A Russian soldier, who was surprised asleep under a bush, was the solitary result of that day, which was expected to be so decisive.  We entered Witepsk, which was found equally deserted with the camp of the Russians.  Some filthy Jews, and some Jesuits, were all that remained; they were interrogated, but without effect.  All the roads were abortively reconnoitred.  Were the Russians gone to Smolensk?  Had they re-ascended the Duena?  At length, a band of irregular cossacks attracted us in the latter direction, while Ney explored the former.  We marched six leagues over a deep sand, through a thick dust, and a suffocating heat.  Night arrested our march in the neighbourhood of Aghaponovcht-china.

While parched, fevered, and exhausted by fatigue and hunger, the army met with nothing there but muddy water.  Napoleon, the King of Naples, the Viceroy, and the Prince of Neufchatel, held a council in the imperial tents, which were pitched in the court-yard of a castle, situated upon an eminence to the left of the main road.

“That victory which was so fervently desired, so rapidly pursued, and rendered more necessary by the lapse of every succeeding day, had, it seemed, just escaped from our grasp, as it had at Wilna.  True, we had come up with the Russian rear-guard; but was it that of their army?  Was it not more likely that Barclay had fled towards Smolensk by way of Rudnia?  Whither, then, must we pursue the Russians, in order to compel them to fight?  Did not the necessity of organizing reconquered Lithuania, of establishing magazines and hospitals, of fixing a new centre of repose, of defence, and departure for a line of operations which prolonged itself in so alarming a manner;—­did not every thing, in short, decidedly prove the necessity of halting on the borders of old Russia?”

An affray had just happened, not far from that, respecting which Murat was silent.  Our vanguard had been repulsed; some of the cavalry had been obliged to dismount, in order to effect their retreat; others had been unable to bring off their extenuated horses, otherwise than by dragging them by the bridle.  The emperor having interrogated Belliard on the subject, that general frankly declared, that the regiments were already very much weakened, that they were harassed to death, and stood in absolute need of rest; and that if they continued to march for six days longer, there would be no cavalry remaining, and that it was high time to halt.

To these motives were added, the effects of a consuming sun reflected from burning sands.  Exhausted as he was, the emperor now decided; the course of the Duena and of the Boristhenes marked out the French line.  The army was thus quartered on the banks of these two rivers, and in the interval between them; Poniatowski and his Poles at Mohilef; Davoust and the first corps at Orcha, Dubrowna, and Luibowiczi; Murat, Ney, the army of Italy and the guard, from Orcha and Dubrowna to Witepsk and Suraij.  The advanced posts at Lyadi, Vinkowo, and Velij, opposite to those of Barclay and Bagration; for these two hostile armies, the one flying from Napoleon, across the Duena, by Drissa and Witepsk, the other, escaping Davoust across the Berezina and the Boristhenes, by way of Bobruisk, Bickof, and Smolensk, succeeded in forming a junction in the interval bounded by these two rivers.