In his real heart Kutuzoff had decided what to do. Skilful and cunning, without presence of mind or great courage on the field of battle, he could direct the operations of a campaign, and choose the proper mode of leading his country's enemies to their downfall. Nevertheless, he held a council of war, being determined to make the other generals share the weight of a terrible responsibility. Must they defend Moscow by a second battle in open field, wait for the enemy behind the walls, and dispute with him, foot by foot, the possession of the town? Must they abandon the capital, and, as it was recommended by Barclay de Tolly, always bravely true to his original purpose, retreat to Vladimir, and thus cover the road to St. Petersburg? All these proposals were proposed, and keenly discussed. Several spoke in favor of immediate and unflinching resistance, who would have bitterly regretted the adoption of their advice. At last the old general rose: he had listened to all their speeches without speaking, and only shook his head, to signify, as it were, his strong conviction that whether his head were good or bad, it had to make the final decision of the question.

He gave his orders, which showed great skill and prudence. The army was to pass through Moscow without halting, without assisting in any preparation for resistance, or joining in any skirmish even when on the rearguard; then falling back upon Riazan, it was, after several days, to occupy the road to Kalouga, and thus intercept the way to the French, while preserving communication with the provinces in the south of the empire, which are the richest and most fertile. The troops at once began to defile. Behind them long convoys hurried to escape the French. Five sixths of the population had quitted the town when the columns of those wounded in the battle of Borodino appeared at their doors, and they were obliged to crowd their hospitals and churches with 15,000. By abandoning their capital the Russians entrusted these wretches to the pity of their enemies.

The governor of Moscow, Count Rostopchin, had not yet left the town. On the previous evening he trusted to the assurances of Kutuzoff, that the capital would be keenly defended. "There will be fighting in the streets," said he, in his proclamations. "The courts are already closed, but that does not matter; there is no need of courts to do justice to ruffians. I shall soon give you the signal; take care to provide yourselves with hatchets, and especially three-pronged forks, for a Frenchman does not weigh more than a sheaf of corn. I shall have mass said for the wounded, and holy water to hasten their cure. I shall then join General Kutuzoff, and we shall soon set about sending those guests to the devil, forcing them to give up the ghost, and reducing them to powder."

Kutuzoff, nevertheless, withdrew, not less resolute, but more skilful than Count Rostopchin. It was then that the latter conceived an idea, the responsibility of which, as well as the honor, rests entirely upon him. Nobody was consulted; and it is not known whether the Emperor Alexander, with some anticipation of gloomy fate crossing his mind, may not have beforehand granted the dread authority to the governor of his capital. For several days inflammable substances had been collected in the garden of his palace. At the moment of leaving the town, Rostopchin ordered the prisons to be opened, and the hideous crowd of condemned prisoners jostled and mixed with the half-frantic citizens who were fleeing before the French. The governor retained two prisoners—one a Frenchman, lately come to Moscow to earn a living; the other, a Russian, and both accused of having acted as agents of the enemy. "Go," said Rostopchin to the Frenchman, "you have been ungrateful but you have the right to prefer your country; you are now again free, go back to your own people. As for you," he added, turning to the Russian, "let even your own father be your judge." An old merchant came near, tottering under the weight of his grief. "You may speak to him and bless him," said the governor. "Me bless a traitor!" exclaimed the old man; and, raising his hands to heaven, he cursed his son, who was immediately beheaded. The mob showed their keen vindictiveness in their treatment of his body.

Count Rostopchin at last left Moscow, letting all precede him, like the captain who hesitates to abandon the sinking ship. He had given all his instructions. All the baggage all the wealth, he took with him, were the fire engines of that great city, which was nearly entirely built of wood. "Of what use are those in the country?" asked Colonel Wolzogen, with astonishment. "I have my reasons," replied the governor; then, leaving the last friends who still accompanied him, he turned round, and pointing with his finger to Moscow, and then touching the sleeve of his coat, he said, "I take away nothing except what is on my back." He went towards his country house at Voronovo.

Meantime, however, the French advanced guard were approaching Moscow. Several slight skirmishes had taken place during the march, and Kutuzoff succeeded in protecting his retreat. When Murat appeared at the head of the first columns, General Miloradovitch, who commanded the Russian rearguard, made a verbal agreement with the King of Naples to suspend hostilities for several hours, for the protection of the troops, and the safety of the citizens. Murat agreed to it, limiting himself to the pursuit of the Russians when they should have completed their evacuation of Moscow.

The soldiers, as well as the generals and Napoleon himself, were delighted at the distant sight of that town, illuminated by the rays of the setting sun, which brought into full relief the Oriental brilliance of its palaces and churches. "Moscow! Moscow!" they repeated from one end of the ranks to the other. The emperor added to the enthusiastic expression of his troops another thought: "Not a moment too soon!" he muttered.

The great conqueror was deceived, and divine justice punished more completely than he anticipated his guilty ambition and insatiable pride. The dense ranks of the French soldiers presented themselves before the gates of the capital, without any one coming to open them. Several ragged wretches, with gloomy looks appeared on the turrets of the Kremlin and fired a few shots; but while passing along the streets of Moscow, among palaces mixed with cottages—before golden-domed churches, adorned with paintings of a thousand colors—our soldiers wondered, and felt uneasy at the solitude which reigned around them. "What is become of them?" they asked. It was not thus that the French army had entered Berlin or Vienna. "Let the head men of the town be brought to me!" ordered the emperor. The population of Moscow had no longer any head men. Those who hid themselves in terror in the houses, or wept in the churches, felt themselves at the mercy of the ruffians whom the governor, by quitting Moscow, had let loose upon them. The door of the Kremlin had to be burst open with cannon-balls before the old palace of the Czars could be rid of the wretches who had shut themselves up in it. Napoleon took possession of it, without at first fixing his abode there, curious to admire its barbarous magnificence, not yet subjected to the influence of French elegance like the houses of the rich merchants already occupied by his generals. The whole army gazed with delight upon this strange and long-anticipated sight. On the 15th September, 1812, the Emperor Napoleon and his soldiers passed through the streets of Moscow, deserted, but still standing. They examined the concentric quarters, like a series of ramparts round the Kremlin; the old or Chinese town, the centre of Oriental commerce; the white town, with its broad streets and gilt palaces, the quarter of the great nobles and rich merchants; and all round the privileged districts: the "land town," composed of villages and gardens, interspersed with magnificent houses.

All the military posts were chosen, On the north-west, south-west, and south-east, between the roads to Riazan and Vladimir, the forces of Prince Eugene, Davout, Poniatowski, and Ney had taken their quarters. The guard occupied the Kremlin. Soldiers and generals enjoyed the luxury which had been preceded by the cruel privation of the months immediately preceding. "We have provisions for six months," said the soldiers.

On the morning of the 16th fire broke out in a spirit-warehouse, and some hours afterwards in a magnificent bazaar which was filled with valuable goods. The officers blamed for it the stupidity of a drunken soldier. They at once battled with the fire, but the wind was contrary, and the wealth heaped up in the warehouses became a prey to the flames and pillage, which it was impossible to prevent. The fire soon spread even to the neighborhood of the Kremlin, and the sparks, carried by the equinoctial breeze, fell from all parts on the gilded roofs. The courts of the palace being crowded with artillery wagons, and the cellars heaped up with ammunition which the Russians had neglected to take with them, a horrible catastrophe seemed imminent. The generals had great difficulty in persuading Napoleon to leave the Kremlin. The imperial guard, acting as firemen, inundated incessantly the roofs and walls. The fire-engines of the city were searched for in vain. Soon there was a rumor spread that incendiaries had been arrested in several quarters.

