Having narrowly escaped being taken by a party of irregular Russians at Youpranoni, Napoleon reached Warsaw at nightfall, on the 10th of December.  His ambassador there, the Abbe de Pradt, who had as yet heard no distinct accounts of the progress of events, was unexpectedly visited by Caulaincourt, who abruptly informed him that the grand army was no more.  The Abbe accompanied Caulaincourt to an obscure inn, where the Emperor, wrapped in a fur cloak, was walking up and down rapidly, beside a newly-lit fire.  He was received with an air of gaiety, which for a moment disconcerted him; and proceeded to mention that the inhabitants of the Grand Duchy were beginning to show symptoms of disaffection, and even of a desire to reconcile themselves with the Prussians, under whose yoke they feared they were destined to return.  The Abbe expressed his own satisfaction that the Emperor had escaped from so many dangers.  “Dangers,” cried Napoleon, “there were none—­I have beat the Russians in every battle—­I live but in dangers—­it is for kings of Cockaigne to sit at home at ease.  My army is in a superb condition still—­it will be recruited at leisure at Wilna, and I go to bring up 300,000 men more from France.  I quit my army with regret, but I must watch Austria and Prussia, and I have more weight on my throne than at headquarters.  The Russians will be rendered foolhardy by their successes—­I shall beat them in a battle or two on the Oder, and be on the Niemen again within a month.”  This harangue, utterly contradictory throughout, he began and ended with a favourite phrase—­“Monsieur L’Ambassadeur, from the sublime to the ridiculous there is but a step.”

Resuming his incognito and his journey, Napoleon reached Dresden on the evening of the 14th December, where the King of Saxony visited him secretly at his inn, and renewed his assurances of fidelity.  He arrived at the Tuileries on the 18th, late at night, after the Empress had retired to rest.  He entered the ante-chamber, to the confusion of her attendants, who at length recognised him with a cry that roused Maria Louisa from her slumbers; and Napoleon was welcomed with all the warmth of undiminished affection.

The army, whom its chief had thus abandoned, pursued meanwhile that miserable march, of which every day augmented the disorder.  The garrison of Wilna and Maison’s corps, united to those who escaped across the Beresina, might number in all 80,000.  Before Murat reached Wilna, 40,000 of these had either died or fallen alive into the hands of their unrelenting pursuers.  In that city there were abundant magazines of every kind, and the few who had as yet preserved some appearance of order, together with the multitudes of broken stragglers, rushed in confusion into the place, in the hope of at length resting from their toils, and eating and drinking, for at least one day, in peace.  Strong men were observed weeping with joy at the sight of a loaf of bread.  But scarcely had they received their rations, ere the well-known