Absorbed in this abyss of painful reflections, he fell into so profound a stupor, that none of those about him could draw from him a single word.  Scarcely could a nod of the head be obtained from him by dint of importunity.  At length he strove to get some rest:  but a feverish anxiety prevented him from closing his eyes.  During all the rest of that cruel night he kept rising, lying down again, and calling incessantly, but yet not a single word betrayed his distress:  it was only from the agitation of his body that the anguish of his mind was to be inferred.

About four in the morning, one of his orderly officers, the Prince d’Aremberg, came to inform him that under favour of the night, the woods and some inequalities of ground, Cossacks were slipping in between him and his advanced posts.  The Emperor had just sent off Poniatowski on his right to Kremenskoe.  So little did he expect the enemy from that side, that he had neglected to order out any scouts on his right flank.  He therefore slighted the report of his orderly officer.

No sooner did the sun appear above the horizon on the 25th, than he mounted his horse, and advanced on the Kalouga road, which to him was now nothing more than the road to Malo-Yaroslawetz.  To reach the bridge of that town, he had to cross the plain, about a league in length and breadth, embraced by the bend of the Louja:  a few officers only attended him.  The four squadrons of his usual escort, not having been previously apprised, hastened to rejoin, but had not yet overtaken him.  The road was covered with sick-waggons, artillery, and vehicles of luxury:  it was the interior of the army, and every one was marching on without mistrust.

In the distance, towards the right, a few small bodies of men were first seen running, and then large black lines advancing.  Outcries were presently heard:  some women and attendants on the army were met running back, too much affrighted and out of breath, either to listen to any thing, or to answer any question.  At the same time the file of vehicles stopped in uncertainty; disorder arose in it:  some endeavoured to proceed, others to turn back; they crossed, jostled and upset one another:  and the whole was soon a scene of complete uproar and confusion.

The Emperor looked on and smiled, still advancing, and believing it to be a groundless panic.  His aides-de-camp suspected that it was Cossacks whom they saw, but they marched in such regular platoons that they still had doubts on the subject; and if those wretches had not howled at the moment of attack, as they all do to stifle the sense of danger, it is probable that Napoleon would not have escaped them.  A circumstance which increased the peril was, that their cries were at first mistaken for acclamations, and their hurrahs for shouts of Vive l’Empereur!

It was Platof and six thousand Cossacks, who in the rear of our victorious advanced-guard, had ventured to cross the river, the low plain and the high road, carrying all before them; and it was at the very moment when the Emperor, perfectly tranquil in the midst of his army, and the windings of a deep river, was advancing, refusing belief to so audacious a plan, that they put it in execution.