own already evacuated, and the whole of the
immense magazines collected there destroyed.

Almost simultaneously with the passage of the Niemen by the three corps
under the French marshals, those of Prince Eugene and the other generals
also crossed, but further south, and also advanced at full speed in
hopes of interposing between the three Russian armies, and of preventing
their concentration. For the next week the French pressed hard upon the
rear of the retreating Russians, but failed to bring on a battle, while
they themselves suffered from an incessant downpour of rain which made
the roads well-nigh impassable. The commissariat train broke down, and a
hundred pieces of cannon and 5000 ammunition waggons had to be
abandoned. The rain, and a bitterly cold wind that accompanied it,
brought on an epidemic among the horses, which were forced to depend
solely upon the green rye growing in the fields. Several thousands died;
the troops themselves suffered so much from thirst and hunger that no
less than 30,000 stragglers fell out from the ranks and spread
themselves over the country, burning, ravaging, plundering, and
committing terrible depredations. Such dismay was caused by their
treatment that the villages were all abandoned, and the whole population
retired before the advance of the French, driving their flocks and herds
before them, and thus adding greatly to the difficulties of the
invaders.

[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE ROUTE OF NAPOLEON'S MARCH TO MOSCOW.]

The greater portion of these straggling marauders belonged not to the
French corps, but to the allies, who possessed none of the discipline of
the French soldiery, and whose conduct throughout the campaign was
largely responsible for the intense animosity excited by the invaders,
and for the suffering that afterwards befell them.

As the pursuit continued even Napoleon's best soldiers were surprised at
their failure to overtake the Russians. However long their marches,
however well planned the operations, the Russians always out-marched and
out-manoeuvred them. It seemed to them almost that they were pursuing a
phantom army, a will-o'-the-wisp, that eluded all their efforts to grasp
it, and a fierce fight between the rear-guard of Barclay de Tolly's army
and the advance-guard of Murat's cavalry, in which the latter suffered
severely, was the only fight of importance, until the invaders, after
marching more than half-way to Moscow, arrived at Witebsk.

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