The difficulty of feeding half a million men in a country deliberately wasted beforehand, and separated by so great a space from Germany, to say nothing of France, was sure to increase at every hour and every step. Alexander's great object was, therefore, to husband his own strength until the Polar winter should set in around the strangers, and bring the miseries which he thus foresaw to a crisis.
Napoleon, on the other hand, had calculated on being met by the Russians at, or even in advance of their own frontier, (as he had been by the Austrians in the campaign of Austerlitz and by the Prussians in that of Jena); of gaining a great battle, marching immediately either to St. Petersburg or Moscow, and dictating a peace within the walls of one of the Czar's own palaces.
On June 24th the Grand Imperial Army, consolidated into three masses, began their passage of the Niemen,—Jerome Bonaparte at Grodno, Eugene at Pilony, and Napoleon himself near Kowno. The Emperor rode on in front of his army at two o'clock in the morning to reconnoitre the banks, escaping observation by wearing a Polish cloak and hat; his horse stumbled and he fell to the ground. "A bad omen—a Roman would return," some one remarked. After a minute investigation he discovered a spot near the village of Poinemen, above Kowno, suitable for the passage of his troops, and gave orders for three bridges to be thrown across at nightfall. The first who crossed the river were a few sappers in a boat. All was deserted and silent on the foreign soil, and no one appeared to oppose their proceedings with the exception of a single armed Cossack, who asked, with an appearance of surprise, who they were and what they wanted. "Frenchmen," was the reply; "we come to make war upon your Emperor; to take Wilna, and deliver Poland."
The Cossack struck spurs into his horse and three French soldiers discharged their pieces into the gloomy depths of the woods, where they had lost sight of him, in token of hostility. There came on at the same moment a tremendous thunder storm. Thus began the fatal invasion.
The passage of the troops was impeded for a time; as the bridge over the Vilia, a stream running into the Niemen, had been broken by the Russians. The Emperor, however, despising this obstacle, ordered a Polish squadron of horse to swim the river. They instantly obeyed; but on reaching the middle the current proved too strong for them, broke their ranks, and swept away and engulfed many of them. Even during their last struggles the brave fellows turned their faces towards the shore, where Napoleon was watching their unavailing efforts with the deepest emotion, and shouted with their dying breath, "Vive l'Empereur!"
Three of these noble-spirited patriots uttered this cry when only a part of their faces was above the waters. The army was struck with a mixture of horror and admiration. Napoleon watched the scene apparently unmoved, but gave every order he could devise for the purpose of saving as many of them as possible, though with little effect. It is probable that his strongest feeling, even at the time, was a presentiment that this disastrous event was but the beginning of others, at once tremendous and extensive.
As these enormous hosts advanced into the Russian territory Alexander withdrew his armies as deliberately as the invader pushed on. Wilna, the capital itself, was evacuated two days before the French came in sight of it, and Napoleon took up his quarters there on the 28th of June. Here it was found that all the magazines, which he counted on seizing, had been burnt before the Russians withdrew. Already the imperial bulletins began to denounce the "barbarous method" in which the enemy resolved to conduct his defense.
Napoleon remained twenty days at Wilna during which time he redoubled his efforts to secure quantities of provisions which were to be conveyed along with his army; these were to render him independent of the countries through which he might pass. The destruction of the magazines at Wilna reassured him that he had judged well in departing from the old system of marauding, which had been adopted in previous campaigns with success. At the end of this period Napoleon became aware that while the contracts entered into by his war minister were adequate for the army's needs, the handling of such enormous quantities of provisions, under the most favorable circumstances, must be slow and in some degree uncertain. Thus the Emperor found himself under the necessity, either of laying aside his invasion for another year, or of urging it in the face of every difficulty, all of which he had forseen except the slowness of a commissariat department.
When Napoleon arrived at Wilna, he was regarded by the people as their liberator. A deputation was sent to him by the Diet of Warsaw entreating his assistance towards the restoration of their ancient kingdom, the re-establishment of Poland having been proclaimed. They came, they said, to solicit Napoleon the Great to pronounce these few words: "Let the kingdom of Poland exist!" and then it would exist; that all the Poles would devote themselves to the orders of the fourth French dynasty, to whom ages were but a moment, and space no more than a point.
Napoleon's reply was not satisfactory, "In my position, I have many interests to reconcile," he said "and many duties to fulfill." His answer was so extremely guarded, that the Poles became dissatisfied and offered little or no support to the French. "Had Poland been regenerated" says Bourrienne, "Napoleon would have found the means of succeeding in his expedition. In his march upon Moscow, his rear and supplies would have been protected, and he would have secured that retreat which subsequent reverses rendered but too needful."