Litchfield enquirer. [volume] (Litchfield, Conn.) 1829-current, 1847-09-02

I
umes of fame aud smoke burst forth with
i almost miraculous rapidityt Tu every part
Of the city. A rising tempest fans the
flame. And as the gale increases 10 a
hurricane, the whole horizon is filled
with e terrible conf1agration. The de.
vuuring element rushing, roaring and
cracking on its way, str;de} along from
street to street, till one wasting sheet OF
of fire envelopes the city. Napoleon and
his officers and the whole army paraly>
zed with CONSERVATION. gaze upon the re>
sistless march of these heavy battalions Of
flame and smoke, and hasil' retreat in
utter discontinue. The victorious fire
takes possession of the city, and the van
quished t9o"ps in despair throw them
selves upon the frozen ground of the
bleak heath.
A now Indictment winter larkens the
sky. Cold and wind and snow, and dis
ease and famine combine with their
heavy batialions, as the allies of the
Russians pour down upon the unsheller>
ed boss Of France. They sweep over
the dsmayed army with whirlwind fury.
Resistance is unavaiing, The drifting
sno1 is the winding sheet of tens Of
thousands who, during the win.ry night,
f eeZe on the storm swept plains. The
driving storm is plrliless. The p ercing
cold knows no mercy /; the sleet, which
fills The sky, and is whirIed by the howl>
ing wind, has no ear 10 hear, or heart to
feel, the awful wall of dying men which
swelIs louder and louder than the roar
ing of the storm. And gaunt famine and
,orturng pesii|ence come, in rushing
squadrons more terrible than Polish lan-
GERS or Mamelukes, and no solid column
or brisling square can repel their fire.
God has equipped them, and nerved his
heavy hal'allons for His dread work of
re1ribution. And now he helps them,
and before their safely march the army
of invasion is scattered like chaff by the
whrwind.
Infidelny gazed upon the battles of the
Pyramids and Mt. Tabor upon the
slaughter at Iarengo and Anserlilz. and
exclaimed, there is no God who cares for
man. The strong conquer. The weak
perish. I, matters not which is right or
wrong. But in the flames of Moscow
IN the horrors OF those wtntry nights on
he plains of Russia, when uncounted
thousands found in the snow their death
bed and in the bowling wind their re-
q"iem, even iufdeluy was abashed, and
exclaimed, God has got hattnllons
heavier than man marshaIls' And when
The retrcatIng army, having strown its
dead like STOW >hakes on the fir zen
ground, all along us path, underto k the
awful passage of The Begsina-as the
dark flowing waves Of the icy river
were before them, and the fur>clad
squadrons of he North behind them, with
artillery and musquetry, and cleaning
sabrcs land pestlence aud starvation, g.
benumbing frost, and despair pervaded
the camp, and The Storms of winner we're
shrinking over their heads-in that
day, when all that was merciless
in mans fury, was combined with all
that was terrible in the warnings of the
elements, the horr or-strIcken fugitives
felt that God was helping the heavy bat
ions.'
1t was on the Odd of June. 1912, and
one of the lovelies. mornings that ever
dawned upon mankind. when Napoleon
with more magnificent array than earth
had ever before witnessed, crossed the
Niemen, for the invasion of Russia. Al
that time Napoleon was on the highest
pinnacle of greatness ever attained by
mortal man. And as the resplendent
mass Of FIVE hundredihousand men, with
gorgeous banners, and glittering steel &
sou-inspiring music. poured across the
bridges which spanned the stream, ev-
cry Josom glowed with assuran' and
pride. The gli,lering Of the arms. the
grea. splendor of the dress, the loud
shouts of the men, inspired universal en-
thusiasm, and seemed 10 afford certain
prcsages Of success
In the middle If December Of the
same year, a rabble rout of ,wenty>thou-
sand men re-appeared upon the banks OF
the same stream. haggard, squalid, ema-
ciaic with cold and starvation, the sole
survivors of the vas, host which, but FIVE
months before had crossed the river in
all the pomp and pageantry Of certain
triumph. When this miserable band Of
, fugitives,' says Allison, arrived at the
point where fhe passage had been effect
: ed five months before, when they be-
, held those heights, then crowded with
! splendid battalions, now covered by q
! miserable band of tugi,ives, and passed
. the remains Of the bridges, now deserted