The weekly herald. [volume] (Cleveland, Tenn.) 1876-1888, 1877-10-25

When Napoleon rushed back to Paris
as fast as horses could draw him in
order that he might himself tell the
story Of his discontinue, he thought fit
to select the King of Naples, from
among all his Marshals, to take COM
mand Of his retreating forces. As was
usual with him, he thought out every
thing that was likely to happen and left
Murat instructions accordingly. No
man, perhaps, ever more patiently pro-
vided for the prosecution of a design,
or took more careful account of the
probable accidents which might super
vene; but when he had once taken this
trouble he expected not only that his
officers would minutely conform to di-
rections, but also that nature, accident,
every circumstance, should keep strictly
within the range Of his provision; and
he was fearfully angry If things took
an unexpected turn, and he invariably
vented his wrath on some officer, al
though it may have been the elements
or the outfall of events that disappointed
him. 1t was Murat's supreme i'll fortune
that Immediately after the Emperor's
departure 18th December) the ther-
memeter descended to point unpre-
cedented at that season, and rendered
the execution of his orders impossible,
There were % degrees q presume of
the Centigrade thermometer) Of frost,
So far were the wretched forces from
having at length surmounted the ex-
treme horrors of the retreat, that at
wilma all the horrors recommended in
an aggravated degree. A division of
10, 900 men was in eight days reduced to
5000 without having seen an enemy or
received a stroke save from the elements.
In one night all the artillery horses
were frozen to death, as they stood,
with their harness on, and just as they
had stood in life. Half the drivers died
of cold the same night; the other half
came to put their horses in motion,
could not stir them, and at last found
they were all dead. Before the retreat
could be continued the Russian cannon
was heard in the rear. Murat himself
seemed to care as little for cold as for
cannon-shot. He turned out at the first
hint Of danger from the enemy, and he
hos lo1 In, hn
style as ever; but nine-tenths of his
miserable force were paralyzed by the
cold. Their arms literally dropped from
their hands. The few exceptionally
hardy men who could still move fled as
they best could, leaving their comrades
to the mercy of the Winter and the
enemy. These frost-bitten wretches
were stripped, and in various ways
afflicted by Cossacks and others. The
enemy was never twelve hours march
behind the rear guard (Ney), and there
was neither rest nor refreshments for
days. Artillery, baggage, and the i'm
perial treasure were abandoned. Except
that they still took with them a few
horses, nothing remained to the sur
vivors but the tatters and arms which
they carried. The line of the flight was
covered with corpses, and with cold
stricken beings, who had laid down
never to rise again. These details are
in the highest degree horrible, and it ia
a pain to dwell upon them; but it is
right that we should sometimes mediate
on scenes like these, and not exclusively
on the "pride, pomp and circum-
stance of glorious war. Blackaoood'S
Magazine.