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234 and over again the necessity of providing many passages to secure a retreat in the event of a reverse, but he always answered, 'The Emperor has given no orders.' Nothing could be got out of him, so that when, on the night of the i8th, the Emperor gave the order to retreat on Weissenfels and the Saale, there was not a beam or a plank across a single brook."

This is one of the many instances in history of the demoralisation which the uncontrolled and despotic temper of a leader is apt to produce in his subordinates. There is a significant passage in the course of this description which shows how far the Emperor had begun to lose his popularity, even in the army:

"The Emperor came by, but as he galloped along the flank of the column he heard none of the acclamations which were wont to proclaim his presence. The army was ill-content with the little care which had been taken to secure its retreat."

Marbot's narrative there is scarcely a reflection which shows any strong reprobation of Napoleon's methods or character; indeed, our Marbot is almost as free from any penetrating sense of the horrors of war as though the soul of old Froissart had passed into his. Never-