The army was moving from west to east, and relays of six horses carried him in the same direction. On the tenth of June, 76 coming up with the army, he spent the night in apartments prepared for him on the estate of a Polish count in the Vilkavisski forest.

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.