a destructive atmosphere stopped his progress!  Such, in fact, is that climate; the atmosphere is always in the extreme—­always excessive; it either parches or inundates, burns up or freezes, the soil and its inhabitants, for whose protection it appears expressly framed; a perfidious climate, the heat of which debilitated our bodies, in order to render them more accessible to the frosts by which they were shortly to be pierced.

The emperor was not the least sensible of its effects; but when he found himself somewhat refreshed by repose, when no envoy from Alexander made his appearance, and his first dispositions were completed, he was seized with impatience.  He was observed to grow restless; whether it was that inactivity annoyed him, as it does all men of active habits, and that he preferred danger to the weariness of expectation, or that he was agitated by that desire of acquisition, which, with the greater part of mankind, has stronger efficacy than the pleasure of preserving, or the fear of losing.

It was then especially that the image of captive Moscow besieged him; it was the boundary of his fears, the object of his hopes:  possessed of that, he would possess every thing.  From that time it was foreseen that an ardent and restless genius, like his, and accustomed to short cuts, would not wait eight months, when he felt his object within his reach, and when twenty days were sufficient to attain it.

We must not, however, be too hasty in judging this extraordinary man by the weaknesses common to all men.  We shall presently hear from himself;—­we shall see how much his political position tended to complicate his military position.  At a later period, we shall be less tempted to blame the resolution he was now about to take, when it is seen that the fate of Russia depended upon only one more day’s health, which failed Napoleon, even on the very field of the Moskwa.

Meantime, he at first appeared hardly bold enough to confess to himself a project of such great temerity.  But by degrees, he assumed courage to look it in the face.  He then began to deliberate, and the state of great irresolution which tormented his mind affected his whole frame.  He was observed to wander about his apartments, as if pursued by some dangerous temptation.  Nothing could rivet his attention; he every moment began, quitted, and resumed his labour; he walked about without any object; inquired the hour, and looked at his watch; completely absorbed, he stopped, hummed a tune with an absent air, and again began walking about.

In the midst of his perplexity, he occasionally addressed the persons whom he met with such half sentences as “Well! what shall we do?  Shall we stay where we are, or advance?  How is it possible to stop short in the midst of so glorious a career?” He did not wait for their reply; but still kept wandering about, as if he was looking for something or somebody to terminate his indecision.