whilst Kutusoff himself, with the main army, advanced in a parallel direction, by a shorter, though less practicable, route. : Buonaparte, having failed in his first plan of marching upon Toula and Kaluga, was now compelled to adopt the other alternative suggested in the 25th bulletin, to return to Smolensko, by the way that he came and although it was absurd to suppose that he could expect to find winter quarters in the ruins of that town, yet the prospect of a friendly country,' even at the inconvenient distance of a hundred leagues from Poland, must have been extremely desirable but though we had been informed that the emperor intended to set out on the 24th' for this happy region, we find him, on the 27th, not farther advanced than Verreia, from whence the 27th bulletin is dated. In this paper we see the first symptoms of the rage of Buonaparte at the serious annoyance which his troops had lately received from the desultory attacks of the Cossacks. An anecdote too which has come to our knowledge, shews how sorely he felt on this subject; and is likewise so creditable to the distinguished officer mentioned in it, as to deserve insertion. General Winzingerode, who had been treacherously carried off on his entrance into Mosco with a flag of truce, was brought a prisoner to Verreia, and taken before Buonaparte, who immediately charged him in a violent tone with being the leader of the Cossacks, and at the same time threatened him with instant death; to which the general calmly replied, that he did not command the Cossacks, but a part of the regular army;' adding, that as a Russian soldier he was always prepared for a French bullet, and that it was a matter of perfect indifference to him whether he met his death by it in the field, or whilst a prisoner in the hands of the enemy.' The violence of Buonaparte's temper would have executed summary vengeance upon the general on this occasion; frequent orders were given that he should be shot; and the remonstrances of the French officers, who foresaw how severely so base an act might be visited upon themselves, alone preserved him from an ignominious death. The temper of the Corsican must surely have been soured by some severe disappointments, since his departure from Mosco; for, at that time, the bulletins tell us, he was so overflowing with the milk of human kindness, that, in the most unprecedented manner, and in a way, no doubt, which must have excited the astonishment of his generals, he refused to listen to the humane proposal which was made to him, of teaching the Russians to make war according to rule,' by burning every house within twenty miles of the place. The period was now approaching when this unworthy child of fortune was to be exposed to more severe trials than any he had be fore experienced; and the vial of wrath began to expend its fury upon his army. On the 28th he appears to have set forward from Ghijat for Smolensko, accompanied by a chosen body of 6000 horse, leaving Beauharnois to bring up his dispirited troops, who, during the rest of their retreat, scarcely saw a day elapse without sustaining some signal defeat. On the 1st of November, the advanced guard of the Russians," under Platoff, came up with the enemy at Kolotsk,' near the famous field of Borodino, and the French were defeated, with the loss of cannon and colours. On the 2d they were attacked by Count Orloff Denisoff, with nearly equal success, though a victory is claimed in the 27th bulletin. On the 3d, the division of Millaradovitch reached the main road, near Viasma, and after routing the rear-guard of the corps under Ney, Davoust, and Beauharnois, drove them, with great slaughter, through Viasma; the infantry charging into the town with drums beating and colours flying, and 'making a passage, (as it is expressed in the Russian accounts,) for the rest of the troops, over the dead bodies of the enemy.' The light cavalry, under Platoff, was dispatched in pursuit of Beauharnois, whose intention it was now to push for Vitepsk, by the way of Doughchtovstchina. The Cossacks, however, having come up with him on the 7th, he was attacked with such fury, that a temporary dispersion of his corps took place; and we are fortunately enabled to supply the deficiency occasioned by the silence of the French bulletins, in regard to these affairs, by the letter which was intercepted from the unfortunate viceroy to Berthier, dated Sassalie, Nov. 8. "Your highness,' says he, will be surprised at finding me still upon the Vop, but my situation is critical enough; whole trains of horses have perished in the harness at once: yesterday 400 died, and to-day perhaps double that number.-I must not conceal from your highness that great sacrifices must be expected; and that these three days of suffering have sc dispirited the soldier, that I believe him at this moment very little capable of making any effort: numbers of men are dead with hunger or cold, and others, in despair, have suffered themselves to be taken by the enemy.' On the 8th, we find, these jaded troops again pursued their march, and were again attacked by Platoff, who rates the captures from the enemy in these two hard fought actions at 3000 prisoners and 69 pieces of cannon. On the following day, Beauharnois, having received intelligence that Count Kutusoff had occupied Doughchtovstchina in force, abandoned his project of proceeding in that direction, and turned off to the left, for the Smolensko road; but he was a third time assailed by his evil genius, Platoff, at the passage of the Dnieper. The Cossacks killed a great many, but,' says the veteran, made few prisoners;' and indeed the small proportion of 200, to 33 pieces of cannon, taken on this occasion, is sufficient sufficient proof of the truth of his statement. On the same day, in another quarter, general Augereau was taken; and the first instance occurred during the campaign, of the surrender of a French corps without firing a gun: he had advanced from Smolensko, ignorant of the movements of the army, with the intention of penetrating to Kaluga; but the force under his command, whilst in separate bodies, was so vigorously attacked by three partizan corps, detached by Count Orloff Denisoff, that the greater part were either cut to pieces, or taken. General Millaradovitch, in the mean time, having defeated the French, under Ney and Davoust, at Dorogobuz, on the 7th, was pursuing his march to rejoin Kutusoff, who was advancing, in a parallel direction, to the southward, at no great distance from the main road, upon Krasnoi, a town a little to the south-west of Smolensko; and so formidable a position, that no doubt the French would have attempted to anticipate his movements, had they not absurdly imagined that he was pursuing on the road upon which they were retreating. The operations on the Dwina during this period had been most ably conducted by that distinguished officer Count Wittgenstein. In conjunction with General Steinheil, who was opposed to Macdonald, he had foiled the enemy in every attempt. On the 20th of