They even went further, and awakened some of his dormant fears:  “Was it not Davoust who, after the victory of Jena, drew the emperor into Poland?  Is it not he who is now anxious for this new Polish war?—­He who already possesses such large property in that country, whose accurate and severe probity has won over the Poles, and who is suspected of aspiring to their throne?”

It is not easy to say whether the pride of Napoleon was shocked by seeing that of his lieutenants encroaching so much on his own; or whether, in the course of this irregular war, he felt himself thwarted more and more by the methodical genius of Davoust; certain it is, the unfavourable impression against him struck deeper; it was productive of fatal consequences; it removed from his confidence a bold, tenacious and prudent warrior, and favoured his predilection for Murat, whose rashness was much more flattering to his ambitious hopes.  In other respects, these dissensions between his great officers did not displease Napoleon; they gave him information; their harmony would have made him uneasy.

From Dantzic the emperor proceeded, on the 12th of June, to Koenigsberg.  At that place ended the inspection of his immense magazines, and of the second resting-point and pivot of his line of operations.  Immense quantities of provisions, adequate to the immensity of the undertaking, were there accumulated.  No detail had been neglected.  The active and impassioned genius of Napoleon was then entirely directed towards that most important and difficult department of his expedition.  In that he was profuse of exhortations, orders, and even money, of which his letters are a proof.  His days were occupied in dictating instructions on that subject; at night he frequently rose to repeat them again.  One general received, on a single day, six despatches from him, all distinguished by the same solicitude.

In one, these words were remarked, “For masses like these, if precautions be not taken, the grain of no country can suffice.”  In another, “It will be requisite for all the provision-waggons to be loaded with flour, bread, rice, vegetables, and brandy, besides what is necessary for the hospital service.  The result of all my movements will assemble 400,000 men on a single point.  There will be nothing then to expect from the country, and it will be necessary to have every thing within ourselves.”  But, on the one hand, the means of transport were badly calculated; and, on the other, he allowed himself to be hurried on as soon as he was put in motion.

CHAP.  III.

From Koenigsberg to Gumbinnen, he reviewed several of his armies; conversing with the soldiers in a gay, frank, and often abrupt style; well aware that, with such unsophisticated and hardy characters, abruptness is looked upon as frankness, rudeness as force, haughtiness as true nobility; and that the delicacy and graces which some officers bring with them from the salons are in their eyes no better than weakness and pusillanimity; that these appear to them like a foreign language, which they do not understand, and the accents of which strike them as ridiculous.