ven spirits; and,
lastly, they were reduced to water, which in its turn was frequently
wanting. The same was the case with dry provisions, and also with every
necessary of life; and in this gradual destitution, depression of mind
kept pace with the successive debilitation of the body. Agitated by a
vague inquietude, they marched on amid the dull uniformity of the vast
and silent forests of dark pines. They crept along these large trees,
bare and stripped to their very tops, and were affrighted at their
weakness amid this immensity. They then conceived gloomy and absurd
notions respecting the geography of these unknown regions; and, overcome
by a secret horror, they hesitated to penetrate farther into such vast
deserts.

From these sufferings, physical and moral, from these privations, from
these continual bivouacs, as dangerous near the pole as under the
equator, and from the infection of the air by the putrified carcases of
men and horses that strewed the roads, sprang two dreadful
epidemics--the dysentery and the typhus fever. The Germans first felt
their ravages; they are less nervous and less sober than the French; and
they were less interested in a cause which they regarded as foreign to
them. Out of 22,000 Bavarians who had crossed the Oder, 11,000 only
reached the Duena; and yet they had never been in action. This military
march cost the French one-fourth, and the allies half of their army.

Every morning the regiments started in order from their bivouacs; but
scarcely had they proceeded a few steps, before their widening ranks
became lengthened out into small and broken files; the weakest, being
unable to follow, dropped behind: these unfortunate wretches beheld
their comrades and their eagles getting farther and farther from them:
they still strove to overtake, but at length lost sight of them, and
then sank disheartened. The roads and the margins of the woods were
studded with them: some were seen plucking the ears of rye to devour the
grain; and they would then attempt, frequently in vain, to reach the
hospital, or the nearest village. Great numbers thus perished.

But it was not the sick only that separated from the army: many
soldiers, disgusted and dispirited on the one hand, and impelled by a
love of independence and plunder on the other, voluntarily deserted
their colours; and these were not the least resolute: their numbers soon
increased, as evil begets evil by example. They formed bands, and fixed