But the marches which he had just made with the array, the fatigues of the preceding days and nights, so many cares, and his intense and anxious expectation, had worn him out; the chillness of the atmosphere had struck to him; an irritating fever, a dry cough, and excessive thirst consumed him.  During the remainder of the night, he made vain attempts to quench the burning thirst which consumed him.  This fresh disorder was complicated with an old complaint; he had been struggling since the day before with a painful attack of that cruel disorder[18], which had been long threatening him.

[Footnote 18:  A retention of urine.]

At last, just at five o’clock, one of Ney’s officers came to inform him that the marshal was still in sight of the Russians, and wished to begin the attack.  This news seemed to restore the strength of which the fever had deprived him.  He arose, called his officers, and sallied out, exclaiming, “We have them at last!  Forward!  Let us go and open the gates of Moscow!”

CHAP.  IX.

It was half-past five in the morning, when Napoleon arrived near the redoubt which had been conquered on the 5th of September.  There he waited for the first dawn of day, and for the first fire of Poniatowski’s infantry.  The sun rose.  The emperor, showing it to his officers, exclaimed, “Behold the sun of Austerlitz!” But it was opposite to us.  It rose on the Russian side, made us conspicuous to their fire, and dazzled us.  We then first perceived, that owing to the darkness, our batteries had been placed out of reach of the enemy, and it was necessary to push them more forward.  The enemy allowed this to be done:  he seemed to hesitate in being the first to break the awful silence.

The emperor’s attention was then directed towards his right, when, all at once, near seven o’clock, the battle began upon his left.  Shortly after, he was informed, that one of the regiments of Prince Eugene, the 106th, had got possession of the village of Borodino, and its bridge, which it should have destroyed; but that being carried away by the ardour of success, it had crossed that passage, in spite of the cries of its general, in order to attack the heights of Gorcka, where it was overwhelmed by the front and flank fires of the Russians.  It was added, that the general who commanded that brigade had been already killed, and that the 106th regiment would have been entirely destroyed had it not been for the 92d, which voluntarily ran up to its assistance, and collected and brought back its survivors.

It was Napoleon himself who had just ordered his left wing to make a violent attack.  Probably, he had only reckoned on a partial execution of his orders, and wished to keep the enemy’s attention directed to that side.  But he multiplied his orders, used the most violent excitations, and engaged a battle in front, the plan of which he had conceived in an oblique order.