Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1862-03-13

and the still greater ones they were yet to en-
counter, returned rejoicingly to Orcha As
Marshal Ney, with simplicity and unostentation,
gave a recital of the dangers and difficulties he
had surmounted and the hardships he had en-
dured Napoleon grasped his hand, and i'm
mortalized him with the title of the "brduest of
braUe" Again Napoleon said in reference to
this same achievement in words which will
never die, "Better is an army of deer command
ed by lion, than an army of lions commanded
by deer"
During this retreat, an unnatural mother,
who was one of the camp followers, weary Of
nursing her crying child, threw it into the snow
to perish. Ney CHANGED to witness the inhu-
man deed, and lifting up the child, soothed it
tenderly, and restored it its mother, in the
sledge, commanding the mother to take charge
of it. But soon again the woman, whose heart
was rendered callous by misery, threw the child
into the snow. The Marshal again rescued the
little one, took it under his special protection,
carrying it for some time in his own arms.
The indignant soldiers hurled the mother from
the sledge, and left her to be picked up by the
Cossacks or to perish on the frozen ground.
The little orphan was watched over with the
greatest care by the soldiers, as they covered it
up with furs and blankets in one Of the sledges.
The child was carried, in the arms of a soldier,
Beresina, and surviving the hardships of the
most disastrous retreat recorded in the history
of war, at length reached Paris in safety.
In the passage of the Beresino, which soon
ensued, Ney again displayed his heroism
through scenes of horror which have rarely
been paralleled, and never surpassed upon this
globe The genius of the French engineers
speedily threw two bridges across the stream.
The French army consisted of but q, 900 fight
ing men, and disorganized mass Of 10000
srogglers. While the frenzied mass were strug-
Cling over these bridges, the Russians, from the
adjacent heights, were hurting upon them a
storm of shot and she'll Sixty thousand Rus
slams manned those batteries. Ney, taking with
him but eight thousand troops, plunged into
the densests masses of the foe, drove them be-
fore him and took 6,000 prisoners.
Through the long hours of a winters night,
this horrid scene of tumult and carnage contin-
ued. Thousands were crowded from the bridg-
es into the icy stream, and sank with shrieks
which rose above the thunders of the battle.
A fearful tempest arose of wind and smother
ing snow. The black mass of men and wagons,
enabled the RussiaHs to direct their guns with
more unerring aim. The howlings of the Storm
the gloom Of night, the flash and the roar of
artillery the explosion of shells and whistling
of balls and bullets, the cries of the onset and
the shrieks of the dying, presented spectacle
which has given the Passage Of tie Beresina
perhaps the most prominent position among all
the horrors which have occurred in this lost
world. The numbers lost have never fully been
ascertained. Thousands were swept TO an
unknown burial. But, in the spring, as the
ice melted, twelve thousand corpses were drag
ged from the river. S. Ab6ot, in the n. T.
Ledger.