ave that one night's
sleep. They thought nothing evil but hunger, thirst, and cold. When
there was no more wood or food or fire, horrible struggles took place
between fresh-comers and the rich who possessed a shelter. The weakest
succumbed.

At last there came a moment when a number, pursued by the Russians,
found only snow on which to bivouac, and these lay down to rise no more.
Insensibly this mass of almost annihilated beings became so compact, so
deaf, so torpid, so happy perhaps, that Marechal Victor, who had
been their heroic defender by holding twenty thousand Russians under
Wittgenstein at bay, was forced to open a passage by main force through
this forest of men in order to cross the Beresina with five thousand
gallant fellows whom he was taking to the emperor. The unfortunate
malingerers allowed themselves to be crushed rather than stir; they
perished in silence, smiling at their extinguished fires, without a
thought of France.

It was not until ten o'clock that night that Marechal Victor reached the
bank of the river. Before crossing the bridge which led to Zembin, he
confided the fate of his own rear-guard now left in Studzianka to Eble,
the savior of all those who survived the calamities of the Beresina.
It was towards midnight when this great general, followed by one brave
officer, left the cabin he occupied near the bridge, and studied the
spectacle of that improvised camp placed between the bank of the river
and Studzianka. The Russian cannon had ceased to thunder. Innumerable
fires, which, amid that trackless waste of snow, burned pale and
scarcely sent out any gleams, illumined here and there by sudden flashes
forms and faces that were barely human. Thirty thousand poor wretches,
belonging to all nations, from whom Napoleon had recruited his Russian
army, were trifling away their lives with brutish indifference.

"Let us save them!" said General Eble to the officer who accompanied
him. "To-morrow morning the Russians will be masters of Studzianka. We
must burn the bridge the moment they appear. Therefore, my friend, take
your courage in your hand! Go to the heights. Tell General Fournier
he has barely time to evacuate his position, force a way through this
crowd, and cross the bridge. When you have seen him in motion follow
him. Find men you can trust, and the moment Fournier had crossed
the bridge, burn, without pity, huts, equipages, caissons,
carriages,--EVERYTHING! Drive that mass of men to the