o drive in the
extreme left and right divisions respectively of Napoleon's attenuated
line, and then to concentrate at Borrissoff and attack the main French
army retreating before Kutusoff. So far the various parts of this
scheme had been successfully executed. Borrissoff and its bridge were
still in possession of a Polish regiment; but the garrison was very
small, and could not repulse the attack of the converging Russian
columns or of any portion of them. It behooved Napoleon, therefore, to
move swiftly if his few remaining troops were to cross the Beresina in
safety. It was in this frightful dilemma that Ney at last appeared.
Said Napoleon, when the news was brought to him: "If an hour ago I had
been asked for the three millions I have in the Tuileries vaults as
the price of this event, I would have handed them over." The marshal's
presence was in itself a splendid encouragement.

Purchasing such stores as Jewish contractors offered, abandoning the
heavy pontoons, and hitching the horses to a few field-pieces found in
the park, the undaunted Emperor sent orders to both Victor and
Oudinot, enjoining them to make forced marches and meet him at
Borrissoff. On the twenty-first, amid the slush, mud, and broken cakes
of crust, he started his own army on a swift despairing rush for that
crucial point. It was too late; that very day Tchitchagoffs van, after
a stubborn and bloody struggle, occupied the town and captured the
all-important bridge. The thaw had opened the river, and its
overflowing stream, more than sixty yards in width, was full of
floating ice. To the Russians it seemed as if Napoleon were already
taken in their snare, and Tchitchagoff issued a general order that all
captives below medium stature should be brought to him. "He is short,
stout, pale; has a short, thick neck, and black hair," ran his
description of the "author of Europe's miseries." By a special decree
of the Czar, all the French prisoners of war were kindly treated, each
being furnished with warm clothing at an expense of about twenty
dollars.

CHAPTER XXX

THE HORRORS OF THE BERESINA[45]

[Footnote 45: References: Bertin, La campagne de 1812,
d'apres des temoins oculaires. Du Casse, Memoires a
l'histoire de la campagne de 1812 en Russie. Exner, Der
Antheil der Koenigl. Saechsischen Armee am Feldzuge gegen
Russland, 1812. Lafon, Histoire de la conjuration du Gen.
Malet, avec des d