ihilated, it was
disbanded; some of his regiments were virtually destroyed. The living
were gaunt, exhausted, and ill with hunger; an eye-witness declared
that but for the arrival, about noon, of some Jewish traders from
Warsaw with four tuns of brandy, thousands would have perished from
cold and fatigue. The dead were strewn thick over the field, and in
some places were piled in heaps. On the white background of a Northern
winter the carnage was terribly apparent; the prowlers who skulked
from place to place in search of booty could be distinguished in all
directions. Marauding began on a frightful scale, discipline was
slackened by misery, and for miles around thousands of wretched
soldiers stripped the scarcely less wretched peasantry of their few
remaining bits of property.

The army was eager to be gone from these sickening sights. But
Bennigsen had technically admitted defeat by his withdrawal, which the
Prussians characterized as "a sin and a shame." Napoleon, therefore,
waited to secure his victory, and formally despatched a few parties in
pursuit. Murat advanced to within touch of Bennigsen, who had taken
his position under the walls of Koenigsberg. At the same time the
Emperor dictated a glowing account of the French triumph and of the
admirable condition of the army. It was at once despatched for
publication in the official journals of Paris. Soon afterward, on
February thirteenth, a messenger carried to Frederick William verbal
proposals for either an armistice or a separate peace on most
favorable terms. In these Napoleon set forth that the relation of
Prussia to Russia was mere vassalage, and that her rehabilitation as
an independent power was essential to the peace of Europe, agreeing to
restore her lands as far as the Elbe, and saying that as to Poland he
cared nothing whatever. The confident feeling of the allies was shown
by the Prussian king's prompt refusal to accept such overtures, and by
his determination to abide by the issue. On the other hand, the mere
fact of the proposition was evidence of Napoleon's anxiety. It is said
on good authority that the French emissary verbally offered the
complete restoration of Prussia if she would desert her ally.

Stern necessity would wait no longer on Napoleon's bravado; in a few
days his troops withdrew to the tableland behind the river Passarge.
There they found better cantonments, but the food was neither better
nor more abundant. The Emperor had only a th