The emperor was not ignorant of these details, but he had committed himself too far.  Even at Wilna, all these disorders had taken place; the Duke of Treviso, among others, informed him, “that he had seen, from the Niemen to the Vilia, nothing but ruined habitations, and baggage and provision-waggons abandoned; they were found dispersed on the highways and in the fields, overturned, broke open, and their contents scattered here and there, and pillaged, as if they had been taken by the enemy:  he should have imagined himself following a defeated army.  Ten thousand horses had been killed by the cold rains of the great storm, and by the unripe rye, which had become their new and only food.  Their carcases were lying encumbering the road:  they sent forth a mephitic smell impossible to breathe:  it was a new scourge, which some compared to famine, but much more terrible:  several soldiers of the young guard had already perished of hunger.”

Up to that point Napoleon listened with calmness, but here he abruptly interrupted the speaker.  Wishing to escape from distress by incredulity, he exclaimed, “It is impossible! where are their twenty days’ provisions?  Soldiers well commanded never die of hunger.”

A general, the author of this last report, was present.  Napoleon turned towards him; appealed to him, and pressed him with questions; and that general, either from weakness or uncertainty, replied, “that the individuals referred to had not died of hunger, but of intoxication.”

The emperor then remained convinced that the privations of the soldiers had been exaggerated to him.  As to the rest, he exclaimed, “The loss of the horses must be borne with; of some equipages, and even some habitations; it was a torrent that rolled away:  it was the worst side of the picture of war; an evil exchanged for a good; to misery her share must be given; his treasures, his benefits would repair the loss:  one great result would make amends for all; he only required a single victory; if sufficient means remained for accomplishing that, he should be satisfied.”

The duke remarked, that a victory might be overtaken by a more methodical march, followed by the magazines; but he was not listened to.  Those to whom this marshal (who had just returned from Spain,) complained, replied to him, “That, in fact the emperor grew angry at the account of evils, which he considered irremediable, his policy imposing on him the necessity of a prompt and decisive victory.”

They added, “that they saw too clearly that the health of their leader was impaired; and that being compelled, notwithstanding, to throw himself into positions more and more critical, he could not survey, without ill temper, the difficulties which he passed by, and suffered to accumulate behind him; difficulties which he then affected to treat with contempt, in order to disguise their importance, and preserve the energy of mind which he himself required to surmount them.  This was the reason that, being already disturbed and fatigued by the new and critical situation into which he had thrown himself, and impatient to escape from it, he kept marching on, always pushing his army forward, in order to bring matters sooner to a termination.”