Thus it was that Napoleon was constrained to shut his eyes to facts.  It is well known that the greater part of his ministers were not flatterers.  Both facts and men spoke sufficiently; but what could they teach him?  Of what was he ignorant?  Had not all his preparations been dictated by the most clear-sighted foresight?  What could be said to him, which he had not himself said and written a hundred times?  It was after having anticipated the minutest details; having prepared for every inconvenience, having provided every thing for a slow and methodical war, that he divested himself of all these precautions, that he abandoned all these preparations, and suffered himself to be hurried away by habit, by the necessity of short wars, of rapid victories, and sudden treaties of peace.

CHAP.  V.

It was in the midst of these grave circumstances that Balachoff, a minister of the Russian emperor, presented himself with a flag of truce at the French advanced posts.  He was received, and the army, now become less ardent, indulged anticipations of peace.

He brought this message from Alexander to Napoleon, “That it was not yet too late to negotiate; a war which the soil, the climate, and the character of Russia, rendered interminable, was begun; but all reconciliation was not become impossible, and from one bank of the Niemen to the other they might yet come to an understanding.”  He, moreover, added, “that his master declared, in the face of Europe, that he was not the aggressor; that his ambassador at Paris, in demanding his passports, did not consider himself as having broken the peace; that thus, the French had entered Russia without a declaration of war.”  There were, however, no fresh overtures, either verbal or written, presented by Balachoff.

The choice of this flag of truce had been remarked; he was the minister of the Russian police; that office required an observant spirit, and it was thought that he was sent to exercise it amongst us.  What rendered us more mistrustful of the character of the negotiator was, that the negotiation appeared to have no character, unless it were that of great moderation, which, under the actual circumstances, was taken for weakness.

Napoleon did not hesitate.  He would not stop at Paris; how could he then retreat at Wilna?  What would Europe think?  What result could he exhibit to the French and allied armies as a motive for so many fatigues; for such vast movements; for such enormous individual and national expenditure:  it would be confessing himself vanquished.  Besides, his language before so many princes, since his departure from Paris, had pledged him as much as his actions; so that, in fact, he found himself as much compromised on the score of his allies as of his enemies.  Even then, it is said, the warmth of conversation with Balachoff hurried him away.  “What had brought him to Wilna?  What did the Emperor