for us to retreat; and we were too near the Russians under Miloradowitch, who were calling to us from their ranks to lay down our arms, to venture to turn our backs upon them.  It would therefore be a much better plan, as our faces were now turned towards Smolensk, and as Prince Eugene was on that side, to form ourselves into one compact mass, keep all its movements well connected, and rushing headlong, to re-enter Russia by cutting our way through these Russians, and rejoin the viceroy; then to return together, to overthrow Miloradowitch, and at last reach Krasnoe.”

To this proposition of their leader, there was a loud and unanimous cry of assent.  Instantly the column formed into a mass, and rushed into the midst of ten thousand hostile muskets and cannon.  The Russians, at first seized with astonishment, opened their ranks and allowed this handful of warriors, almost disarmed, to advance into the middle of them.  Then, when they comprehended their purpose, either from pity or admiration, the enemy’s battalions, which lined both sides of the road, called out to our men to halt; they entreated and conjured them to surrender; but the only answer they received was a more determined march, a stern silence, and the point of the bayonet.  The whole of the enemy’s fire was then poured upon them at once, at the distance of a few yards, and the half of this heroic column was stretched wounded or lifeless on the ground.

The remainder proceeded without a single man quitting the body of his troop, which no Russian was bold enough to venture near.  Few of these unfortunate men again saw the viceroy and their advancing divisions.  Then only they separated; they ran and threw themselves into these feeble ranks, which were opened to receive and protect them.

For more than an hour the Russian cannon had been thinning them.  While one half of their forces had pursued Guilleminot and compelled him to retreat, Miloradowitch, with the other half, had stopped Prince Eugene.  His right rested on a wood which was protected by heights entirely covered with cannon; his left touched the great road, but more in the rear.  This disposition dictated that of Eugene.  The royal column, by degrees, as it came up, deployed on the right of the road, its right more forward than its left.  The viceroy thus placed obliquely between him and the enemy the great road, the possession of which was the subject of contest.  Each of the two armies occupied it by its left.

The Russians, placed in a position so offensive, kept entirely on the defensive; their bullets alone attacked Eugene.  A cannonade was kept up on both sides, on theirs most destructive, on ours almost totally ineffective.  Tired out with this firing, Eugene formed his resolution; he called the 14th French division, drew it up on the left of the great road, pointed out to it the woody height on which the enemy rested, and which formed his principal strength; that was the decisive point, the centre of the action, and to make the rest fall, that must be carried.  He did not expect it would; but that effort would draw the attention and the strength of the enemy on that side, the right of the great road would remain free, and he would endeavour to take proper advantage of it.