seemed to them then to be
metamorphosed into moving hills and valleys of men and horses! These
were the same valleys, from which, under the rays of a burning sun,
poured forth the three long columns of dragoons and cuirassiers,
resembling three rivers of glittering iron and brass. And now men, arms,
eagles, horses, the sun itself, and even this frontier river, which they
had crossed replete with ardour and hope, all have disappeared. The
Niemen is now only a long mass of flakes of ice, caught and chained to
each other by the increasing severity of the winter. Instead of the
three French bridges, brought from a distance of five hundred leagues,
and thrown across it with such audacious promptitude, a Russian bridge
is alone standing. Finally, in the room of these innumerable warriors,
of their four hundred thousand comrades, who had been so often their
partners in victory, and who had dashed forward with such joy and pride
into the territory of Russia, they saw issuing from these pale and
frozen deserts, only a thousand infantry and horsemen still under arms,
nine cannon, and twenty thousand miserable wretches covered with rags,
with downcast looks, hollow eyes, earthy and livid complexions, long
beards matted with the frost; some disputing in silence the narrow
passage of the bridge, which, in spite of their small number was not
sufficient to the eagerness of their flight; others fleeing dispersed
over the asperities of the river, labouring and dragging themselves from
one point of ice to another; and this was the whole grand army! Besides,
many of these fugitives were recruits who had just joined it."

Two kings, one prince, eight marshals followed by a few officers,
generals on foot, dispersed, and without any attendants; finally, a few
hundred men of the old guard, still armed, were its remains; they alone
represented it.

Or rather, I should say, it still breathed completely and entirely in
Marshal Ney. Comrades! allies! enemies! here I invoke your testimony;
let us pay the homage which is due to the memory of an unfortunate hero:
the facts will be sufficient.

All were flying, and Murat himself, traversing Kowno as he had done
Wilna, first gave, and then withdrew the order to rally at Tilsit, and
subsequently fixed upon Gumbinnen. Ney then entered Kowno, accompanied
only by his aides-de-camp, for all besides had given way, or fallen
around him. From the time of his leaving Wiazma, this was the fourth
rear-guard