adapted to the climate.

At this sight, the corps of picked men, the veteran regiments, and a few
other soldiers alone kept their ranks; the rest ran forward with all
possible speed. Thousands of men, chiefly unarmed, covered the two steep
banks of the Borysthenes: they crowded in masses around the lofty walls
and gates of the city; but this disorderly multitude, with their haggard
faces begrimed with dirt and smoke, their tattered uniforms, and the
grotesque habiliments which they had substituted in place of them: in
short, with their strange, hideous looks, and their impetuous ardor,
excited alarm. It was believed, that if the irruption of this crowd,
maddened with hunger, were not repelled, that a general pillage would be
the consequence, and the gates were closed against it.

It was also hoped that by exercising this rigor these men would be
forced again to rally about their standards. A horrible struggle between
order and disorder now commenced in the remnant of this unfortunate
army. In vain did they entreat, weep, threaten, strive to burst open the
gates, and even drop down dead at the feet of their comrades placed to
repel them; they found the latter inexorable, and were forced to wait
the arrival of the first troops that were still officered and in order.

These were the Old and the Young Guard; and it was not till after them
that the disbanded men were allowed to enter: the latter, and the other
corps which arrived in succession, from the 8th to the 14th, believed
that their admission had been delayed merely to give more rest and more
provisions to this favored guard. Their sufferings rendered them unjust:
they execrated it. "Were they, then, to be forever sacrificed to this
privileged class; fellows kept for mere parade, who were never foremost
but at reviews, festivals, and distributions? Was the army to put up
with their leavings, always to wait till they had glutted themselves?"
It was useless to tell them in reply, that to attempt to save all was
the way to lose all; that it was necessary to keep at least one corps
entire, and to give the preference to that which in the last extremity
would be capable of making the most powerful effort.

At length these poor creatures were admitted into that Smolensk for
which they had so long ardently wished, while the banks of the
Borysthenes were strewed with their expiring companions, the weakest of
whom impatience and several hours' waiting had brought to that sta