dea of saving any thing, and determined only to anticipate the enemy by
plundering themselves.

One of the covered waggons of treasure, which burst open of itself,
served as a signal; every one rushed to the others; they were
immediately broken, and the most valuable effects taken from them. The
soldiers of the rear-guard, who were passing at the time of this
disorder, threw away their arms to join in the plunder; they were so
eagerly engaged in it as neither to hear nor to pay attention to the
whistling of the balls and the howling of the Cossacks in pursuit of
them.

It is even said that the Cossacks got mixed among them without being
observed. For some minutes, French and Tartars, friends and foes, were
confounded in the same greediness. French and Russians, forgetting they
were at war, were seen pillaging together the same treasure-waggons. Ten
millions of gold and silver then disappeared.

But amidst all these horrors, there were noble acts of devotion. Some
there were, who abandoned every thing to save some unfortunate wounded
by carrying them on their shoulders; several others, being unable to
extricate their half-frozen comrades from this medley, lost their lives
in defending them from the attacks of their countrymen, and the blows of
their enemies.

On the most exposed part of the hill, an officer of the Emperor, Colonel
the Count de Turenne, repulsed the Cossacks, and in defiance of their
cries of rage and their fire, he distributed before their eyes the
private treasure of Napoleon to the guards whom he found within his
reach. These brave men, fighting with one hand and collecting the spoils
of their leader with the other, succeeded in saving them. Long
afterwards, when they were out of all danger, each man faithfully
restored the depot which had been entrusted to him. Not a single piece
of money was lost.

CHAP. IV.

This catastrophe at Ponari was the more disgraceful, as it was easy to
foresee, and equally easy to prevent it; for the hill could have been
turned by its sides. The fragments which we abandoned, however, were at
least of some use in arresting the pursuit of the Cossacks. While these
were busy in collecting their prey, Ney, at the head of a few hundred
French and Bavarians, supported the retreat as far as Eve. As this was
his last effort, we must not omit the description of his method of
retreat which he had followed ever since he left Wiazma, on the 3d of
November, during thirty