she became tranquil. Ashamed of
her excesses, she admired herself in him, and precipitating herself into
his glory, she had united Europe under his sceptre, and obedient Europe
rose at his call to drive back Russia within her ancient limits. It
seemed as if the North was in his turn about to be vanquished, even
among his own ices.

And yet this great man, with these great circumstances in his favour,
could not subdue nature! In this powerful effort to re-ascend that rapid
declivity, so many forces failed him! After reaching these icy regions
of Europe, he was precipitated from their very summit. The North,
victorious over the South in her defensive war, as she had been in the
middle ages in her offensive one, now believes herself invulnerable and
irresistible.

Comrades, believe it not! Ye might have triumphed over that soil and
these spaces, that climate, and that rough and gigantic nature, as ye
had conquered its soldiers.

But some errors were punished by great calamities! I have related both
the one and the other. On that ocean of evils I have erected a
melancholy beacon of gloomy and blood-red light; and if my feeble hand
has been insufficient for the painful task, at least I have exhibited
the floating wrecks, in order that those who come after us may see the
peril and avoid it.

Comrades, my task is finished; it is now for you to bear your testimony
to the truth of the picture. Its colours will no doubt appear pale to
your eyes and to your hearts, which are still full of these great
recollections. But which of you is ignorant that an action is always
more eloquent than its description; and that if great historians are
produced by great men, the first are still more rare than the last?

Volume I

London: Printed by Thomas Davison,
Whitefriars.

Volume II

London: Printed by C. Roworth.
Bell yard, Temple Bar.

Transcriber's Notes:

This was a book of two volumes, written by a Frenchman and printed in
English by different printers. As a result there was a wide variation in
spelling.

Original spelling was retained except where noted.

Thus corses for corpses, tressels for trestles, Dantzic for Danzig.

Table of Contents, Volume II, Book IX, Chapter II, Jaroslavetz changed
to Yaroslawetz to conform to text. Also for Chapters IV and V of same.

Table of Contents, Winkowo changed to Vinkowo to conform to much of
text.

Table of Contents, Doubrowna changed to Dombrowna.

The use of Ch