ir petty
details each day, and that when night came we had not even a bed on which
to stretch our weary limbs, some idea may be formed of the privations we
endured on this campaign. The Emperor never uttered a word of complaint
when beset by such discomforts, and his example inspired us with courage;
and at last we became so accustomed to this fatiguing and wandering
existence, that, in spite of the cold and privations of every sort to
which we were subjected, we often jested about the dainty arrangements of
our apartments. The Emperor on the campaign was affected only by the
sufferings of others, though his health was sometimes so much impaired as
to cause anxiety, especially when he denied himself all rest not
absolutely required; and yet I heard him constantly inquiring if there
were lodgings for all, and he would not be satisfied until fully informed
of every particular.

Although the Emperor nearly always had a bed, the poor quarters in which
it was set up were often so filthy, that in spite of all the care taken
to clean it, I more than once found on his clothing a kind of vermin very
disagreeable, and very common in Russia. We suffered more than the
Emperor from this inconvenience, being deprived as we were of proper
linen and other changes of clothing, since the greater part of our
effects had been burned with the wagons containing them. This extreme
measure had been taken, as I have said, for good reasons, all the horses
having died from cold or famine.

We were little better lodged in the palace of the Czars than on the
bivouac. For several days we had only mattresses; but as a large number
of wounded officers had none, the Emperor ordered ours to be given them.
We made the sacrifice willingly, and the thought that we were assisting
others more unfortunate than ourselves would have made the hardest bed
endurable. Besides, in this war we had more than one opportunity to
learn how to put aside all feelings of egotism and narrow personality;
and had we been guilty of such forgetfulness, the Emperor was ever ready
to recall us to this plain and simple duty.

CHAPTER IX.

The only too famous twenty-ninth bulletin of the grand army was not
published in Paris, where the consternation it spread through all classes
is well known, until the 16th of December; and the Emperor, following
close upon the heels of this solemn manifesto of our disasters, arrived
in his capital forty-eight hours after, as if endeavori