Then Souvarow addressed his soldiers with that savage eloquence to which
he owed the miracles he had effected with them, but cries of "Retreat!
Retreat!" drowned his voice. Then he chose out the most mutinous, and
had them thrashed until they were overcome by this shameful punishment:
But the thrashings had no more influence than the exhortation, and the
shouts continued. Souvarow saw that all was lost if he did not employ
some powerful and unexpected means of regaining the mutineers. He
advanced towards Foedor. "Captain," said he, "leave these fools here,
take eight non-commissioned officers and dig a grave." Foedor,
astonished, gazed at his general as though demanding an explanation of
this strange order. "Obey orders," said Souvarow.

Foedor obeyed, and the eight men set to work; and ten minutes later the
grave was dug, greatly to the astonishment of the whole army, which had
gathered in a semicircle on the rising slopes of the two hills which
bordered the road, standing as if on the steps of a huge amphitheatre.

Souvarow dismounted from his horse, broke his sword in two and threw it
into the grave, detached his epaulets one by one and threw them after his
sword, dragged off the decorations which covered his breast and cast
these after the sword and epaulets, and then, stripping himself naked, he
lay down in the grave himself, crying in a loud voice--

"Cover me with earth! Leave your general here. You are no longer my
children, and I am no longer your father; nothing remains to me but
death."

At these strange words, which were uttered in so powerful a voice that
they were heard by the whole army, the Russian grenadiers threw
themselves weeping into the grave, and, raising their general, asked