At length, impatient to conquer the Russians, and escape from the homage of the Germans, Napoleon quitted Dresden.  He only remained at Posen long enough to satisfy the Poles.  He neglected Warsaw, whither the war did not imperiously call him, and where he would have again been involved in politics.  He stopped at Thorn, in order to inspect his fortifications, his magazines, and his troops.  There the complaints of the Poles, whom our allies pillaged without mercy, and insulted, reached him.  Napoleon addressed severe reproaches, and even threats, to the King of Westphalia:  but it is well known that these were thrown away; that their effect was lost in the midst of too rapid a movement; that, besides, his fits of anger, like all other fits, were followed by exhaustion; that then, with the return of his natural good humour, he regretted, and frequently tried, to soften the pain he had occasioned; that, finally, he might reproach himself as the cause of the disorders which provoked him; for, from the Oder to the Vistula, and even to the Niemen, if provisions were abundant and properly stationed, the less portable foraging supplies were deficient.  Our cavalry were already forced to cut the green rye, and to strip the houses of their thatch, in order to feed their horses.  It is true, that all did not stop at that; but when one disorder is authorized, how can others be forbidden?

The evil augmented on the other side of the Niemen.  The emperor had calculated upon a multitude of light cars and heavy waggons, each destined to carry several thousand pounds weight, through a sandy region, which carts, with no greater weight than some quintals, with difficulty traversed.  These conveyances were organized in battalions and squadrons.  Each battalion of light cars, called comtoises, consisted of six hundred, and might carry six thousand quintals of flour.  The battalion of heavy vehicles, drawn by oxen, carried four thousand eight hundred quintals.  There were besides twenty-six squadrons of waggons, loaded with military equipages; a great quantity of waggons with tools of all kinds, as well as thousands of artillery and hospital waggons, one siege and six bridge equipages.

The provision-waggons were to take in their loading at the magazines established on the Vistula.  When the army passed that river, it was ordered to provide itself, without halting, with provisions for twenty-five days, but not to use them till they were beyond the Niemen.  In conclusion, the greater part of these means of transport failed, either because the organization of soldiers, to act as conductors of military convoys, was essentially vicious, the motives of honour and ambition not being called into action to maintain proper discipline; or chiefly because these vehicles were too heavy for the soil, the distances too considerable, and the privations and fatigues too great; certain it is that the greater number of them scarcely reached the Vistula.