The emperor ordered these wretches to be brought before him. They were proud of the terrible mission with which they had been entrusted, taking a delight in the fatal disorder produced under their hands, pillaging and murdering in the houses which they delivered up to the flames. They all made a bold declaration of the orders they had received, and underwent unflinchingly the extremest punishment. The poor population, who had remained concealed in the lowest haunts of the capital, now fled in terror, the women carrying with them their children, the men dragging behind them the most valuable of their household goods, or the shameful results of pillaging the shops. The flames extended from street to street, house to house, church to church: thrice the wind seemed to fall, and thrice it changed its direction, driving the fire into quarters previously untouched. The Kremlin remained always surrounded by fire. The imperial guard had not quitted the palace. The army carried their cantonments outside the town. When scarcely fallen into the hands of the conquerors, Moscow succumbed before a more powerful enemy, enrolled for the defence of the country. Palaces and huts were both become uninhabitable, and the hospitals, filled with wounded Russians, had perished in the flames. The emperor quitted Moscow, and took up his quarters at Petrowskoi. For three days the conflagration remained alone in possession of the capital.

The wind falling, was succeeded by rain. The fire everywhere brooded under the dead ashes, ready to burst out afresh at the contact of air; but the spectacle had lost its avenging beauty. The roofs left standing were relieved against the columns of smoke. The Kremlin still rose majestic, and almost untouched, as if protecting the city against its various enemies. The soldiers soon began to steal from their cantonments into the streets; and in the cellars of the houses, under heaps of rubbish, protected by walls blackened with the flames, they found provisions collected by households for the winter; valuable clothes; plate which had been carefully concealed in hiding-places which no longer existed; objects of art, of which the finders did not know the value; strong drink, which they madly used to intoxicate themselves. After the fire, in spite of the efforts of the officers, Moscow was delivered up to pillage.

So much disorder and mad prodigality shocked all the Emperor Napoleon's instincts of order and government. Returning hastily to Moscow, he repressed by his mere presence the outrages of the soldiers. Regular search was everywhere organized for the collection of provisions buried under the ruins, and bringing them into stores. The resources collected in a few days were sufficient to supply the troops for a long time. Forage alone was wanting, and companies were formed for the purpose of scouring the country round Moscow. The prices offered to the peasantry for their stock was expected to encourage them to supply the markets of the capital. Napoleon even considered the interests of the wretches who wandered, defenceless and houseless, in the streets of Moscow, or timidly glided into the town at the opening of the gates to look for those they had been compelled to abandon, and the remainder of their property concealed under ruined walls. Huts were erected to shelter them.

The desire for peace daily took stronger possession of Napoleon's mind, and he had already authorized several indirect overtures. On the 20th September he thus wrote the Czar:

"My brother, having learned that the brother of your Imperial Majesty's minister was at Moscow, I sent for him, and had some conversation with him. I requested him to wait upon your Majesty, and acquaint you with my sentiments. The handsome and superb city of Moscow no longer exists. Rostopchin has had it burnt. Four hundred incendiaries were taken in the act; and having all declared that they had lighted the fire by order of that governor and the director of police, they were shot. The fire at last seems to have ceased. Three fourths of the houses are burnt, and one fourth remain. Such conduct is atrocious, and serves no purpose. Was the intention to deprive us of some resources? But those resources were in the cellars, which the fire could not reach. Besides, why destroy one of the finest towns of the world, and the work of ages, to accomplish so paltry an object? It is the procedure followed since Smolensk, and it has reduced 600,000 families to beggary. The fire-engines of Moscow were broken or carried off, and some arms from the arsenal given to ruffians, who could not be driven from the Kremlin without using cannon. Humanity, the interests of your Majesty and this great city, demanded that it should have been entrusted to my keeping, since it was deserted by the Russian army. They ought to have left administrations, magistrates, and civil guards. That is what was done at Vienna twice, at Berlin, and Madrid; and what we have ourselves done at Milan, when Souwarof entered. Incendiarism causes pillage, the soldier abandoning himself to it to rescue what is left from the flames. If I thought such things were done by your Majesty's orders, I should not write you this letter; but I consider it impossible that, with your principles, heart, and sense of justice, you have authorized such excesses, unworthy of a great sovereign and a great nation. While carrying away the fire-engines from Moscow, they left 150 field cannon, 60,000 new muskets, 1,600,000 infantry cartridges, more than 200 tons of powder, 150 tons of saltpetre, and also of sulphur, etc.

"I made war upon your Majesty without animosity. A letter from you before or after the last battle would have stopped my march, and I should have been ready to forego the advantage of entering Moscow. If your Majesty still retains aught of your former sentiments, you will take this letter in good part. In any case, you must feel indebted to me for giving an account of what is taking place in Moscow."

When thus writing to the Emperor Alexander, Napoleon well knew that the material disasters of the burning of Moscow were exceeded by the moral results, and that the ruins of the capital were a proclamation to the French army, to Russia, and to the whole of Europe, of the implacable resolution of the old Muscovites. Rostopchin himself had written on the iron door of his splendid country-house at Voronovo: "For eight years I have been improving this estate, and have lived here happy in the bosom of my family. The inhabitants of this estate, to the number of 1720, leave it at your approach, and I set fire to my house that it may not be polluted by your presence. Frenchmen, I have left you my two houses in Moscow, with contents worth half a million of roubles. Here you will find nothing but ashes."

The hatred which he had excited against the invader was afterwards to fall back upon himself. Count Rostopchin driven from Russia by the execration of all those whom he had ruined, was compelled to take refuge in France, where he died in peace, honored by his former enemies. He had nevertheless rendered to Russia one of those terrible services excused by a state still half barbarous, and that violent patriotism by which the soul is possessed in presence of foreign invasion. He revived in the Russian people the unconquerable ardor of resistance. Moscow on fire was an appeal to the eyes and hearts of all.

Napoleon understood this well. Besides, other difficulties were becoming extreme. Time was passing; no reply arrived from St. Petersburg, and the emperor's overtures made to Kutuzoff by Lauriston remained without result. The attempt to continue hostilities was unsuccessful, General Sebastiani having been deceived as to the direction taken by Kutuzoff, and, after following him in vain for two or three days, compelled to return to Moscow. Murat being again put in command of the advanced guard, met the enemy on the Pakra, after being joined by Marshal Bessieres. In spite of the cries of his army, who were furious at the burning of Moscow, and wished to march to battle, Kutuzoff slowly retreated before the French generals, and finally pitched his camp at Taroutino on the road to Kaluga. Two cavalry engagements terminated successfully for our arms. Napoleon's lieutenants waited for his orders. A sort of armistice reigned between the two armies. Murat had several times seen Kutuzoff; and the Russian officers overwhelmed him with attentions. He showed himself in favor of peace, concluded by him and through his exertions. The Cossack chiefs celebrated his exploits, one of them surnaming him the "hetmann." Kutuzoff had sent Prince Wolkonsky to St. Petersburg, with instructions to communicate to the Czar the pacific advances which had been made. Alexander replied on the 21st October: "All the opinions which you have received from me, all the determinations expressed in the orders addressed to you by me—everything ought to convince you that my resolution is immovable, and that at the present moment no proposal of the enemy can make me think of terminating the war, and so failing in the sacred duty of avenging our outraged country."

Before the Emperor Alexander thus expressed his resolution of listening to no offers of peace, his enemy had already evacuated Moscow—beginning, whatever pain it cost him and whatever care he took to conceal it, a retrograde movement, which was soon to be the consummation of his ruin. Napoleon long hesitated as to what route he should take. By advancing upon Kaluga in pursuit of Kutuzoff he should plunge further into Russia, towards regions where he should be without winter-quarters and communication with the rear. By resuming the road to Poland, as all his lieutenants wished, he should tacitly admit his defeat. He conceived the idea of making the Duke of Belluna march upon St. Petersburg, reckoning that, on his arrival and while threatening the capital and court, he could effect an oblique movement northwards by Woskresensk, Wolokolamsk, and Bieloi, and then concentrate all his forces at Smolensk. Winter being past, Napoleon would then be in a position to attack St. Petersburg in earnest. To satisfy his own mind, the emperor wrote out this plan before speaking of it to the generals, who were waiting, full of serious thought, to know his determination.

