g them there; such horrible crimes as these must be denounced to
the present and to future ages. Now that our hands are become impotent,
it is probable that our indignation against these monsters may be their
sole punishment in this world; but a day will come, when the assassins
will again meet their victims, and there certainly, divine justice will
avenge us!

On the 10th of December, Ney, who had again voluntarily taken upon
himself the command of the rear-guard, left that city, which was
immediately after inundated by the Cossacks of Platof, who massacred all
the poor wretches whom the Jews threw in their way. In the midst of this
butchery, there suddenly appeared a piquet of thirty French, coming from
the bridge of the Vilia, where they had been left and forgotten. At
sight of this fresh prey, thousands of Russian horsemen came hurrying
up, besetting them with loud cries, and assailing them on all sides.

But the officer commanding this piquet had already drawn up his soldiers
in a circle. Without hesitation, he ordered them to fire, and then,
making them present bayonets, proceeded at the _pas de charge_. In an
instant all fled before him; he remained in possession of the city; but
without feeling more surprise about the cowardice of the Cossacks, than
he had done at their attack, he took advantage of the moment, turned
sharply round, and succeeded in rejoining the rear-guard without any
loss.

The latter was engaged with Kutusoff's vanguard, which it was
endeavouring to drive back; for another catastrophe, which it vainly
attempted to cover, detained it at a short distance from Wilna.

There, as well as at Moscow, Napoleon had given no regular order for
retreat; he was anxious that our defeat should have no forerunner, but
that it should proclaim itself, and take our allies and their ministers
by surprise, and that, taking advantage of their first astonishment, it
might be able to pass through those nations before they were prepared to
join the Russians and overpower us.

This was the reason why the Lithuanians, foreigners, and every one at
Wilna, even to the minister himself, had been deceived. They did not
believe our disaster until they saw it; and in that, the almost
superstitious belief of Europe in the infallibility of the genius of
Napoleon was of use to him against his allies. But the same confidence
had buried his own officers in a profound security; at Wilna, as well as
at Moscow, not one of them wa