"The army entered within the walls; it traversed the reeking and bloodstained ruins with its accustomed order, pomp, and martial music, and having no other witness of its glory but itself;--a show without spectators, an almost fruitless victory, a melancholy glory, of which the smoke that surrounded us and seemed to be our only conquest, was but too faithful an emblem."--SÉGUR, tom. i., p. 237. [138] "Napoleon slowly proceeded towards his barren conquest. He inspected the field of battle. Melancholy review of the dead and dying! dismal account to make up and deliver! The pain felt by the Emperor might be inferred from the contraction of his features and his irritation; but in him policy was a second nature, which soon imposed silence on the first."--SÉGUR, tom. i., p. 238. [139] "In the passage through its massive walls, Count Lobau exclaimed, 'What a fine head for cantonments!' This was the same thing as advising the Emperor to stop there; but he returned no other answer to this counsel than a stern look."--SÉGUR, tom. i., p. 244. [140] Ségur, tom. i., p. 250. [141] Ségur, tom. i., p. 242; Jomini, tom. iv., p. 105. CHAPTER LIX. _Napoleon detaches Murat and other Generals in pursuit of the Russians--Bloody, but indecisive Action, at Valoutina--Barclay de Tolly's defensive system relinquished, and Koutousoff appointed to the chief command of the Russian Army--Napoleon advances from Smolensk--Battle of Borodino fought, on 5th September--Prince Bagration slain--Koutousoff retreats upon Mojaisk, and thence upon Moscow--Napoleon continues his advance on the 12th--Count Rostopchin, Governor of Moscow--His Character--The Russians abandon Moscow, which is evacuated by the Inhabitants--The Grand Russian Army marches through Moscow--Last public Court of Justice held there by Rostopchin, after which he follows the march of the Army._ Without communicating his purpose of advancing in person from Smolensk, and completing, without any interval of delay, his great undertaking, Napoleon failed not to detach Murat, Ney, Junot, and Davoust, in pursuit of the Russians, as they retired from Smolensk. Either, however, his own mind was not made up, or he did not wish his purpose of going onward to be known. He represented this demonstration as arising merely out of the desire of pressing the Russian retreat, though in fact it was preliminary to his own advance.