o give you? Your pillagers take all; there is not even time for
them to make you the offer. Turn your eyes round towards the entrance of
the imperial head-quarters. Do you see that man? He is all but naked; he
groans and extends towards you a hand of supplication. That unhappy man
who excites your pity, is one of those very nobles whose assistance you
look for: yesterday, he was hurrying to meet you, full of ardour, with
his daughter, his vassals, and his wealth; he was coming to present
himself to your emperor; but he met with some Wurtemberg pillagers on
his way, and was robbed of every thing; he is no longer a father,--he is
scarcely a man."

Every one shuddered, and hurried to assist him; Frenchmen, Germans,
Lithuanians, all agreed in deploring those disorders, for which no one
could suggest a remedy. How, in fact, was it possible to restore
discipline among such immense masses, so precipitately propelled,
conducted by so many leaders of different manners, characters, and
countries, and forced to resort to plunder for subsistence?

In Prussia, the emperor had only caused the army to supply itself with
provisions for twenty days. This was as much as was necessary for the
purpose of gaining Wilna by a battle. Victory was to have done the rest,
but that victory was postponed by the retreat of the enemy. The emperor
might have waited for his convoys; but as by surprising the Russians he
had separated them, he did not wish to forego his grasp and lose his
advantage. He, therefore, pushed forward on their track 400,000 men,
with twenty days' provisions, into a country which was incapable of
feeding the 20,000 Swedes of Charles XII.

It was not for want of foresight; for immense convoys of oxen followed
the army, either in herds, or attached to the provision cars. Their
drivers had been organized into battalions. It is true that the latter,
wearied with the slow pace of these heavy animals, either slaughtered
them, or suffered them to die of want. A great number, however, got as
far as Wilna and Minsk; some reached Smolensk, but too late; they could
only be of service to the recruits and reinforcements which followed us.

On the other hand, Dantzic contained so much corn, that she alone might
have fed the whole army; she also supplied Koenigsberg. Its provisions
had ascended the Pregel in large barges up to Vehlau, and in lighter
craft as far as Insterburg. The other convoys went by land-carriage from
Koenigsberg to Lab