When Napoleon reached Vitebsk the number of men missing among the 450,000 who had crossed the frontier in June and July, may be conservatively calculated at 120,000, and a very large proportion of them were either already dead or disabled from further service. Straggling and desertion were especially prevalent among the foreign regiments. Their administration was generally less efficient; less care was taken of them by the French officials. They had naturally little affection for the cause in which they had been enlisted by their sovereigns, and their officers must have been exasperated at the disgraceful fashion in which Napoleon invariably endeavoured to saddle their troops with the sole blame for disorders. It is more than probable that disgust at this, no less than the way in which they had been sacrificed, was one of the motives which impelled so many German officers to turn against Napoleon in the following year. For every reason a halt was imperatively necessary, and Napoleon called it as soon as the escape of the First Russian Army was an accomplished fact. On the 29th he wrote to Davout, ordering him to canton his troops. The various corps took up quarters on a line extending from Surazh to beyond Mohilev, with the cavalry pushed out in front and on the flanks. Latour-Maubourg was about Rogachev-on-Dnieper, some 60 miles south of Mohilev, with a Polish infantry division in support. There was a little skirmishing between the advanced French cavalry and belated Russian detachments. On July 30th Murat’s horsemen picked up about 100 prisoners and 40 abandoned vehicles, and captured a welcome supply of flour and forage. On the 31st Villata’s Italian cavalry brigade surprised a Russian convoy at Velizh, escorted by 4 depôt battalions. The 2nd Chasseurs under Colonel Banco charged, and captured 60 waggons and 250 prisoners. The total Russian loss was estimated by Eugène at 700, and 600 sacks of flour and a herd of bullocks fell into the hands of the Italian troopers. But for these captures the French cavalry could hardly have advanced another step. The regiments were, with few exceptions, very weak, and the horses exhausted by fatigue and privation. Sebastiani--perhaps with some exaggeration, for he was ill and discouraged--declared that his division had only 2300 mounted men remaining, out of over 4000. Hardly one of the corps was really fit for service except perhaps the 1st. Ney had not yet received his reserve of artillery, which was toiling up from the rear. Not even in the 1st Corps were things altogether satisfactory. Davout was growling at the disorder in the regiments, threatening Desaix, whom he accused of abetting it, with arrest, and re-establishing discipline by stern methods, including the shooting of marauders caught in the act.