the general disorganisation of the commissariat brandy, which formed part of the usual ration, and might, at any rate, have done something towards rendering the water less unwholesome, was rarely served out. The result was a frightful amount of sickness--diarrhoea, dysentery and typhus--and in a wretchedly poor and sparsely populated region little could be done to reduce it. The sick were left behind in temporary hospital camps; where they died by thousands in the midst of filth, starvation and general destitution. Of those who went into these dens of misery it was calculated that not one in ten ever emerged alive. The fighting line was seriously weakened by the immense number of sick. It was also reduced by the necessity of making large detachments to bring up the belated supply trains and to forage for bread, and yet further depleted by straggling, partly for purposes of foraging, partly owing to fatigue, and in some measure to indiscipline. This straggling had always been one of the bad features of the Napoleonic army, and the marches always appear, except when in face of the enemy, to have been conducted with great irregularity. A German eyewitness was amazed to see the regiments of Davout’s corps, the best disciplined of the army, making a short march in the most disorderly array. There is, of course, something to be said for this permission to the men to take their ease when there was no necessity for precise formation and watchfulness; and certainly nothing is ever gained by harassing and overworking soldiers distinguished for cheerful readiness--as Frenchmen have always been. But it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the irregularity went beneath the surface. With the gaiety and readiness of the French nature is intermixed a decided strain of impatience under restraint which easily degenerates into lawlessness. The straggling which, in earlier days, had perhaps been necessary for the ill-compacted Revolutionary armies, had now become a habit, and soon developed into a monstrous abuse, which ultimately, as much as anything, proved the ruin of the army. The writer is far from wishing to defend a hard and inelastic discipline which crushes personal initiative. But he is strongly of opinion that had the French march discipline been better at the outset, the army would not have broken up as it did during the retreat. Upon this subject more will be said in its proper place.