Wilson reproached him with his excessive dilatoriness; he reminded him that five times in one day it had caused them to lose the victory, in the battle of Vinkowo, on the 18th of October.  In fact, on that day Murat would have been destroyed, had Kutusoff fully occupied the front of the French by a brisk attack, while Beningsen was turning their left wing.  But either from negligence, or that tardiness which is the fault of age, or as several Russians assert, because Kutusoff was more envious of Beningsen than inimical to Napoleon, the veteran had attacked too faintly, and too late, and had stopped too soon.

Wilson continued to insist on his agreeing to a decisive engagement on the following day, and on his refusal, he asked, “Was he then determined to open a free passage for Napoleon? to allow him to escape with his victory?  What a cry of indignation would be raised in Petersburgh, in London, throughout all Europe!  Did he not already hear the murmurs of his own troops?”

Kutusoff, irritated at this, replied, that “he would certainly rather make a bridge of gold for the enemy than compromise his army, and with it the fate of the whole empire.  Was not Napoleon fleeing? why then stop him and force him to conquer?  The season was sufficient to destroy him:  of all the allies of Russia, they could rely with most confidence on winter; and he should wait for its assistance.  As for the Russian army, it was under his command, and it would obey him in spite of the clamours of Wilson; Alexander, when informed of his proceedings, would approve them.  What did he care for England? was it for her that he was fighting?  He was a true-born Russian, his fondest wish was to see Russia delivered, and delivered she would be without risking the chance of another battle; and as for the rest of Europe, it was nothing to him whether it was under the dominion of France or England.”

Thus was Wilson repulsed, and yet Kutusoff, shut up with the French army in the elevated plain of Malo-Yaroslawetz, was compelled to put himself into the most threatening attitude.  He there drew up, on the 25th, all his divisions, and seven hundred pieces of artillery.  No doubts were any longer entertained in the two armies that a decisive day had arrived:  Wilson was of that opinion himself.  He remarked that the Russian lines had at their back a muddy ravine, across which there was an unsafe bridge.  This only way of retreat, in the sight of an enemy, appeared to him to be impracticable.  Kutusoff was now in such a situation that he must either conquer or perish; and the Englishman was hugging himself at the prospect of a decisive engagement:  whether its issue proved fatal to Napoleon or dangerous to Russia, it must be bloody, and England could not but be a gainer by it.