  Moscow was destroyed: the occupation of its ruins was neither safe nor advantageous: we were too far removed from our wings; we could not procure subsistence, and we had no interest in guarding the ruins. Every one was of opinion that we must not remain there, but it was not agreed what it was best to do. The King of Naples proposed to march towards Kaluga, to destroy there the only establishments which Russia possessed, and to return and go into cantonments on the Boristhenes. The Cossacks could not be followed to the extremity of the world; the longest flight must have its end; we were ready for fighting, but we did not wish to persevere longer in a chase. Such was the purport of the proclamation that he recommended before putting the army in motion. The Viceroy thought, on the contrary, that we should march towards the Russians, give them battle, and push them on Petersburg, and then march for Riga: we could thus have rejoined Macdonald, and afterwards established ourselves on the Dwina. Others presented other plans; all were good—all were practicable; but the Emperor had some particular information; he would have judged correctly, if the Russians had not received inspirations from England. Much fault has been found with this delay: it is an error, since events have condemned it; but those who exclaim against it were not in the secret of our affairs or negotiations; they may, without too much modesty, believe that the sagacity of that great man was not below that which Nature has given to them. He was deceived; we have felt the consequences; perhaps one day it will be known what combinations misled him. However that may be, we delayed, we negotiated, we gave battle; we decided nothing. The army of Moldavia was continuing its movement; it was advancing, but it was not yet known in what line it was to act. Some pretended that it would unite with Kutusow, others feared that it would march upon our rear. We were uncertain of what was preparing; the Emperor himself was not free from uneasiness, but he knew to a man what troops he had in echelon from the Rhine to Moscow; he thought his calculations safe; he confined himself to the despatching of instructions: those that he addressed to the Duke de Belluno are worth citing. They prove what kind of slumber it was that he has been reproached with. Napoleon to the Major-General. "My cousin, inform the Duke de Belluno that I have not yet given orders for his movement, because that depends on the movement of the enemy: that the Russian army from Moldavia, consisting of three divisions, or twenty thousand men strong, infantry, cavalry, and artillery included, passed the Dnieper in the beginning of September; that it may march towards Moscow to reinforce the army under the command of General Kutusow, or towards Volhinia to reinforce that of Tormasoff; that General Kutusow's army, beaten at the battle of Moskowa, is at present on the Kaluga, which would lead us to believe that it expects reinforcements which might come from Moldavia, by the road of Kiow; that, in this case, the Duke de Belluno would receive orders to join the great army, either by the road of Jelnia and Kaluga, or any other; that if, on the contrary, the twenty thousand men from Moldavia relieve Tormasoff, this reinforcement will raise Tormasoff's force to forty thousand men; but that our right, under the command of Prince Schwartzenberg, would be still of equal force—as that Prince, with the Austrians, Poles, and Saxons, has about forty thousand men; that moreover I have demanded of the Emperor of Austria, that the corps which the Austrian General Reuss commands at Leinberg should move; and that Prince Schwartzenberg should receive a reinforcement of ten thousand men; that, on the other side, the Emperor Alexander reinforces as much as he can the garrison of Riga, and the corps of Wittgenstein, in order to dislodge Marshal Saint-Cyr from Polozk, and the Duke of Tarentum from Riga and DÜnaburg; that letters which came from Prince Schwartzenberg, dated the 24th, would tend to prove that the army of Moldavia, instead of coming towards Moscow, has reached the army of Tormasoff and reinforced it; that it is necessary then to know what will be done; that, in this state of things, I desire that the Duke de Belluno will canton his corps from Smolensko to Orsza; that he will keep up an exact correspondence by all the estafettes with the Duke de Bassano, in order that that Minister may write to him and give him all the news that he shall have from different parts; that he will send a steady, discreet, and intelligent officer to General Schwartzenberg and General Regnier; that this officer shall learn from General Schwartzenberg what is passing, and from General Regnier the true state of affairs; that he will regularly correspond with the Governor of Minsk; and lastly, that he will send agents in different directions to know what is passing; that the division of Gerard shall be placed on the side of Orsza, where it will be four or five days' march from Minsk, three from Witepsk, four or five from Polozk; that the other division, which