The Merry Past 



Beresina was reached, which river he crossed strapped 

 on to the back of a horse. By the time Vilna was 

 reached he was practically well. The only nourish- 

 ment taken by the sick man during the retreat was 

 coffee, and no doubt the lack of food which caused 

 the death of so many men in rude health, together 

 with the chilling cold, saved him, the modern treat- 

 ment of typhoid being anticipated by the natural 

 conditions of the retreat. The name of the officer 

 in question, who was in a cavalry regiment, composed 

 of men from Wtirtemberg, attached to Murat's 

 Division, was the Graf von Bismarck, whose son, a 

 most cultivated and delightful German nobleman — 

 himself a veteran of the Franco-Prussian War — is 

 happily still alive. He it was who described the 

 circumstances of his father's marvellous preservation 

 from death to the writer. 



263 



