Napoleon then caused the enemy to be harassed by a host of riflemen, for the purpose of drawing him to the left bank of the river, and ensuring a battle for the following day.  It is asserted that Bagration would have fallen in with his views, but that Barclay did not expose him to the temptation.  He despatched him to Elnia, and took upon himself the defence of Smolensk.

Barclay had imagined that the greatest part of our army was marching upon Elnia, to get between Moscow and the Russian army.  He deceived himself by the disposition, so common in war, of imputing to one’s enemy designs contrary to those which he demonstrates.  For the defensive, being uneasy in its nature, frequently magnifies the offensive, and fear, heating the imagination, causes it to attribute to the enemy a thousand projects of which he never dreamt.  It is possible too that Barclay, having to cope with a colossal foe, felt authorized to expect from him gigantic movements.

The Russians themselves have since reproached Napoleon with not having adopted that manoeuvre; but have they considered, that to proceed thus to place himself beyond a river, a fortified town and a hostile army, to cut off the Russians from the road to their capital, would have been cutting off himself from all communication with his reinforcements, his other armies, and Europe?  Those are not capable of appreciating the difficulties of such a movement who are astonished that it was not made, without preparation, in two days, across a river and a country both unknown, with such masses, and amidst another combination the execution of which was not yet completed.

Be that as it may, in the evening of the 16th, Bagration commenced his march for Elnia.  Napoleon had just had his tent pitched in the middle of his first line, almost within reach of the guns of Smolensk, and on the brink of the ravine which encircles the city.  He called Murat and Davoust:  the former had just observed among the Russians movements indicative of a retreat.  Every day since the passage of the Niemen, he had been accustomed to see them thus escape him; he did not therefore believe that there would be any battle the following day.  Davoust was of a contrary opinion.  As for the emperor, he had no hesitation in believing what he wished.

CHAP.  IV.

On the 17th, by daybreak, the hope of seeing the Russian army drawn up before him awoke Napoleon; but the field which he had prepared for it remained empty:  he persisted, nevertheless, in his illusion, in which Davoust participated; it was to his side that he proceeded.  Dalton, one of the generals of that marshal, had seen some hostile battalions quit the city and range themselves in order of battle.  The emperor seized this hope, which Ney, jointly with Murat, combated in vain.