support the cold and fatigue, they sank and stiffened by thousands; all discipline was banished except from a few battalions kept together to protect the rear by the personal exertions of marshal Ney; the rest dispersed themselves over the fields, and many sunk to rise no more; others were swept away by the Cossacks. 29. In this deplorable plight they reached Smolensko, where they hoped to find some respite from their woes, but that town had been, as we have seen, almost destroyed by the Russians; its roofless houses and blackened walls afforded but little shelter, its exhausted magazines supplied no food. The retreat was continued, but the Russians now made several desperate assaults on the different French divisions, and every where defeated them. Ney, however, managed to preserve the shattered remnant of his battalions, by passing over the thin ice that had just formed on the Dnieper; the waggons containing the wounded attempted to pass over this frail bridge, but the ice broke, and the waggons sunk amid the shrieks of the wretched sufferers, and the groans of their helpless comrades.

30. The grand army, which had mustered 120,000 men when leaving Moscow, hardly exceeded a tenth of that number when it was joined by the divisions of Victor and Oudinot, who, though defeated by Wittgenstein, still mustered about 50,000 men. Had the Russians taken advantage of their vast superiority, and poured their united forces on the retreating army, a messenger would not have escaped to convey the news of their ruin to France. 31. The passage of the Beresina was one of the most fearful scenes in this series of horrors, though the Russians, by the most culpable negligence, did not avail themselves of the opportunity of preventing it altogether. The divisions of Wittgenstein and Platoff arrived on the heights commanding the rear, before the army had completed its passage. When the Russian cannon opened on the crowd assembled on the bank, eager to place the river between themselves and the enemy, it produced a scene of indescribable confusion. Men, women, horses, waggons, rushed in one mass to the larger bridge; the weight was too great for its frail timbers, it broke, and the multitude were at once precipitated into the half-frozen stream. The universal shriek which announced this calamity was heard loud and clear above the roar of artillery and the hurrahs of the Cossacks. The remaining bridge stood firm, but the crowd that hurried over its narrow planks under the dreadful fire of the Russian artillery fell into the stream by hundreds, swept away by the fierce

shower of shot, or thrown over by their comrades.* Victor, who had gallantly maintained his post, led his division over the bridge by night and then set it on fire, abandoning to their fate his wounded soldiers, and the attendants of the camp.

32. The remainder of the retreat was equally disastrous; entire companies were frozen to death, or cut off by the indefatigable Cossacks, who, as their leader observed, “killed many, but made few prisoners." It is, however, painful to dwell on these horrors, of which the most vivid description would convey but a faint idea. On the 5th of December, Napoleon having learned that a conspiracy for the subversion of his government had been formed in France itself, hastily abandoned his army, and having narrowly escaped being made prisoner, arrived at Warsaw, from whence he proceeded to Paris.

33. The French were driven from Poland by the Cossacks, and at length the miserable remains of this mighty host took shelter in the dominions of Prussia, where they were hospitably received by the inhabitants, who generously forgot the oppression to which they had been subjected, when they saw the miserable state to which their oppressors had been reduced. 34. The losses of the French in this disastrous campaign have been variously estimated; but the following list will be found tolerably accurate. Of the invading army there were

Among the prisoners were forty-eight generals, and nearly three thousand regimental officers. The Russians captured also seventy-five eagles and standards, together with nearly a thousand pieces of cannon.

The following extract from a recent writer, exhibits a curious picture of the state of affairs in Paris on the approach of the allied army to that city. "The Parisians, as was the case during the wars of the league, shut their eyes to the impending danger. Even when the cannon of the allied army were within hearing, the mass of the people felt little

The Russians declare that when the ice of the Beresina broke up in the following year, 36,000 dead bodies were discovered in the bed of the river.

alarm, so totally ignorant were they of the number of the enemy, and so entirely confident in the "fortune" of their emperor, who, they doubted not, would soon surround the invaders, and take them all prisoners. As some excuse for this blind folly, it ought to be added that every thing was done on the part of the government to encourage the delusion of the people. The number of the enemy was represented as being only. thirty or forty thousand, and the newspapers, which were all under the direction of the government, propagated the most barefaced falsehoods. Defeats were passed over, and every trifling advantage was magnified into a great victory. To favour this deceit, every prisoner of war that could be mustered was paraded with great ceremony through Paris.

The

All who were immediately connected with Buonaparte, were doubtless very well informed on the subject. empress retired to Blois on the first approach of the allies, taking with her fifteen wagon loads of treasure. An English gentleman gives a curious account of what he saw in Paris at this interesting period. "At daybreak of the morning," he says, "on which the empress left Paris, the disorder which had reigned all night in the Tuilleries was exposed to the public. The window shutters being opened, the wax lights in the chandeliers were seen expiring in their sockets. The ladies were seen running from room to room, some weeping and in the greatest distraction, and servants hurrying from place to place in like confusion."

Farewell to the land where the gloom of my glory
Arose and o'ershadow'd the earth with her name-
She abandons me now-but the page of her story,
The brightest or blackest is fill'd with my fame.
I have warr'd with a world which vanquish'd me only
When the meteor of conquest allur'd me too far.

I have coped with the nations that dread me thus lonely;
The last single captive to millions in war.

A. D.

1813.

BYRON.

1. THE arrival of Napoleon in Paris announced to the French nation the great misfortune by which they had been overtaken; but their confidence in the fortune of the emperor was not yet shaken, and the most amazing exertions were made throughout France for the com

mencement of a new campaign. 2. It was soon known that the Prussians had joined the alliance with Sweden and Russia; and that the patriotic exertions of the people to supply resources for the war, exceeded the demands of their sovereign. Napoleon, undaunted by calamities, soon found himself at the head of 350,000 men, and hasted to Germany, with a confident hope that a battle such as Jena or Austerlitz would again make him the master of Europe. 3. On the 18th of April, Napoleon joined his army and advanced to meet the allies in Saxony. The activity with which he had repaired his losses was a powerful contrast to the negligence of his opponents; in fact, the Russians had not brought half their disposable forces across the Vistula, while Napoleon had raised a new army and equipped them for the field. The allies were now outnumbered and defeated in two desperate battles; but the French gained nothing by the victory, no cannon or prisoners were taken.

4. Perceiving all the obstacles which he had to encounter, Napoleon began now to entertain some thoughts of peace; an armistice was agreed on in June, and conferences were opened at Prague under the mediation of Austria. 5. They continued until the 10th of August, but produced no effect, for the French emperor would not forego his usurpations in Spain and Italy, neither would he consent to restore the independence of Germany. It was in vain that his ministers represented to him the danger of arming all Europe against his person; it was in vain that Austria gave unequivocal proofs of her determination to join the allies; Napoleon persisted, until it was too late to retrace his steps. 6. On the 10th of August, Austria joined the allies; the French emperor, alarmed by the news which he had received from Spain, attempted to renew the negociations, but the allies would no longer listen to his offers.

7. It was late in May when Lord Wellington commenced his last and most glorious Spanish campaign. The French retreated before him until they had concentrated their forces, under the command of marshal Jourdan and Joseph Buonaparte, at Vittoria. On the 21st of June, the English having possessed themselves of some heights previously occupied by the French, a general engagement ensued. The English gained a complete victory, their enemies retreated so rapidly, that they abandoned all their baggage and artillery; one hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, with more than four hundred waggons of ammunition, fell into the hands of the conquerors; the vanquished army, after suffering severely in their retreat,