At Witepsk, 400 wounded Russians were left on the field of battle:  300 more were abandoned in the town by their army; and as the inhabitants had been taken away, these unfortunate wretches remained three days before they were discovered, without assistance, huddled together pell-mell, dead and dying, amidst the most horrible filth and infection:  they were at length collected together and mixed with our own wounded, who, like those of the Russians, amounted to 700.  Our surgeons tore up their very shirts, and those of these poor creatures, to dress them; for there already began to be a scarcity of linen.

When at length the wounds of these unfortunate men were healed, and they required nothing but wholesome food to complete their cure, they perished for want of sustenance:  few either of the French or Russians escaped.  Those who were prevented from going in quest of food by the loss of a limb, or by debility, were the first to sink.  These disasters occurred wherever the emperor was not in person; his presence bringing, and his departure carrying, every thing along with it; and his orders, in fact, not being scrupulously obeyed but within the circle of his own observation.

At Smolensk, there was no want of hospitals; fifteen spacious brick buildings were rescued from the flames:  there were even found some wine, brandy, and a few medical stores; and our reserve waggons for the wounded at length rejoined us:  but every thing ran short.  The surgeons were at work night and day, but the very second night, all the materials for dressing the wounded were exhausted:  there was no more linen, and they were forced to use paper, found in the archives, in its stead.  Parchment served for splinters, and coarse cloth for compresses; and they had no other substitute for lint than tow and birch down (coton du bouleau).

Our surgeons were overwhelmed with dismay:  for three days an hospital of a hundred wounded had been forgotten; an accident led to its discovery:  Rapp penetrated into that abode of despair.  I will spare my reader the horror of a description.  Wherefore communicate those terrible impressions which harrow up the soul?  Rapp did not spare them to Napoleon, who instantly caused his own wine, and a sum of money, to be distributed among such of those unfortunate men as a tenacious life still animated, or whom a disgusting food had supported.

But to the vehement emotion which these reports excited in the bosom of the emperor, was superadded an alarming consideration.  The conflagration of Smolensk was no longer, he saw, the effect of a fatal and unforeseen accident of war, nor even the result of an act of despair:  it was the result of cool determination.  The Russians had studied the time and means, and taken as great pains to destroy, as are usually taken to preserve.