Murat nodded, rose from his bench, and paused a moment, trying to think of some words of self-justification to say. Then he gave up and strode back towards the door, yanked it open and bellowed at his staff to get outside and mount up at once. There was a chorus of scraping chairs and the pounding of heavy boots as the cavalry officers hurriedly gathered their capes and hats and left the building, calling out to the grooms to fetch their horses from the stables.

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

After a brief rest to gorge themselves on the supplies stockpiled in Vienna the men of the Grand Army crossed the Danube into Moravia as the winter began to settle across the landscape in earnest. Even during the day the temperature rarely rose more than a few degrees above freezing and the frequent rain chilled the men to the bone. It was nearly two months since the campaign had begun and the weariness of the troops was readily apparent to their commanders as they tramped miserably across the rolling countryside in pursuit of the Russians. All the time reports were reaching Napoleon that Prussia was preparing for war and mobilising its army in readiness to strike. From the south came yet more disturbing news: Marmont was expecting ninety thousand Austrian troops to march from Italy any day.

Towards the end of November, Napoleon halted the army near Brunn, to rest and consider the increasingly dangerous situation. Murat’s scouts had reported that Kutusov’s army had been swelled by reinforcements so that he could field nearly a hundred thousand Russians and Austrians against the Grand Army.

‘What is our strength?’ Napoleon asked Berthier that night.

‘We have fifty thousand here, sire. If Bernadotte and Davout are ordered to concentrate with us, then that will give seventy thousand men.’