At last, within a few days' march of Moscow, Kutusoff made a stand.
At last the great battle was imminent, after a hundred false alarms,
after many disappointed hopes. The country had been flat hitherto.
The Borodino, running in a wider valley than many of these rivers,
which are merely great ditches, seemed to offer possibilities of
defence. It was the only hope for Moscow.
"At last," wrote Charles to Desiree on September 6, "we are to have
a great battle. There has been much fighting the last few days, but
I have seen none of it. We are only eighty miles from Moscow. If
there is a great battle to-morrow we shall see Moscow in less than a
week. For we shall win. I have now found out from one who is near
him that the Emperor saw and remembered me the day he passed us in
the Frauengasse--our wedding-day, dearest. Nobody is too
insignificant for him to know. He thought that my marriage to you
(for he knows that you are French) would militate against the work I
had been given to do in Dantzig, so he gave orders for me to be sent
at once to Konigsberg and to continue the work there. De Casimir
tells me that the Emperor is pleased with me. De Casimir is the
best friend I have; I am sure of that. It is said that under the
walls of Moscow the Emperor will dictate his terms to Alexander.
Every one wonders that Alexander of Russia did not make proposals of
peace when Vilna and Smolensk fell. In a week we may be at Moscow.
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