"I have given above an account of the loss which disease still produces every month. The accounts of the situation of the troops present an effective force of 20,558 men; which supposes, according to the estimates (but too accurate) which I have already given, that the garrison will be reduced, at the end of the armistice, to 20,000 men, from which number must be deducted at least 2,000 who will be in the hospitals, even supposing that want does not increase the ravages of disease. What would be our condition, then, by the month of May, when the progress of mortality which the actual state of things supposes will have mowed down so many of our men? It results from the calculation which we are able to make, (admitting that winter diseases do not materially increase the number of deaths, and allowing for a loss of 1000 only per month,) that the sum total of the loss would be, by the 1st of May, 8000 men, omitting altogether those who may perish in actions, or who may die from the consequence of their wounds. There would only remain, then, by the month of May, an effective force of 11,000 men, of whom there will certainly be 3000 in the hospitals: how is it possible to defend fortifications so extensive with so feeble a garrison?
"I have already given orders for the construction of works intended to defend the entrance of Mottlaw, an extremely weak point when the rivers are frozen. I am going on besides with every thing which can secure my communication, but, I repeat, men are wanting for the defences. Your Highness must not doubt that, if it becomes necessary, I will do every thing which honour and my devotion to the Emperor can suggest, to maintain myself in some point or other of Dantzic.
"The state of the magazines will prove to your Highness that our resources are very limited. You will, no doubt, think that I shall manage them with all the care which the desire to make an honourable defence inspires me with: it is with this object in view that I have added to the commission for the management of provisions, which the law has appointed in places in a state of siege, a considerable number of members in addition to those which it requires.
"I have put them under the presidency of the General of the division Count Heudelet. This commission is instructed to lay before me all the measures which may tend to economy and to the welfare of the soldiers; it has rendered great service, and I am sorry that I did not give it at an earlier period the attributes which it now possesses.
"The article of finances merits very particular attention on the part of the Emperor and your Highness. All the funds which have been left at my disposal have been consumed, and I have been obliged to have recourse to a forced loan, which I imposed on all those who were still able to yield any thing. This loan has been put into execution with great severity towards those who pretended not to be able to contribute to the common defence; but notwithstanding all the pains which were taken in respect to this, and all the measures which were resorted to in order to conduce to similar results, up to the present time, only 1,700,000 francs have been raised, and there will be great difficulty in levying the rest.
"The expenses of the pay of the army, those of the constructions in the engineer department, as well as those which concern manual labour (for all the materials which are in the place will be taken, as has been done for these two months past, by requisition, to be paid for on demand at the raising of the blockade); the sums for the artillery; those for the hospitals, for the different branches of the service, for provisions, that is to say, in short, for every thing that is necessary for manual and daily labour; for the constructions in the marine department, clothing—all these expenses, of which I have ordered an estimate to be made, amount to more than 900,000 francs per month.
"A foreign commercial house has offered to provide funds here, provided that the paymaster-general guarantee him reimbursement at Paris. It would be a great security of tranquillity, if I saw this affair settled; but I should prefer that the funds were sent to me, for otherwise some circumstance might happen which would stop the stipulated payment in the second month. Your Highness is well aware that there are no means of dispensing with punctual payment of all the expenses alluded to above, especially with a garrison composed like the one which I command; I beseech you, then, to solicit from his Majesty measures which may secure the payment of the sums which I stand in absolute need of.
"I ought not to close without observing to your Highness that the quantity of powder which now remains in our magazines is not nearly in proportion to what would be necessary for a siege.
"To conclude, Monseigneur, I have thought it right to make beforehand all the observations which occur to my mind on the insufficiency of men for the defence, on the inadequacy of the means of subsistence, on the funds necessary to meet our expenses, in short, on our supplies in every department which are at all in proportion to our approaching wants. I beseech your Highness, then, to lay before the Emperor the painful situation in which we shall be placed, if his Majesty does not come to our aid. What remains of the garrison is in other respects excellent, and the performance of its part may be relied on, by means of a few rewards well applied for unlimited devotion. It will do all that the Emperor can expect from his best soldiers, and will justify the confidence which his Majesty has placed in it, and the favour which he has bestowed on it by placing it among the number of the corps of his Grand Army.