October St. Cyr was attacked, and driven into Polotzk with great loss, and during the night the town was carried by storm in the most gallant manner; the assailants charging the enemy through the flames which they had raised for their defence. Wittgenstein had subsequently defeated the remains of the same corps, commanded by Le Grand, (St. Cyr having been wounded,) though reinforced by 15,000 of Victor's corps, at Tchasniki, on the 31st; on the 6th he had carried Vitepsk by assault, and was now advancing upon Orsha, and enabled to communicate with Tchitzagoff, who was moving upon Minsk. The motions of Buonaparte, during the whole of these transactions, were perfectly unknown; but by the 28th bulletin, dated from Smolensko, 11th November, we find that the Emperor's health never was better.' Though this intelligence spoke much for the soundness of his constitution, it only served to mark more strongly the cold and unfeeling composition of his heart. We can conceive no situation more trying than that of a general doomed to witness the dispersion of his followers, and the distresses which his own temerity have brought upon his army. We are told that Cortez, albeit unused to the melting mood,' when mustering his troops on the morning after the melancholy night when he was compelled to retire from Mexico, could not refrain from tears at the recollection of the many faithful associates who had fallen in the conflict. His troops observed with pleasure, the historian goes goes on to state, that while attentive to the duties of a general, he was not insensible to the feelings of a man, and they were supported during the whole of their disastrous retreat, by the magnanimity of their commander, who cheerfully shared with them in every hardship.' The French army received no such encouragement from the example of their leader. In the midst of the general distress, we find him merely attentive to his own ease, and insulting the miseries of his fatigued and famished followers by travelling in a close carriage, wrapped up in furs, and meditating on the most practicable mode of securing his escape. Had not the intercepted letters, from which we have already given extracts, been sufficiently convincing, it was now quite clear from the admissions in the 28th bulletin, that Buonaparte had failed most egregiously in all his calculations. This great captain, who had so confidently marched against one of the most powerful, and populous states of modern Europe, was now discovered to be deficient in the foresight which is necessary to conduct the commonest operations. That he should have been overreached by the Jews with whom he contracted to supply his army with provisions on their march, is not surprising-but he appears now for the first time to have found out that night bivouackings were very injurious to troops in inclement weather-that the ground in Russia was covered with snow in November, and that icy roads were slippery, and difficult for carriage horses. The Cossacks too were now allowed to be somewhat troublesome in their incessant attacks; and though no mention is made of the number of those men who are acknowledged to have died by cold, and fatigue, 5000 horses are admitted to have perished in the short space of five days. Since the time of Cambyses, whose troops, in their retreat from the mad expedition against Ethiopia, are said to have decimated their numbers in order to afford food for the survivors, we believe no body of men were ever exposed to such accumulated distress as that which the French now suffered. They fly pursued by fear and terror,' says one Russian account, which conveys more in its simplicity than is often met with in more finished compositions, having no food, they are forced to eat dead horses,-forced to do what their polished contemporaries will scarcely believe-feed upon the bodies of their own brethren. The roads on which they fondly dreamt to return in triumph, are covered with their dead; their sick and wounded are thrown aside in their march, and left to perish with famine and cold.' We have reason to believe that this representation, though shocking to humanity, is by no means exaggerated, as we have heard from several officers who served in the campaign, that their prisoners, in many instances, died before they could count them; that the road between Mosco and Smolensko was almost impassable for a carriage from the number of dead bodies; and that in several places the French soldiers were discovered, roasting the flesh of their comrades on the points of their bayonets. The uninterrupted success of the gallant Wittgenstein had long excited the fury of Buonaparte, and the forward movement which he was now making from Vitepsk, rendered it of the utmost importance to check his progress; Victor was accordingly ordered to drive him across the Dwina:' but he had to deal with a general who had not lost one inch of ground since the commencement of the campaign, and he shared the same fate as those who had formerly attempted a similar service, on the 14th of November; and such was the masterly manner in which the manoeuvres were conducted on this day, that the French retired to Senno after sustaining a loss of 3000 men. It was on this occasion that some new raised militia, on receiving orders to fall back, refused, saying, The Emperor had not sent them to retire, but to advance and beat the enemy, which they were willing to do.' Buonaparte had now been long enough at Smolensko to be convinced that its ruins would no more afford shelter for the winter, to his worn-out soldiers, than those of Mosco; and that it was necessary, as he states, to put himself again in movement during so cruel a season.' He now hoped to penetrate to Minsk, or at least to gain the Beresina. Accordingly, on the 16th the French advanced to Krasnoi, and Millaradovitch, who commanded the advanced guard of the Russian army, was sent forward by Kutusoff to watch their motions. On the following day the corps of Davoust was attacked by this active officer; a desperate battle ensued, but in the end the French were completely defeated and dispersed, leaving 9000 prisoners in the hands of the Russians, and, amongst other trophies, the bâton of Davoust. Buonaparte, who was himself in the field, fled towards Liady, leaving his troops to their fate. This engagement, however, was only a prelude to one more fatal to the French on the next day. Ney, anxious to retrieve the fallen fortunes of his master, advanced under cover of a thick fog against the Russian lines, but such was the effect of the tremendous discharge of artillery, and musketry, with which he was received at the distance of forty paces, that at midnight his whole corps, to the number of 12,000 men, laid down their arms. Nor could the name of Prince of Mojaisk, with which their leader had been lately decorated by Buonaparte, with the same ridiculous liberality that had before induced him to bestow titles, principalities and dukedoms, over which he had no control, preserve him from being desperately wou ded, |