Napoleonic soldiers are laid to rest

EIGHTEEN of Napoleon's soldiers were laid to rest yesterday in Lithuania - 200 years after the French emperor tried in vain to invade Russia.

Lithuanian deputy defence minister Vytautas Umbrasas said Napoleon's troops were finally "buried properly" at a solemn ceremony in Vilnius attended by French ambassador Francois Laumonier. The graves were added to around 2,000 others found eight years ago during excavations in Vilnius.

The latest remains were discovered last year by road builders outside the Lithuanian capital. Experts said the soldiers were members of the infantry, hussar and dragoon units that retreated from Russia in one of history's most catastrophic campaigns.

Napoleon's 500,000-strong army marched into Lithuania - then part of tsarist Russia - in 1812. But six months later only 40,000 men returned to Vilnius as harsh weather, disease, starvation and attacks by Russian Cossacks all took their toll.