by the next carriages that passed: he was a general, and
through him this atrocious procedure became known. A shudder of horror
spread throughout the column; it reached the Emperor; for the sufferings
of the army were not yet so severe and so universal as to stifle pity,
and to concentrate all his affections within the bosom of each
individual.

In the evening of this long day, as the imperial column approached
Gjatz, it was surprised to find Russians quite recently killed on the
way. It was remarked, that each of them had his head shattered in the
same manner, and that his bloody brains were scattered near him. It was
known that two thousand Russian prisoners were marching on before, and
that their guard consisted of Spaniards, Portuguese, and Poles. On this
discovery, each, according to his disposition, was indignant, approved,
or remained indifferent. Around the Emperor these various feelings were
mute. Caulaincourt broke out into the exclamation, that "it was an
atrocious cruelty. Here was a pretty specimen of the civilization which
we were introducing into Russia! What would be the effect of this
barbarity on the enemy? Were we not leaving our wounded and a multitude
of prisoners at his mercy? Did he want the means of wreaking the most
horrible retaliation?"

Napoleon preserved a gloomy silence, but on the ensuing day these
murders had ceased. These unfortunate people were then merely left to
die of hunger in the enclosures where, at night, they were confined like
cattle. This was no doubt a barbarity too; but what could we do?
Exchange them? the enemy rejected the proposal. Release them? they would
have gone and published the general distress, and, soon joined by
others, they would have returned to pursue us. In this mortal warfare,
to give them their lives would have been sacrificing our own. We were
cruel from necessity. The mischief arose from our having involved
ourselves in so dreadful an alternative.

Besides, in their march to the interior of Russia, our soldiers, who had
been made prisoners, were not more humanely treated, and there,
certainly, imperious necessity was not an excuse.

At length the troops arrived with the night at Gjatz; but this first day
of winter had been cruelly occupied. The sight of the field of battle,
and of the two forsaken hospitals, the multitude of waggons consigned to
the flames, the Russians with their brains blown out, the excessive
length of the march, the first severiti