the army often dined on ammunition-bread with as much pleasure as the
simple soldier, and on the retreat the misery could not have been more
general. This idea of deprivations shared by all did much to restore
hope and energy to the most discouraged; and, I may add, never has more
reciprocal sympathy between chiefs and soldiers been seen, in support of
which statement innumerable instances could be given.

When evening came the fires were kindled, and those foragers who had been
most successful invited their companions to share their good cheer. In
the worst times there was poor, yet still not the worst, fare to offer,
consisting of slices of broiled horse-flesh.

Many soldiers deprived themselves of some valuable booty to offer it to
their chief, and selfishness was not so general that this noble French
courtesy did not reappear from time to time to recall the happy days of
France. Straw was the bed of all; and those of the marshals who in Paris
slept on most luxurious beds of down did not find this couch too hard in
Russia.

M. de Beausset has given me a very amusing account of one night, when
sleeping pell-mell on a little straw, in very narrow quarters, the
aides-de-camp attending upon the Emperor stepped mercilessly on the
limbs of their sleeping companions, who, fortunately, did not all suffer
from gout like M. Beausset, and were not injured by such sudden and
oft-repeated onslaughts. He cried, "What brutes!" and drawing his legs
under him, cowered down in his corner until this passing and repassing
had ceased for a while.

Picture to yourself large rooms, filthy, unfurnished, and open to the
wind, which entered through every window, nearly all the glass of which
was broken, with crumbling walls and fetid air, which we warmed as well
as possible with our breath, a vast litter of straw prepared as if for
horses, and on this litter men shivering with cold, throwing themselves
about, pressing against each other, murmuring, swearing, some unable to
close their eyes, others more fortunate snoring loudly, and in the midst
of this mass of legs and feet, a general awakening in the night when an
order from the Emperor arrived, and you may form an idea of the inn and
the guests.

As for myself, during the entire campaign I did not a single time undress
to retire to bed, for I never found one anywhere. It was necessary to
supply this deficiency by some means; and as it is well known that
necessity is ever ready with in