the 2d of December, again the anniversary of his coronation, Buonaparte announced to his army, that the Russians were before them on the Vistula: these same Russians, whom last year they had overcome at Austerlitz.' The marches which ensued, to Pultusk, and Eylau, where the troops bivouacked under a temperature of 32 degrees below the freezing point, were a foretaste of what they were afterwards to suffer during a Russian winter:- I had,' says M. Larrey, early in the morning of the battle (at Eylau), established an ambulance in some barns, to the left of the road at the entrance of the town; but, unfortunately, they were open on every side, the straw roofs having been taken for the horses, so that we were obliged to place our wounded on what was left of this straw, half covered with snow. The cold was so severe, that the instruments frequently dropped from the hands of my assistants, during our operations; and it was night before we could take any refreshment. When all was quiet, and the wounded had been attended to, a sudden movement of the enemy bore down immediately upon the ambulances; such of the wounded men as had the power of motion immediately took to flight.-M. Larrey hastened to finish the amputation of a leg which he had begun; and the surgeons, with their attendants, as a last resource, were preparing for defence, when a charge of the French cavalry, in the midst of a whirlwind of snow, relieved them.' III. 38-40.

The extreme exhaustion of the country, and the severity of the weather, determined the author to send the wounded back to Inowracklaw, a distance of 55 French leagues, through miserable roads, and under every sort of privation; yet they arrived in good condition; and it is even probable, he thinks, that many of them were benefited by this removal. *—An animated

*The popular opinion, as to the benefit of exposure to cold and abstinence, after severe wounds, appears to be correct.-Several instances in confirmation of it, are said to have occurred at Waterloo; and, in Clarendon's account of the battle of Edghill, which took place on the 23d October, the case is mentioned of Sir Gervas Scroop, who recovered, after he had fallen with 16 wounds in his body and • head, and had lain stripped among the dead, from that time, which "was about three in the afternoon on Sunday, all that cold night, all Munday, and Munday night, and till Tuesday evening, for it was so late before his son found him.- . . . . . . The next morning after, being Wednesday, there was another gentleman, named Bellingham, found among the dead, and brought off (living) by his 'friends,. with twenty wounds!--The Surgeons were of opinion, that both these gentlemen owed their lives to the inhumanity of those who stripped them, and to the coldness of the nights, which stopped

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5

sketch is given afterwards of the defeat of the Russians at Friedland, and of the scenes upon the Niemen, during the memorable negociation at Tilsit; from whence M. Larrey soon returned to Berlin, and Paris; and Buonaparte repaired to Milan, to be crowned King of Italy.

We pass over the account of the expedition into Spain, in which the author accompanied Buonaparte and his guards: and we have already given a full description of the memorable battles during the Austrian Campaign of 1809.* After that of Essling, in which it is clear, even from the author's narrative, that the French were beaten, the wounded were crowded into the Island of Lobau; where they lay, for three days, without shelter, on the bare ground. The days were sultry, but the nights very cold; the high winds covered them with clouds of dust, and the destruction of the bridges having cut off their supplies, M. Larrey was obliged to make soup for them of horse flesh, which he seasoned with gunpowder for want of salt. The mess, he assures us, was not the worse for this, the blackness of the gunpowder being removed in the cooking; and those who had a little biscuit, contrived to make a very palatable sort of compound.

In 1811, M. Larrey published his first three volumes, which conclude with the peace of 1809.-The scene was now to change; and having witnessed the progress of Buonaparte's elevation, he was destined also to take a part in the still more extraordinary occurrences that produced his fall.-His peculiar situation and pursuits, have enabled him to fill up the picture, of the Russian Campaign especially, with some very striking details. In the spring of 1812, the French army was already advanced in Prussia, yet none of them were acquainted with their destination; some even supposing that they were to embark for England from the shores of the Baltic;-yet it is asserted that the map of Russia, made use of by Buonaparte and his Marshals during the campaign, had been in preparation two years before. † The author, who was appointed Surgeon in chief to this vast army, completed the Medical and Surgical Department at Berlin; and during his stay in that city, delivered lectures to his officers, and caused them to practise constantly the principal

• their blood, better than all their skill and medicaments could have ' done; and that had they been brought off within any reasonable dis"tance of time after their wounds, they had undoubtedly perished.'Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion, &c. folio, 1704, p. 43.

* Edin. Rev. 1811, Vol. 18. p. 392, &c.

+ Odelebem, Campagne en Saxe, I. p. 129.

operations of Surgery; the ambulances, also, being exercised daily in the duties of the field. At Wilna, arrangements were made for the reception of 6000 wounded; and a grand review was intended to have taken place, on the 10th July, but was prevented by a storm, of such unusual violence, as to throw the troops into confusion, and compel even Buonaparte to quit the field: an occurrence afterwards regarded as a sort of omen, of the fate that was preparing for him.-After the first battle at Witepsk, the French, although victorious, were in want of necessaries, and were soon compelled to fall back. I had the greatest difficulty,' the author says, in dressing the wounded on the field, and was obliged to use the linen of the soldiers, and even our own shirts, for bandages.' So early did they begin to suffer under the precipitation of their leader; one of whose great errors, in this ill-fated campaign, was the neglect of all provisions for the physical support of his troops. The condition of the Russian prisoners, under such circumstances, was dreadful; and a horrible account is given, of 350 of their wounded, who were not discovered till the fourth day after the battle. The author states the French loss at Smolensko, at more than 7200 hors du combat:-' And here, having been for several days in want of linen, we were obliged to dress the wounded with the Records, which we found in the Archives where we had established our hospital. The parchments served instead of splints; tow, and the down of the birch tree, for lint; and even the beds of the wounded men were made of the papers.' p. 31.

