THE AFFAIR AT THE POST-HOUSE
I
There was very little order kept among us after the Battle of Krasnoe,
and you may depict us as a scattered host going covertly in fear of the
Cossacks.
Men made little attempt to keep up with their regiments. The Chasseurs
and Fusiliers of the Guard, with whom the Emperor marched, were,
perhaps, the exception; but the rest of us went as we could, thinking
more of food and shelter than of our own safety, and hardened to any
feelings of pity.
The latter is a bold admission to make, but few of those who marched
from Moscow will contest it. When comrades are perishing about you
every day, when your milestones are the bodies of the frozen dead, the
ultimate terror becomes the lesser thing and all the more brutal
instincts are awakened. We could not help those who fell; we pushed
on, deaf to their appeals. Let any man lag for an hour in this bitter
cold, and he would sleep as they slept--so many thousands upon the
great white highway.
Sometimes it befell that we did not see our regiment for many days
together. This, I remember, happened to my nephew Leon and myself as
we drew near the Berezina.
The army heard many disquieting stories at this time, and most of them
had to do with the passage of the famous river.
The timorous agreed that the Russians could not lose so favourable an
opportunity of falling upon our disorganised units, and that he would
be a lucky man who made the passage of the stream in safety.
Others comforted us with the assurance that our engineers would not
fail us in this emergency, and were all ready at the Berezina to
strengthen and to guard the ancient bridge. The tales were
contradictory, and we knew not which to believe. The river had become
our Rubicon, and we imagined that if we recrossed it the victory was
won.
This was the condition of affairs on the morning of November 25th, when
Leon and I rode a little way with a detachment of some thirty
_pontonniers_ who were on their way to the Berezina.
I remember well that the captain of the little company warned us to
look well after our horses; "for," said he, "the Emperor has given
instructions that all the best are to be taken for the use of the
artillery and the wounded." The Imperial Guard was then some five
miles ahead of us, and we had no intention of overtaking it. To that
end we soon parted company with the _pontonniers_, and stopped for an
hour about midday in what had been a farmhouse upon the high road.
There we cooked a little of the rice we carried in our saddlebags, and
drank of the brandy which I had carried out of Smolensk.
The repast gave us courage, and we rode on in better spirit afterwards.
Alas, that such a mood turned too swiftly to one of despair, when we
found that we had lost the road and that the bodies of dead and dying
Frenchmen indicated no longer the route to the Berezina.
II
We made this discovery about three o'clock of the afternoon.
The day was already done, and a great red sun sank into a billow of
mist.
We saw nothing about us but vast fields of snow, gone crimson in the
vanishing light, and woods which would tell no story but that of wolves.
A profound silence reigned in this frozen wilderness. We did not hear
so much as the chime of a distant church bell, nor perceive a single
human being upon all that waste. Yet it did not appear to us by the
compass that we could be very far from the road to Bobr, through which
the Emperor must pass; nor had we any misgivings that we should
ultimately come to the banks of the Berezina if we held upon our course.
"There are no Cossacks here," says Leon, "and there is not much
advantage got by company. We have a little food and brandy, and may as
well keep it to ourselves. Come on, mon oncle. Let us try to believe
that the spires of Notre Dame are to be seen from yonder road, and all
the rest will be easy."
He had grown very thin these later days, my poor Leon, and was but a
spectre of his former self. I thought of the dashing officer who had
cut so brave a figure in Moscow, and heaved a sigh at all that had
befallen us since. The word "woman" came no longer to his lips, as
formerly, and I believe he would have bartered the whole sex for a loaf
of bread and a bottle of good French wine. Who would have had the
heart to remind him how many thousand leagues we were from that Paris
for which he longed so ardently?
"Imagine what you please," said I, "but throw in a comfortable
farmhouse and a stove to sleep by, and I am your man. It is going to
snow again, nephew, and a man may as well be in the Arctic wastes as
upon this barren plain. We were wrong to leave the others; there is
safety in numbers, and God knows what is about to befall us. Ah, my
dear nephew, what would I not give for such a bed and such a supper as
we had at the farm at Druobona!"
He sighed at the memory both of little Petrovka and of that night of
adventure.
