“While we had been penetrating to the heart of the Russian Colossus, had not his arms remained advanced and extended towards the Baltic and the Black Sea? was he likely to leave them motionless now, when, instead of striking him mortal blows, we had been struck ourselves?  Was not the fatal moment arrived when this Colossus was about to surround us with his threatening arms?  Could we imagine that we had either tied them up, or paralysed them, by opposing to them the Austrians in the south, and the Prussians in the north?  Was it not rather a method of rendering the Poles and the French, who were mixed with these dangerous allies, entirely useless?

“But without going far in search of causes of uneasiness, was the Emperor ignorant of the joy of the Russians, when three months before he stopped to attack Smolensk, instead of marching to the right to Elnia, where he would have cut off the enemy’s army from a retreat upon their capital?  Now that the war has returned back to the same spots, will the Russians, whose movements are much more free than ours were then, imitate our error?  Will they keep in our rear when they can so easily place themselves before us, on the line of our retreat?

“Is Napoleon unwilling to allow that Kutusoff’s attack may be bolder and more skilful than his own had been?  Are the circumstances still the same?  Was not every thing favourable to the Russians during their retreat, and, on the contrary, has not every thing been unfavourable to us, in our retreat?  Will not the cutting off Augereau and his brigade upon that road open his eyes?  What business had we in the burnt and ravaged Smolensk, but to take a supply of provisions and proceed rapidly onwards?

“But the Emperor no doubt fancied that by dating his despatches five days from that city, he would give to his disorderly flight the appearance of a slow and glorious retreat!  This was the reason of his ordering the destruction of the towers which surround Smolensk, from the wish, as he expressed it, of not being again stopped short by its walls! as if there was any idea of our returning to a place, which we did not even know whether we should ever get out of.

“Will any one believe that he wished to give time to the artillerymen to shoe their horses against the ice? as if he could expect any labour from workmen emaciated with hunger and long marches; from poor wretches who hardly found, the day long enough to procure provisions and dress them, whose forges were thrown away or damaged, and who besides wanted the indispensable materials for a labour so considerable.

“But perhaps he wished to allow himself time to drive on before him, out of danger and clear of the ranks, the troublesome crowd of soldiers, who had become useless, to rally the better sort, and to re-organize the army? as if it were possible to convey any orders whatever to men so scattered about, or to rally them, without lodgings, or distribution of provisions, to bivouacs; in short, to think of re-organization for corps of dying soldiers, all of whom had no longer any thing to adhere to, and whom the least touch would dissolve.”