burnt, the Emperor Alexander would have been forced to make peace
(how?); if winter cold had not set in fifteen days earlier than usual; if
Murat had not abandoned Vilna. There is no suggestion that the
Emperor should have foreseen some of the obvious consequences of
campaigning in Russia: he even absurdly claims that there was no reason
to predict that the temperature might fall to six degrees below freezing in
November! The objective nightmare suffered by half a million allied
troops in the frozen steppes was itself the product of a mind that had
ceased to function effectively and of an imagination that had gone into
free fall.
marcin
(Marcin)
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