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and heightened by false colouring: but from him we learn, that every day he recorded the events that passed around him, and that he now simply endeavours to communicate the impression which he then felt. It was by the light of the burning of Moscow that he described the destruction of that unfortunate city. It was on the borders of the Beresina that he sketched the decription of that fatal passage. By the command of Prince Eugene he took on the spot the plans of the battles of Moskwa, and Malo-Jaroslavitz.

"It is scarcely possible to conceive what difficulties I had to surmount in the progress of my work. Compelled, like my companions in arms, to struggle with the most urgent necessities, pierced by the cold, tormented with hunger, a prey to every accumulated horror; uncertain at the rising of the sun, whether I should see its setting rays, and doubtful at night, whether I should witness the morrow's dawn; every thought seemed concentrated in the ardent desire to live, that I might perpetuate the memory of what I had seen. Animated by this irresistible feeling, I retraced, each night, the events of the day, sitting beside a wretched fire, under a temperature of twenty or twenty-two degrees below the freezing point, and surrounded by the dying and the dead. The knife with which I had carved my scanty morsel of horse-flesh, was employed in cutting a raven's quill, and a little gunpowder, mixed with some melted snow, in the hollow of my hand, served for ink and inkstand." Preface, p. ix.

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In the whole course of this narrative M. Labaume speaks of Napoleon with moderation and reserve, and very worthy of notice is the interesting struggle which he feels between the indignation of the man, and the reverence to his general, which, as a soldier, he had been taught to consider as his paramount duty.

"Often," says he, "I could scarcely restrain my indignation against the author of all our misfortunes. But the respect with which his former well-earned reputation had inspired me, and the memory of the glorious victories that I had witnessed, and in the honours of which I had shared, compelled me to speak of that conqueror with moderation and reserve."

In order to heighten the effect of his narrative, M. Labaume has preserved the memory of different anecdotes. Indeed some of them must unfortunately happen in every campaign, and our soldiers may relate many events of the same description, which during the war on the Peninsula, happened to the Spanish ladies who had taken refuge in our camp, or were flying before our troops; to the English women who were following their husbands, who having loaded themselves with the spoils of the

dead

dead or of the conquered, lost themselves without saving their riches; to strangers, who, desirous of witnessing the tremendous sight of an army in action, increased the disorder of the retreat, and were exposed to greater inconveniences than the lowest soldier; to the wounded who had been left on the field, and who were stripped long before they were dead; to stragglers who had abandoned their ranks, urged either by the love of plunder, or overwhelmed by excess of fatigue. The fact is, that at all times a retreat produces the greatest disorder, even in a well disciplined army; and the horrors of the plunder and conflagration of a conquered city cannot be understood but by those who have been eye-witnesses of the awful catastrophe. In this respect, to our shame and sorrow, we must confess that all nations are alike, and the severe but necessary measures which Sir John Moore and the Duke of Wellington were constrained to adopt, prove that even the English were not an exception to this general rule.

However before we enter into the analysis of the narrative, we ought to inform the reader that we take for granted that the translator has done his duty; that he has preserved the spirit of the original, and the fidelity of the meaning; and in short that he has not given his own thoughts mixed with those of M. Labaume. We consider ourselves so much the more justified in taking all this for granted, since more than once we have met with passages that would have shaken even the credulity of an English mob, and which we should have been inclined to consider as an additional and foreign ornament, rather than forming a part of the original design. Besides the appearance of their not fitting the tout ensemble of the work, we could not by any means put them in French, without destroying the ease of the narration, and without perceiving an awkwardness in the turn of the sentence, which altered the style and spoiled the whole. But not having been able to consult the original we will rather condemn ouselves, than mistrust our unknown translator, who has enriched our language with this interesting production of M. Labaume.

However, by way of justifying ourselves, we must observe, that we were not a little startled at the title page, in which we are told, that this "third edition," is "considerably improved." But as this But as this may be explained in many ways, and may signify not only a proper attention bestowed on the letter press, but also unwarrantable liberties taken with the work, we shall be satisfied should all this considerable improvement extend no further than the goodness of the paper and the accuracy of the impression, and in this hope we proceed to lay before our readers an abstract of the narrative of the campaign in Russia.

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M. La

M. Labaume opens his narrative with a short account of the causes that led to the war. This is certainly the worst part of the book, for though what he says may be perfectly true, yet we conceive Buonaparte to have had other objects in view, besides the ambition of atchieving new conquests, when he engaged in this memorable war. That his ambition might have supplied an additional incentive to his other motives, we do not mean to deny; but yet we shall be justified in asserting, that if Russia had not opposed his continental system, by which the ruin of this country was to have been effected, Napoleon would never have thought of his romantic expedition to Moscow. Be it as it will, having resolved on the war he collected an immense force, and divided the whole of his army into eight corps of infantry, and each of them containing at least three divisions, and one body of cavalry. To these were joined the imperial guards, composed of about fifty thousand men; and three great corps of cavalry, under the name of reserve. The total of his forces amounted to three hundred thousand infantry, and sixty thousand cavalry. More than a thousand pieces of cannon, distributed amongst the different corps, constituted the artillery.

