. A life of Napoleon Boneparte:. at Alexander wouldnot make peace. When he finally moved, it was not with the precision andswiftness which had characterized his former he began to fight, it was against new odds. He foundthat his enemies had been studying the Spanish campaigns,and that they had adopted the tactics which had so nearlyruined his armies in the Peninsula: they refused to givehim a general battle retreating constantly before him;they harassed his separate corps with indecisive contests;they wasted the country as they went. The people aidedtheir soldiers as the Spaniar
. A life of Napoleon Boneparte:. at Alexander wouldnot make peace. When he finally moved, it was not with the precision andswiftness which had characterized his former he began to fight, it was against new odds. He foundthat his enemies had been studying the Spanish campaigns,and that they had adopted the tactics which had so nearlyruined his armies in the Peninsula: they refused to givehim a general battle retreating constantly before him;they harassed his separate corps with indecisive contests;they wasted the country as they went. The people aidedtheir soldiers as the Spaniards had done. Tell us only themoment, and we will set fire to our buildings, said thepeasants. By the 12th of August, Napoleon was at Smolensk, thekey of Moscow. At a cost of twelve thousand men killedand wounded, he took the town, only to find, instead of thewell-victualled shelter he hoped, a smoking ruin. TheFrench army had suffered frightfully from sickness, fromscarcity of supplies, and from useless fighting on the march 241. MARSHAL NEY ( LE MARECHAL NEY, DUC deLCHINGEN, PRINCE DE LA MOSKOWA,PAIR DE FRANCE ). Engraved by Tardieu, after Gerard. 242 THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN 243 from the Nieman to Smolensk. They had not had the stim-ulus of a great victory; they began to feel that this steadyretreat of the enemy was only a fatal trap into which theywere falling. Every consideration forbade them to marchinto Russia so late in the year, yet on they went towardsMoscow, over ruined fields and through empty terrible pursuit lasted until September 7th, when theRussians, to content their soldiers, who were complainingloudly because they were not allowed to engage the French,gave battle at Borodino, the battle of the Moskova, as theFrench call it. At two oclock in the morning of this engagement. Na-poleon issued one of his stirring bulletins: Soldiers! Here is the battle which j^ou have so long desired !Henceforth the victory depends upon you; it is necessary for us. It wil
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