, on the high road to Moscow, where he determined to await the attack of Napoleon.  It was at Gjatz that the Emperor was informed of Kutusoff’s arrival, and of the universal belief that the Czar had at length consented to run the hazard of a great battle.  A little further on a Russian officer, on some pretext, appeared with a flag of truce; his real errand being, no doubt, to witness the state of the invader’s camp.  Being brought into Napoleon’s presence this man was asked, “What he should find between Viasma and Moscow?” He answered, “Pultowa.”

On the 5th of September, Napoleon came in sight of the position of Kutusoff, and succeeded in carrying a redoubt in front of it.  All the 6th the two armies lay in presence of each other, preparing for the contest.  The Russians were posted on an elevated plain; having a wood on their right flank, their left on one of the villages, and a deep ravine, the bed of a small stream, in their front.  Extensive field-works covered every more accessible point of this naturally very strong ground; and in the centre of the whole line, a gentle eminence was crowned by an enormous battery, serving as a species of citadel.  The Russian army were 120,000 in numbers; nor had Napoleon a greater force in readiness for his attack.  In artillery also the armies were equal.  It is supposed that each had 500 guns in the field.  Buonaparte addressed his troops in his usual style of language:  “Soldiers! here is the battle you have longed for; it is necessary, for it brings us plenty, good winter-quarters, and a safe return to France.  Behave yourselves so that posterity may say of each of you, He was in that great battle beneath the walls of Moscow.”

In the Russian camp, meanwhile, the clergy appeared in their richest vestments, and displaying their holiest images, called on the men to merit Paradise by devoting themselves in the cause of their country.  The soldiers answered with shouts which were audible throughout all the enemy’s lines.

At four o’clock in the morning of the 7th, the French advanced under cover of a thick fog, and assaulted at once the centre, the right, and the left of the position.  Such was the impetuosity of the charge that they drove the Russians from their redoubts; but this was but for a moment.  They rallied under the very line of their enemy’s fire, and instantly re-advanced.  Peasants who, till that hour, had never seen war, and who still wore their usual rustic dress, distinguished only by a cross sewed on it in front, threw themselves into the thickest of the combat.  As they fell, others rushed on and filled their places.  Some idea may be formed of the obstinacy of the contest from the fact, that of one division of the Russians