ect of those which were before them.
Others sternly resolved to battle with their destiny; and, finding they
had nothing to rely on but themselves, they determined to live at all
hazards.

Thenceforward, according as they found themselves the stronger or the
weaker, by violence or stealth they plundered their companions of their
subsistence, of their garments, and of the gold with which they had
filled their knapsacks instead of provisions. These wretches, whom
despair had thus made robbers, then threw away their arms to save their
infamous booty, profiting by the general confusion, an obscure name, a
uniform no longer distinguishable, and night: in short, by every kind of
concealment favorable to cowardice and guilt. If works already published
had not exaggerated these horrors, I should have passed over in silence
such terrible details; for atrocities so extreme were, after all,
comparatively rare, and justice was dealt to the most criminal.

On the 9th of November the emperor arrived amid this scene of
desolation. He shut himself up in one of the houses in the new square,
and never quitted it till the 14th to resume his retreat. He had
calculated upon fifteen days' provisions and forage for an army of one
hundred thousand men; but there was not more than half this quantity of
flour, rice, and spirits, and no meat at all. Cries of rage were now
directed against the principal individual appointed to provide these
supplies; and the commissary saved his life only by prostrating himself
on his knees at the feet of Napoleon, and remaining in that posture for
a long time. But the reasons which he assigned for his failure did more
for him than his supplications.

Many of these reasons were well founded. A chain of other magazines had
been formed from Smolensk to Minsk and Wilna. These two towns were, in a
still greater degree than Smolensk, centres of provisioning, of which
the fortresses of the Vistula formed the first line. The total quantity
of provisions, indeed, distributed over this space was incalculable; the
efforts for transporting them thither had been gigantic; while the
result was little better than nothing. Scattered over such a vast
extent, immense as they were, they were found wholly insufficient.

Thus great expeditions are crushed by their own weight. Human limits had
been surpassed: the genius of Napoleon, in attempting to soar above
time, climate, and distance, had, as it were, lost itself in space;
gre