Next day, overtaking the army, he went in a carriage to the Niemen, and, changing into a Polish uniform, he drove to the riverbank in order to select a place for the crossing.
Seeing, on the other side, some Cossacks ( les Cosaques ) and the wide-spreading steppes in the midst of which lay the holy city of Moscow ( Moscou, la ville sainte ), the capital of a realm such as the Scythia into which Alexander the Great had marched—Napoleon unexpectedly, and contrary alike to strategic and diplomatic considerations, ordered an advance, and the next day his army began to cross the Niemen.
Early in the morning of the twelfth of June he came out of his tent, which was pitched that day on the steep left bank of the Niemen, and looked through a spyglass at the streams of his troops pouring out of the Vilkavisski forest and flowing over the three bridges thrown across the river. The troops, knowing of the Emperor’s presence, were on the lookout for him, and when they caught sight of a figure in an overcoat and a cocked hat standing apart from his suite in front of his tent on the hill, they threw up their caps and shouted: “ Vive l’Empereur! ” and one after another poured in a ceaseless stream out of the vast forest that had concealed them and, separating, flowed on and on by the three bridges to the other side.
“Now we’ll go into action. Oh, when he takes it in hand himself, things get hot … by heaven! … There he is! … Vive l’Empereur! So these are the steppes of Asia! It’s a nasty country all the same. Au revoir, Beauché; I’ll keep the best palace in Moscow for you! Au revoir. Good luck! … Did you see the Emperor? Vive l’Empereur! … preur! —If they make me Governor of India, Gérard, I’ll make you Minister of Kashmir—that’s settled. Vive l’Empereur! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! The Cossacks—those