LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
[Sergeant Bourgogne in 1830.]
[The French Receiving Hospitality from Russian Women,]
[The Bridge over the Kolotscha near Borodino, September 17, 1812,]
[On the High Road from Mojaiska to Krymskoïe, September 18, 1812,]
[Bivouac near Mikalewka, November 7, 1812,]
[On the Road between Braunsberg and Elbing, December 21, 1812],
[Passage of the Berezina, November, 1812,]
[Beside the Road, not far from Pnéwa, November 8, 1812,]
MEMOIRS OF
SERGEANT BOURGOGNE
FROM ALMEIDA TO MOSCOW.
It was in the month of March, 1812, while we were engaged against the English army commanded by Wellington, at Almeida in Portugal, that we received orders to march for Russia.
We crossed Spain, each day being marked by an engagement, sometimes by two and in this way reached Bayonne, the first town over the frontier in France.
On leaving this place, we travelled by the stage as far as Paris, where we expected to stay and rest; but after a halt of forty-eight hours, the Emperor reviewed us, and, deciding that we were not in need of rest, marched us all along the boulevards. Then we turned to the left in the Rue St. Martin, crossed La Villette, and found several hundred coaches and other vehicles waiting for us; we halted, but were ordered to mount four into every carriage—and, crack! we were off to Meaux. From there onwards to the Rhine in waggons, travelling day and night.