The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1929-07-18


man could have been more
faithful in his devotion to an
imperial master than he to Napoleon.
We take up the memories of the
adoring valet-hstorian at the point
where he begins to describe the ap
proach to the bridge of death.
There is one early paragraph which
describes very graphically and yet
very simply the state to which the
once-disciplined legions of France had
degenerated He says:
zone brave and kindly officer took
off his own uniform to give it to
poor soldier whose ragged garments
exposed him naked to the cold put
ting on his own back tattered Old
infantry coat, because he was more
capable of resisting the rigors of the
weather. If excessive misery withers
the soul, on the other hand it some
times expands it to the highest point
as one may see. Many of the most
wretched blew their brains out in de-
spair. In that act, there was a res
ignatiOn and a GOODNESS that made one
shudder In this disastrous campaign
I saw what vanities are physical force
and human courage where that moral
force which is born of a determined
will is noneXistent."
Working in Water.
He comes next to Napoleon, of
whom always he speaks as the en-
Jeror. The wel-beng and the COM
fort of Napoleon were of more cOnse
quence to him than the fate of the
hundreds of thousands of suffering
wretches who made up the rank and
file. This is easy to understand. Con
slant may have been a painstaking
chronicer: certainly his eye was quick
to see, and his pen to set down, the
horrors that multiplied about him in
that most CHASTITY of recorded routs,
But above all he was the servant. He
goes on:
at was frightful to see these NOV
ing masses sometimes halting progress
sively, the advance corps first, then
those that followed, then the last
When Marshal Oudinot, who was
ahead, suspended his march for some
unknown reason, there would be
movement of general uneasiness, then
alarming speeches would begin and, as
men who have seen everything are in
clined to believe everything, both true
and false tidings easily found credit
"By five o'clock in the evening of
the 25th some trestles had been fixed
about the stream, constructed of wood
en- beams taken from Polish cabins
The treStleS gave way at little past
five o'clock. They were not strong
enough. 1t was plain that next day
the army would have to sustain the
enemys fire; but there was no room
for choice. At the end of that night
of anguish and sulferings of every
sort the first trestles were driven
down into the river.
"The soldiers stood up to their hips
in water full of floating ice in order
to drive the piles several feet deep
into a miry river bed; struggling
against the most horrible fatigues;
pushing away with their hands enor-
nous masses of ice which would have
knocked them down and submerged
them by their weight; fighting, in a
word, and fighting unto death with
cold, the greatest enemy of life. Well,
that is what our French pontOnniers
did. Several of them were either
dragged down by the currents or suf-
located by the cold.
"The emperor awaited day in a
wretched hovel. In the morning he
said to Prince Berthier: We'll! Ber-
thier, how are we to get out of this?
He was sitting in his chamber, great
tears were rolling down his cheeks
which were paler than usual.
The French Leaders Really Lead.
"But they exchanged very few
,rds. The emperor seemed over
whelmed with sadness. 1t was then
that the king of Naples spoke frankly
to his brother-in-law, entreating him
in the name of the army to think of
his own safety, the peril being so i'm
minent. Some brave Poles offered to
form the escort of the emperor. They
could go further up the Beresina and
each wilma in five days. The emper
(. shook his head in sign of refusal
It said nothing. The king under
BOD, and there was no further men
n of it.
Before the bridge was finished
ne four hundred men were nartial-