Pagina 478 di 3800

In Brunn everybody attached to the court was packing up, and the

heavy baggage was already being dispatched to Olmutz. Near

Hetzelsdorf Prince Andrew struck the high road along which the

Russian army was moving with great haste and in the greatest

disorder. The road was so obstructed with carts that it was

impossible to get by in a carriage. Prince Andrew took a horse

and a Cossack from a Cossack commander, and hungry and weary,

making his way past the baggage wagons, rode in search of the

commander in chief and of his own luggage. Very sinister reports

of the position of the army reached him as he went along, and the

appearance of the troops in their disorderly flight confirmed

these rumors.