Napoleon was staking all on the throw, taking the gambler's chance, taking it recklessly, accepting the hazard, but neglecting no means to insure the winning of the game.
The Emperor flung a screen of cavalry in front of Marmont, to patrol every village, to control every farmhouse, to see that no news of his advance came to the unsuspecting old Prussian.

And then he himself stayed back in Nogent to see his own orders carried out.

He personally inspected every division, as it marched to the front through the waning night, the cheerless dawn, the gray dark day.

It cut him to the heart to see his soldiers go so silently and so sullenly.

Here and there a regiment did cry: "_Vive l'Empereur_"; here and there a voice sounded it, but in the main the men marched dumbly, doggedly.