There is some reason to believe that on this day Bagration’s ugly temper led him into the commission of what was practically an act of treason. He took off his entire army to Solovievo, leaving only four regiments of Cossacks at the important road junction at Lubino. As the high-road by the river was commanded by French artillery on the south bank, Barclay would be forced to use for his retreat the cross-road by Gorbunovo, which reached the highway at Lubino, and certainly a handful of light horsemen was a most inadequate guard for this vital last point. Barclay says that he only learnt at the last moment that it was practically uncovered. Bagration’s retreat was natural, now that Smolensk was abandoned, but in leaving no infantry at Lubino, and not apparently informing his colleague, he committed, to say the least of it, a very dubious action. Otherwise the incident throws light on the bad staff-work of the Russians, and one may fairly ask why Yermólov and St. Priest were not in close and frequent communication with each other. Between 7 and 8 p.m. Dokhturov, with the 5th and 6th Corps, and Korff’s and Pahlen’s cavalry (less detachments to rear-guard), was ordered to march by cross-roads to Solovievo. An hour or so later the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Corps, with Uvarov’s cavalry corps, started by the Gorbunovo track for Lubino. At this moment apparently, Barclay heard that there were no troops at that vital point except Karpov’s Cossacks. He at once directed Major-General Tuchkov III with the Yelisabetgrad Hussars, the Revel Regiment, the 20th and 21st Chasseurs and a horse artillery battery to hasten thither. At 2 a.m. Korff withdrew from before Smolensk. From the first everything went wrong. The retreating columns encountered all kinds of difficulties. The roads were, of course, unspeakable. Gullies were frequent, and often had to be bridged for the artillery to pass, nothing having been done in advance by the inefficient staff. The darkness and the troubles incidental to filing some 40,000 men along a single bad track caused endless delays. To crown all, the column missed its way and wandered into a side track, with the result that at daybreak its rear was only 2 or 3 miles north-east of the St. Petersburg suburb! On the withdrawal of Korff, Davout had completed his bridge-restoring, and at 4 a.m. Ney’s main body began to pass.