By 10 p.m. on the 15th the bulk of Murat’s cavalry was about 3 miles from Smolensk, with its outposts in touch with Raievski. Ney’s corps was immediately behind. Davout had reached Korythnia. The Guard was in rear of Davout; the head of the 4th Corps at Liadi. The 8th Corps had lost its way, but the 5th was nearly in line with Davout, and could come up in the afternoon. Without reckoning Eugène and the Guard, 120,000 men could be in front of Smolensk before evening. What, meanwhile, were Barclay and Bagration doing? Barclay was still anxious about an attack from the direction of Poriechie and sent pressing orders to his cavalry commanders to endeavour to clear up the situation. He doubted whether the advance on Smolensk was being made by more than a part of the French army. Bagration was directed to cross the Dnieper at Katan, and join Raievski and Neverovski in defending the Smolensk road. Dokhturov’s corps would take his place at Nadva. Bagration moved to Katan and threw a bridge, but he soon became aware that to cross would simply mean his annihilation. He sent word to Barclay that an army which he estimated at 115,000 men, without Eugène and the Guard, was marching on Smolensk, and that he himself must now go thither by the right bank. The reports of Bagration and Raievski removed Barclay’s doubts, and he issued orders for all his corps to march upon Smolensk next day. To Raievski Bagration sent a characteristic message: “Dear Friend, “I shall not march to rejoin you--I shall run. I only wish I had wings. Courage! God will help you!” At midnight on the 15th-16th Napoleon wrote to Eugène saying that Smolensk was evacuated. A little later Ney was ordered to occupy it. It does not appear that the Emperor had any definite information upon which to base his over-confident opinion. He seems indeed to have been impressed by Bagration’s bridge-building at Katan, which had been observed on the 15th by a reconnaissance from head-quarters. A flank attack upon his army as it lay stretched along the Rasasna-Smolensk road might have serious consequences. He consequently halted the whole of the 1st Corps about Korythnia, except Gudin’s division, which continued its advance on Smolensk. [Illustration: BATTLE OF SMOLENSK August 17 1812]