They all opposed Napoleon's new plans; all repeating that he did not take into account the hardships of the army, that he over-reckoned the strength of the corps, that the soldiers were incapable of any fresh effort. He went over, with Count Lobau, the statistics of the different regiments and the detachments in charge of generals at a distance. "There, six thousand." "Four thousand, sire," said the general. "Ten thousand here." "Five at the most." "You are perhaps right," the emperor admitted. But on coming to sum up the total of his resources, he always went back to his first inaccurate reckoning, the truthful and blunt obstinacy of Lobau being unable to overcome his master's voluntary illusions. Nevertheless, Napoleon understood that he could now no longer, by the mere superiority of his genius, take his lieutenants along with him without discussion or hesitation. He did not insist upon marching northwards. Count Daru's proposal was to spend the winter in Moscow. From his administrative experience, he concluded that their supplies were sufficient for the army, while the troops should thus be spared all the hardships and difficulties of travelling. In spring, all the army corps would be again brought together, there would be a rising in Lithuania, and the emperor could complete his conquest. Napoleon turned toward his faithful servant, and looked upon his energetic features, his robust figure, and the resolution which shone in his looks. "My dear Daru," said he, "that advice is lion- like, but I should require lions to put it in execution. You are right, Moscow is not a military position, it is a political position. Yet what would be said in Paris? what would become of France during that long absence, without possible communication? No, it is impossible. Austria and Prussia would take advantage of it to betray me."

The emperor came back to the idea of marching upon Kaluga, and driving Kutuzoff from the camp of Taroutino, summoning the Duke of Belluna to join him in order to keep up communications with Smolensk, at the same time leaving Marshal Mortier in the Kremlin with 10,000 men to occupy and preserve Moscow. Preparations were being made for this purpose, when, on the 18th of October, cannon were heard on the road which Napoleon was making ready to follow, and speedily one of Murat's aides-de-camp appeared. The King of Naples, who had long complained of the isolation in which he was left, was careless in his guard, and had been attacked by Kutuzoff at Winkowo. The Russian army taking advantage of all the delays which gradually diminished our forces, had increased theirs; and their general had 100,000 men at his disposal, when he yielded to the urgent request of his lieutenants, and all at once made an attack with two corps upon our positions. Murat's personal courage and skill in the field partly compensated for the faults of his imprudence. He repulsed the enemy's attack, and fell back upon Voronovo, continuing to cover the road to Moscow. Kutuzoff, however, held our positions, and the King of Naples lost the greater part of his cavalry. Napoleon immediately resolved to march to the enemy. According to the plan already decided upon, Mortier fixed his quarters at the Kremlin, over the mines laid ready to blow up the citadel and palace of the Czars. All the rest of the army defiled through the open gates of the city, recently so eagerly longed for, and now only occupied for thirty-seven days, which had been full of agitation and terror. The long trains of carriages, the soldiers' booty heaped upon the wagons or their shoulders, the furs fastened to their haversacks or arms, were all proof enough that the troops were no more deceived than the generals as to the possibility of a return to Moscow. The Duke of Trevisa's friends and comrades looked upon him as a man condemned beforehand to death, and sorrowfully bade him adieu without shaking his courage. The French families formerly settled in Moscow fled from the anger of the Russians, and joined the march of their fellow-countrymen. The long train on its march seemed more like a convoy defiling, than the progress of an army advancing against the enemy. Napoleon, however, had not yet said anything to imply that the evacuation was final; he was marching against Kutuzoff, whom he wished to chastise, and, if possible, crush. Before leaving Moscow, his last instructions were devoted to the defence of the Kremlin.

It was on the morning of the 20th October that the emperor left the city, in fine autumnal weather which prevented any one from yet anticipating the rigors of winter. On reaching the castle of Troitskoi, he was struck with a new idea; Kutuzoff held the old Kaluga road, and a battle was necessary to dislodge him; and the French, even if victorious, would lose men and be encumbered with a crowd of wounded. The new road to Kaluga was protected by Broussier's division, and had not been cut up by the passage of troops; if it were possible to deceive Kutuzoff by a sudden detour to the right, and to gain the new road, Kaluga would be reached without a battle, and the positions for winter secured. The occupation of Moscow must now no longer be insisted upon, and Mortier immediately instructed to leave Moscow and join them. Having made up his mind, the emperor in the evening sent his orders to the Duke of Trevisa: "My cousin," said Napoleon to the Marshal Berthier, "give orders to the Duke of Trevisa to put on march, to- morrow, at daybreak, all the tired and lame soldiers of the corps of Prince Eckmuehl and the viceroy, of the foot-cavalry, and the young guard, and to direct the whole upon Mojaisk. On the 22nd or 23rd, at two o'clock in the morning, he will set fire to the brandy storehouse, the barracks, and the public buildings, except the Foundling Hospital. [Footnote: This establishment, founded by the dowager empress, had been patronized by Napoleon. The governor General Toutelmine, had been one of the agents of his communications with St. Petersburg.] He will have the palace of the Kremlin set on fire. He will take care that all the guns are broken into pieces, that powder is placed under the towers of the Kremlin, that all the gun-carriages are broken, as well as the wagon wheels.

"When these orders are attended to, and the Kremlin is on fire in several places, the duke will leave the Kremlin, and advance on the Mojaisk road. At four o'clock, the officer of artillery appointed to that duty will blow up the Kremlin, according to instructions.

"On the march he will burn all carriages left behind, use every endeavor to bury all the dead, and burn all the muskets he can find. On reaching the Gallitzin palace, he will take the Spanish and Bavarians stationed there, and put fire to the ammunition wagons, and everything which cannot be removed. He will collect all the commanders of posts, and order the garrisons to fall back.

"He will reach Mojaisk on the 25th or 26th, and there receive further orders to put himself in communication with the army. He will naturally leave a strong advanced guard of cavalry on the Mojaisk road.

"He will be particular in remaining in Moscow till he has himself seen the Kremlin blown up; and also in setting fire to the governor's two houses and that of Rasomowsky."

Thus Napoleon himself put hands to that burning of Moscow with which he had recently blamed the Russians, and the originator of which he did not forget to punish even then! The march upon Kaluga was already begun, and one of Prince Eugene's divisions, being in advance, had already occupied Malo-Jaroslawetz, on the Lougea. General Delzons, who was in command, was engaged in repairing the bridges, when Kutuzoff was informed of the direction which the French seemed to take. General Doctoroff at once advanced with a large body, and Kutuzoff raised his cantonments to follow him.

The small town of Malo-Jaroslawetz was built on a chain of heights, of which the Russians at once took possession, cannonading the French, who in their turn dislodged them. Six times was the town taken and retaken, the fire of the burning houses combining with the cannon-balls to repulse the combatants on both sides. Seven French generals fell on the field towards evening; yet, in spite of the keen determination of the Russian recruits, who had scarcely arms or clothes, the ruins of the town remained in our hands. When the emperor arrived on the banks of the Lougea with the main army, he beheld a sight as painful in proportion to its extent as had been the plain of Borodino. Many of the corpses were scorched by the fire. Ten thousand men fell on both sides. The emperor saw that all future movements implied new and terrible battles. The generals appointed to reconnoitre, considered the enemy's positions impregnable; and on Napoleon himself going to take observations he narrowly escaped being taken by a body of Cossacks, who surprised him when crossing the Lougea. General Rapp had only time to get him out of the way of those troublesome enemies, bands of whom incessantly harassed the army. A council was held in a ruined hut on the banks of the small river.

The emperor was still inclined to attempt a march towards Kaluga, for the sake of the battle, victory, and consequent rest in a rich district not yet exhausted. The generals were as confident as their chief in the success of our arms, but they thought that the loss of 20,000 men and a charge of 10,000 wounded would themselves constitute a check in presence of the Russian army, constantly recruited by new forces. A retreat to Mojaisk, and thence to Smolensk, was decided upon. The attempt on Kaluga had cost ten days, and exhausted the greater part of the provisions brought from Moscow, and it was now necessary to submit to a retreat pure and simple. Marshal Davout proposed to effect this by a new road, which should still supply some resources for the troops; but his advice was not listened to. A passionate desire for return, and terror of the frightful evils which threatened the army, had seized all those men who were recently so daring, and ready to try any danger. Napoleon still hesitated. "What do you think about it, Mouton?" he asked Count Lobau, standing beside him. "That as quickly as possible, and by the shortest road, we must get out of a country where we have stayed too long," was the immediate reply of the hero of so many battles. The emperor hung down his head. In his inmost soul he felt himself beaten.