Under the impression that the army would advance no further into Russia at that season, the greater part of the ambulances, and all the surgeons of the reserve, were left at Smolensko; where the wounded were already collected, to the number. of 10,000: But on rejoining the army, after an action at Volontina, M. Larrey was dismayed to find, that Bonaparte had determined to go on :-with the expectation, he supposes, that one decisive battle might finish the campaign. He was obliged to leave at this place, the last division of the ambulances, and hastened after the army; which soon entered, for the first time, and with most gloomy anticipations, upon the vast plains that constitute the greater part of Russia Proper. And here, the author was himself attacked, with symptoms resembling those of sea-sickness; the horizon appearing to him to be incessantly in motion, like the waves of a troubled sea:-An effect, which he ascribes, in part, to the constant movement of the crowds that surrounded him on these extensive plains. But the extreme anxiety and bodily fatigue to which he was constantly exposed, must no doubt have had a share in its production.

From henceforward, the whole army suffered under privations of every description: Viarma, which had been a great magazine of stores, they found deserted and on fire; it was impossible to extinguish the flames, and the army passed through with difficulty.

When it was ascertained that the Russians had taken the position of Mojask (Borodino), the author was directed to prepare for a great battle: an order which he received with consternation; for all his surgeons, and the carriages of the ambulances, were still behind, and he had great difficulty in mustering, from the regiments, a small corps of forty-five surgeons and assistants. After a march of six-and-thirty hours, in want of every thing, they arrived at the Russian position: and there, even water could be obtained only at a rivulet under the fire of the enemy. We have already* given La Beaume's account of the battle on the 7th September; a struggle, such as was to be expected from two armies, one of which fought absolutely for existence, and the other made the last stand in defence of their metropolis. It would be impos-sible, M. Larrey says, to describe the field,-where between five and six hundred thousand men had fought, for more than fifteen. hours, within the space of a square league. The surgeons laboured without ceasing among the wounded, in despite of the cold, and of northerly winds, so strong, that the torch, which was necessary at night to enable the author to perform his operations, was kept with difficulty from being extinguished. The wounds, too, of this battle were universally severe, being principally from the artillery: + and the author asserts (p. 57), that, during the first twenty-four hours, he himself amputated about two hundred limbs! Many of the sufferers had neither straw to lie upon, nor covering, shelter or provisions; and the surgeons were at last obliged, in several instances, to wash the bandages with their own hands.-The army advanced on the day after the battle; but M. Larrey remained for three days upon the field. He found the town of Mojask deserted, and on fire; but full of wounded Russians, tormented with burning thirst: and he censures, with great severity and apparent justice, the unskilfulness of the Russian surgeons.-A few miles further, notwithstanding the vicinity of one of the largest capitals of the globe, the country was a sandy and completely desert plain, the melancholy aspect of which produced despondency among the troops, which were new completely exhaust

* Edin. Rev. Vol. XXIV. p. 381-2.

† The Russian musket bullets, also, are larger than the French

ed: and at this place numbers, of the young guard especially, were victims to the excessive use of Chenceps, a sort of spirit impregnated with narcotic ingredients; which had been very destructive to the army ever since their entrance into Russia.

The streets of Moscow were deserted, and the city was soon found to be on fire in several distant quarters, where none of the French had yet appeared. The flames advanced on every side with dreadful rapidity; and the Russians were continually active in assisting their progress. One of these incendiaries even made his way into the palace occupied by General Grouchy, and with a lighted torch attempted to set fire to the bed-curtains, when he was seized by the General's son, (on whose authority the author mentions the fact), and given up to the patrole, to be put to death. It would be difficult, under any circumstances, to witness a more horrid spectacle, than that which was now before us. During the night, especially, of the 18th September, when the flames were at their height, the scene was most astonishing the weather was fine and dry, and the wind, which was extremely violent, between north and east. During this night, the image of which will never be effaced from my recollection, the whole city was on fire; thick jets of flame, of various colours, shot up on every side to the very clouds, and cast around a scorching heat and brilliant illumination. These jets, prolonged by the violence of the winds, were accompanied with a horrid hissing, and with continual explosions of the various combustibles with which the houses and shops were filled.-Fear and amazement occupied every heart. The guards, the staff, and the chief of the army, left the Kremlin, and the city; and formed an encampment at Petroski, on the road to Petersburgh.' (p. 74.)

:

The miseries of such of the inhabitants as ventured to remain," driven by the progress of the fire from house to house,' were horrible. The soldier, tormented by hunger and thirst, braved every danger, to rescue, from the cellars and the burning shops, provisions, wines, and various articles of plunder, and dispersed themselves pellmell among the inhabitants, seizing upon every thing they could res que from the flames.' Even when the fire had subsided, and some magazines of necessaries began to be discovered, they were hoarded, with ill-judged economy, from immediate use, to be at last deserted or destroyed. Large stores, of furs and winter clothing in particular, were thus kept in reserve; instead of being instantly prepared for the approaching severe weather. The troops, on the other hand, indulged in every kind of excess; the discipline of the army was completely at an end; and Moscow,' the author says, became, for our army, another Capua.'

VOL. XXXI. No. 62.

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