180] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1812. 



banks of the Berezyna, various en- 

 counters took place, the result of 

 which is, as usual, verj' differently 

 related by the two parties. The 

 most considerable was one which 

 terminated, on the 28th, in the 

 capture, by General Witgenstein, 

 of a French division, said to con- 

 sist of 8,800 men. During this 

 time the cold was intensely severe, 

 occasioning dreadful sufferings to 

 the fugitives, and almost annihil- 

 ating their cavalry. When they 

 arrived at the spot where the roads 

 to Minsk and Wilna divide, they 

 took the route to the latter town, 

 first sending off their wounded, 

 with the baggage. In these move- 

 ments, Napoleon always marched 

 in the midst of his guards, whom, 

 by care and indulgence, he had 

 preserved in tolerable plight. It 

 is mentioned in the French ac- 

 counts, that to such a degree was 

 the cavalry of the army dismount- 

 ed, that it was necessary to collect 

 the officers who had still a horse 

 remaining, in order to form four 

 companies of 150 men each. This 

 sacred squadron, as it is termed, in 

 which generals performed the func- 

 tions of captains, and colonels of 

 subalterns, never lost sight of the 

 emperor. At length, all danger 

 from the pursuers being passed. 

 Napoleon, on December 5, having 

 called together his principal offi- 

 cers, and informed them of the 

 appointment of the king of Naples 

 as his lieutenant-general, set off in 

 a single sledge under the title of 

 the Duke of Vicenze. He passed 

 through Wilna, Warsaw, Dresden, 

 Leipzic, and Mentz, and arrived 

 at Paris on the 18th, at half past 

 eleven at night. 



Thus terminated a campaign 

 more destructive of human lives 



than perhaps any other in which 

 the ruler of France has been en- 

 gaged, and certainly more injuri- 

 ous than any other to his political 

 and military reputation. He was 

 able, indeed, at the head of an 

 immense force, to penetrate to an- 

 other and remoter European capi- 

 tal ; but instead of attaining the 

 professed object of his mighty pre- 

 parations — an object apparently in- 

 commensurate with his exertions 

 — all he effected was, the destruc- 

 tion of a fine city, and the devas- 

 tation of a large tract of country, 

 at the price of leaving the hostile 

 plains thronged with the carcases 

 of his subjects and allies, a still 

 greater number in a state of capti- 

 vity, and all his artillery and stores 

 in the hands of the enemy. He 

 obtained no addition of glory, ei- 

 ther as a statesman or a general, 

 and returned like a fugitive, escap- 

 ing from danger and disgrace. 

 Every art, however, had been em- 

 ployed to palliate these misfor- 

 tunes, or conceal their extent from 

 the eyes of the French people ; and 

 the recent suppression of a conspi- 

 racy had, as usually happens, 

 strengthened the authority of the 

 government. He was, therefore, 

 received at Paris with the accus- 

 tomed tokens of reverence and at- 

 tachment ; and on the 20th, being 

 seated on his throne, surrounded 

 by all the great officers of state, 

 he was waited upon in full cere- 

 mony by the senate, whose presi- 

 dent, the Count Lacepede, deli- 

 vered an address to him as loyal and 

 adulatory as if he had been an he- 

 reditary monarch returning in tri- 

 umph. His reply was remarkable: 

 it particularly alluded to the duty 

 of courage in magistrates, and 

 their obligation to die in defence 



of 



