[153] "Napoleon sent for me at daybreak: he had passed the night over his maps; his candles were burnt down to the sockets: he held a letter in his hand; he was silent for some moments, and then abruptly said to me, 'Be off to Olmutz; deliver this letter to the Emperor of Russia, and tell him that, having heard of his arrival at his army, I have sent you to salute him in my name. If he questions you,' added he, 'you know what answer ought to be given under such circumstances.'"--SAVARY, tom. ii., p. 112. [154] "I saw at Olmutz a great number of young Russians, belonging to the different ministerial departments of their country, who talked wildly of the ambition of France; and all of whom, in their plans for reducing her to a state of harmlessness, made much the same kind of calculations as the maid with her pail of milk."--SAVARY, tom. ii., p. 113. [155] Thirtieth Bulletin of the Grand Army. [156] Jomini, tom. ii., p. 181. [157] "The Emperor passed the whole day of the 1st December inspecting his army himself, regiment by regiment. He spoke to the troops, viewed all the parks, all the light batteries, and gave instructions to all the officers and gunners. He returned to dine at his bivouac and sent for all his marshals; he enlarged upon all that they ought to do the next day, and all that it was possible for the enemy to attempt. He knew his ground as well as the environs of Paris. It would require a volume to detail all that emanated from his mind in those twenty-four hours."--SAVARY, tom. ii., p. 131. [158] Thirtieth Bulletin of the Grand Army. [159] "_Order of the Day. On the Field, Dec. 1._--Soldiers! The Russian forces are before you, to avenge the Austrian army at Ulm; they are the same battalions you conquered at Hollabrun, and which you have constantly pursued. The positions we occupy are formidable, and, whilst they march to turn my right, they shall present me their flank. Soldiers! I shall direct myself all your battalions, I shall keep at a distance from the firing, if, with your accustomed bravery, you carry confusion and disorder into the enemy's ranks; but should victory be for a moment doubtful, you shall behold your Emperor expose himself to the first blow. This victory will finish our campaign, when we shall return to winter quarters, and be joined by the new armies forming in France; then the peace which I shall sanction will be worthy of my people, of you, and of myself." [160] "In passing along the front of several regiments, the Emperor said, 'Soldiers! we must finish this campaign by a thunderbolt, which shall confound the pride of our enemies;' and, instantly, hats were placed on the points of their bayonets, and cries of 'Vive l'Empereur!' were the signal for the battle."--_Thirtieth Bulletin._