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flights of ravens, abandoning the plain to take refuge in the neighbouring forests, croaked mournfully as they passed over our heads; and troops of dogs, which had followed us from Moscow, and lived solely on our mangled remains, howled around us, as if they would hasten the period when we were to become their prey.
“From that day the army lost its courage and its military attitude. The soldier no longer obeyed his officer. The officer separated himself from his general. The regiments, disbanded marched in disorder. Searching for food, they spread themselves over the plain, burning and pillaging whatever fell in their way. The horses fell by thousands. The cannon and the waggons which had been abandoned served only to obstruct the way. No sooner had the soldiers separated from the ranks, than they were assailed by a population eager to avenge the horrors of which it had been the victim. The Cossacks came to the succour of the peasants, and drove back to the great road, already filled with the dying and the dead, those of the followers who escaped from the carnage made among them.
The Retreat continued.
"Marching from Smolensko, a spectacle the most horrible was presented to our view. From that point till we arrived at a wretched ruined hamlet, at the distance of about three leagues,