The whole army also felt itself beaten, and every heart was filled with dejection. Already, during the march from Moscow to Malo-Jaroslawetz, many carriages and badly harnessed wagons were left behind; but the train was still enormous, accompanied by defenceless women and children. The wounded of the last battle had been distributed amongst the different wagons and carts. The dying were abandoned to their wretched fate on the battle- field, under the cold rain which began to fall, or in the huts to which they had been carried. The army left Malo-Jaroslawetz on the 27th October, marching to Vereja, where Marshal Mortier rejoined them after accomplishing his terrible mission. The ground was still quaking under his feet when he left Moscow, bringing with him all the wounded. Such was the emperor's express order, though the army convoys were already insufficient for that necessary duty.

Mortier brought to Napoleon a prisoner, Count Wintzingerod, who had fallen into his hands during the second burning of Moscow. That general was in command of a body of partisans, and believed the French had evacuated the capital. The emperor's anger burst forth against this German on finding him in the Russian ranks. "You belong to no country!" he exclaimed excitedly. "I have always found you among my enemies—with the Austrians when I fought with Austria, with the Russians when Austria became my ally. Yet by birth you belong to the Rhenish Confederation; you are a traitor—I have the right to judge you. You will be tried by court-martial." Then pointing to Count Narischkin, Wintzingerod's aide-de-camp, "This young man does you too much honor by serving with you."

The general made no reply, even by the slightest movement or gesture. The emperor's staff looked on in silence, and the French officers tried by their attentions to make the prisoner forget the treatment. Every one knew the cause of so much bitterness rising from Napoleon's heart to his lips. For the first time in his life the conqueror was retreating.

He was retreating, and every day of their march made them feel more and more the terrible difficulty, while proving its necessity. Napoleon marched at the head of his army with his staff, without joining the main body of the troops, or troubling himself about the fatigue and difficulty experienced at every step by Marshal Davout, who had been appointed to command the rear-guard and protect the retreat. General Grouchy's cavalry were already exhausted, and could not assist him in this painful duty. The marshal's old foot-soldiers alone remained—those who had so long fought under his orders, having been formed under his strict and severe discipline, and loving him while they feared him. At every stage Davout found some carriage or cart had disappeared, left behind by the exhausted horses and drivers, and he heard the cries of the wretched wounded men, henceforward delivered up to the lances of the Cossacks or the severities of the approaching winter. He saw unrolling and lengthening out before him that train behind the army, despised by the soldiers remaining under arms, and reinforced every day by laggards from all the corps. He was the last to arrive at the hindmost posts after the troops defiling past had eaten up all the resources of the villages and farms, burnt the shelters, and sacked what they were unable to carry off. The complaints and demands of the distinguished chief of his rear-guard made no impression on Napoleon. "March quicker!" he kept repeating, without admitting the marshal to see him, without ever going himself towards the rear of his army—apparently indifferent to the sufferings he had produced, absorbed in gloomy silence, surrounded by his lieutenants equally dejected. When passing Borodino, where the battle-field was still covered with the corpses, of which savage beasts were in undisputed possession, the rear-guard were still further encumbered by the transport of the wounded, who had formerly been left at Kolotskoi. Those whose wounds did not allow them to be removed were entrusted by Dr. Larrey to the cares of the Russians, whom he had cured. The army left Ghjat on the 1st November.

In spite of what was constantly being left behind from the baggage train, the difficulty of the march daily increased on account of fatigue, the want of horses, and the rigor of the climate. Marshal Davout often found himself compelled to blow up artillery wagons which he could not take further with him; and the cannon which were still dragged on became for the most part useless. Immediately before him marched Prince Eugene's forces. The viceroy, young and courageous, had not yet gained consummate experience of war: the marshal urged him to make haste first in crossing the Czarewo-Zaimitche and afterwards in the suburbs of Wiazma. Kutuzoff, at first deceived as to our movements, had advanced southwards after the battle of Malo-Jaroslawetz, but soon changed his direction and marched upon Wiazma. A preliminary engagement near the bridge of Czarewo had opened a passage for us. Then the march was again interrupted before Wiazma. The Russian army occupied the ground on the left of the road. Prince Eugene's forces, embarrassed by the convoy, had an engagement with the enemy on the morning of the 2nd November, and the cannon were making havoc in his ranks when Davout came to his assistance, and General Gerard making a dash at the enemy's artillery, quickly cleared the road again. At the noise of the cannon Marshal Ney halted in his march, and advanced behind a small tributary of the Wiazma. The battle began so vigorously on the part of our old soldiers that General Miloradowitch, who commanded the Russians, did not dare longer to intercept their retreat. The regiments defiled into Wiazma, but still continued firing. General Morand, who was in command of the last battalions, was not rid of the pursuing enemy till he reached the very camp, his soldiers presenting their bayonets. The troops, who had thus gained another victory, encamped in the woods, with no resource except the dying horses, which they slaughtered as they required them, roasting the joints at the bivouac fires. The exhausted soldiers slept.

Marshal Ney, in his turn, had charge of the rear-guard. The emperor felt himself condemned by the stern and impassible judgment of Davout, whom he had left alone to bear the heaviest burden; and he blamed the slowness of his movements for the unfortunate battle of Wiazma, and the responsibility of all the hardships undergone by the rear-guard. Like Massena in Portugal, Davout found himself in disgrace because he was blamed with faults which he had not committed, and which he was unable to rectify.

Meantime they had approached Smolensk. Alarming news awaited Napoleon at Dorogobouje. He had long reckoned on the assistance of the 9th corps, which Marshal Victor was bringing him from Germany. Scarcely had the new troops arrived at Smolensk, according to the emperor's order, than they found themselves obliged to go to the assistance of our left wing, which was threatened by Count Wittgenstein. A large reinforcement had joined the Russian army at this point. After a conference at Abo, in Finland (28th August, 1812), between the Prince Royal of Sweden and the Emperor Alexander, the Russian forces promised to Bernadotte for the conquest of Norway had advanced from Finland into Livonia. Marshal Macdonald was compelled to abandon the siege of Riga in order to support the Prussians on the lower Dwina. Marshal St. Cyr, in his turn, found himself threatened on the 18th October by forces superior to his own, and had fought a second battle before Polotsk, and successfully defended the town; but when attacked by Wittgenstein and the forces arrived from Finland, on both banks of the Dwina, he was compelled to withdraw behind the Oula (connected with the Berezina by the Lepel canal). Being severely wounded in the last engagement, he had given up the command to Marshal Oudinot, who was anxiously waiting for Marshal Victor's arrival. The approach of Admiral Tchitchakoff was already announced; returned from Turkey with a large army, the negotiator of the treaty of Bucharest had, with Tormazoff's assistance, driven General Reynier and Prince Schwartzenberg behind the marshes of Pinsk; and, after leaving General Sacken with 25,000 men to keep the allies in check, was now advancing towards the upper Berezina, to support Count Wittgenstein. Thus, on reaching Smolensk, Napoleon was about to find the place almost destitute of troops, while the left wing was in very great danger, attacked at the same time by Wittgenstein, the Finland troops, and Tchitchakoff. The supplies even were smaller than was expected, on account of the difficulty of conveyance. The soldiers were delighted as they came near Smolensk. The emperor knew that the halt must be short; nevertheless, he ordered Victor to join Oudinot immediately in order to make a joint attack upon Wittgenstein; and wrote General Reynier and the Austrians to pursue Admiral Tchitchakoff. He also asked for one of the divisions of Marshal Augereau to be sent from Germany; and separating the troops which still remained, in order to facilitate the food-supply during their journey, he continued his march upon Smolensk, whilst Prince Eugene took the road for Doukhowtchina, with instructions to protect Vitebsk if necessary.

