Napoleon decided that a hasty retreat to Paris was in order. Like his Egyptian campaign, Bonaparte turned over his troops to subordinates and fled to France. But his flight from Russia would be far from pleasant.

"I do not remember that I suffered so much from cold as on the journey from Vilna to Kovno. The thermometer had gone to twenty below. Although the Emperor was dressed in thick wool and covered with a good rug, with his legs in fur boots and then in a bag made of bear's skin, yet he complained of the cold to such an extent that I had to cover him with half of my own bear-skin rug. Breath froze on the lips, and formed small icicles under the nose, on the eyebrows, and round the eyelids. All the clothwork of the carriage, and particularly the hood, where our breath rose, was frozen hard and white. When we reached Kovno the Emperor was shivering as with the ague (p.274)."