of leavened
bread appear to them, and how inexpressible the pleasure of eating it
seated! and afterwards, with what admiration were they struck at seeing
a scanty battalion still under arms, in regular order, and uniformly
dressed! They seemed to have returned from the very extremities of the
earth; so much had the violence and continuity of their sufferings torn
and cast them from all their habits, so deep had been the abyss from
which they had escaped!

But scarcely had they begun to taste these sweets, when the cannon of
the Russians commenced thundering over their heads and upon the city.
These threatening sounds, the shouts of the officers, the drums beating
to arms, and the wailings and clamour of an additional multitude of
unfortunates, which had just arrived, filled Wilna with fresh confusion.
It was the vanguard of Kutusoff and Tchaplitz, commanded by O'Rourke,
Landskoy, and Seslawin, which had attacked Loison's division, which was
protecting the city, as well as the retreat of a column of dismounted
cavalry, on its way to Olita, by way of Novoi-Troky.

At first an attempt was made to resist. De Wrede and his Bavarians had
also just rejoined the army by Naroc-Zwiransky and Niamentchin. They
were pursued by Wittgenstein, who from Kamen and Vileika hung upon our
right flank, at the same time that Kutusoff and Tchitchakof pursued us.
De Wrede had not two thousand men left under his command. As to Loison's
division and the garrison of Wilna, which had come to meet us as far as
Smorgoni, and render us assistance, the cold had reduced them from
fifteen thousand men to three thousand in the space of three days.

De Wrede defended Wilna on the side of Rukoni; he was obliged to fall
back after a gallant resistance. Loison and his division, on his side,
which was nearer to Wilna, kept the enemy in check. They had succeeded
in making a Neapolitan division take arms, and even to go out of the
city, but the muskets actually slipped from the hands of these "children
of the sun" transplanted to a region of ice. In less than an hour they
all returned disarmed, and the best part of them maimed.

At the same time, the _generale_ was ineffectually beat in the streets;
the old guard itself, now reduced to a few platoons, remained dispersed.
Every one thought much more of disputing his life with famine and the
cold than with the enemy. But when the cry of "Here are the Cossacks"
was heard, (which for a long time had been the on