e add a few words for each of their families. I wrote also to
Mayence, to the good couple of the _Capougner-Strasse_, who had been so
kind to me, telling them how I was forced to march without being able
to thank them, and asking their forgiveness for so doing.

That day, in the afternoon, we received our uniforms. Dozens of Jews
made their appearance and bought our old clothes. I kept only my shoes
and stockings. The Italians had great difficulty in making these
respectable merchants comprehend their wishes, but the Genoese were as
cunning as the Jews, and their bargainings lasted until night. Our
corporals received more than one glass of wine; it was policy to make
friends of them, for morning and evening they taught us the drill in
the snow-covered yard. The _cantiniere_ Christine was always at her
post with a warming-pan under her feet. She took young men of good
family into special favor, and the young men of good family were all
those who spent their money freely. Poor fools! How many of them
parted with their last _sou_ in return for her miserable flattery!
When that was gone they were mere beggars; but vanity rules all, from
the conscripts to the generals.

All this time recruits were constantly arriving from France, and
ambulances full of wounded from Poland. What a sight was that before
the hospital Saint Esprit on the other side of the river! It was a
procession without an end. All these poor wretches were frost-bitten;
some had their noses, some their ears frozen, others an arm, others a
leg! They were laid in the snow to prevent them from dropping to
pieces. Others got out of the carts clinging and holding on, and
looked at you like wild beasts, their eyes sunk in their heads, their
hair bristling up: the gypsies who sleep in nooks in the woods would
have had pity on them; and yet these were the best off, because they
escaped from the carnage, while thousands of their comrades had
perished in the snow, or on the battle-field. Klipfel, Zebede, Furst,
and I often went to see these poor wretches, and never did we see men
so miserably clad. Some wore jackets which once belonged to Cossacks,
crushed shakos, women's dresses, and many had only handkerchiefs wound
round their feet in lieu of shoes and stockings. They gave us a
history of the retreat from Moscow, and then we knew that the
twenty-ninth bulletin told only truth.

These stories enraged our men against the Russians. Many said, "If th