s. At this unlooked-for sight, its inhabitants became alarmed
and shut their doors. Deplorable then was it to see these troops of
wretched wanderers in the streets, some furious and others despairing,
threatening or entreating, endeavoring to break open the doors of the
houses and the magazines, or dragging themselves to the hospitals.
Everywhere they were repulsed: at the magazines, from most unseasonable
formalities, as, from the dissolution of the corps and the mingling of
the soldiers, all regular distribution had become impossible.

There had been collected there sufficient flour and bread to last for
forty days, and butchers' meat for thirty-six days, for one hundred
thousand men. Not a single commander ventured to step forward and give
orders for giving out these provisions to all who came for them. The
commissaries who had them in charge were afraid of being made
responsible for them; and the others dreaded the excesses to which the
famished soldiers would give themselves up when everything was at their
discretion. These commissaries were, besides, ignorant of our desperate
situation; and when there was scarcely time for pillage, had they been
so inclined, our unfortunate comrades were left for several hours to die
of hunger at the very doors of these immense magazines, filled with
whatever they stood in need of, all of which fell into the enemy's hands
the following day.

At last, the exertions of several of the commanders, as Eugene and
Davoust, the compassion of the Lithuanians, and the avarice of the Jews,
opened some places of refuge. Nothing could be more remarkable than the
astonishment manifested by these unfortunate men at finding themselves
once more in inhabited houses. How delicious did a loaf of leavened
bread appear to them, and how inexpressible the pleasure of eating it
seated! and, afterward, with what admiration were they struck at seeing
a scanty battalion still under arms, in regular order, and uniformly
dressed! They seemed to have returned from the very extremities of the
earth, so much had the violence and persistency of their sufferings
wrested and torn them from all their habits, so deep had been the abyss
from which they had escaped!

But scarcely had they begun to taste these sweets, when the cannon of
the Russians were heard thundering over their heads and upon the city.
These menacing sounds, the shouts of the officers, the drums beating to
arms, and the wailings and clamor of an a