shall be between Orsza and Smolensko, shall be in a condition to give it speedy assistance; and that lastly, the third division shall be near Smolensko. That, by this means, his corps d'armÉe will rest itself, and be able easily to find subsistence; that it will be necessary to station it above the route, in order to leave the great communications free for the troops which arrive; that in this position he will be equally able to march upon Minsk, or upon Wilna, if the centre of our communications and of our depÔts be threatened; or if Marshal Saint-Cyr should be driven from Polozk, or to execute the order that he might receive to return to Moscow by the road of Jelnia and of Kaluga—if the taking of Moscow and the new state of things should determine the enemy to reinforce himself with a portion of the troops from Moldavia; that the Duke de Belluno will thus form the chief reserve, to go either to the relief of Schwartzenberg and cover Minsk, or to the assistance of Marshal Saint-Cyr and cover Wilna, or to Moscow to reinforce the main army. That General Dombrowski, who has a division of 8000 infantry, and 12,000 Polish horse, is under his orders, which will increase his corps d'armÉe to four divisions; that the brigade of reserve from Wilna, composed of four Westphalian regiments, of two battalions from Hesse-Darmstadt, which towards the end of the month will arrive from Swedish Pomerania, and of eight pieces of cannon, will also be under his orders; that, in fine, in the course of November, two new divisions will assemble;—the one at Warsaw, that is, the thirty-second division, which will be augmented by three battalions from Wurtsburg, and will remain under the command of General Durutte; the other at Koenigsberg, that is, the thirty-fourth, which was in Pomerania under the orders of General Morand, and which, also increased by some battalions, will be commanded by General Loison. Thus, whether it be necessary to march to the assistance of Prince Schwartzenberg, or to the assistance of Marshal Saint-Cyr, the Duke de Belluno will always assemble a mass of forty thousand men; that, as the correspondence by estafette is quick, I always give my orders; and that it would only be in the event of Minsk or Wilna being threatened or menaced, that the Duke de Belluno should march of his own authority to protect these two grand depÔts of the army; that the Duke de Belluno, having the general command over all Lithuania and the governments of Smolensko and of Witepsk, should every where accelerate the progress of the administration, and especially take efficacious measures that the requisitions for corn and forage be carried into effect; that there are ovens at Mohilow, at Orsza, at Rasasna, and at Dubrowna; that he must get a great deal of biscuit ready, and put himself in a situation to have thirty days' provisions secured for his corps, without taking any thing from the military transports, or from the convoys which may be passing for the army. The Duke de Belluno will take care to keep up a correspondence at Witepsk: he is at liberty to send troops to support that point, and to maintain himself there; he can then go in person to Mohilow, to Witepsk, or Smolensko, to know the ground, and to expedite the administration. If, by any accident, the communication with Moscow should be intercepted, he would take care to send cavalry and infantry to open it again." We had no longer either food or forage; men and horses were alike exhausted; retreat became indispensable. A question arose as to the means of carrying away our wounded. I began to be able to walk; on the 13th I went to the palace: Napoleon asked with kindness in what state my wounds were, how I was going on. He showed me the portrait of the King of Rome, which he had received at the moment we were going to begin the battle of the Moskowa. He had shown it to most of the Generals. I had to carry orders; the battle began; we had other things to attend to. He wished now to make me amends; he looked for the medallion, and observed, with a satisfaction which betrayed itself in his eyes:—"My son is the finest child in France." A moment after, a memorial was brought from the Intendant-general, who required forty-five days to remove the wounded. "Forty-five days! he is deceived. If nothing were done, part would get well and part would die; there would only be the remainder to remove; and experience proves, that three months after a battle there remains but the sixth part of the wounded. I wish to remove them; I will not let them remain here exposed to the brutality of the Russians." We perceived from the saloon the workmen who were busy in taking away the cross of the great Ivan. "Do you see what a flock of ravens hover around that lump of old iron? Do they think to hinder us from taking it away? I will send that cross to Paris, I will have it placed on the dome of the Invalids." It was the 18th of October; the departure was fixed for the 19th. My wound was not quite closed up. I mounted on horseback to see if I could bear the motion.
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