These magnificent bridges, made of resinous fir, began at the distance of a few wersts from the passage.  Tchaplitz had occupied them for several days.  An abatis and heaps of bavins of combustible wood, already dry, were laid at their entrance, as if to remind him of the use he had to make of them.  It would not have required more than the fire from one of the Cossacks’ pipes to set these bridges on fire.  In that case all our efforts and the passage of the Berezina would have been entirely useless.  Caught between the morass and the river, in a narrow space, without provisions, without shelter, in the midst of a tremendous hurricane, the grand army and its Emperor must have been compelled to surrender without striking a blow.

In this desperate situation, in which all France seemed destined to be taken prisoner in Russia, where every thing was against us and in favour of the Russians, the latter did nothing but by halves.  Kutusoff did not reach the Dnieper, at Kopis, until the very day that Napoleon approached the Berezina.  Wittgenstein allowed himself to be kept in check during the time that the former required for his passage.  Tchitchakof was defeated; and of eighty thousand men, Napoleon succeeded in saving sixty thousand.

He remained till the last moment on these melancholy banks, near the ruins of Brilowa, unsheltered, and at the head of his guards, one-third of whom were destroyed by the storm.  During the day they stood to arms, and were drawn up in order of battle; at night, they bivouacked in a square round their leader; there the old grenadiers incessantly kept feeding their fires.  They sat upon their knapsacks, with their elbows planted on their knees, and their hands supporting their head; slumbering in this manner doubled upon themselves, in order that one limb might warm the other, and that they should feel less the emptiness of their stomachs.

During these three days and three nights, spent in the midst of them, Napoleon, with his looks and his thoughts wandering on three sides at once, supported the second corps by his orders and his presence, protected the ninth corps and the passage with his artillery, and united his efforts with those of Eble in saving as many fragments as possible from the wreck.  He at last directed the remains to Zembin, where Prince Eugene had preceded him.

It was remarked that he still gave orders to his marshals, who had no soldiers to command, to take up positions on that road, as if they had still armies at their beck.  One of them made the observation to him with some degree of asperity, and was beginning an enumeration of his losses; but Napoleon, determined to reject all reports, lest they should degenerate into complaints, warmly interrupted him with these words:  “why then do you wish to deprive me of my tranquillity?” and as the other was persisting, he shut his mouth at once, by repeating, in a reproachful manner, “I ask you, sir, why do you wish to deprive me of my tranquillity?” An expression, which in his adversity, explained the attitude which he imposed upon himself, and that which he exacted of others.