After the battle, of every six corpses found, one would be French and five Russian.  At noon an aide-de-camp came to inform the Emperor that Count Auguste de Caulaincourt, brother of the Duke of Vicenza, had been struck by a ball.  The Emperor drew a deep sigh, but said not a word; for he well knew that his heart would most likely be saddened more, than once that day.  After the battle, he expressed his condolences to the Duke of Vicenza in the most touching manner.

Count Auguste de Caulaincourt was a young man full of courage, who had left his young wife a few hours after his marriage to follow the French army, and to find a glorious death at the battle of La Moskwa.  He was governor of the pages of the Emperor, and had married the sister of one of his charges.  This charming person was so young that her parents preferred that the marriage should not take place until he returned from the campaign, being influenced in this decision by the fate of Prince Aldobrandini after his marriage with Mademoiselle de la Rochefoucault before the campaign of Wagram.  General Auguste de Caulaincourt was killed in a redoubt to which he had led the cuirassiers of General Montbrun, who had just been fatally wounded by a cannon-ball in the attack on this same redoubt.

The Emperor often said, in speaking of generals killed in the army, “Such an one is happy in having died on the field of honor, while I shall perhaps be so unfortunate as to die in my bed.”  He was less philosophical on the occasion of Marshal Lannes’s death, when I saw him, while at breakfast, weeping such large tears that they rolled over his cheeks, and fell into his plate.  He mourned deeply for Desaix, Poniatowski, and Bessieres, but most of all for Lannes, and next to him Duroc.

During the whole of the battle of the Moskwa the Emperor had attacks resembling stone in the bladder.  He had been often threatened with this disease unless he was more prudent in his diet, and suffered much, although he complained little, and only when attacked by violent pain uttered stifled groans.  Now, nothing causes more anxiety than to hear those complain who are unaccustomed to do so; for then one imagines the suffering most intense, since it is stronger than a strong man.  At Austerlitz the Emperor said, “Ordener is worn out.  There is only one time for military achievement in a man’s life.  I shall be good for six years longer, and after that I shall retire.”

The Emperor rode over the field of battle, which presented a horrible spectacle, nearly all the dead being covered with wounds; which proved with what bitterness the battle had been waged.  The weather was very inclement, and rain was falling, accompanied by a very high wind.  Poor wounded creatures, who had not yet been removed to the ambulances, half rose from the ground in their desire not to be overlooked and to receive aid; while some among them still cried, “Vive l’Empereur!” in spite of their suffering and exhaustion.  Those