d nearer every instant, and saw Ney himself retreating
with three thousand men; when, at last, turning their eyes upon
themselves, they beheld the hill completely covered with cannon and
carriages, broken or overturned, and men and horses fallen to the
ground, and expiring one upon the other--then it was that they gave up
all idea of saving anything, and determined only to anticipate the enemy
by becoming plunderers themselves.

One of the covered wagons of treasure, which burst of itself, served as
a signal; every one now rushed to the others; they were immediately
broken open, and the most valuable effects taken from them. The soldiers
of the rear guard, who were passing at the time of this disorder, threw
away their arms to join in the plunder; they became so eagerly engaged
in it as neither to hear, in fact, the whistling of the enemy's balls,
nor to pay the slightest attention to the howlings of the Cossacks, who
were at their heels.

It is even said that the Cossacks got mixed among them without being
observed; that for some minutes, French and Tartars were confounded in
the same greediness; forgetting they were at war, and pillaging together
the same treasure-wagons. Two millions of gold and silver then
disappeared.

But amid all these horrors there were noble acts of devotion. Those
there were who abandoned everything to save some of the unfortunate
wounded by carrying them on their shoulders; while others, unable to
extricate their half-frozen comrades from the throng, sacrificed their
lives in defending them either against their own countrymen, or from the
blows of their enemies.

On the most exposed part of the hill, an officer of the emperor, Colonel
the Count de Turenne, repulsed the Cossacks, and in defiance of their
cries of rage and their fire, he distributed before their eyes the
private treasure of Napoleon to the guards whom he found within his
reach. These brave men, fighting with one hand, and collecting the
spoils of their leader with the other, succeeded in saving them. Long
afterward, when they were out of all danger, each man faithfully
restored what had been intrusted to him. Not a single piece of money was
lost.

This catastrophe at Ponari was the more disgraceful, as it might easily
have been foreseen, and no less easily prevented: for the hill could
have been turned by its sides. The property we here abandoned, however,
was at least of some use by arresting the pursuit of the Cossacks.