De Wrede presented himself unexpectedly before the king of Naples.  He said, “the enemy were close at his heels! the Bavarians had been driven back into Wilna, which they could no longer defend.”  At the same time, the noise of the tumult reached the king’s ears.  Murat was astonished; fancying himself no longer master of the army, he lost all command of himself.  He instantly quitted his palace on foot, and was seen forcing his way through the crowd.  He seemed to be afraid of a skirmish, in the midst of a crowd similar to that of the day before.  He halted, however, at the last house in the suburbs, from whence he despatched his orders, and where he waited for daylight and the army, leaving Ney in charge of the rest.

Wilna might have been defended for twenty-four hours longer, and many men might have been saved.  This fatal city retained nearly twenty thousand, including three hundred officers and seven generals.  Most of them had been wounded by the winter more than by the enemy, who had the merit of the triumph.  Several others were still in good health, to all appearance at least, but their moral strength was completely exhausted.  After courageously battling with so many difficulties, they lost heart when they were near the port, at the prospect of four more days’ march.  They had at last found themselves once more in a civilized city, and sooner than make up their minds to return to the desert, they placed themselves at the mercy of Fortune; she treated them cruelly.

It is true that the Lithuanians, although we had compromised them so much, and were now abandoning them, received into their houses and succoured several; but the Jews, whom we had protected, repelled the others.  They did even more; the sight of so many sufferers excited their cupidity.  Had their detestable avarice been contented with speculating upon our miseries, and selling us some feeble succours for their weight in gold, history would scorn to sully her pages with the disgusting detail; but they enticed our unhappy wounded men into their houses, stripped them, and afterwards, on seeing the Russians, threw the naked bodies of these dying victims from the doors and windows of their houses into the streets, and there unmercifully left them to perish of cold; these vile barbarians even made a merit in the eyes of the Russians of torturing them there; such horrible crimes as these must be denounced to the present and to future ages.  Now that our hands are become impotent, it is probable that our indignation against these monsters may be their sole punishment in this world; but a day will come, when the assassins will again meet their victims, and there certainly, divine justice will avenge us!

On the 10th of December, Ney, who had again voluntarily taken upon himself the command of the rear-guard, left that city, which was immediately after inundated by the Cossacks of Platof, who massacred all the poor wretches whom the Jews threw in their way.  In the midst of this butchery, there suddenly appeared a piquet of thirty French, coming from the bridge of the Vilia, where they had been left and forgotten.  At sight of this fresh prey, thousands of Russian horsemen came hurrying up, besetting them with loud cries, and assailing them on all sides.