The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-08-23

of strategy and surprises, but of stub- born ferocity on both sides and head long plunges. Nor did Napoleon sit his white Arab as at Ausrerlitz, maneuver- ! ing his forces like a switchman in his tower. On the contrary, he chose a point of observation on hill three-quarters of a mile from the front of his army and sat there on camp stool with his feet on a drum, sometimes apparently asleep, He rose from time to time to rest h.s tele- scope on a guardsmans shoulder or again, in an effort to warm his feet he paced back and forth few minutes until the slight exertion seemed to have exhausted him.
 He did not mount his horse in the course of the long. hard fought day until the fighting virtually was at an end A painful functional disorder is said to have unftted him for the saddle, and a severe ccld-Constant had neglected to give him his waterproof boots the day before-left him dull and inert and hardly able to speak.
 Marshal Ney. at the front, where he was dripping with fire and winning the title of the Prince of the Moskova, ex- claimed in disgust that the Emperor might better be in the Tuileries. In vain the marshal impored him tor the assist ance of the guard The Emperor refused to send it into action and risk the de- struction of the corps which might be the one means of carrying him out of Russia ,
 The two armies were about equal i'll [ numbers. But the invaders after moil- ing along the road from Smolensk through clouds of dust and furnace heat for two weeks, fighting with the Russian rearguard and capturing and burning towns were illfed and worn ? down. Teh brutal and deadly tempest of fire and death ragged from to 6, when the Russians with nearly 10000 of their comrades fallen about their feet, sullenly gave way. But they re tired slowly and in good order only a few paces from the crimsoned field. where they chanted their Te Deums and boasted of victory in the hearing of their foes, whose own loss of al- most 3o,000 made up an awful total that gave the battle the unhappy dis tinction of being the bloodiest of the 18th century.
 Napoleon, having climbed upon his horse, viewed the terrible scene at closer range, after which, flushed with fever, he returned to his bivouac This hair in disorder and his face wearing a tired expression." He was satisfied that Kutusof would gladly retire the next day and he was content to accept a drawn battle.
 On to Moscow
 As the Russians resumed their retreat
  famished invaders were spurred for ward by their longing for the fat lard CTS and the fabled riches of Moscow. It was the one hope left them and ia Moscou! a Moscoui' was the last re- mainipg cry to stir their wasted ranks
 Necessity often is the mother of strategy. Napoleon obeyed the instincts of his famished soldiers in venturinE beyond Smolensk and he promised them. You shall see Moscow" while he promised himself, Peace waits for me at the gates of Moscow" but Prince Eugene came away from his stepfather sighing. Moscow will be our ruin"
 The bottle was open and the wine must be drunk
 Copyright. 1913-1s14, by James
 Morgan.)
 Next Sunday MT. Morgan continues the story of his journey in the path of Nanoleon' to Moscow, the city which, became torch that set Europe afH1& and destroyed the vastest empire