In the midst of this occupation, he learned that Barclay had, on the 18th, abandoned his camp at Drissa, and that he was marching towards Witepsk.  This movement opened his eyes.  Detained by the check which Sebastiani had received near Druia, and more especially by the rains and bad state of the roads, he found (though perhaps too late) that the occupation of Witepsk was urgent and decisive; that that city alone was eminently aggressive, inasmuch as it separated the two hostile rivers and armies.  From that position, he would be enabled to turn the broken army of his rival, cut him off from his southern provinces, and crush his weakness with superior force.  He concluded that, if Barclay had anticipated him in reaching that capital, he would doubtless defend it:  and there, perhaps, he was to expect that so-much-coveted victory which had escaped him on the Vilia.  He, therefore, instantly directed all his corps on Beszenkowiczi; thither he summoned Murat and Ney, who were then near Polotsk, where he left Oudinot.  For himself, he proceeded from Klubokoe (where he was surrounded by his guard, the Italian army, and three divisions detached from Davoust), to Kamen, always in a carriage, except during the night, either from necessity, or, perhaps, with a view to keep his soldiers in ignorance of the inability of their chief to share their fatigues.

Till that time, the greater part of the army had proceeded with astonishment, at finding no enemy; they had now become habituated to the circumstance.  By day the novelty of the places, and impatience to get to their journey’s end, occupied their attention; at night the necessity of choosing or making for themselves a place of shelter; of finding food, and dressing it.  The soldiers were so much engaged by so many cares, that they considered themselves less employed in making war than a troublesome journey; but if the war and the enemy were to fall back always thus, how much farther should they have to go in search of them?  At length, on the 25th, the report of cannon was heard, and the army, as well as the emperor, indulged their hopes of a victory and peace.

This was in the direction of Beszenkowiczi, Prince Eugene had there encountered Doctorof, who commanded Barclay’s rear-guard.  In following his leader from Polotsk to Witepsk, he cleared his way on the left bank of the Duena to Beszenkowiczi, the bridge of which he burnt as he retired.  The viceroy, on capturing this town, came in sight of the Duena, and re-established the passage; the few Russian troops left in observation on the other side feebly opposed the operation.  When Napoleon contemplated, for the first time, this river, his new conquest, he censured sharply, and not unjustly, the defective construction of the bridge which made him master of the two banks.