"In bivouac before Vitebsk, 5-8 August. It is already
five days as we repose here, if one may call it repose. Namely, a bivouac
established in the middle of the fields, with burning heat, almost no shelter,
ten minutes from the city of Vitebsk, where general headquarters are
established. Nevertheless I continue to remain in excellent health. I am among
those very few people who are no afflicted with diarrhea. thanks to the care
and precautions that I take. The food not being of the best quality, especially
the bread, I eat very little. I do not quite know how I survive and I how I
sustain myself so I have not much strength... Oxen and sheep abound in our
camp, but was is the only drink we ever have. Fortunately I have some reserves if strong
liquors and of chocolate which prevents my stomach from becoming ruined."
On 11 August, I left Vitebsk at the head of fourteen pieces
of artillery of which eight are in my company and six in that of Fradiel. On
the 17th, we bivouacked behind Smolensk, to the right. [Our troops] took the
city that day but we were not engaged in the fighting. There was no
conflagrations as at Vitebsk but all of inhabitants had fled. At a review,
which the Emperor held in a little hamlet on the 23rd, there was not a single
spectator present. We continued to live and march in the same manner. Everywhere
we mowed down the green grain to feed our horses but most often we found only
deserts and smoldering ruins. Thus far I had not seen a single Russian in a
house and at the outskirts of Vyazma I thought I perceived clearly that the
enemy sought to lure us as far as possible, in order to surprise us dying of
hunger and cold. Fire were seen only in the general direction of the army but
at great distances to the right and to the left. At night all the horizon
seemed aflame. Did not the Emperor perceive the trap the [Russians] were
arranging for him? Since nowhere except at Ostrovno and Smolensk did he
encounter the enemy. Not the less did the season advance and no one asked himself
where he would stop or how would he live on the way back. So I became the bird
of bad omen for all the regiment because I loudly predicted that we would never
return to France. Habituated to great victories, the army already saw the
Emperor entering Moscow and St. Petersburg in triumph and dictating peace.
Never did blindness extend so far.
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