“That if he returned to Wilna, he might there indeed, be more easily supplied, but that he should not be in a better condition to defend himself; that in that case it would be necessary for him to fall back to the Vistula, and lose Lithuania.  Whereas at Smolensk, he would be sure to gain either a decisive battle, or at least, a fortress and a position on the Dnieper.

“That he perceived clearly that their thoughts were dwelling on Charles the Twelfth; but that if the expedition to Moscow wanted a fortunate precedent, it was because it was deficient in a man capable of making it succeed; that in war, fortune went for one-half in every thing; that if people always waited for a complete assemblage of favourable circumstances, nothing would ever be undertaken; that we must begin, in order to finish; that there was no enterprise in which every thing concurred, and that, in all human projects, chance had its share; that, in short, it was not the rule which created the success, but the success the rule; and that, if he succeeded by new means, that success would create new principles.

“Blood has not yet been spilled,” he added, “and Russia is too great to yield without fighting.  Alexander can only negotiate after a great battle.  If it is necessary, I will even proceed to the holy city in search of that battle, and I will gain it.  Peace waits for me at the gates of Moscow.  But with his honour thus saved, if Alexander still persists, I will negotiate with the Boyards, or even with the population of that capital; it is numerous, united, and consequently enlightened.  It will understand its own interests, and comprehend the value of liberty.”  He concluded by saying, that “Moscow hated Petersburgh; that he would take advantage of their rivalry; that the results of such a jealousy were incalculable.”

It was in this manner that the emperor, when animated by conversation and the banquet, revealed the nature of his hopes.  Daru replied, “That war was a game which he played well, in which he was always the winner, and that it was natural to infer, that he took a pleasure in playing it.  But that, in this case, it was not so much men as nature which it was necessary to conquer; that already the army was diminished one-third by desertion, sickness, or famine.

“If provisions failed at Witepsk, what would be the case farther on?  The officers whom he had sent to procure them, either never re-appeared, or returned with empty hands.  That the small quantity of flour, or the few cattle which they had succeeded in collecting, were immediately consumed by the imperial guard; that the other divisions of the army were heard to murmur, that it exacted and absorbed every thing, that it constituted, as it were, a privileged class.  The hospital and provision-waggons, as well as the droves of cattle, were not able to come up.  The hospitals were insufficient for the sick; provisions, room, and medicines, were all wanting in them.