The main army resumed its march on the 6th November. On the 7th and 8th the cold became so keen, and the ice on the roads so dangerous, that the horses could not advance, and it was necessary to leave behind some cannon. On the 9th the viceroy reached the banks of the Vop, a small stream which in winter becomes a rapid torrent, its channel being already choked with ice. Before the engineers had completed a bridge, the crowd of the soldiers and runaways rushed headlong upon it and broke it down. The cavalry forded the stream, the troops following them with the water up to their shoulders. The field-pieces, the baggage, and ammunition-wagons, one after another crushed down the banks and ploughed through the channel, frequently plunging into the mire, and being left there. It became impossible to cross; and the wretches who were following the army found themselves left behind, and delivered up to the vengeance of the Russians or the cruelties of the Cossacks, who ran up in eager hordes. In despair and terror, they struggled to cross the river, leaving behind them the wagons which still afforded them some supplies, and many perished. Even the soldiers who had fallen behind the army pillaged the baggage which had been abandoned on the bank. Blood flowed also in the midst of this horrible confusion, for the Cossacks, eager for booty, joined with the disbanded soldiers. Some brave men several times braved the dangers of crossing the stream to save the lives of the defenceless women and children.

On reaching Doukhowtchina, Prince Eugene learned that Vitebsk had fallen into the hands of Wittgenstein. Thus the cruel day's march just made by the army of Italy proved useless. The viceroy set fire to the small town where he found temporary shelter and a few supplies, and then advanced towards Smolensk, where Napoleon had arrived on the evening of the 9th.

There also there was nothing but discontent, dejection, and, for a short time, disorder. The emperor had only allowed the guard to enter the town, and both lodgings and provisions were reserved for this favorite corps, the only remnant saved from shipwreck, who had only undergone the hardships of the campaign without any share in the battles. The mob of camp-followers, deaf to discipline, forced open the gates, and general pillage had commenced when the emperor's order was modified. The troops lay down in the streets and squares, overpowered by fatigue, and fell down exhausted beside the fires which had been lighted. Then arrived Prince Eugene's troops, more decimated than all the others by the frightful disaster on the banks of the Vop. Marshal Ney had been fighting since they left Dorogobouje, sustaining all his soldiers by his indomitable courage and the steadiness of his physical and mental energy, playing in turns the part of general, captain, and soldier, seizing the musket as it fell from the hands of a dying grenadier to fire, himself, upon the enemy, and purposely slackening the march of the rear-guard in order to give time to all to reach Smolensk. The news brought there from all quarters, like bulletins of some deadly agony, no longer allowed even the soldiers the vain hope of several days of rest. General Hilliers, who had advanced according to orders on the Jelnia road, was surprised by the Russians, and having lost 2000 men, returned to Smolensk, to find himself degraded in the eyes of all the army, and was sent back to France, to be tried there by court-martial. Prince Schwartzenberg was doubtful, he said, about leaving Warsaw unprotected; and Admiral Tchitchakoff advanced unchecked, and was already threatening Minsk, where the great bulk of our supplies was collected together. Victor and Oudinot had not dared to risk a decisive engagement; and the two Russian armies were about to combine in order to bar our passage over the Berezina, the only way of safety to return to Poland. There was not a moment more to be lost in effecting that fatal junction. The emperor resolved to march immediately towards Vilna, still intending to make an attack upon Admiral Tchitchakoff, and entrusting the leaders of his left wing with the duty of at last defeating Wittgenstein. But by one of those blunders which seemed to indicate some failure in his genius and foresight, he ordered the marshals to follow him one after another; and taking no account of Kutuzoff's army, he left Smolensk on the 14th November. Prince Eugene, Davout, and Ney were to evacuate their cantonments on the 15th, 16th, and 17th respectively, and the gallant leader of the rear-guard was to bury the cannon, destroy the ammunition, and blow up the walls surrounding the town. The great army by this time scarcely amounted to 36,000 fighting men; and the cavalry, entirely under the orders of General Latour-Maubourg, only counted 1800 horse. Napoleon followed on the left bank the road from Smolensk to Orscha, without taking the precaution to place between him and General Kutuzoff the rapid current of the Dnieper. He was soon to pay dearly for this fault. Scarcely had he reached Krasnoe than he found General Sebastiani, who had preceded him, blockaded in a church by a body of the enemy. Kutuzoff was approaching with 50,000 soldiers, and making ready, with the assistance of several bands of Cossacks, to cut our long columns. On his march Napoleon found at every step ambulance-wagons, and those of runaways, half buried in the snow, and still containing frozen corpses. The emperor halted to wait for those corps which were to rejoin him, and were seriously exposed by their isolation. Prince Eugene had already forced a passage before Krasnoe upon the Lossmina, being therefore compelled to sacrifice Broussier's division, which remained in battle order, threatening the Russian army with a renewal of the attack upon the heights which had been vainly attempted on the evening before. All the rest of the main army succeeded in escaping, with the assistance of the darkness, and the snow, which deadened the noise of the footsteps. The troops left in the rear could only be saved by the approach of Davout and Ney.

On this occasion, once more, Napoleon recovered that unconquerable resolution which had carried him to the summit of power. Determined not to leave his army and lieutenants, he marched before them on the Smolensk road with his guards, who were henceforward subjected to all the hazards of battle. The village Koutkowo, occupied by the Russians, was retaken, the emperor himself being on foot, because the icy ground made riding impossible. The Russian batteries ploughed up the ground held by the French, and the noise of the battle was heard. Davout was at hand, after rallying the poor remainder of the Broussier division, and the artillery with Generals Lariboisiere and Eble; and dashing in dense columns with his four divisions upon General Miloradowitch, who defended the valley of the Lossmina, he soon opened a bloody passage, and rejoined the guard grouped round Napoleon. Krasnoe was thus surrounded by a semicircle of our troops, disputing the enemy's positions step by step; but Admiral Tormazoff was now on our rear, in order to hold the Orscha road. The emperor saw that he should be speedily hemmed in, and resolved to resume his march, without waiting for Ney's regiments. He thus devoted him to certain loss; but in the stern necessity which compelled him, Napoleon had not the courage to accept the responsibility of the act which he was about to accomplish. Ordering Mortier to start with the guards, he imposed on Davout the double duty of waiting for Ney and not separating himself from Mortier. In presence of these contradictory instructions, and with an overwhelming sense of their responsibility, Davout made an effort to hold his ground, his divisions having replaced on the plateau of Krasnoe the regiments of the young guard, which had now begun defiling towards Orscha. Napoleon marched in front with the old guard, undergoing as they went a deadly fire from the Russians. Tormazoff's columns seemed to wait for the final orders to cut the passage of what were left of the great army. Kutuzoff resisted the urgent advice of Tormazoff as well as the arguments and excitement of General Wilson, who had been sent to him by the English Government. "You think the old man is a fool," he said repeatedly, "that he is timid, and without energy: you are young, and don't understand. If Napoleon turned back, none of us dare meet him; he is still terrible. If I bring him back to the Berezina, ruined and without an army, I shall have accomplished my task." Thus protected by the terrible renown of his name, the emperor advanced to Liady.

Davout resisted to the last moment; but Marshal Mortier, who was hurrying to leave Krasnoe, urged him to start. The roads were about to be barred; the bullets were falling in showers on the little town; the marshal's three divisions only amounted to 5000 men, and all the rest of the army were being withdrawn. As he left the plateau of Krasnoe, Mortier ordered the guard to keep step. "You hear, soldiers?" cried General Laborde; "the general orders the ordinary step. Slow time, soldiers. March!" It was in the same way that Davout's troops defiled, constantly turning round to fire at the squadrons of the enemy's cavalry, closely pursuing them. When the exhausted corps were again brought together at Liady, the faces of all were still more gloomy than on the previous evening. Besides their physical sufferings, there was now added the burden of a bitter regret. Their desertion of Marshal Ney weighed on the consciences of all.

