Do you see, sir, this devastated country, these
villages in flames? To whom are these disasters to be charged? to fifty
adventurers like yourself, paid by England, who has thrown them upon the
continent; but the weight of this war will ultimately fall on those who
have excited it. In six months I shall be at Petersburg, and I will call
them to account for all this swaggering."

Then addressing the aide-de-camp of Winzingerode, who was a prisoner
like himself, "As for you, Count Narischkin," said he, "I have nothing
to upbraid you with; you are a Russian, you are doing your duty; but how
could a man of one of the first families in Russia become the
aide-de-camp of a foreign mercenary? Be the aide-de-camp of a Russian
general; that employment will be far more honourable."

Till then General Winzingerode had not had an opportunity to answer this
violent language, except by his attitude: it was calm as his reply. "The
Emperor Alexander," he said, "was his benefactor and that of his family:
all that he possessed he owed to him; gratitude had made him his
subject; he was at the post which his benefactor had allotted to him,
and consequently he was only doing his duty."

Napoleon added some threats, but in a less violent strain, and he
confined himself to words, either because he had vented all his wrath in
the first explosion, or because he merely designed to frighten the
Germans who might be tempted to abandon him. Such at least was the
interpretation which those about him put upon his violence. It was
disapproved; no account was taken of it, and each was eager to accost
the captive general, to tranquillize and to console him. These
attentions were continued till the army reached Lithuania, where the
Cossacks retook Winzingerode and his aide-de-camp. The Emperor had
affected to treat this young Russian nobleman with kindness, at the same
time that he stormed so loudly against his general--a proof that there
was calculation even in his wrath.

CHAP. VII.

On the 28th of October we again beheld Mojaisk. That town was still full
of wounded; some were carried away and the rest collected together and
left, as at Moscow, to the generosity of the Russians. Napoleon had
proceeded but a few wersts from that place, when the winter began. Thus,
after an obstinate combat, and ten days' marching and countermarching,
the army, which had brought from Moscow only fifteen rations of flour
per man, had advanced but three days' ma