27

It is not ту business to say what followed; how

then сате the battle of Maloi-Iaroslawetz which the

French claimed as а victory; but after which they we-

re obliged to retreat, not by а fresh and rich country

as they hBd intended, but by their old and completely

exhausted route of Smolensk, how they were haras-

sed and partially destroyed at Wiasma, at krasnaia,

and оп the Beresina, how after the passage of this

last river (and not before as the French pretend,

in order to palliate their disgrace) severe frost сате

оп to accomplish the destruction of theiT unfortunate

army, and how before reaching Wilna, Napoleon

thought it more prudent and safe to leave the mise-

rable remnants 0f his gigantic force in the charge 0f

the distracted Murat, and himself went 0f with 2 or З

companions, and а chosen band as convoy through

the rest 0f Lithuania to the frontier, then to Warsaw,

where he had his well-known interview with the abb6

Pradt and so оп to Paris.

All these important events ате described in 50 dif-

ferent books, and in as тапу diferent ways. Уои ha-

ve wished to have the private and unmeaning adven-

tures of your uncle; consequently not without а full

sense of the complete inferiority 0f such а tale, I

must до оп with what regards ту own poor self.

Оп the 29-th 0f 0ctober was well enough to lea-

ve ту crutches and to walk about tolerably with the

support of а сапе, and quitting about а dozen of ту

companions, who were not yet in а state to move,

left Andreevsky [о join the army. From Andreevsky to

Moscow I got post-horses; but after Moscow, it was