At 11 p.m. Barclay issued orders to evacuate Smolensk. He stated in his memoir to the Tzar that he had only intended to hold it to give Bagration time to get well forward on the Moscow road. This end was now attained, but the result of the order was what practically amounted to an open mutiny. A number of general officers, headed by the Grand Duke Constantine and by Bennigsen, who had no command and was not entitled to be present, went to Barclay’s quarters and furiously protested against the abandonment of the city. Sir Robert Wilson received urgent letters from many generals on the same subject. Bagration, though he was not personally concerned in the mutinous demonstration, was bitterly indignant at Barclay’s determination. He persisted that the First Army could easily hold its ground on the high ground behind Smolensk, while the Second Army could pass the Dnieper and attack Napoleon in flank. Barclay was of opinion that for the Second Army to adventure itself over the Dnieper would mean its destruction, and that, as regarded holding the line of the Dnieper, Napoleon had merely to extend his right to cut the Russian communications. Furthermore, he points out bitterly, operations of this kind, to be successful, require harmony between commanders. Towards the mutinous deputation he acted with firmness and dignity. He declined to withdraw his orders, and bade them leave his presence. Foiled in the attempt to bring pressure to bear upon him, the malcontents enlisted Wilson on their side, and induced him, as a personal friend of Alexander, to carry a letter to St. Petersburg demanding a new general. They also entrusted him with a declaration on their part that if orders came from the capital to suspend hostilities the army would regard them as not truly expressive of the Tzar’s real determination, and would continue the struggle. All this was not altogether discreditable to the hearts of the generals, if it did no special honour to their heads. Wilson, who had rather hastily concluded that Barclay was not a fit person for the post of commander-in-chief and was also, it is to be feared, unduly influenced by his personal feelings towards Bennigsen and Bagration, accepted the mission. The result of wasting time in this mutinous delegation was that the retirement from Smolensk was not properly carried out. [Illustration: THE OLD FORTIFICATIONS OF SMOLENSK The north-east front abutting on the river. The illustration gives a good impression of the deeply-sunken course of a Russian river]