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On November 1 Kutuzov had received, through a spy, news that the

army he commanded was in an almost hopeless position. The spy

reported that the French, after crossing the bridge at Vienna,

were advancing in immense force upon Kutuzov's line of

communication with the troops that were arriving from Russia. If

Kutuzov decided to remain at Krems, Napoleon's army of one

hundred and fifty thousand men would cut him off completely and

surround his exhausted army of forty thousand, and he would find

himself in the position of Mack at Ulm. If Kutuzov decided to

abandon the road connecting him with the troops arriving from

Russia, he would have to march with no road into unknown parts of

the Bohemian mountains, defending himself against superior forces

of the enemy and abandoning all hope of a junction with

Buxhowden.