Amid overwhelming disasters, the few blessings which reach us are doubly
felt. I observed this many times in the case of his Majesty and his
unfortunate army. On the banks of the Beresina, just as the first
supports of the bridge had been thrown across, Marshal Ney and the King
of Naples rushed at a gallop to the Emperor, calling to him that the
enemy had abandoned his threatening position; and I saw the Emperor,
beside himself with joy, not being able to believe his ears, go himself
at a run to throw a searching glance in the direction they said Admiral
Tschitzakoff had taken. This news was indeed true; and the Emperor,
overjoyed and out of breath from his race, exclaimed, "I have deceived
the admiral." This retrograde movement of the enemy was hard to
understand, when the opportunity to overwhelm us was within his reach;
and I doubt whether the Emperor, in spite of his apparent satisfaction,
was very sure of the happy consequences which this retreat of the enemy
might bring to us.

Before the bridge was finished, about four hundred men were carried part
of the way across the river on two miserable rafts, which could hardly
sustain themselves against the current; and we saw them from the bank
rudely shaken by the great blocks of ice which encumbered the river.
These blocks came to the very edge of the raft, where, finding an
obstacle, they remained stationary for some time, then were suddenly
ingulfed under these frail planks with a terrible shock, though the
soldiers stopped the largest with their bayonets, and turned their course
aside from the rafts.

The impatience of the army was at its height. The first who reached the
opposite bank were the brave Jacqueminot, aide-de-camp of Marshal
Oudinot, and Count Predzieczki, a brave Lithuanian, of whom the Emperor
was very fond, especially since he had shared our sufferings with such