The grand army being dispersed, it was necessary to collect it together.  Napoleon had resolved to defile with his guard, the army of Italy, and three of Davoust’s divisions, before the front of attack of the Russians; to abandon his Witepsk line of operation, and take that of Orcha, and, lastly, to throw himself with 185,000 men on the left of the Dnieper and of the enemy’s army.  Covered by the river, his plan was to get beyond it, for the purpose of reaching Smolensk before it; if successful, he should have separated the Russian army not only from Moscow, but from the whole centre and south of the empire; it would be confined to the north; and he would have accomplished at Smolensk against Bagration and Barclay united, what he had in vain attempted at Witepsk against the army of Barclay alone.

Thus the line of operation of so large an army was about to be suddenly changed; 200,000 men, spread over a tract of more than fifty leagues, were to be all at once brought together, without the knowledge of the enemy, within reach of him, and on his left flank.  This was, undoubtedly, one of those grand determinations which, executed with the unity and rapidity of their conception, change instantaneously the face of war, decide the fate of empires, and display the genius of conquerors.

As we marched from Orcha to Liady, the French army formed a long column on the left bank of the Dnieper.  In this mass, the first corps, that of Davoust, was distinguished by the order and harmony which prevailed in its divisions.  The fine appearance of the troops, the care with which they were supplied, and the attention that was paid to make them careful of their provisions, which the improvident soldier is apt to waste; lastly, the strength of these divisions, the happy result of this severe discipline, all caused them to be acknowledged as the model of the whole army.

Gudin’s division was the only one wanting; owing to an ill-written order, it had been wandering for twenty-four hours in marshy woods; it arrived, however, but diminished by three hundred combatants; for such errors are not to be repaired but by forced marches, under which the weakest are sure to sink.

The emperor traversed in a day the hilly and woody tract which separates the Duena from the Boristhenes; it was in front of Rassasna that he crossed the latter river.  Its distance from our home, the very antiquity of its name, every thing connected with it, excited our curiosity.  For the first time, the waters of this Muscovite river were about to bear a French army, and to reflect our victorious arms.  The Romans had known it only by their defeats:  it was down this same stream that the savages of the North, the children of Odin and Rurik, descended to plunder Constantinople.  Long before we could perceive it, our eyes sought it with ambitious impatience; we came to a narrow river, straitened between woody and uncultivated banks; it was the Boristhenes which presented itself to our view in this humble form.  At this sight all our proud thoughts were lowered, and they were soon totally banished by the necessity of providing for our most urgent wants.