midnight
The unfortunate malingerers allowed themselves to be crushed rather than stir ; they perished in silence , smiling at their extinguished fires , without a thought of France . It was not until ten o'clock that night that Marechal Victor reached the bank of the river . Before crossing the bridge which led to Zembin , he confided the fate of his own rear-guard now left in Studzianka to Eble , the savior of all those who survived the calamities of the Beresina . It was towards midnight when this great general , followed by one brave officer , left the cabin he occupied near the bridge , and studied the spectacle of that improvised camp placed between the bank of the river and Studzianka . The Russian cannon had ceased to thunder . Innumerable fires , which , amid that trackless waste of snow , burned pale and scarcely sent out any gleams , illumined here and there by sudden flashes forms and faces that were barely human . Thirty thousand poor wretches , belonging to all nations , from whom Napoleon had recruited his Russian army , were trifling away their lives with brutish indifference .