Many had been stripped,
while still living, by their half-frozen comrades. But sometimes
Louis had to dust the snow from strange bearded faces before he
could pass on with a quick sigh of relief.
Beyond Kowno, the country is thinly populated, and spreading pine-
forests bound the horizon. The Cossacks--the wild men of Toula, who
reaped the laurels of the rearguard fighting--were all along the
road. D'Arragon frequently came upon a picket--as often as not the
men were placidly sitting on a frozen corpse, as on a seat--and
stopped to say a few words and gather news.
"You will find your friend at Vilna," said one young officer, who
had been attached to General Wilson's staff, and had many stories to
tell of the energetic and indefatigable English commissioner. "At
Vilna we took twenty thousand prisoners--poor devils who came and
asked us for food--and I don't know how many officers. And if you
see Wilson there, remember me to him. If Napoleon has need to hate
one man more than another for this business, it is that firebrand,
Wilson. Yes, you will assuredly find your cousin at Vilna among the
prisoners. But you must not linger by the road, for they are being
sent back to Moscow to rebuild that which they have caused to be
destroyed."
He laughed and waved his gloved hand as D'Arragon drove on.
After the broken land and low abrupt hills of Kowno, the country was
flat again until the valley of the Vilia opened out.
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