As I have said, the bridge had no railing; and crowds of those who forced their way across fell into the river and were ingulfed beneath the ice.  Others in their fall tried to stop themselves by grasping the planks of the bridge, and remained suspended over the abyss until their hands, crushed by the wheels of the vehicles, lost their grasp, and they went to join their comrades as the’ waves closed over them.  Entire caissons, with drivers and horse were precipitated into the water.

Poor women were seen holding their children out of the water in the effort to delay for a few instants their death, and death in such a frightful form, a truly admirable maternal incident, which the genius of the painter has divined in painting scenes from the Deluge, and which we saw in all its heartrending and frightful reality!  The Emperor wished to retrace his steps, believing that his presence might restore order; but he was dissuaded from this project so earnestly, that he withstood the promptings of his heart and remained, though certainly it was not his elevated rank which kept him on the bank.  All the suffering he endured could be seen when he inquired every instant where the crossing was, if they could still hear cannon rolling over the bridge, if the cries had not ceased somewhat in that direction.  “The reckless creatures!  Why could they not wait a little?” said he.

There were fine examples of devotion under these distressing circumstances.  A young artilleryman threw himself into the water to save a poor mother with two children, who was attempting to gain the other shore in a little canoe.  The load was too heavy; an enormous block of ice floated against and sunk the little boat.  The cannoneer seized one of the children, and, swimming vigorously, bore it to the bank; but the mother and the other child perished.  This kind young man adopted the orphan as his son.  I do not know if he had the happiness of regaining France.

Officers harnessed themselves to sleds to carry some of their companions who were rendered helpless by their wounds.  They wrapped these unfortunates as warmly as possible, cheered them from time to time with a glass of brandy when they could procure it, and lavished on them most touching attentions.

There were many who behaved in this manner, many of whose names we are ignorant; and how few returned to enjoy in their own country the remembrance of the most admirable deeds of their lives.

The bridge was burned at eight o’clock in the morning.

On the 29th the.  Emperor quitted the banks of the Beresina, and we slept at Kamen, where his Majesty occupied a poor wooden building which the icy air penetrated from all sides through the windows; nearly all the glass of which being broken, we closed the openings as well as we could with bundles of hay.  A short distance from us, in a large lot, were penned up the wretched Russian prisoners whom the army drove before it.  I had much difficulty in comprehending this delusion of victory which our poor soldiers still kept up by dragging after them this wretched luxury of prisoners, who could only be an added burden, as they required their constant surveillance.