Unfortunately, however, this improved condition lasted only a few days,
from November 30th. to December 4th., and before Wilna was reached the want
was felt again and made itself felt the more on account of the most intense
cold which had set in.
During the few good days the soldiers had eaten roast pork, and all kinds
of vegetables, in consequence their weakened digestive tract had been
overtaxed so that diarrhoea became prevalent, a most frightful condition
during a march on the road, with a temperature of 25 deg. below zero,
Reaumur (about 25 deg. below zero, Fahrenheit).
The 6th. of December was a frightful day, although the cold had not yet
reached its climax which happened on the 7th. and 8th. of December, namely
28 deg. below zero, Reaumur (31 degrees below zero, Fahrenheit).
[Illustration: "The Gate of Wilna."]
Holzhausen gives a graphic description of the supernatural silence which
reigned and which reminded of the silence in the arctic regions. There was
not the slightest breeze, the snowflakes fell vertically, crystal-clear,
the snow blinded the eyes, the sun appeared like a red hot ball with a
halo, the sign of greatest cold.
The details of the descriptions which Holzhausen has collected from old
papers surpass by far all we have learned from von Scherer's and Beaupre's
writings. And all that Holzhausen relates is verified by names of absolute
reliability; it verifies the accounts of the two authors named.
General von Roeder, one of the noblest of the German officers in Napoleon's
army--a facsimile of one of his letters is given in Holzhausen's book--says
about the murderous 7th.
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