Ney had been warned neither of the danger which threatened him nor of the isolation in which he was to be left, because a courier sent by Davout was taken by the enemy. When he came face to face with Kutuzoff's army, before Krasnoe, he still felt sure of passing there, where his comrades had gone before him. A determined attack under a rain of shot having been unsuccessful, the marshal saw the uselessness of the attempt, and without for an instant losing his presence of mind or his courage, he resolved to effect a movement during the night towards the Dnieper, cross the river, and escape by the right bank, in order to regain the main army. "But if the Dnieper is not frozen, what shall we do?" said some of the officers. "It will be frozen!" retorted the general, curtly; "besides, frozen or not, we shall do as we can—but we shall cross."

They did cross, to the profound astonishment of the Russians, who believed the general and his soldiers were at last caught, and to the unspeakable delight of the forces collected at Orscha. Prince Eugene and Marshal Mortier took up their positions in front of their companions-in-arms, saved by a determination and courage really marvellous. Only 1200 men rejoined the army, out of 7000 forming the third corps when they left Smolensk. On the plateau of Krasnoe, in the skirmishes against the Cossacks of Platow, and by the sides of the ice-covered roads, Ney had everywhere left dead bodies, wounded and dying men, besides men overpowered by the hardships and incapable of any effort.

Even at Orscha the disorder was so great that it threatened to infect the regiments of the old guard. The emperor harangued them energetically. "Grenadiers," said he, "we are retiring without being conquered by the enemy; let us not be so by ourselves; let us give the example to the army! Several from amongst you have already deserted their eagles, and even their arms. It is to you alone that I address myself to have this disorder stopped. Act justly towards each other. It is to yourselves that I entrust your discipline!" An appearance of order was restored; but the regular distributions were impossible. Famishing wretches, soldiers, and those of the camp-followers who still remained, all rushed upon the provision- stores. Panics also continually increased the tumult. "The Cossacks! There are the Cossacks!" was frequently shouted.

At Orscha, moreover, as well as at Smolensk and Dorogoubouge, ominous news reached the emperor. Tchitchakoff, who had not been pursued by Schwartzenberg, had carried Minsk, one of the most important rallying- points on the Vilna road, and the centre of our principal supplies. The Polish general Bronikowski being unable with 3000 men to defend the place, had joined Dombrowski, who was covering the Dnieper, and both guarded the bridge of Borisow on the Berezina with insufficient forces. Should the bridge fall into the hands of Admiral Tchitchakoff, the army would be blockaded behind the Berezina, or compelled to ascend to its source at the risk of being attacked by Count Wittgenstein. Marshals Victor and Oudinot, with their weak and decimated regiments, could not succeed in dislodging the enemies from their position near Smoliantzy on the Oula. Thus marching a second time over the roads which he had recently trod full of hope, Napoleon found himself threatened on his left by Tchitchakoff holding Minsk, on his right by Wittgenstein and Steinghel; behind him Kutuzoff was advancing; before him it was now doubtful if the Berezina could be crossed. The conception of a last and powerful combination arose in that inexhaustibly fertile mind. He sent to Oudinot the order to march towards the Berezina to support the Poles at Borisow. Victor was to check Wittgenstein, so as to give the great army time to cross the river. Napoleon could then rally the two marshals, whose forces still amounted to 25,000 men; he should attack and recover Minsk, send for Schwartzenberg, and when thus master of all the scattered remnants of his army, make a crushing attack upon the Russian troops, and gain a victory before returning to Poland. With this hope, Orscha was evacuated on the 20th November, under a cold rain, which penetrated the soldiers' clothes, and then froze on their bodies. The emperor ordered the greater part of the convoys to be sacrificed. The leaders of divisions alone kept carriages. The wounded and several fugitive families still followed with great difficulty on carts and wagons.

On the 22nd, at Tolocsin, the emperor learned that, after a keenly-fought battle, the Russians had taken Borisow and the bridge over the Berezina. He dismounted, and showing more uneasiness than he had yet done, called to his side General Dode de la Brunerie, an officer of the engineers, whom he had already distinguished. "They are there!" said he, without further explanation. The general easily divined the emperor's meaning. They both entered a hut, and Napoleon, spreading out his maps on a rickety table, discussed with Dode the resources still at his command. The general's plan was to ascend the course of the Berezina, declaring that he knew several fords, and that they could then advance quickly upon Wilna by Gloubokoi. They might indeed be met by Wittgenstein, but Tchitchakoff covered Borisow, and would be certain to burn the bridge over the Berezina if he saw it threatened.

The emperor listened as he kept looking at his maps. At last something arrested his attention, the sight of a name of ill-omen: "Poltava! Poltava!" he repeated. Then, as if more conscious than ever of the superiority of his glory and destiny over the heroic adventures of King Charles XII., he went up to General Jomini, who had just entered, and said, "When one has never met with defeats, he ought to have them great in proportion to his success." At the same time, while considering vaster plans, now chimerical by reason of the exhaustion and dejection of his troops, he resolved to push on to the Berezina, retake the bridge of Borisow, and throw another over the river in spite of the Russians, and thus, at any cost, recover Wilna by the shortest road. Scarcely was his mind made up, when the means of effecting it were presented. General Corbineau, formerly despatched by General St. Cyr to assist the Bavarians, found himself at liberty on account of their inactivity; and conceiving the idea of rejoining the great army, he crossed the Berezina by a ford which he had long known, and brought Napoleon 700 horse, a valuable reinforcement at such a moment of extreme distress. He learned at the same time, that Marshal Oudinot had driven the Russians from Borisow without being able to prevent them from burning the bridge. He could there check Tchitchakoff, and leave Napoleon time to throw over the ford at Studianka a simple bridge of tressels, which was the only apparatus General Eble had been able to preserve during their rout. The engineers were secretly and expeditiously ordered to go to this place.

The attempt was one of difficulty and danger, but it was still possible, and offered several chances of success. General Eble, still indomitable in spite of his age and the fatigues of the campaign, collected his workmen, and made them understand that the fate of the army depended upon their exertions. Exhausted by marching and want of food, the soldiers bravely went into the icy water, and worked incessantly during the 25th and night of the 26th, in the midst of frozen blocks perpetually dashing against them, without time to eat, without rest, without even a dram of spirits. The houses of Studianka having been demolished, their beams were utilized as buttresses and tressels for the bridge; and on the 26th, at daybreak, preparations were made for crossing. The Russians, deceived by a pretended attempt near Borisow, had not moved far from that quarter; General Corbineau had already crossed the ford with his cavalry, to protect the right bank. The hopes and looks of all were concentrated upon the exertions of the bridge-makers, who worked incessantly, and seemed to be unconscious of fatigue. On the right, one of the bridges was at last opened for infantry and cavalry, and they began to defile across; the passage was to occupy two days. When the second bridge was completed, Eble said to the engineers, "Let half of you lie down on the heaps of straw; the others will watch the passage, and sleep in their turn"—he himself not having had a moment's rest by day or night. The imperfect construction of the bridges caused serious danger; the tressels shaking under the weight of the wagons and cannon; and during the night the bridge intended for the artillery suddenly gave way. The soldiers again went into the water, several times assisted by the general himself, who bravely exposed himself to every hardship and danger. The cold had now become extreme, and the bridge-engineers worked in the midst of large masses of ice; yet the work went on, and the passage was again begun. The emperor was one of the last to reach the right bank; a disorderly crowd of camp-followers and fugitives were huddled together on the left bank, encamped on the frozen marshes, and no authority was sufficient to hasten their movements. Every day the number of soldiers faithful to their colors became smaller and smaller, on account of the general discouragement and relaxation of discipline. Davout himself had not more than 4000 men in his divisions. On Marshal Victor rejoining the remains of the great army between Studianka and Borisow, his troops, though themselves weak and fatigued, were amazed at the pitiful state of their comrades, whom they had not seen for so many months. "Your turn will come," said those who were coming back from Moscow, marching in any order, officers and soldiers mixed together, all equally dejected, even though suffering did not bring all minds to one level. Human nature, often a miserable sight under disaster, then also displays its greatness. Along with a selfishness sometimes brutal, the more noble characteristics of courage and devotion raised their dejected minds. Some of the women saved their children through a thousand hardships; others remained close beside their husbands; soldiers continued loyal to their chiefs; and one officer for a long time carried on his shoulders his half-frozen servant, who in his turn did him the same friendly turn.

