The Washington herald., 1914-09-06

I entered upon the Russian campaign. and
in a few days 800 more would rest in the
SHOWS.
The Growing Horror.
AS Napoleon in his fight approached
the Beresina River with the mOCkery OF
his grand army, the sun. which no longer
shOne for him as at Austerlitz. thawed
the marshes and broke up the ice in the
river. With only 9p.OOO men he must
bridge and cross a river. while d. 10 Rus
SLAMS pressed behind him, 90 000 bore down
upon him from the north and "a 900 threat
ened him from the south. Yet he had
| only TO turn and growl at hem to throw
them back in such panic as TO spread de-
mOraltZation throughout all their armies
and render comparatively harmless a
force more than four times greater than
his own.
But he had burned his pontoon train
as a useless incumbrance only to tind
that the Russians had destroyed the
bridge by which he intended to pass over
the Beresina. is il written there he
the heavens, that We shall do nothing
but make mistakes For the lack OF
better material. he must tear down houses
and build his bridges of such sticks as
soldiers to put the river between them
and the Russians they fought among
themselves in the desire of all to take
a hand in the work of bridging it They
leaped into the icy waters up to their
shoulders and labored there until two
bridges spanncd the little stream no
wider than a narrow city street. But
not more than five in 100 Of those de-
voted bridge builders survived the eX-
posture and returned 10 their homes.
Napoleon and the Old Guard at once
crossed to the homevard bank. but there
they had to make an all-day night to
beat OF a Russian army which had come
10 dispute their passage. The weather
was growing colder and Guardsmen wen,
h Hry- 6rauynAd
to keep the shivering monarch warm I'm
his hovel on the river bank Though
themselves chilled to the marrow, half
dead grenadiers took fagots from their
own scanty piles and said. Give them to
the Emperor
On the other shore the army and its
hangers on. deprived of Napoleon's care.
became an unmanageable mob. Not that
they stampeded in their haste to escape
over the river. On the contrary, the
bridges remained idle all night long,
sisted in staying near the bridgeheads in
the warmth of the burning wagons that
had been devoted to destruction. Thou
sands of others, stupefied by hunger and
indifference to their fate. from which they
could not be awakened in the morning
until they saw the spears of the Cossacks
bearing down upon them and the shells
Of the Russian artillery raining from the
heights behind them. Then they rose in
a wild panic and madly fought with one
another at the entrance to the bridges,
which were quickly Choked with horses.
wagons and guns, men. women and chill
dren.
Many were struck down in the heed
less rush and many others were pushed
into the river One of the bridges at
last sank beneath its burden and filled
the stream with a screaming, struggling.
drowning mass. Many were still on the
remaining bridge when the Russians ad-
vanced to seize II. and the French fired
it. giving their own people to the flames
or the waters to save themselves from
pursuit. And other thousands were still
on the shore, ready for the Cossack
knife.
Perhaps only 1900 or 1900 had crossed
the Beresina, no more in number than
they were found asleep on the bank when
the Russian spring came and lifted their
mantle Of snow. But flood and flame
never told how many thousands Of lives
they took between them.
The American Minister.
Food" Food Food. That was
the cry Napoleon sent on ahead. as he
marched his tatterdemalions toward
Wilma, where five months before the earth
had trembled beneath the tread OF his
hundreds of thousands Of troops. We
bring nothing but men and few sabers."
he warned his headquarters in that capt.
tai Of Lithuania. But he could not bear
to confess that the men were almost as
few as the sabers, and he had stopped |
all letters home from the officers and |
soldiers
He had summoned some Of the foreign |
diplomats At his court to meet him at