Several volleys of smoke, ascending from amidst the black mass of horses, prolonged the uncertainty.  Some cried out, that it was our men firing, and still defending themselves, and that they were not yet beat.  In fact, a Russian commanding officer had just been killed by the officer commanding these tirailleurs.  This was the way in which he replied to the summons to surrender.  Our anxiety lasted some minutes longer, when all at once the army set up a cry of joy and admiration at seeing the Russian cavalry, intimidated at this bold resistance, separate in order to escape their well-directed fire, disperse, and at last allow us to see once more this handful of brave fellows master of this extensive field of battle, of which it only occupied a few feet.

When the Russians saw that we were manoeuvring seriously to attack them, they disappeared without leaving us any traces to follow them.  This was the same they had done at Witepsk and Smolensk, and what was still more remarkable, the second day after their great disaster.  At first there was some uncertainty whether to follow the road to Moscow or that to Kalouga, after which Murat and Mortier proceeded, at all hazards, towards Moscow.

They marched for two days, with no other food than horse-flesh and bruised wheat, without finding a single person or thing by which to discover the Russian army.  That army, although its infantry only formed one confused mass, did not leave behind it a single fragment; such was the national spirit and habit of obedience in it, collectively and singly, and so thoroughly unprovided were we with every kind of information, as well as resources, in this deserted and thoroughly hostile country.

The army of Italy was advancing at some leagues’ distance on the left of the great road, and surprised some of the armed peasantry, who were not accustomed to fighting; but their master, with a dagger in his hand, rushed upon our soldiers like a madman:  he exclaimed that he had no longer a religion, empire, or country to defend, and that life was odious to him; they were willing, however, to leave him that, but as he attempted to kill the soldiers who surrounded him, pity yielded to anger, and his wish was gratified.

Near Krymskoie, on the 11th of September, the hostile army again made its appearance, firmly established in a strong position.  It had returned to its plan of looking more to the ground, in its retreat, than to the enemy.  The duke of Treviso at first satisfied Murat of the impossibility of attacking it; but the smell of powder soon intoxicated that monarch.  He committed himself, and obliged Dufour, Mortier, and their infantry, to advance to his support.  This consisted of the remains of Friand’s division, and the young guard.  There were lost, without the least utility, 2000 men of that reserve which had been so unseasonably spared on the day of battle; and Mortier was so enraged, that he wrote to the emperor,