ur flank
with all his army with no other view than to feast his eyes with our
distress, and gather up our fragments."

Next day the march was continued with hesitation. The impatient
stragglers took the lead, and all of them got the start of Napoleon; he
was on foot, with a stick in his hand, walking with difficulty and
repugnance, and halting every quarter of an hour, as if unwilling to
tear himself from that old Russia, whose frontier he was then passing,
and in which he had left his unfortunate companions in arms.

In the evening he reached Dombrowna, a wooden town, with a population
like Liady; a novel sight for an army, which had for three months seen
nothing but ruins. We had at last emerged from old Russia and her
deserts of snow and ashes, and entered into a friendly and inhabited
country, whose language we understood. The weather just then became
milder, a thaw had begun, and we received some provisions.

Thus the winter, the enemy, solitude, and with some famine and bivouacs,
all ceased at once; but it was too late. The Emperor saw that his army
was destroyed; every moment the name of Ney escaped from his lips, with
exclamations of grief. That night particularly he was heard groaning and
exclaiming, "That the misery of his poor soldiers cut him to the heart,
and yet that he could not succour them without fixing himself in some
place: but where was it possible for him to rest, without ammunition,
provisions, or artillery? He was no longer strong enough to halt; he
must reach Minsk as quickly as possible."

He had hardly spoken the words, when a Polish officer arrived with the
news, that Minsk itself, his magazine, his retreat, his only hope, had
just fallen into the hands of the Russians, Tchitchakof having entered
it on the 16th. Napoleon, at first, was mute and overpowered at this
last blow; but immediately afterwards, elevating himself in proportion
to his danger, he coolly replied, "Very well! we have now nothing to do,
but to clear ourselves a passage with our bayonets."

But in order to reach this new enemy, who had escaped from
Schwartzenberg, or whom Schwartzenberg had perhaps allowed to pass, (for
we knew nothing of the circumstances,) and to escape from Kutusoff and
Wittgenstein, we must cross the Berezina at Borizof. With that view
Napoleon (on the 19th of November, from Dombrowna) sent orders to
Dombrowski to give up all idea of fighting Hoertel, and proceed with all
haste to occupy that passag