owever, impatient to get possession of the opposite bank,
pointed it out to the bravest. Jacqueminot, aide-de-camp to the Duke of
Reggio, and the Lithuanian count Predziecski, were the first who threw
themselves into the river, and in spite of the pieces of ice, which cut
and bled the chests and sides of their horses, succeeded in reaching the
other side. Sourd, chief of the squadron, and fifty chasseurs of the
7th, each carrying a voltigeur _en croupe_, followed them, as well as
two frail rafts which transported four hundred men in twenty trips. The
Emperor having expressed a wish to have a prisoner to interrogate,
Jacqueminot, who overheard him, had scarcely crossed the river, when he
saw one of Tchaplitz's soldiers; he rushed after, attacked, and disarmed
him; then seizing and placing him on the bow of his saddle, he brought
him through the river and the ice to Napoleon.

About one o'clock the bank was entirely cleared of the Cossacks, and the
bridge for the infantry finished. The division Legrand crossed it
rapidly with its cannon, the men shouting "Vive l'Empereur!" in the
presence of their sovereign, who was himself actively pressing the
passage of the artillery, and encouraged his brave soldiers by his voice
and example.

He exclaimed, when he saw them fairly in possession of the opposite
bank, "Behold my star again appear!" for he was a believer in fatality,
like all conquerors, those men, who, having the largest accounts with
Fortune, are fully aware how much they are indebted to her, and who,
moreover, having no intermediate power between themselves and heaven,
feel themselves more immediately under its protection.

CHAP. VI.

At that moment, a Lithuanian nobleman, disguised as a peasant, arrived
from Wilna with the news of Schwartzenberg's victory over Sacken.
Napoleon appeared pleased in proclaiming it aloud, with the addition,
that "Schwartzenberg had immediately returned upon the heels of
Tchitchakof, and that he was coming to our assistance." A conjecture, to
which the disappearance of Tchaplitz gave considerable probability.

Meantime, as the first bridge which was just finished had only been made
for the infantry, a second was begun immediately after, a hundred
fathoms higher up, for the artillery and baggage, which was not finished
until four o'clock in the afternoon. During that interval, the Duke of
Reggio, with the rest of the second corps, and Dombrowski's division,
followed General Le