Page:Readings in European History Vol 2.djvu/553

 Europe and Napoleo?i 515 that the eagles of France shall repass the Rhine, leaving, by such a movement, our allies at her mercy. Russia is dragged along by a fate. Her destinies must be accomplished. Shall she then consider us degenerate ? Are we no longer to be looked upon as the soldiers of Austerlitz ? She offers us the alternative of dishonor or war. The choice does not admit of hesitation. Let us march forward. Let us pass the Niemen. Let us carry war into her territory. The second war of Poland will be as glorious to the French arms as was the first ; but the peace which we shall conclude will be its own guaranty and will put an end to that proud and haughty influence which Russia has for fifty years exercised in the affairs of Europe. At our Headquarters at Wilkowiszki, June, 22, 1812. Five months later Napoleon was frantically endeav- oring to regain Poland. An eyewitness thus describes the crossing of the Beresina, one of the most tragic episodes in all military history. On the 25th of November there had been thrown across 447. The the river temporary bridges made of beams taken from the cr <> sslll g cabins of the Poles. ... At a little after five in the after- Beresina. noon the beams gave way, not being sufficiently strong ; (From Consta Memoirs.) and as it was necessary to wait until the next day, the army again abandoned itself to gloomy forebodings. It was evi- dent that they would have to endure the fire of the enemy all the next day. But there was no longer any choice; for it was only at the end of this night of agony and suffering of every description that the first beams were secured in the river. It is hard to comprehend how men could submit to stand, up to their mouths in water filled with ice, rallying all the strength which nature had given them, added to all that the energy of devotion furnished, and drive piles several feet deep into a miry bed, struggling against the most horrible fatigue, pushing back with their hands enormous blocks of ice which threatened to submerge and sink them. . ..