, and in a fair way to accomplish that
prediction."

Some again there were, who were reminding each other of the awful and
destructive storm which had signalized our entrance on the Russian
territory. "Then it was heaven itself that spoke! Behold the calamity
which it predicted! Nature had made an effort to prevent this
catastrophe! Why had we been obstinately deaf to her voice?" So much did
this simultaneous fall of four hundred thousand men (an event which was
not in fact more extraordinary than the host of epidemical disorders and
of revolutions which are constantly ravaging the globe) appear to them
an extraordinary and unique event, which must have occupied all the
powers of heaven and earth; so much is our understanding led to bring
home every thing to itself; as if Providence, in compassion to our
weakness, and from the fear of its annihilating itself at the prospect
of eternity, had so ordered it, that every man, a mere point in space,
should act and feel as if he himself was the centre of immensity.

CHAP. III.

The army was in this last state of physical and moral distress, when its
first fugitives reached Wilna. Wilna! their magazine, their depot, the
first rich and inhabited city which they had met with since their
entrance into Russia. Its name alone, and its proximity, still supported
the courage of a few.

On the 9th of December, the greatest part of these poor soldiers at last
arrived within sight of that capital. Instantly, some dragging
themselves along, others rushing forward, they all precipitated
themselves headlong into its suburbs, pushing obstinately before them,
and crowding together so fast, that they formed but one mass of men,
horses, and chariots, motionless, and deprived of the power of movement.

The clearing away of this crowd by a narrow passage became almost
impossible. Those who came behind, guided by a stupid instinct, added to
the incumbrance, without the least idea of entering the city by its
other entrances, of which there were several. But there was such
complete disorganization, that during the whole of that fatal day, not a
single staff-officer made his appearance to direct these men to them.

For the space of ten hours, with the cold at 27 and even at 28 degrees,
thousands of soldiers who fancied themselves in safety, died either from
cold or suffocation, just as had happened at the gates of Smolensk, and
at the bridges across the Berezina. Sixty thousand men had