The Prince of Eckmuhl had long commanded the five divisions which constituted the first corps of the army. The second was intrusted to the Duke of Reggio. The third to the Duke of Elchingen. The fourth, under the name of the army of Italy, and which contained the royal guards, was commanded by the Prince Viceroy. Prince Poniatowski, at the head of his Poles, formed the fifth corps. The Bavarians, incorporated with the sixth, were under the order of Count St. Cyr. The Saxons were counted as the seventh corps, commanded by General Regnier. The Westphaliaus, under the order of their king, Jerome Bonaparte, took rank in the army as the eighth corps. Only a skeleton of the ninth was formed, but it was destined for the Duke of Belluno, and the tenth corps, commanded by the Duke of Tarentum, was composed of Prussians, under General Grawert, and included no French, except the division of General Grandjean.

The Russian army was divided into two corps, under the denomination of the first and second army of the west; the one commanded by General Barclay de Tolly, and the other by Prince Bagration. The whole of them was subdivided into six divisions. The first, twenty thousand strong, and commanded by the Prince of Wittgenstein, occupied Rossiena and Keïdanouï. The second, consisting also of twenty thousand men, under General Bagawout, guarded Kowno. The third, twentyfour thousand strong, under General Schomaloff, was posted at

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New-Troki. These four divisions, together with the guards, formed the first army of the west, under the command of Tolly. The second army comprised the fifth corps, amounting to forty thousand men; and the sixth, which was called that of Doctorow, consisted of eighteen thousand men. The second army was encamped throughout Wolhynia. These forces, which amounted to one hundred and fifty thousand men, were soon augmented by the army of Moldavia, under Prince Kutusoff, who, having concluded a peace with the Turks, hastened to the relief of his country; by four thousand Cossacks, under the Hetman Platow; and by the seventh corps, organized by General Markoff, and which afterwards acted against Warsaw, under General Tormasow.

As soon as the pontoons, under the orders of General Eblé; arrived on the Niemen, Napoleon, disguised as a private Polish soldier, accompanied by Haxo, the general of the engineers, visited the lines, and discovered the most advantageous point close to Kowno. Here, it is said, that the Emperor Alexander had made every preparation to dispute the passage of the Niemen; but that at the moment in which the attack was to be made, General Barclay, throwing himself at the feet of his master, entreated him not to combat a formidable enemy, which nothing could then resist; adding that Napoleon should be suffered to pass like a torrent, whilst the Russians should keep their forces unbroken, to be employed against him when famine and the inclemency of the season had thinned his ranks. M. Labaume is not inclined to vouch for the authenticity of this anecdote, and though we have heard of it before, we are not much inclined to believe it. Our readers will soon have our

reasons:

Although the French, in their march, met with almost incredible difficulties, yet the soldiers, inflamed by a spirit of conquest, submitted without murmuring to all hardships, and cherished illusions which were but too soon destroyed.

"In effect our short stay at Pilony, during which the rain beat tempestuously, was marked by such extraordinary disasters, that any man, without being superstitious, would have regarded them as presages of our future misfortunes. In this wretched village, the Viceroy himself had no house to shelter him; we were heaped upon one another under some wretched sheds, or exposed to all the inclemencies of the weather. An extreme scarcity made us anticipate the horrors of famine. The rain fell in torrents, and overwhelmed both men and horses. The first escaped, but the badness of the roads completed the destruction of the latter. They were soon dropping by hundreds in the environs of Pilony, The road was covered with dead horses, overturned waggons and scattered

scattered baggage. It was in the month of July that we suffered thus from cold, and rain, and hunger. The effects of the storm were widely felt. It was said that a thunderbolt fell on the bivouac of the grenadiers of the guard at Zismori, and destroyed many persons. So many calamities excited within us sad forebodings of the future, and every one began to dread the event of an enterprise, the commencement of which was so disastrous; but the sun re-appeared on the horizon, the clouds dispersed, our fears were scattered with them, and from that moment we thought that the fine season would last for ever." P. 31.

The very same happened at Troki, a delightful village, where the troops had hoped for some refreshment, but were sadly disappointed in their hopes. In their flight the Russians had deprived their houses of furniture, and the dwellings of the Jews, which were disgustingly dirty, had been pillaged by the soldiers. They had not even straw to sleep upon, aud the forage for the horses was procured from a distance of nearly four leagues. In passing through Wilna, Napoleon did not fail to employ all the resources he had to secure his conquest. He excited the enthusiasm of the people by the most magnificent promises, and obtained from them the greatest sacrifices. The nobles also exerted themselves to the utmost of their power, in promoting the views of the conqueror. They hoped to ensure the independence of Poland, and the sight of the Polish standard floating on the walls of the ancient capital of the Dukes of Lithuania, by reminding them of their former greatness, made them all wish to march under the same banners. In this way the projects of Napoleon caused a considerable sensation in the city where he cominanded, and in order to impose on the country Lat large, he endeavoured to astonish the vulgar.

"He spoke," observes our author "with equal fluency, and at the same audience, of the public spectacles, and of religion, of war, and of the arts. He was seen on horseback, at all hours of the day; and after having superintended the erection of some new bridge, or fortification, he immediately entered his cabinet, and shewed himself perfectly master of the complicated schemes of politics and finance; and often he affected to assist at a ball or a concert, on the eve of the most important battle."

On their march from the Niemen to the Beresina, the French found the roads so impracticable, that the cavalry of the royal guard was obliged to pursue a different route. It is impossible, says M. Labaume, to form an idea of the difficulties which presented themselves on this road, which was entirely formed of the trunks of fir trees, placed on the marshy ground. The horses, in passing over these pieces of wood, frequently

trod

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