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A truce was Kutuzov's sole chance of gaining time, giving

Bagration's exhausted troops some rest, and letting the transport

and heavy convoys (whose movements were concealed from the

French) advance if but one stage nearer Znaim. The offer of a

truce gave the only, and a quite unexpected, chance of saving the

army. On receiving the news he immediately dispatched Adjutant

General Wintzingerode, who was in attendance on him, to the enemy

camp. Wintzingerode was not merely to agree to the truce but also

to offer terms of capitulation, and meanwhile Kutuzov sent his

adjutants back to hasten to the utmost the movements of the

baggage trains of the entire army along the Krems-Znaim road.

Bagration's exhausted and hungry detachment, which alone covered

this movement of the transport and of the whole army, had to

remain stationary in face of an enemy eight times as strong as

itself.