second lieutenant being of the number. The Wasp had five men killed and five slightly wounded.

All hands were now employed in clearing the deck, burying the dead, and taking care of the wounded, when Captain Jones sent orders to Lieutenant Biddle to proceed to Charleston, or any southern port of the United States; and, as there was a suspicious sail to windward, the Wasp would continue her cruise. The ships then parted. The suspicious sail was now coming down very fast. At first it was supposed that she was one of the convoy, who had all fled during the engagement, and who now came for the purpose of attacking the prize. The guns of the Frolic were therefore loaded, and the ship cleared for action; but the enemy, as she advanced, proved to be a seventy-four-the Poictiers, Capt. Beresford. She fired a shot over the Frolic; passed her; overtook the Wasp, the disabled state of whose rigging prevented her from escaping; and then returned to the Frolic, who could of course make no resistance. The Wasp and Frolic were carried into Bermuda."

On the return of Capt. Jones to the United States, he was everywhere received with the utmost demonstrations of gratitude and admiration. Brilliant entertainments were given him in the cities through which he passed. The legislature of his native state appointed a committee to wait on him with their thanks, and to express the "pride and pleasure" they felt in recognising him as a native of their state: in the same resolution they voted him an elegant piece of plate, with appropriate engravings. The congress of the United States, on motion of Mr. J. A. Bayard, of Delaware, appropriated 25,000 dollars, as a compensation to Capt. Jones and his crew, for the loss they sustained by the recapture of the Frolic. They also ordered a gold medal to be presented to the captain, and a silver one to each of his officers.

Various other marks of honour have been paid by the legislatures, and the citizens of different states, which it would be superfluous to enumerate; but the most substantial testimony of approbation which he has received, is the appointment to the command of the frigate Macedonian, lately captured from the British.

Capt. Jones is about the middle size, of an active mind and vigorous make, and an excellent constitution, capable of the utmost

vigilance and fatigue. Naturally and habitually temperate himself, he is a great promoter of temperance among his crew; and has been successful in reclaiming many a valuable seaman from the pernicious habits of intoxication.

He is now in what may be considered the most critical command in our service; having charge of a ship, the recovery of which will be one of the most anxious objects of the British navy, and which will call forth the most implacable contest on either side. But in the courage, judgment and skill of Capt. Jones, we place the most implicit confidence, and are satisfied, that whatever fortune may befall him, he will always sustain his own high reputation and the honour of the American flag.

SPIRIT OF MAGAZINES.

RETREAT OF THE FRENCH.

[From a pamphlet originally published in Russia.]

ABOUT November 1, the severity of the cold weather began, and brought additional misery upon the French army; to bivouack upon ice and snow, without other food than frozen horse-flesh, without any kind of strengthening beverage, and without proper clothing, was more than human strength could endure. Many hundreds were every night frozen to death, and an equal number died of complete exhaustion by day; a line of dead bodies marked the road which the army was pursuing. Whole detachments now threw down their arms together; order and discipline had altogether ceased; the soldier cared no longer for the officer, nor the officer for the soldier; each was so completely engaged with his own wants and sufferings, that he disregarded those of others, and would neither command nor obey. The different regiments were intermixed, and, as they moved, had the appearance of a motley mass, in which the different corps could only be distinguished by the difference of the columns appropriated to the baggage and baggage-wagons; and these were at every instant attacked on either side by predatory parties of Cossacks. Want of precaution had been so great at the very beginning of the retreat, that the horses had not even been rough shod at Moscow to secure them in case of frost ;* so that being already reduced in point of strength, they were wholly unequal to the exertion of drawing upon slippery roads; twelve or fourteen were harnessed to a single cannon, and yet the smallest rise of ground was an almost insurmountable obstacle. The cavalry had no longer any horses to spare, being itself dismounted, with the exception of a few regiments of the guards; and it therefore soon became utterly impossible to bring on the artillery. At Dorogobush the fourth corps left the whole of its artillery behind, consisting of upwards of one hundred pieces of ordnance; and the same was done by the first and third corps; so that the army, upon reaching Smolensko, had already lost about four hundred pieces of cannon. The French force, which, on leaving Moscow, was more than one hundred

• A neglect, equally criminal and fatal, cost the British army its horses in the retreat to Corunna.

thousand strong, had at Smolensko hardly sixty thousand men left, of which number scarcely half were under arms.

