"War, is that the name?

War is as frightful as Heaven's pestilence."

WALLENSTEIN.

The grand army, disorganized and broken up, no longer preserved the regular line of march. To give the young reader some idea of the actual state of things, it will be necessary to transcribe the narrative of an eye-witness. The Sieur René Bourgeois, gives the following description of the terrible retreat from Moscow.

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Generals, officers, and soldiers, marched together; excess of misery confounded all dis

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tinction of rank, and abolished all military order. Cavalry, artillery, infantry all was pellmell. The greater part had a bag of flour on their shoulders, and had a pot attached by a cord to their side. Others led by the bridle shadows of horses, who carried the cooking implements and their miserable stock of provisions.

These horses were themselves more valuable food than that they carried, and when they fell, their masters dispatched them-carefully preserving the fleshy parts to serve them for food. As most of the corps of the army were dissolved, a great many little communities were formed out of the wreck of these companies, composed of eight or ten individuals, who united themselves together upon the march, and had all things in common. Most of these coteries had a horse to carry their baggage, and each member was provided with a sack for provisions. These little communities were detached entirely from the general mass, and maintained an isolated existence, driving away all those who did not

belong to them. Every individual of the family marched side by side, taking the greatest care not to be separated among the crowd. Woe to him who lost his coteries! he found nowhere any person who took the slightest interest in him, or would afford him the smallest assistance. Above all, he was ill-treated and persecuted, and was driven without mercy from fires to which he had no right; nor did he find any peace till he regained his own party. Napoleon witnessed these strange scenes which passed continually under his eyes; for the whole mass were fugitives, or dis-organized men.

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"We marched heavily," continues the narrator, over those untracked snows, through vast forests of pines, and across immense plains.

“Here those unfortunate persons, whose health was undermined, sunk under the weight of their misfortunes, and expired in torments, a prey to the most violent despair. There some threw themselves upon any solitary individual, whom they suspected possessed provisions, which they

tore from him, notwithstanding his terrible oaths and frantic resistance.

"On every side were seen sinister figures, persons mutilated by the frost or horror-stricken! In one word, fear, grief, famine, cold, and death, were in every place.

"To endure these frightful calamities that hung over us, required a soul full of energy and an immoveable courage. In the midst of surrounding horrors we saw some who calmly and intrepidly supported every vicissitude and braved every danger-who, compelled to behold death in the most hideous shapes, accustomed themselves to look him in the face without dread. Deaf to the cries of pain or grief that resounded on every side, if any poor creature sunk upon the snow under their eyes, they turned them away coldly, and without betraying any emotion, continued their march. We marched constantly with hasty strides in silence and with drooping head, and we only stopped when the night closed in.

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However fatigued or hungry we might be, it was necessary to bestir ourselves, to procure some lodging, or at least some shelter from the bitter north wind. We ran to houses, farms, outbuildings, and granaries, till these were so full, that no one could either come in or go out. Those who could not get in established themselves under the walls as close as they could. Their first care was to get wood and straw for the bivouac; to obtain these necessaries, they climbed the houses, (which were all of wood,) and tore down the roofs, the posts, and often finished by pulling them to pieces over the heads of those who had established themselves within, in spite of their resistance. If the besieged made good their defence, the besiegers often set fire to the building, and thus compelled them to leave the asylum they had chosen. This always happened when general officers had driven out the first possessors.

"It soon became the custom to pull down the villages, and construct temporary huts with the