Maloyaroslavetz, an ordinary Russian country town built almost entirely of wood, lay on the southern bank of the small river Luzha, at the point where it was crossed by a bridge carrying the Moscow-Kaluga road. The river, like most streams in the region, flows in a deeply sunk channel. Below the bridge there were, according to Wilson, fords, but the Russians did not need them, and the French knew nothing of them. In any case, neither side attempted to use them. The country was very broken and also wooded, and the banks of the river, especially the southern one, were very steep. There were a few isolated buildings near the stream, while the town proper lay some hundreds of yards farther on, spreading over the top of the rise on to a plateau with a slight descent to the southward. The only good artillery position on the Russian side was eastward of the town, but though from it the opposite bank of the Luzha, down which the enemy must come, could be commanded, the ground was so broken and wooded that the bridge could nowhere be seen, and it was never apparently seriously injured. Early on the 24th some fugitive inhabitants made their way to Dokhturov, and informed him that there were as yet only two battalions of French troops in the town. Accordingly soon after daylight, his men having by this obtained a little rest, he sent forward the 6th and 33rd Chasseur Regiments to carry the town. They expelled the garrison from nearly the whole of the place, but the buildings near the bridge formed a sort of _tête du pont_, which the French held desperately. Dokhturov supported the attack by two more Chasseur regiments, but the resistance was stubborn, and the Russians could not advance against the deadly fire kept up upon them. Delzons could at first only reinforce the gallant garrison by fragments and driblets, for when his main body endeavoured to defile down the northern bank Dokhturov rapidly brought a line of batteries into action east of the town and effectually checked them. About an hour later some batteries of the 4th Corps, which were toiling along the miry road, were ranged by the Viceroy opposite the Russian artillery, and thus covered Delzons’ division crossed the bridge and recaptured the town.