overhastiness

— He adds a piece of information, which is very remarkable, as compared with the account given by Odeleben, of the manner in which Napoleon had passed the six weeks of the armistice, studying and reconnoitring, day after day, the country, the roads, passes, and productions of the districts between Dresden and Prague: "The corps of the principal army marched very slowly, for at the beginning of the war it was not considered advisable to expose any portion of the army to danger by overhastiness or rashness, and besides in this advance there was no definite and fixed point before them in the line of communication of the enemy, on which the army was to concentrate its attack."