“Prince, your bombs have disturbed my sleep. I have resolved to make a sortie and spike the mortars which throw them. Experience shall teach you, Prince, that it is dangerous to rouse the sleeping lion. AUG. DE CHAMBURE. Midnight, Nov. 6, 1813.” [Illustration: THE REDOUBT OF KABRUNN.] “IS IT TRUE THAT THINGS ARE GOING SO BADLY?” In the latter part of the year 1813, Napoleon rode through the _Faubourg St. Antoine_, accompanied by only two of his aide-de-camps. He was soon recognized, and surrounded by a crowd so dense as to impede his progress, and oblige him to stop frequently. The faces of all the people seemed to express an interrogation; as the great reverse of fortune had caused general disquietude, at length one of the crowd, bolder than the rest, questioned the Emperor, “Is it true that things are going so badly?” To which Napoleon replied, “I regret I cannot say that they go very well.” “What will be the end of it?” said another. “_Ma foi!_ God knows!” replied the Emperor coolly. “Will our enemies be able to enter France?” said a third. “That they may easily do, and even reach Paris, if none will help me: I cannot prevent them by myself,” said Napoleon. “We will support you!” was the universal cry. “Then,” said Napoleon, “I shall still oppose the enemy and maintain our glory.” “What shall we do, then?” asked several voices. “Enrole yourselves in the army,” answered the Emperor. “We will do that,” said one, “but we will do it only conditionally.” “What condition?” he inquired. “We will not pass the frontier.” “Be it so.” “We wish to be of the guards.” “Well enrole in the guards.” [Illustration: “IS IT TRUE THAT THINGS ARE GOING SO BADLY?”] THE BATTLE OF MOSCOW. Near the end of August, 1812, Napoleon arrived on an elevated plain, called Borodino, which the Russians had previously fortified with redoubts and batteries. The Emperor passed the night before the battle in giving orders. At day-break he was on foot, and summoned Caulaincourt to his presence. Throwing aside the curtains of his tent, he advanced towards his officers who had already assembled in great numbers. “It is somewhat cold,” said he, “but behold a splendid sun! It is the sun of Austerlitz!” Each one answered in the same spirit, by some allusions to this happy presage. Previous to this engagement, September 6th, Napoleon issued the following address:-- “Soldiers!--This is the conflict which you have so much desired. The victory depends upon you. Victory is necessary to us--it will yield us plenty--good quarters--and ensure a speedy return to France. Act as you did at Austerlitz, at Friedland, at Vitepsk, and at Smolensk; and the most remote posterity shall refer with pride to your conduct on this occasion. It shall be said of each of you, ‘He was in the great battle fought on the plains of Moscow!’”