[Illustration]
What was left of the army reached Kowno on the 12th, after a long, tedious
march, dying of cold and hunger. In Kowno there was an abundance of
clothes, flour, and spirits. But the unrestrained soldiers broke the
barrels, so that the spilled liquor formed a lake in the market place. The
soldiers threw themselves down and by the hundreds drank until they were
intoxicated. More than 1200 drunken men reeled through the streets, dropped
drowsily upon the icy stones or into the snow, their sleep soon passing
into death. Of the entire corps of Eugene there remained only eight or ten
officers with the prince. Only one day more (the 13th.) was the powerful
Ney able, with the two German battalions of the garrison, to check the
Cossacks, vigorously supported by the indefatigable generals, Gerard and
Wrede. Not until the 14th., at 9 o'clock at night, did he begin to retreat,
with the last of the men, after having destroyed the bridges over the Wilia
and the Niemen. Always fighting, receding but not fleeing, his person
formed the rear guard of this Grand Army which five months previous crossed
the river at this very point, now, on the 14th, consisting of only 500
foot guards, 600 horse guards, and nine cannon.
It is nobody but Ney who still represents the Grand Army, who fires the
last shot before he, the last Frenchman, crosses the bridge over the
Niemen, which is blown up behind him. If we look upon the knightly conduct
of Ney during the entire campaign we cannot but think how much greater he
was than the heroes of Homer.
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