Meantime Victor, with six thousand men, was defending them against Wittgenstein.  But with the first dawn of the 28th, when they saw that marshal preparing for a battle, when they heard the cannon of Wittgenstein thundering over their heads, and that of Tchitchakof at the same time on the opposite bank, they rose all at once, they descended, precipitated themselves tumultuously, and returned to besiege the bridges.

Their terror was not without foundation; the last day of numbers of these unfortunate persons was come.  Wittgenstein and Platof, with forty thousand Russians of the armies of the north and east, attacked the heights on the left bank, which Victor, with his small force, defended.  On the right bank, Tchitchakof, with his twenty-seven thousand Russians of the army of the south, debouched from Stachowa against Oudinot, Ney, and Dombrowski.  These three could hardly reckon eight thousand men in their ranks, which were supported by the sacred squadron, as well as by the old and young guard, who then consisted of three thousand eight hundred infantry and nine hundred cavalry.

The two Russian armies attempted to possess themselves at once of the two outlets from the bridges, and of all who had been unable to push forward beyond the marshes of Zembin.  More than sixty thousand men, well clothed, well fed, and completely armed, attacked eighteen thousand half-naked, badly armed, dying of hunger, separated by a river, surrounded by morasses, and additionally encumbered with more than fifty thousand stragglers, sick or wounded, and by an enormous mass of baggage.  During the last two days, the cold and misery had been such that the old guard had lost two-thirds, and the young guard one-half of their effective men.

This fact, and the calamity which had fallen upon Partouneaux’s division, sufficiently explain the frightful diminution of Victor’s corps, and yet that marshal kept Wittgenstein in check during the whole of that day, the 28th.  As to Tchitchakof, he was beaten.  Marshal Ney, with his eight thousand French, Swiss, and Poles, was a match for twenty-seven thousand Russians.

The admiral’s attack was tardy and feeble.  His cannon cleared the road, but he durst not venture to follow his bullets, and penetrate by the chasm which they made in our ranks.  Opposite to his right, however, the legion of the Vistula gave way to the attack of a strong column.  Oudinot, Albert, Dombrowski, Claparede, and Kosikowski were then wounded; some uneasiness began to be felt.  But Ney hastened forward; he made Doumerc and his cavalry dash quite across the woods upon the flank of that Russian column; they broke through it, took two thousand prisoners, cut the rest to pieces, and by this vigorous charge decided the fate of the battle, which was dragging on in uncertainty.  Tchitchakof, thus defeated, was driven back into Stachowa.

[Illustration:  Passage of the Berezina]