"Remove all strangers from Vilna," he wrote to Maret: "the army is not fine to look upon just now." The precaution was much needed.

Frost set in once more, and now with unending grip.

Vilna offered a poor haven of refuge.

The stores were soon plundered, and, as the Cossacks drew near, Murat and the remnant of the Grand Army decamped in pitiable panic.

Amidst ever deepening misery they struggled on, until, of the 600,000 men who had proudly crossed the Niemen for the conquest of Russia, only 20,000 famished, frost-bitten, unarmed spectres staggered across the bridge of Kovno in the middle of December.