The putrefying flesh spread a terrible stench."
(Carpon, a French Surgeon-Major who was with the army in Wilna, has
described the events in a paper "_Les Morts de Wilna_". I cannot quote from
his writings because he gives impossible statistics and contradicts himself
in his narrations.)
Yelin speaks of a hospital in which all the inmates had been murdered by
the Cossacks. He himself was in a Wuerttembergian hospital and describes
his experience: "Terrible was the moment when the door was burst open. The
monsters came in and distributed themselves all over the house. We gave
them all we had and implored them on our knees to have pity, but all in
vain. 'Schelma Franzuski,' they answered, at the same time they beat us
with their kantchous, kicked us unmercifully with their feet, and as new
Cossacks came in all the time, we were finally deprived of all our clothing
and beaten like dogs. Even the bandages of the poor wounded were torn off
in search of hidden money or valuables. Lieutenant Kuhn (a piece of his
cranium had been torn away at Borodino) was searched; he fell down like
dead and it took a long time and much pain to bring him to life again."
Lieutenant von Soden was beaten with hellish cruelty on his sore feet and
gangraenous toes so that they bled. When nothing more could be found on the
sick and wounded they were left lying on the stone floor.
There was no idea of medicine.
The cold in the rooms was so great that hands and feet of many were frozen.
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