die of the cold. That some such fate must have befallen them
seemed almost certain, for otherwise they must have joined us.

"I could tell pretty well the road that they would follow, and started
along it. Half way between here and Smolensk I met the six men. What
they said confirmed my worst fears. They had learnt where the carriage
had last halted for the night. The party had not travelled post, but had
kept their own horses and had travelled only by day. Had they lingered
only one day anywhere on the way they would have crossed the Moscow road
on the day after the rear-guard of the French had passed.

"But news travelled slowly, and no doubt, at the post-house where they
slept, no word that the French army was passing along had been received.
Beyond that, the men had been able to gather no news whatever of the
carriage. The country was a desert, tenanted only by dead; and the men's
descriptions of what they saw were so horrible that my blood was
frozen. However, I kept on my journey, taking them with me. We went to
the post-house where the carriage had last stopped, and then took up the
search. There were half a dozen roads by which they might have
proceeded; however, we took the most easterly one, and then, when it
crossed the main road, followed the latter. It was choked with deserted
waggons and guns. Dead bodies lay everywhere; many partly devoured by
wolves; all stripped of their clothing. After making our way through
this terrible scene for a few miles, we saw, fifty yards from the road,
the remains of a sleigh. Its bright yellow colour caught our eyes, and
when we got to it there was no room for doubt. The body of the sleigh
was gone--had been burnt for firewood; but the colour was that of my own
carriage, and two of the men who belonged to the stables at Kieff said
that they could swear to it, owing to a new iron that had been put on to
one of the runners the day before it had started. But there were other
signs. Portions of the harness lay about, and on one of these enough of
the silver-work remained to show that it was ours.

"Then we searched farther. Turning over a mound of newly-fallen snow, we
found the bodies of the coachman and the nurse. We searched for hours,
but could not find that of the child; but as to her fate we had no
doubt. She might have run away into the forest, or she might have been
devoured by wolves. That she was dead was certain. I left four of the
men there. They were to establish t