Liveblogging Napoleon's Russian Invasion: Borodino Ends in a Draw

The Battle of Borodino ended as a sort of a stalemate, with each side damaged and exhausted. For Napoleon, it was like nothing he had seen in his long career:

The dreadful sight of the battlefield covered with corpses and wounded, combined with a heaviness of the head, and with the awareness of the impotence of his once-strong arm, made an unexpected impression on Napoleon, who ordinarily liked to survey the dead and wounded, thereby testing his inner strength (as he thought). On that day the terrible sight of the battlefield overcame that inner strength, in which he placed his merit and greatness. He hastily left the battlefield and returned to the Shevardino barrow. Yellow, bloated, heavy, with dull eyes, a red nose, and a hoarse voice, he sat on a camp chair, involuntarily listening to the sounds of gunfire and not raising his eyes. With sick anguish he awaited the end of this action, of which he considered himself the cause, but which he was unable to stop. ...

--Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace 814 (Pevear and Volokhonsky trans. 2008)