As for us, ever confident in him and in ourselves, the disposition of the Lithuanians at first affected us very little; but when our forces diminished, we looked about us, and our attention was awakened by our danger.  Three Lithuanian generals, distinguished by their names, their property, and their sentiments, followed the emperor.  The French generals at last reproached them with the coolness of their countrymen.  The ardour of the people of Warsaw, in 1806, was held out to them as an example.  The warm discussion which ensued, passed, like several others similar, which it is necessary to record, at Napoleon’s quarters, near the spot where he was employed; and as there was truth on both sides; as, in these conversations, the opposite allegations contended without destroying each other; and as the first and last causes of the coolness of the Lithuanians were therein revealed, it is impossible to omit them.

These generals then replied, “That they considered they had received becomingly the liberty which we brought them; that, moreover, every one expressed regard according to his habitual character; that the Lithuanians were more cold in their manner than the Poles, and consequently less communicative; that, after all, the sentiment might be the same, though the expression was different.

“That, besides, there was no similarity in the cases; that in 1806, it was after having conquered the Prussians, that the French had delivered Poland; that now, on the contrary, if they delivered Lithuania from the Russian yoke, it was before they had subjugated Russia.  That, in this manner, it was natural for the first to receive a victorious and certain freedom with transport; and equally natural for the last to receive an uncertain and dangerous liberty with gravity; that a benefit was not purchased with the same air as if it were gratuitously accepted; that six years back, at Warsaw, there was nothing to be done but to prepare festivals; while at Wilna, where the whole power of Russia had just been exhibited, where its army was known to be untouched, and the motives of its retreat understood, it was for battles that preparation was to be made.

“And with what means?  Why was not that liberty offered to them in 1807?  Lithuania was then rich and populous.  Since that time the continental system, by sealing up the only vent for its productions, had impoverished it, while Russian foresight had depopulated it of recruits, and more recently of a multitude of nobles, peasants, waggons, and cattle, which the Russian army had carried away with it.”

To these causes they added “the famine resulting from the severity of the season in 1811, and the damage to which the over-rich wheats of those countries are subject.  But why not make an appeal to the provinces of the south?  In that quarter there were men, horses, and provisions of all kinds.  They had nothing to do but to drive away Tormasof and his army from them.  Schwartzenberg was, perhaps, marching