The battle which was preparing promised to be a terrible one as Napoleon knew; yet he insisted on leaving at Borisow the Partouneaux division, which belonged to Marshal Victor, hoping at this expense to continue the mistake of Tchitchakoff. The enemy's circle was now closing round that handful of brave men, condemned beforehand. Wittgenstein and Miloradowitch had intercepted the Studianka road. On the evening of the 27th, the Partouneaux division was attacked on both sides, and defended its positions heroically, but without being able to break through. On the morning of the 28th, after being twice summoned by the Russians, the general, in despair, gave himself up a prisoner. Almost at the same moment the second corps, under Oudinot, was attacked by part of Tchitchakoff's army, which had collected at Pahlen, on the left bank of the Berezina. Being soon wounded, as usual, the marshal was replaced in command by Ney, who made a vigorous charge upon the enemy, and drove them back to half-way between Brill and Borisow, and placed over a pass a battery of artillery, which kept the Russians at a distance. Marshal Victor had since morning kept up on the left bank a vigorous fight against Wittgenstein, to cover the passage over the bridges; on the other bank the guards used their cannon against the enemy, who were perpetually driven back by the charges of our cavalry, and perpetually returning to the charge. At nightfall they were still fighting. The Russians, however, withdrew, beaten, but carrying off their wounded, and certain of returning next day, as numerous and daring, against an expiring army, which was sustained only by despair and the tradition of an heroic past.

The soldiers fought and died with courage. The confused mob crowding on the bank of the river also died, but in all the agonies of terror and helplessness. After having for a long time refused to take advantage of the bridges, which lay open, the multitude, terrified by the noise of the cannon and the approach of the enemy, rushed in a body towards the river, heedless of discipline, or the necessity for reserving one road for those on foot and the other for carriages. The throng was so dense that they could not advance; cries were succeeded by cries, and exertions by exertions. Occasionally the hissing of a bullet was heard, as it came to open a horrible gap in the compact mass, who shrank in terror. The weak, drawn into the confused crowd, succumbed, and were trodden under foot, without those that crushed them even observing their fall Night and darkness brought back a moment of calm. Many of the wretches perished in the river when endeavoring to escape. The reaction of unreasonable panic kept from the bridges those who, shortly before, entreated General Eble with tears to let them pass; nobody would venture in the darkness—the engineers, assisted by their officers, urging those who stayed behind; but they had again lighted their fires on the bank. During that long night of winter the bridges remained deserted and useless, and General Eble, who had orders to blow them up at daybreak, delayed till eight o'clock, grieved to his very soul by the despair of the crowd, which had again begun to throng the entrances. When at last the fire appeared, with its ominous gleam, both bridges were crowded with carriages, horses, men, women, and children. The wretches plunged into the waters, and struggled vainly against the current. Their cries were mingled with those of the crowd who remained on the bank, now without defence. The Cossacks soon arriving, galloped round this human herd, and pushed them forward with their lances. When they withdrew, loaded with booty, the remains of the army took the road for Smorgoni. At every step Ney and General Maison protected the retreat, and again met the Russians at Molodeczno, after burning the bridges of Zembin. From league to league the march of the army was indicated by a long series of corpses—soldiers who had fallen in the snow without rising again, runaways who had at last succumbed under the weight of their hardships. The emperor was still surrounded by officers, some without soldiers, and generals without officers. The forces who recently rejoined him had in their turn undergone the terrible disorganization by which the whole army was infected. Napoleon saw that every chance was lost, and felt in danger of being hemmed in by the enemy, and falling alive into their hands. He was now in haste to escape finally from the overwhelming realities which urged him on every side. For several days he secretly matured a plan to set out for France alone with several faithfull companions, resolving to leave to his lieutenants the glory and pain of bringing back to Germany, on a hostile though allied land, the shapeless remnant of the great army. In spite of the objections of Daru and the Duke of Bassano, to whom he had spoken and written about it, he held a council at Smorgoni of his marshals—who arrived one after another, wounded, ill, exhausted by fighting, sleepless nights, and constant vigilance, followed only by a few thousands of men. He announced his departure, saying that he handed over the command to the King of Naples, and whom he trusted they would obey the same as himself. Then, shaking hands with some, embracing others, and talking kindly to all, even those whom he had often badly used, he stepped into a sledge during the night of the 5th December, with Caulaincourt, Duroc, Mouton, and Lefebvre- Desnouettes. His lieutenants still looked, as if to see the last trace of him in the darkness: he had disappeared, taking with him the last remnants of hope, and leaving in each of those brave hearts a deep and bitter sense of being cruelly deserted.

The Emperor Napoleon had fled—selfishly fled. He had escaped from the frightful sight of, and contact with, unlimited pain, incessantly renewed, without respite or issue, the responsibility of which rested entirely upon himself. Secondary faults had been committed by his generals, but he was really, blamable for them all; for he had asked from men more than they could accomplish, without any earnest intention or proper pretext. For the first time in his life he took care, as he left Smorgoni, to address Europe in explanation of his retreat and route. The twenty-ninth bulletin of the great army no longer resounded with the report of brilliant victory. One could read in it the secret humiliation of a pride which admitted of no conqueror but winter, and did not yet confess its lamentable errors. It appeared that the Russians had in no way assisted towards this defeat, which had to be recognized, and that the French army were everywhere victorious. "The army was in good condition on the 6th November," wrote Napoleon, "and till then the weather had been perfect. The cold began on the 7th, and from that time we lost every night several hundred horses, which died during bivouac. Soon 30,000 had succumbed, and our cavalry were all on foot. On the 14th we were almost without cavalry, artillery, and transports. Without cavalry we could gain no information beyond a quarter of a league. Without artillery we could not fight battle, or keep positions steadily. It was necessary to march, to avoid a battle, which the want of supplies made undesirable. It was necessary to occupy a certain space, to avoid being taken in flank, and that without cavalry to gain information and unite the columns. This difficulty, together with the excessive and sudden cold, rendered our position difficult. Some men, whom nature had tempered strongly enough to be above all vicissitudes of fate and fortune, seemed staggered, lost their cheerfulness and good humor, and thought of nothing but disaster and destruction; those whom she has created superior to everything, preserved their cheerfulness and usual disposition, and saw a new glory in the various difficulties to be surmounted.

"The enemy, seeing on the roads traces of the frightful calamity which struck the French army, tried to take advantage of it. Our columns were all surrounded by Cossacks, who, like Arabs in the desert, carried off the trains and carriages which had separated from the army. That despicable cavalry, which comes silently, and could not repulse a company of light- horse soldiers, became formidable under those circumstances. The enemy, however, had reason to repent of every attempt of importance which he made, and after the French army crossed the Borysthenes, at Orscha, the Russian army, being fatigued, and having lost many men, ceased from their attempts. Nevertheless, the enemy held all the passages over the Beresina, a river eighty yards wide, and carrying much ice, with its banks covered with marshes 600 yards long, all rendering it very difficult to cross. The enemy's general placed his four divisions at different points, where he concluded the French army would pass. On the 25th, at daybreak, the emperor, after deceiving the enemy by several feint movements made on the 25th, advanced to the village of Studianka, and, in spite of the presence of one of the enemy's divisions, had two bridges thrown over the river. The Duke of Reggio crossing, attacked the enemy in a battle lasting for two hours; the Russians withdrew to the head of the Borisow bridge. During the whole of the 26th and 27th the army crossed. To say that the army has need of being redisciplined and reformed, and of being re-equipped in cavalry, artillery, and supplies, is to be inferred from the statement just made. Rest is its principal want. Supplies and horses are arriving. General Bourcier has already more than 20,000 new horses in the different depots. The artillery has already repaired its losses. The generals, officers, and soldiers have greatly suffered from fatigue and scarcity. Many have lost their baggage on account of their horses being lost, and several by the Cossacks in ambush. The Cossacks took a number of isolated men—engineers who were surveying, and wounded officers who marched imprudently, preferring to run risks rather than march regularly in the convoys.

