All these unfortunate men wore this
mask, but, as they said while in Moscow, without any desire to dance.
Especially the better educated ones among them felt ashamed to present
themselves in this condition in which they had dragged themselves through
Russia and Poland.
On December 16th, von Borcke and his General, von Ochs, came to Schirwind,
for the first time again in a Prussian city. Quarters were assigned to them
in one of the best houses, the house of the widow of a Prussian officer.
The lady, on seeing the two entering the house, was astonished to learn
that they were a general with his adjutant, and that they should be her
guests. Nothing about them indicated their rank, they were wrapped in
sheepskins and rags full of dirt, blackened by the smoke from the camp
fires, with long beards, frozen hands and feet.
On January 2nd., 1813, these two officers arrived at Thorn. They considered
themselves saved from the great catastrophe, when there, like in all places
to which the wrecks of the grand army had come, typhus broke out. General
von Ochs was stricken down with this disease, and his condition did not
warrant any hopes for recovery. His son, however, who had gone through the
whole retreat wounded and sick with typhus, whom the general and his
adjutant had brought from Borodino in a wagon under incredible
difficulties, had recovered and was able to nurse his father.
And General von Ochs came home with his Adjutant, von Borcke, on February
20th.
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