“According to their account,” they all deplored the continuance of the war.  And for what reason?  Their nations, like their Emperors, ought to esteem, to love, and to be allies of one another.  It was their ardent wish that a speedy peace might arrive from Petersburg.  Wolkonsky could not make “haste enough.”  They pressed round Lauriston, drawing him aside, taking him by the hand, and lavishing upon him those caressing manners which they have inherited from Asia.

It was soon demonstrated that the chief point in which they were all agreed was to deceive Murat and his Emperor; and in this they succeeded.  These details transported Napoleon with joy.  Credulous from hope, perhaps from despair, he was for some moments dazzled by these appearances; eager to escape from the inward feeling which oppressed him, he seemed desirous to deaden it by resigning himself to an expansive joy.  He summoned all his generals; he triumphantly “announced to them a very speedy peace.  They had but to wait another fortnight.  None but himself was acquainted with the Russian character.  On the receipt of his letter, Petersburg would be full of bonfires.”

But the armistice proposed by Kutusoff was unsatisfactory to him, and he ordered Murat to break it instantly; but notwithstanding, it continued to be observed, the cause of which is unknown.

This armistice was a singular one.  If either party wished to break it, three hours notice was to be sufficient.  It was confined to the fronts of the two camps, but did not extend to their flanks.  Such at least was the interpretation put upon it by the Russians.  We could not bring up a convoy, or send out a foraging party, without fighting; so that the war continued everywhere, excepting where it could be favourable to us.

In the first of the succeeding days, Murat took it into his head to show himself at the enemy’s advanced posts.  There, he was gratified by the notice which his fine person, his reputation for bravery, and his rank procured him.  The Russian officers took good care not to displease him; they were profuse of all the marks of respect calculated to strengthen his illusion.  He could give his orders to their vedettes just as he did to the French.  If he took a fancy to any part of the ground which they occupied, they cheerfully gave it up to him.

Some Cossack chiefs even went so far as to affect enthusiasm, and to tell him that they had ceased to acknowledge any other as Emperor but him who reigned at Moscow.  Murat believed for a moment that they would no longer fight against him.  He went even farther.  Napoleon was heard to exclaim, while reading his letters, “Murat, King of the Cossacks!  What folly!” The most extravagant ideas were conceived by men on whom fortune had lavished all sorts of favours.