y, and pressed them to their
bosoms with the tenderest compassion. The refreshments and brandy which
they had just received they lavished upon them; they overwhelmed them
with questions. They then all proceeded together in company, towards
Orcha, all impatient, Eugene's soldiers to hear, and Ney's to tell their
story.

CHAP. VIII.

They stated, that on the 17th of November they had quitted Smolensk with
twelve cannon, six thousand infantry, and three hundred cavalry, leaving
there five thousand sick at the mercy of the enemy; and that had it not
been for the noise of Platof's cannon, and the explosion of the mines,
their marshal would never have been able to bring away from the ruins of
that city seven thousand unarmed stragglers who had taken shelter in
them. They dwelt upon the attentions which their leader had shown to the
wounded, and to the women and their children, proving upon this occasion
that the bravest was again the most humane.

At the gates of the city an unnatural action struck them with a degree
of horror which was still undiminished. A mother had abandoned her
little son, only five years old; in spite of his cries and tears she had
driven him away from her sledge which was too heavily laden. She herself
cried out with a distracted air, "that _he_ had never seen France! that
_he_ would not regret it! as for _her_, _she_ knew France! _she_ was
resolved to see France once more!" Twice did Ney himself replace the
unfortunate child in the arms of his mother, twice did she cast him off
on the frozen snow.

This solitary crime, amidst a thousand instances of the most devoted and
sublime tenderness, they did not leave unpunished. The unnatural mother
was herself abandoned to the same snow from which her infant was
snatched, and entrusted to another mother; this little orphan was
exhibited in their ranks; he was afterwards seen at the Berezina, then
at Wilna, even at Kowno, and finally escaped from all the horrors of the
retreat.

The officers of Ney continued, in answer to the pressing questions of
those of Eugene; they depicted themselves advancing towards Krasnoe,
with their marshal at their head, completely across our immense wrecks,
dragging after them one afflicted multitude, and preceded by another,
whose steps were quickened by hunger.

They described how they found the bottom of each ravine filled with
helmets, hussar-caps, trunks broken open, scattered garments, carriages
and cannon, so