crossed that
river, and twenty thousand recruits had since joined them; of these
eighty thousand, half had already perished, the greater part within the
last four days, between Malodeczno and Wilna.

The capital of Lithuania was still ignorant of our disasters, when, all
at once, forty thousand famished soldiers filled it with groans and
lamentations. At this unexpected sight, its inhabitants became alarmed,
and shut their doors. Deplorable then was it to see these troops of
wretched wanderers in the streets, some furious and others desperate,
threatening or entreating, endeavouring to break open the doors of the
houses and the magazines, or dragging themselves to the hospitals.
Everywhere they were repulsed; at the magazines, from most unseasonable
formalities, as, from the dissolution of the corps and the mixture of
the soldiers, all regular distribution had become impossible.

There had been collected there sufficient flour and bread to last for
forty days, and butcher's meat for thirty-six days, for one hundred
thousand men. Not a single commander ventured to step forward and give
orders for distributing these provisions to all that came for them. The
administrators who had them in charge were afraid of being made
responsible for them; and the others dreaded the excesses to which the
famished soldiers would give themselves up, when every thing was at
their discretion. These administrators besides were ignorant of our
desperate situation, and when there was scarcely time for pillage, had
they been so inclined, our unfortunate comrades were left for several
hours to die of hunger at the very doors of these immense magazines of
provisions, all of which fell into the enemy's hands the following day.

At the barracks and the hospitals they were equally repulsed, but not by
the living, for there death held sway supreme. The few who still
breathed complained that for a long time they had been without beds,
even without straw, and almost deserted. The courts, the passages, and
even the apartments were filled with heaps of dead bodies; they were so
many charnel houses of infection.

At last, the exertions of several of the commanders, such as Eugene and
Davoust, the compassion of the Lithuanians, and the avarice of the Jews,
opened some places of refuge. Nothing could be more remarkable than the
astonishment which these unfortunate men displayed at finding themselves
once more in inhabited houses. How delicious did a loaf