In the winter of 1812, by a similar
force, the destiny of Europe was de
cided. The French army marched up
toward Moscow five hundred thousand
men. What can resist them? Not
bayonets, but the dumb elements over
whelm that host. Napoleon retreats
from Moscow with about two hundred
thousand men, a mighty nucleus for
another campaign after he gets back to
Paris. The morning of Oct. 19, when
they ftart for home, is bright and
beautiful. The air Li tonic, and al
though this Russian campaign has been
a failure Tvapoleon will try again in
some otlier direction with his host of
bravo surviving Frenchmen.
But a cloud comes on the sky, and
the air gets chill and one of the sol
diera feels on his check a snowfiake, and
then there is a multiplication of these
wintry messages, and soon the plumes
of the officers are decked with another
style of plume, and then all the skies
let loose upon the warriors a hurricane
of snow, and the march becomes diffi
cult, and the horses find it hard to pull
the supply train, and the men begin to
fall under the fatigue, and many not
able to take another step he down in
the drifts never to rise, and the cavalry
horses stumble and faJL and one thou
sand of the army falL and ten thou
sand pcrLsli, and twenty thousand go
down, and fifty thousand and a hun
dred thousand and a hundred and
twenty thousand and a hundred and
thirty-two thousand die, and the- victor
of Jena and bridge of Lodi and.Eylau
and Austerlitz, where three great
armies, commanded by three emperors,
surrendered to lum, now himself sur
renders to the snowflakes.