Never, surely, was the apothegm of the sagacious Franklin on the neglect of small matters more completely verified, than in the omission of properly shoeing the horses at Moscow. "For want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe, the horse was lost; for want of a horse, the rider was lost;-being overtaken, and slain by the enemy.

The army remained in Smolensko two days, which were one continued scene of confusion, plunder and conflagration. The magazines that were found there were of no great resource: for the share that was distributed to each man as a supply for several days, was at once devoured by the famished wretches, although the rations were not given in bread, but in meal. Many thousands indeed went away altogether unsupplied, each in the general struggle being obliged to obtain by force the portion that was allotted to him. A day had also been fixed for distributing ammunition; but few soldiers appeared at the appointed time to receive it.

We advance now to the crossing of the Beresina, which is thus described:

This crossing of the Beresina will long remain in the recollection of the soldiers, on account of the terror with which it was attended. The troops, from the first moment, crowded upon each other in the most disorderly manner, and many, even then, met with a watery grave: but when the corps of Victor and Dombrowsky, being repulsed by the Russian armies, directed their flight to the bridge, confusion and terror increased, and were soon at their highest pitch. Cavalry, infantry, baggage and artillery struggled respectively to pass over the first. The weaker were forced into the river by the stronger, whose progress they impeded, or were trampled under foot: officers and privates met with the same fate: hundreds were crushed under the wheels of the artillery-train: many attempted to swim but were benumbed in the attempt; and others again trusting to the broken sheet of ice that covered the stream were drowned: the cry of distress was heard on all sides, but relief was nowhere given. At length, when the Russian batteries began to cannonade the bridge and both banks of the river, the crossing necessarily ceased, and a whole division of Victor's corps, consisting of seven thousand five hundred men, together with five generals, capitulated. Many thousands were drowned, and an equal number killed; besides which, much baggage and cannon remained on the left bank.

About 40,000 men, together with a body of artillery, still tolerably considerable, had crossed the Beresina; but to what a miserable state was this force reduced!

Another severe frost completed the measure of their suffer ings: arms were now thrown down in all directions: the greater number of soldiers had neither boots nor shoes; but were compelled to make use of old hats and knapsacks, or any other kind of covering to fasten round their feet. Round their heads and shoulders they wrapped whatever first offered itself, and might serve as an additional protection against the cold, old sacks, straw mats half torn, and hides of animals recently skinned; [dresses of the women peasants, priests' dresses, &c.] fortunate were the few who succeeded in providing themselves with a bit of fur. With downcast looks, and every other mark of dejection, both officers and soldiers moved slowly on together in mute dismay; and even the guards were in no way superior to, or distinguishable from, the rest: they were equally tattered, famished and unarmed. All spirit of resistance and defence had ceased. At the mere cry of Cossacks! whole columns surrendered, and a few of these were often sufficient to take many hundred prisoners. The road which the army followed was covered with dead bodies, and every bivouack appeared next morning like a field of battle. No sooner was a man fallen to the ground, exhausted with fatigue and hunger, than those who stood next to him, stripped him while yet alive to cover themselves with his rags. Every house and barn was set on fire: and wherever a conflagration had taken place, there also was found a pile of dead bodies, those who had approached the fire to warm themselves, having afterwards, from extreme weakness, been unable to escape from the flames. The highroad swarmed with prisoners, who almost ceased to be taken notice of, and scenes of distress occurred, such as had never before been witnessed. Wretches black with smoke and filth of every kind, crawled like ghosts among the dead bodies of their fellow soldiers, till they themselves dropped and expired. Many hobbled on with bare and gangrened feet, almost deprived of reason; and others again had lost the use of speech, or, from the extreme severity of cold and famine, were driven to a kind of delirium which made them roast and devour corpses, or even gnaw their own hands and arms. Some were so helpless as not to be able to gather fuel, but collected round any little fire that might remain, sitting upon piles of the bodies of their comrades, and died as the last spark went out. Reduced to a state of complete senselessness, many were seen crawling into the fire and burnt to death in endeavouring to warm themselves, while others, notwithstanding the example, crawled in after them and met with a similar fate. VOL. II. New Series.

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