Sayfa 431 / 3800

Pursued by the French army of a hundred thousand men under the

command of Bonaparte, encountering a population that was

unfriendly to it, losing confidence in its allies, suffering from

shortness of supplies, and compelled to act under conditions of

war unlike anything that had been foreseen, the Russian army of

thirty-five thousand men commanded by Kutuzov was hurriedly

retreating along the Danube, stopping where overtaken by the

enemy and fighting rearguard actions only as far as necessary to

enable it to retreat without losing its heavy equipment. There

had been actions at Lambach, Amstetten, and Melk; but despite the

courage and endurance-acknowledged even by the enemy-with which

the Russians fought, the only consequence of these actions was a

yet more rapid retreat. Austrian troops that had escaped capture

at Ulm and had joined Kutuzov at Braunau now separated from the

Russian army, and Kutuzov was left with only his own weak and

exhausted forces.