"Throughout all those operations, the emperor has always marched in the midst of his guard; the cavalry under the Duke of Istria, and the infantry under the Duke of Dantzig. Our cavalry was deprived of horses to such an extent that the officers who were still mounted had to be collected, to form four companies of 150 men each. Their generals acted as captains; the colonels as under-officers. This sacred squadron, commanded by General Grouchy, and under the orders of the King of Naples, did not lose sight of the emperor in all his movements. The health of his Majesty has never been better."

It was always a part of Napoleon's cunning to mix truth with falsehood, and conceal his lies with an appearance of honor. The "twenty-ninth bulletin of the great army" contained facts which were partly true. He admitted the hardships, and palliated the faults; but he neither gave, nor wished to give, a true idea of the disasters, or a candid statement of the frightful miseries which had ravaged the French battalions, and reduced our army as snow is melted under the sun of summer. There were still too many who had seen those catastrophes, and undertaken to establish the truth of the facts. In Napoleon's mind the evils he had seen, and that he himself had caused, were to leave less permanent impressions. He regretted the destruction of his armies, without wishing to state all their losses. "We left 300,000 men in Russia," said Marshal St. Cyr, in Germany. "No, no!" replied Napoleon; "not so many as that." Then, after a moment's reflection, "Ah! 30,000 at the Moskwa; 7000 here, 10,000 there; and all those who strayed on the marches and have not returned. Possibly you are not far wrong. But then there were so many Germans!" The Germans did not forget it!

The solitary consolation left to the army was that which the emperor had himself presented to Europe—the presence of Napoleon; his physical and mental energy and vigor. His flight from Smorgoni deprived the soldiers of this last resource of their confidence; from that day, as soon as the report spread, despair seized upon the strongest hearts. Nothing is more enduring than the instinctive courage which resists pain and death, because it becomes a man to strive to the last. All the ties of discipline, military fraternity, and ordinary humanity were broken together. I borrow from the recollections of the Duke Fezensac, then colonel of the 4th of the line, the following picture of the horrors which he saw, and of which he has given the story with a touching and manly simplicity:—"It is useless at the present day to tell the details of every day's march; it would merely be a repetition of the same misfortunes. The cold, which seemed to have become milder only to make the passage of the Dnieper and the Berezina more difficult, again set in more keenly than ever. The thermometer sank, first, to from 15 to 18 degrees, then from 20 to 25 degrees (Reaumur), and the severity of the season completed the exhaustion of men who were already half dead with hunger and fatigue. I shall not undertake to depict the spectacle which we looked upon. You must imagine plains as far as the horizon covered with snow, long forests of pines, villages half-burnt and deserted; and through those pitiful districts an endless column of wretches, nearly all without arms, marching in disorder, and falling at every step on the ice, near the carcasses of horses and the bodies of their companions. Their faces bore the impress of utter exhaustion or despair, their eyes were lifeless, their features convulsed, and quite black with dirt and smoke. Sheepskins and pieces of cloth served them for shoes; their heads were wrapped with rags; their shoulders covered with horse-cloths, women's petticoats, and half-burnt skins. Also, when one fell from fatigue, his comrades stripped him before he was dead, in order to clothe themselves with his rags. Each bivouac seemed next day like a battle-field, and men found dead at their side those beside whom they had gone to sleep the night before. An officer of the Russian advance-guard, who was a witness of those scenes of horror —which the rapidity of our flight prevented us from carefully observing— has given a description of them to which nothing need be added: 'The road which we followed,' says he, 'was covered with prisoners who required no watching, and who underwent hardships till then unheard of. Several still dragged themselves mechanically along the road, with their feet naked and half frozen; some had lost the power of speech, others had fallen into a kind of savage stupidity, and wished, in spite of us, to roast dead bodies in order to eat them. Those who were too weak to go to fetch wood stopped near the first fire which they found, and sitting upon one another they crowded closely round the fire, the feeble heat of which still sustained them, the little life left in them going out at the same time as it did. The houses and farms which the wretches had set on fire were surrounded with dead bodies, for those who went near had not the power to escape the flames which reached them; and soon others were seen, with a convulsive laugh rushing voluntarily into the midst of the burning, so that they were consumed also.'"

I hasten to avoid the spectacle of so many sufferings. Yet it is right and proper that children should know what was endured by their fathers. In proportion as the last survivors of the generations who saw and suffered so many evils disappear; we who have in our turn undergone other disasters owe it to them to recount both their glory and their misery. The time will soon come when our descendants in their turn will include in the annals of history the great epochs through which we have lived, struggled, and suffered.

Napoleon crossed Germany like an unknown fugitive, and his generals also made haste to escape. They had at last reached Wilna, alarming Lithuania by their rout, and themselves terror-struck during the halt on ascertaining the actual numbers of their losses, and the state of the disorderly battalions which were being again formed in the streets of the hospitable town. For a long time the crowd of disbanded soldiers, deserters, and those who had fallen behind, were collected together at the gates of Wilna in so dense a throng that they could not enter. Scarcely had the hungry wretches begun to take some food and taste a moment's rest, when the Russian cannon was heard, and Platow's Cossacks appeared at the gates. The King of Naples, heroic on the battle-field, but incapable of efficient command in a rout, took refuge in a suburb, in order to set out from it at break of day. Marshal Ney, the old Marshal Lefebvre, and General Loyson, with the remains of the division which he recently brought back from Poland, kept back the Cossacks for some time, and left the army time to resume its deplorable flight. A large number of exhausted men fell into the hands of the enemy; the fragments of our ruined regiments disappeared piecemeal. At Ponare, where the road between Wilna and Kowno rises, the baggage which they had with great difficulty dragged so far, the flags taken from the enemy, the army-chest, the trophies carried off from Moscow, all remained scattered at the foot of the icy hill, neither horses nor men being able to take them further. The pillagers quarrelled over the gold and silver in the broken coffers, on the snow, in the ditches. Then the Cossacks coming upon them, some of the French fired in defence of treasures which they were no longer able to carry.

When the ruins of the main army at last reached Kowno, where they found supplies of food and ammunition, they were no longer able to make use of it, or to resist the pursuit of the Russians, still keenly determined to drive us from their territory. The generals held a council. In their weariness and despair some gave vent to complaints against Napoleon, and Murat's words were susceptible of a more sinister meaning. Marshal Davout, honorable and unconquerable though still strongly prejudiced against the King of Naples, boldly expressed his indignation against the falling off of the lieutenants whom the emperor had made kings. All with one accord handed over to Ney the command of the rear-guard, and that defence of Kowno which was for a few minutes longer to protect the retreat. General Gerard alone remained faithful to this last despairing effort. When at last he crossed the Niemen with General Ney, on the 114th December, 1812, they were abandoned by all: their soldiers had fled, either scattering before the enemy or stealing away during the night from a useless resistance. When, in Koenigsberg, he overtook the remnant of the staff, Marshal Ney, with haggard looks and clad in rags, entered alone into their room. "Here comes the rear-guard of the great army!" said he bitterly.

The Prussian General York had abandoned Marshal Macdonald, making a capitulation with his forces in presence of the Russians, whose friendly intentions he had been long conscious of. Being disarmed by this neutrality of York's, Macdonald in his turn fell back upon Koenigsberg, pursued by the Russians. The hospitals were ravaged by disease: men who had resisted all fatigues and hardships, such as Generals Lariboisiere and Eble, at last succumbing. Murat withdrew to Elbing, to start soon after for Naples, leaving Prince Eugene in command of the remains of the army. From Paris, where he was already preparing for other battles, the Emperor Napoleon sought for his army in vain. The old guard itself only amounted at Koenigsberg to 1500 men, of whom not more than 500 could carry a musket. When the scattered fragments of the regiments left this last place of refuge, 10,000 sick men were still left in the hospitals.

THE END