With inconceivable folly, Napoleon, or his staff, had provided no means for roughing the horses' shoes.

The Cossacks, when they knew this, exclaimed to Wilson: "God has made Napoleon forget that there was a winter here." Disasters now thickened about the Grand Army.

During his halt at Smolensk (November 9th-14th), Napoleon heard that Victor's force on the Dwina had been worsted by the Russians, and there was ground for fearing that the Muscovite army of the Ukraine would cut into the line of retreat.

The halt at Smolensk also gave time for Kutusoff to come up parallel with the main force, and had he pressed on with ordinary speed and showed a tithe of his wonted pugnacity, he might have captured the Grand Army and its leader.

As it was, his feeble attack on the rearguard at Krasnoe only gave Ney an opportunity of showing his dauntless courage.