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There remained several thousand stragglers and fugitives on this side of the Beresina who could have crossed during the night but had refused to do so. Napoleon had given orders to destroy the bridges at daybreak and had sent word to General Eble and Marshal Victor to employ all means in order to hasten the passage of those unfortunates.
It was only the appearance of daylight, which brought them all at once, but too late, to the entrance of the bridge, which they again besieged. It was half-past eight in the morning, when Eblé, seeing the Russians approaching, at last set fire to it. The disaster had reached its utmost bounds.
Everywhere the resources of the surrounding country were stored in the magazines; an hospital was prepared; General Eble, old and fatigued, but always inexhaustible in resources, was preparing boats in order to form a bridge.
Napoleon's orders to General Eble was to destroy the bridges at 7 o'clock in the morning of November 29th., but this noble man, as humane as he was brave, hesitated.
In his profound foresight he had also taken along two wagon-loads of charcoal, and he had under his command 400 excellent pontooneers upon whom he could reply absolutely. General Eble has been described as the model of an officer, on account of his imposing figure and his character.
To a miraculous accident, the arrival of Corbineau, the noble devotedness of Eble, the desperate resistance of Victor and his soldiers, to the energy of Oudinot, Ney, Legrand, Maison, Zayonchek, Doumerc, and, finally, to his own sure and profound decision, his recognition of the true steps to be taken, Napoleon owed the possibility that he could escape after a bloody scene, the most humiliating, the most crushing disaster.
Seeing the ramparts armed with a great number of cannon, the artillery general, Éblé, a highly competent officer, advised the Emperor to by-pass the place by sending the Polish Corps commanded by Prince Poniatowski to cross the Dnieper two leagues further upstream; but Napoleon, accepting the advice of Ney, who assured him that Smolensk would be easily captured, gave the order to attack.
During these three days and three nights, spent in the midst of them, Napoleon, with his looks and his thoughts wandering on three sides at once, supported the second corps by his orders and his presence, protected the ninth corps and the passage with his artillery, and united his efforts with those of Eblé in saving as many fragments as possible from the wreck.
"Let us save them!" said General Eble to the officer who accompanied him. "To-morrow morning the Russians will be masters of Studzianka. We must burn the bridge the moment they appear. Therefore, my friend, take your courage in your hand! Go to the heights. Tell General Fournier he has barely time to evacuate his position, force a way through this crowd, and cross the bridge.
The engineers were secretly and expeditiously ordered to go to this place. The attempt was one of difficulty and danger, but it was still possible, and offered several chances of success. General Eble, still indomitable in spite of his age and the fatigues of the campaign, collected his workmen, and made them understand that the fate of the army depended upon their exertions.
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