Such was the news which Napoleon heard at Bobr on November 24th.

It staggered him; for, with his usual excess of confidence, he had destroyed his pontoons on the banks of the Dnieper; and now there was no means of crossing a river, usually insignificant, but swollen by floods and bridged only by half-thawed ice.

Yet French resource was far from vanquished.

General Corbineau, finding from some peasants that the river was fordable three leagues above Borisoff, brought the news to Oudinot, who forthwith prepared to cross there.

Napoleon, coming up on the 26th, approved the plan, and cheeringly said to his Marshal, "Well, you shall be my locksmith and open that passage for me."[276] To deceive the foe, the Emperor told off a regiment or two southwards with a long tail of camp-followers that were taken to be an army.