heir disorder. First of all they were
alarmed by the rumours of a serious engagement, then by seeing the
wounded returning from it, and last of all by the batteries of the
Russian left wing, some bullets from which began to fall among their
confused mass.

They had all been already crowding one upon the other, and the immense
multitude heaped upon the bank pell-mell with the horses and carriages,
there formed a most alarming incumbrance. It was about the middle of the
day that the first Russian bullets fell in the midst of this chaos; they
were the signal of universal despair.

Then it was, as in all cases of extremity, that dispositions exhibited
themselves without disguise, and actions were witnessed, most base, and
others most sublime. According to their different characters, some
furious and determined, with sword in hand, cleared for themselves a
horrible passage. Others, still more cruel, opened a way for their
carriages by driving them without mercy over the crowd of unfortunate
persons who stood in the way, whom they crushed to death. Their
detestable avarice made them sacrifice their companions in misfortune to
the preservation of their baggage. Others, seized with a disgusting
terror, wept, supplicated, and sunk under the influence of that passion,
which completed the exhaustion of their strength. Some were observed,
(and these were principally the sick and wounded,) who, renouncing life,
went aside and sat down resigned, looking with a fixed eye on the snow
which was shortly to be their tomb.

Numbers of those who started first among this crowd of desperadoes
missed the bridge, and attempted to scale it by the sides, but the
greater part were pushed into the river. There were seen women in the
midst of the ice, with their children in their arms, raising them as
they felt themselves sinking, and even when completely immerged, their
stiffened arms still held them above them.

In the midst of this horrible disorder, the artillery bridge burst and
broke down. The column, entangled in this narrow passage, in vain
attempted to retrograde. The crowds of men who came behind, unaware of
the calamity, and not hearing the cries of those before them, pushed
them on, and threw them into the gulf, into which they were precipitated
in their turn.

Every one then attempted to pass by the other bridge. A number of large
ammunition waggons, heavy carriages, and cannon crowded to it from all
parts. Directed by their drive