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Unlike most accounts of the Russian campaign. Napoleon's victories seem, in Caulaincourt's account, almost more 'terrible than the famed retreat from Moscow. Day after day Napoleon's army raced after the fleeing Russians, whose complete disappearance seemed more mysterious and frightening as the troops became exhausted. None of Napoleon's spies returned. Counting on peasants to supply information and food, he found the country deserted. Believing that a battle would lead Alexander to sue for peace, he feverishly pursued an army that spread so widely he could scarcely determine the direction of its flight. "I beat the Russians every time," he exclaimed, "but that doesn't get me anywhere."
High point of With Napoleon in Russia is the description of Napoleon's taking of Moscow, a triumph literally turned to ashes. Before the retreat, as the advance guard pushed on, Napoleon and most of his staff were nearly captured when the army and wandering Cossacks unexpectedly collided. During the retreat, Caul-aincourt saw refugees who were clinging to wagons fall off, be crushed beneath the wheels, while stupefied drivers were heartened at the lightening of their loads. He saw horses that fell, torn apart for food before they were killed. Pursuer and pursued mixed in a vast mass of suffering humanity, with isolated groups of French deep in Russian lines, crazed Cossacks lost among French refugees. Weary of slaughtering, Cossacks stole clothing, then gave their victims clothing they had stolen from others. Frightened at reports of an "idiotic" coup in Paris, alarmed at the lack of news, Napoleon fled with Caulaincourt across Poland and Germany to reach France ahead of news of the catastrophe. For 14 days they traveled, while Napoleon poured out his theories of monarchy, his opinions on his family and mistresses, discussed England, the future of the U. S.. the characters of his subordinates, to his embittered aide. He expressed no grief for his lost armies, displayed a gruesome cheerfulness as he neared Paris and decided that the surprise of his return would counteract the shock of defeat. Of the 600,000 soldiers who marched into Russia, only 1,000 of the Old Guard returned to Paris in order.