Even when hard pressed, he never
missed a chance of attacking. The enemy never made a mistake that
he did not give them reason to rue it.
To the waiting world came at length the news that the winter, so
long retarded, had closed down over Russia. In Dantzig, so near the
frontier, a hundred rumours chased each other through the streets;
and day by day Antoine Sebastian grew younger and gayer. It seemed
as if a weight long laid upon his heart had been lifted at last. He
made a journey to Konigsberg soon after Barlasch's return, and came
back with eager eyes. His correspondence was enormous. He had, it
seemed, a hundred friends who gave him news and asked something in
exchange--advice, encouragement, warning. And all the while men
whispered that Prussia would ally herself to Russia, Sweden, and
England.
From Paris came news of a growing discontent. For France, among a
multitude of virtues, has one vice unpardonable to Northern men:
she turns from a fallen friend.
Soon followed the news of Beresina--a poor little river of
Lithuania--where the history of the world hung for a day as on a
thread. But a flash of the dying genius surmounted superhuman
difficulties, and the catastrophe was turned into a disaster. The
divisions of Victor and Oudinot--the last to preserve any semblance
of military discipline--were almost annihilated. The French lost
twelve thousand killed or drowned in the river, sixteen thousand
prisoners, twelve of the remaining guns.
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