M. de Fezensac commenced the campaign upon the staff. In the capacity of aide-de-camp to Berthier, he joined the headquarters of the Grand Army at Posen, and marched with them to Wilna. It was in the month of June. Already, although the campaign had been opened but a few days, during which the Russians had everywhere receded before the invaders, certain ominous circumstances contradicted, to observant eyes and reflecting minds, those anticipations of triumphant success so confidently and universally entertained, a few short weeks before, at Dresden. The fervent heat was succeeded by torrents of rain; mortality amongst the horses commenced; the army, living upon the country, suffered from want of food and forage; already the number of stragglers was great, and acts of pillage and violence were frequent. As an instance of these, when the Poles, with Napoleon’s approval, organised a civil government of Lithuania, one of the sub-prefects, repairing to his post, was plundered by the French soldiers, and arrived almost naked in the town he was sent to preside over. The French Emperor’s seventeen days’ halt at Wilna, so severely censured by historians, gave M. de Fezensac opportunity to observe the details and composition of the monstrous staff and retinue that attended Napoleon, of which he furnishes the following curious account:— “The Emperor had around him the grand marshal, (Duroc,) the master of the horse, (Caulaincourt,) his aides-de-camp, his orderly officers, the aides-de-camp of his aides-de-camp, and several secretaries attached to his cabinet. The major-general (Berthier) had eight or ten aides-de-camp, and the number of clerks necessary for the great amount of work occasioned by such an army; the general staff, composed of a vast number of officers of all grades, was commanded by General Monthion. The administration, directed by Count Dumas, intendant-general, was subdivided into the administrative service properly so called, comprising directors, inspectors of reviews, and commissaries; the service of health, including physicians, surgeons, and apothecaries; the service of provisions in all its branches, and workmen of every kind. When the Prince of Neuchatel passed it in review at Wilna, it looked, from a distance, like a body of troops ranged in order of battle, and, by an unfortunate fatality, notwithstanding the zeal and talents of the intendant-general, this immense administration was almost useless from the very commencement of the campaign, and became noxious at its close. Let the reader now picture to himself the assemblage, at one point, of the whole of this staff; let him fancy the prodigious number of servants, of led horses, of baggage of all kinds that it dragged along with it, and he will have some idea of the spectacle presented by the headquarters of the army. Also, when a movement was made, the Emperor took with him but a very small number of officers; all the rest set out beforehand, or followed behind. At a bivouac,