ten o’clock
The weaker were driven away , until a few last fugitives before the Russian advance were obliged to make their bed in the snow , and lay down to rise no more . Little by little the mass of half-dead humanity became so dense , so deaf , so torpid , -- or perhaps it should be said so happy -- that Marshal Victor , their heroic defender against twenty thousand Russians under Wittgenstein , was actually compelled to cut his way by force through this forest of men , so as to cross the Beresina with the five thousand heroes whom he was leading to the Emperor . The miserable creatures preferred to be trampled and crushed to death rather than stir from their places , and died without a sound , smiling at the dead ashes of their fires , forgetful of France . Not before ten o'clock that night did the Duc de Belluno reach the other side of the river . Before committing his men to the pontoon bridges that led to Zembin , he left the fate of the rearguard at Studzianka in Eble 's hands , and to Eble the survivors of the calamities of the Beresina owed their lives . About midnight , the great General , followed by a courageous officer , came out of his little hut by the bridge , and gazed at the spectacle of this camp between the bank of the Beresina and the Borizof road to Studzianka . The thunder of the Russian cannonade had ceased .