es deserted
by the enemy were plundered as soon as we entered them: we passed them
in all possible haste and in disorder.

The streams were crossed by fords which were soon spoiled; the regiments
which came afterwards passed over in other places, wherever they could.
No one gave himself much concern about such details, which were
neglected by the general staff: no person was left to point out the
danger, where there was any, or the road, if there were several. Each
_corps d'armee_ seemed to be there for itself alone, each division, each
individual to be unconnected with the rest; as if the fate of one had
not depended on that of the other.

The army every where left stragglers behind it, and men who had lost
their way, whom the officers passed without noticing; there would have
been too many to find fault with; and besides, each was too much
occupied with himself to attend to others. Many of these men were
marauders, who feigned illness or a wound, to separate from the rest,
which there was not time to prevent, and which will always be the case
in large armies, that are urged forward with such precipitation, as
individual order cannot exist in the midst of general disorder.

As far as Liady the villages appeared to us to be more Jewish than
Polish; the Lithuanians sometimes fled at our approach; the Jews always
remained; nothing could have induced them to forsake their wretched
habitations; they might be known by their thick pronunciation, their
voluble and hasty way of speaking, the vivacity of their motions, and
their complexion, animated by the base passion of lucre. We noticed in
particular their eager and piercing looks, their faces and features
lengthened out into acute points, which a malicious and perfidious smile
cannot widen; their tall, slim, and supple form; the earnestness of
their demeanour, and lastly, their beards, usually red, and their long
black robes, tightened round their loins by a leather girdle; for every
thing but their filthiness distinguishes them from the Lithuanian
peasants; every thing about them bespeaks a degraded people.

They seem to have conquered Poland, where they swarm, and the whole
substance of which they extract. Formerly their religion, at present the
sense of a reprobation too long universal, have made them the enemies of
mankind; of old they attacked with arms, at present by cunning. This
race is abhorred by the Russians, perhaps on account of its enmity to
image-worship,