nnon, and twenty thousand miserable wretches covered
with rags, with downcast looks, hollow eyes, cadaverous and livid
complexions, and long beards matted with frost; some disputing in
silence the narrow passage of the bridge, which, in spite of their small
numbers, did not suffice for the eagerness of their flight; others
fleeing dispersed over the rough ice of the river, toiling and dragging
themselves along from one point to another: this was the whole Grand
Army! and even many of these fugitives were recruits who had just joined
it!"

Two kings, one prince, eight marshals, followed by a few officers,
generals on foot, dispersed, and without attendants: finally, a few
hundred men of the Old Guard, still armed--these were the remains of
the Grand Army--these alone represented it!

Or rather, I should say, it still breathed only in Marshal Ney!
Comrades! allies! enemies! here I invoke your testimony; let us pay the
homage which is due to the memory of an unfortunate hero: the facts
alone will suffice.

All were flying, and Murat himself, traversing Kowno as he had done
Wilna, first gave, and then withdrew, an order, to rally at Tilsit, and
subsequently fixed upon Gumbinnen. Ney then entered Kowno, accompanied
only by his aids-de-camp, for all besides had given way or fallen around
him. From the time of his leaving Viazma, this was the fourth rear guard
which had been worn out and disappeared in his hands. But winter and
famine, far more than the Russians, had destroyed them. For the fourth
time he remained alone before the enemy, and, still undismayed, he
sought for a fifth rear guard.

Several thousand soldiers covered the market-place and the neighboring
streets; but they were laid out stiff before the liquor-shops which they
had broken open, and where they drank the cup of death, from which they
had vainly hoped they were to inhale fresh life.

Such were the only succors which Murat had left him; and Ney found
himself alone in Russia, with seven hundred foreign recruits. At Kowno,
as it had been after the disasters of Viazma, of Smolensk, of the
Berezina, and of Wilna, it was to him that the honor of our arms and all
the peril of the last steps of our retreat were again confided.

On the 14th, at daybreak, the Russians commenced their attack. One of
their columns made a hasty advance from the Wilna road, while another
crossed the Niemen on the ice above the town, landed on the Prussian
territory, and, proud o