NAPOLEON'S WAR TREASURE.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 348, 20 December 1915, Page 7

NAPOLEON'S WAR TREASURE.

After the destruction of Moscow on October 15, 1812, Napoleon was compelled to seek safety by a rapid return to the frontier. He himself hurried on in advance of the army. The removal of the war treasure, which at that time consisted of twelve million francs, was entrusted to Marshal* Ney. The gold was transported in barrels, and placed on carriages drawn by picked horses, but these horses, though the best in the host, were not able to savethe treasure. The Emperor never saw it again. Not far from Vilna (which the Germans in the present war recently attacked) the waggons stuck in a defile, and no efforts availed to move them. Eather than see the treasure fall into the hands of the Eussians, they made the fatal mistake of ordering it to be distributed among the soldiers. The command was obeyed, and the men eargerfy took the gold, throwing away their belonging? in order to fill their knapsnaks with the yellow coins. Only a few of them who thus foolishly encumbered themselves ever reached the frontier. They perished in the attempt to carry their treasure, which, after all fell into the enemy's hands. (In striking contrast to the above was the course caken by F?ir John Moore, when or. his famous retreat to Corunna. it 1809. To prevent the treasure of the army falling into the hands of the French, he placed it in charge of a reliable officer, with a strong guarcl, with instructions to throw it down a precipice after the army had passed. This was done, and the British were able to continue their march without encumbrance). Passing over an unknown country, and surrounded on every side with relentless enemies, the Marshal displayed the talents of a resourceful general. His troops marched in the form of a square, and in this formation repeatedly repulsed the attacks of the Cossacks. But the constant strain told on the men, ana, when the Dnieper had been passed, al' were in despair, everyone giving himself up for lost. At this critical state of affairs some officers sought Ney to receive his orders, and, to their surprise, he was found crouched beneatli a ridge of snow attentively examining a chart which was laid out before him. The calmness of the General in this time of stress to some extent calmed the fears of the soldiers, and Ney was able to conduct his marvellous retrec* to its conclusion.