attempted near
Studzianka; that at that spot the river was only fifty-four fathoms
wide, and six feet deep; that they would land on the other side, in a
marsh, under the fire of a commanding position strongly occupied by the
enemy.

CHAP. III.

All hope of passing between the Russian armies was thus lost; driven by
the armies of Kutusoff and Wittgenstein upon the Berezina, there was no
alternative but to cross that river in the teeth of the army of
Tchitchakof, which lined its banks.

Ever since the 23d, Napoleon had been preparing for it, as for a
desperate action. And first he had the eagles of all the corps brought
to him, and burnt. He formed into two battalions, eighteen hundred
dismounted cavalry of his guard, of whom only eleven hundred and
fifty-four were armed with muskets and carbines.

The cavalry of the army of Moscow was so completely destroyed, that
Latour-Maubourg had not now remaining under his command more than one
hundred and fifty men on horseback. The Emperor collected around his
person all the officers of that arm who were still mounted; he styled
this troop, of about five hundred officers, his _sacred squadron_.
Grouchy and Sebastiani had the command of them; generals of division
served in it as captains.

Napoleon ordered further that all the useless carriages should be burnt;
that no officer should keep more than one; that half the waggons and
carriages of all the corps should also be burnt, and that the horses
should be given to the artillery of the guard. The officers of that arm
had orders to take all the draught-cattle within their reach, even the
horses of the Emperor himself, sooner than abandon a single cannon, or
ammunition waggon.

After giving these orders, he plunged into the gloomy and immense forest
of Minsk, in which a few hamlets and wretched habitations have scarcely
cleared a few open spots. The noise of Wittgenstein's artillery filled
it with its echo. That Russian general came rushing from the north upon
the right flank of our expiring column; he brought back with him the
winter which had quitted us at the same time with Kutusoff; the news of
his threatening march quickened our steps. From forty to fifty thousand
men, women, and children, glided through this forest as precipitately as
their weakness and the slipperiness of the ground, from the frost
beginning again to set in, would allow.

These forced marches, commenced before daylight, and which did not
fin