about nine at night
`` You see , '' said the tall old man , as they entered , `` the ravages committed by that dear creature , to whom I devote myself . She is my niece ; in spite of the impotence of my art , I hope some day to restore her reason by attempting a method which can only be employed , unfortunately , by very rich people . '' Then , like all persons living in solitude who are afflicted with an ever present and ever renewed grief , he related to the marquis at length the following narrative , which is here condensed , and relieved of the many digressions made by both the narrator and the listener . Marechal Victor , when he started , about nine at night , from the heights of Studzianka , which he had defended , as the rear-guard of the retreating army , during the whole day of November 28th , 1812 , left a thousand men behind him , with orders to protect to the last possible moment whichever of the two bridges across the Beresina might still exist . This rear-guard had devoted itself to the task of saving a frightful multitude of stragglers overcome by the cold , who obstinately refused to leave the bivouacs of the army . The heroism of this generous troop proved useless . The stragglers who flocked in masses to the banks of the Beresina found there , unhappily , an immense number of carriages , caissons , and articles of all kinds which the army had been forced to abandon when effecting its passage of the river on the 27th and 28th of November .