after the passage of
the Berezina, Napoleon had been informed of it. Communications had been
observed to be going on between the Bavarian, Saxon, and Austrian
generals. On the left, Yorck's bad disposition increased, and
communicated itself to a part of his troops; all the enemies of France
had united, and Macdonald was astonished at having to repel the
perfidious insinuations of an aide-de-camp of Moreau. The impression
made by our victories was still however so deep in all the Germans, they
had been so powerfully kept under, that they required a considerable
time to raise themselves.

On the 15th of November, Macdonald, seeing that the left of the Russian
line had extended itself too far from Riga, between him and the Duena,
made some feigned attacks on their whole front, and pushed a real one
against their centre, which he broke through rapidly as far as the
river, near Dahlenkirchen. The whole left of the Russians, Lewis, and
five thousand men, found themselves cut off from their retreat, and
thrown back on the Duena. Lewis vainly sought for an outlet; he found his
enemy every where, and lost at first two battalions and a squadron. He
would have infallibly been taken with his whole force, had he been
pressed closer, but he was allowed sufficient space and time to take
breath; as the cold increased, and the country offered no means of
escape, he ventured to trust himself to the weak ice which had begun to
cover the river. He made his troops lay a bed of straw and boards over
it, in that manner crossed the Duena at two points between Friedrichstadt
and Lindau, and re-entered Riga, at the very moment his comrades had
begun to despair of his preservation.

The day after this engagement, Macdonald was informed of the retreat of
Napoleon on Smolensk, but not of the disorganization of the army. A few
days after, some sinister reports brought him the news of the capture of
Minsk. He began to be alarmed, when, on the 4th of December, a letter
from Maret, magnifying the victory of the Berezina, announced to him the
capture of nine thousand Russians, nine standards, and twelve cannon.
The admiral, according to this letter, was reduced to thirteen thousand
men.

On the third of December the Russians were again repulsed in one of
their sallies from Riga, by the Prussians. Yorck, either from prudence
or conscience, restrained himself. Macdonald had become reconciled to
him. On the 19th of December, fourteen days after the depa