t striking a blow.

In this desperate situation, in which all France seemed destined to be
taken prisoner in Russia, where every thing was against us and in favour
of the Russians, the latter did nothing but by halves. Kutusoff did not
reach the Dnieper, at Kopis, until the very day that Napoleon approached
the Berezina. Wittgenstein allowed himself to be kept in check during
the time that the former required for his passage. Tchitchakof was
defeated; and of eighty thousand men, Napoleon succeeded in saving sixty
thousand.

He remained till the last moment on these melancholy banks, near the
ruins of Brilowa, unsheltered, and at the head of his guards, one-third
of whom were destroyed by the storm. During the day they stood to arms,
and were drawn up in order of battle; at night, they bivouacked in a
square round their leader; there the old grenadiers incessantly kept
feeding their fires. They sat upon their knapsacks, with their elbows
planted on their knees, and their hands supporting their head;
slumbering in this manner doubled upon themselves, in order that one
limb might warm the other, and that they should feel less the emptiness
of their stomachs.

During these three days and three nights, spent in the midst of them,
Napoleon, with his looks and his thoughts wandering on three sides at
once, supported the second corps by his orders and his presence,
protected the ninth corps and the passage with his artillery, and united
his efforts with those of Eble in saving as many fragments as possible
from the wreck. He at last directed the remains to Zembin, where Prince
Eugene had preceded him.

It was remarked that he still gave orders to his marshals, who had no
soldiers to command, to take up positions on that road, as if they had
still armies at their beck. One of them made the observation to him with
some degree of asperity, and was beginning an enumeration of his losses;
but Napoleon, determined to reject all reports, lest they should
degenerate into complaints, warmly interrupted him with these words:
"why then do you wish to deprive me of my tranquillity?" and as the
other was persisting, he shut his mouth at once, by repeating, in a
reproachful manner, "I ask you, sir, why do you wish to deprive me of my
tranquillity?" An expression, which in his adversity, explained the
attitude which he imposed upon himself, and that which he exacted of
others.

Around him during these mortal days, every bivouac was mark