Meanwhile the French were doggedly following, suffering much from fatigue and heat, and troubled, as usual, by internal dissensions. Davout accused Murat, apparently with great justice, of wasting the cavalry, and exhausting them by useless manoeuvres and lack of proper care for their subsistence. He said that it wrung his heart--not a very tender organ--to see the wretched state of the reserve cavalry divisions, and declared that he would not allow his infantry to be so over-worked. Matters came to a head on August 28th in an open quarrel between the two leaders in Napoleon’s presence. Murat retorted to Davout’s accusation by a counter-charge of over-caution, and declared that they had better settle their differences by a duel! Napoleon rather added fuel to the flames, for he insinuated that had Murat been in Davout’s place in July he might have intercepted Bagration. Davout was also on bad terms with Berthier. There is no discovering the real cause of this, but it is certain that Davout’s fierce temper and rough manners made him many enemies. The march of the army was toilsome. The wide road was occupied by the artillery and trains, five or six vehicles abreast, while along both sides tramped the infantry in heavy columns of companies or “divisions.” They suffered much from heat, which was aggravated by the dense clouds of dust raised by the marching columns; and the supply of water was scanty. Even the Russians occasionally felt the want of it, and it was naturally worse for the French, who found the wells drunk dry and the streams trodden into mud. At the same time it does not appear that the diminution in the ranks owing to these causes was exceptional, though it was certainly serious. The worst losses were among the horses, which suffered at once from lack of proper forage and from thirst. Corn and hay became more and more difficult to procure, and the rations of the unfortunate animals were made up with rye straw. The wastage among them was all the more serious because there was little hope of being able to replace them. The villages along the route, and the few small towns, were for the most part deserted by their inhabitants, and in part at least destroyed. This was not invariably the case. Dorogobuzh--“Cabbage-town,” as the French soldiers called it from the cabbage fields amid which it lay--was uninjured, and three months later still contained some of its inhabitants. Gzhatsk also was uninjured. Viasma was partly destroyed, owing to fire spreading from a depôt of flour and spirits which the Russians had fired before retreating. Otherwise it is difficult to decide whether the destruction of houses and villages was due to French or Russians. It may be attributed to both at various times according to circumstances.