Maison and his troop found themselves all at once in a manner lost in the midst of this terrified crowd, which pressed upon them, almost stifled them, and deprived them of the use of their arms.  This general had no other remedy than to desire his men to remain close together and immoveable, and wait till the crowd had dispersed.  The enemy’s cavalry then came up with this mass, and got entangled with it, but it could only penetrate slowly and by cutting down.  The crowd having at last dispersed, discovered to the Russians, Maison and his soldiers waiting for them with a determined countenance.  But in its flight, the crowd had drawn along with it a portion of our combatants.  Maison, in an open plain, and with seven or eight hundred men against thousands of enemies, lost all hope of safety; he was already seeking only to gain a wood not far off, in order to sell their lives more dearly, when he saw coming out of it eighteen hundred Poles, a troop quite fresh, which Ney had met with and brought to his assistance.  This reinforcement stopped the enemy, and secured the retreat as far as Malodeczno.

On the 4th of December, about four o’clock in the afternoon, Ney and Maison got within sight of that village, which Napoleon had quitted in the morning.  Tchaplitz followed them close.  Ney had now only six hundred men remaining with him.  The weakness of this rear-guard, the approach of night, and the prospect of a place of shelter, excited the ardour of the Russian general; he made a warm attack.  Ney and Maison, perfectly certain that they would die of cold on the high-road, if they allowed themselves to be driven beyond that cantonment, preferred perishing in defending it.

They halted at its entrance, and as their artillery horses were dying, they gave up all idea of saving their cannon; determined however that it should do its duty for the last time in crushing the enemy, they formed every piece they possessed into a battery, and made a tremendous fire.  Tchaplitz’s attacking column was entirely broken by it, and halted.  But that general, availing himself of his superior forces, diverted a part of them to another entrance, and his first troops had already crossed the inclosures of Malodeczno, when all at once, they there encountered a fresh enemy.

As good luck would have it, Victor, with about four thousand men, the remains of the ninth corps, still occupied this village.  The fury on both sides was extreme; the first houses were several times taken and retaken.  The combat on both sides was much less for glory than to keep or acquire a refuge against the destructive cold.  It was not until half-past eleven at night that the Russians gave up the contest, and went from it half frozen, to seek for another in the surrounding villages.

The following day, December 5th, Ney and Maison had expected that the Duke of Belluno would replace them at the rear-guard; but they found that that marshal had retired, according to his instructions, and that they were left alone in Malodeczno with only sixty men.  All the rest had fled; the rigour of the climate had completely knocked up their soldiers, whom the Russians to the very last moment were unable to conquer; their arms fell from their hands, and they themselves fell at a few paces distance from their arms.