We had now approached the woods, and presently we found ourselves in
the depths of a forest which must have been rarely trodden by man. The
snow had drifted into vast heaps here, and encircled the trees in great
mounds which would have engulfed a wagon. The stillness of it all was
that of winter at her zenith. The wind had fallen, and in the distance
we heard the howling of wolves. All this prepared us but little for
the surprise which overtook us presently, when three mounted Cossacks
suddenly appeared in our path and threatened us in guttural tones of
which we did not understand a single word.
Of course, we had drawn rein directly the Russians appeared, and for my
part I was quite prepared to surrender to them. These roving bands
rarely numbered less than a squadron, and it was idle to believe that
two armed men could oppose a hundred. The alternatives were death on
the spot, or that intolerable suffering in a Russian prison of which we
had heard such evil reports. I whispered as much to Leon, but got
nothing from him but a guffaw in return.
"Va-t'en!" said he. "There are only three of them, mon oncle. Do you
not see how they hesitate?"
I perceived it to be true, and drew a pistol from my holster. The
Russians carried lances, but were in no hurry to descend upon us.
Either they looked for assistance in the vicinity or deemed their
advantage in numbers insufficient. What they would have done if we had
remained where we were I do not pretend to tell you; but before I could
say another word Master Leon clapped spurs to his horse, and, riding up
to the leader, he blew out his brains before a man could have counted
two.
"A moi, mon oncle!" he cried; and be sure I was at his side
immediately. Unhappily, my own pistol was badly aimed, and did no more
damage than to blow the feather from the busby of the ruffian who now
confronted me. In an instant he had thrust at me with his lance, and I
felt the cold steel cut the sinews of my arm.
Now I wheeled my horse about, and, despite the wound, I drew my sword
and aimed at the fellow. He answered me by a loud cry which brought
three of his fellows from the wood, and so set five of them against our
two. These odds were unexpected, and seemed to say that our onset had
been very foolish. Still, there we were, and we must make the best of
such folly as we had shown. I could do no better with my fellow than
to slash his arm off at a single stroke; but Leon cut the second of the
three clean out of the saddle, and found himself attacked by the others
who had come from the wood.
I could imagine that, from a spectator's point of view, this fight
would have been as pretty a thing as he could wish to see.
There were we two riding up and down the glade with three burly
Cossacks at our heels, and devil of a wall against which we might set
our backs.
To make matters worse, my own horse stumbled heavily over the solid
roots of a magnificent beech tree, and anon I found myself on the
ground, with a couple of Russians atop of me. They would have done for
me but for an ally as unexpected as his appearance was grotesque. This
man had been lying, seemingly dead, at the foot of the tree by which I
fell. He was one of our _chasseurs a pied_, and he seemed swathed from
head to foot in fur. What had wakened him, whether a kick from a horse
or the delirium of sickness, I cannot tell you, but, staggering to his
feet, he ran at the Russians with his bayonet, and had pinned one to
the snow almost before I was aware of his presence. The other waited
for no such attention, but, setting his horse at a gallop, rode madly
from the wood.
We had now accounted for five of the Russians--no mean achievement for
men in such a condition. The poor fellow who had assisted us we
discovered to be in a woeful state--his feet frost-bitten and two of
the fingers of his left hand missing. He hardly seemed to know what he
had done for us, but, sinking at the foot of the tree, he raved
incoherently of his home at Chalons, and of his wife and children
awaiting him there. We gave him some of the brandy, and tried to lift
him upon my nephew's horse, but it was of no good, and presently he
appeared to regain his senses and to be aware both of his situation and
of our own.
"You cannot help me, my friends," said he. "The road is yonder; take
it while you may. I am done for."
And upon this he threw back his head and seemed to die instantly.
This was a very sad thing to see, and sent us from the place in a worse
spirit than I had hoped. My own wound had now begun to trouble me, and
I discovered that the lance had penetrated the flesh below the
shoulder, and left a gaping wound which in another climate might have
proved troublesome. As it was, we bound it up stoutly with a piece
torn from my tattered shirt, and, the darkness already gathering, and
the snow beginning to fall, we prepared to leave the wood in the
direction which the poor chasseur had indicated to us.
III
I say that we prepared to leave the wood, but before we did so the idea
came to me to take with us the capes and the busbies of the Cossacks we
had slain, in the hope that they would be of service to us in so
dangerous a place. Bidding my nephew imitate me, I stripped the fellow
I had killed, and invited Leon to do the same to the other.
"The woods are full of these fellows," said I, "and who knows what this
device may do for us? A la guerre comme a la guerre. Let us try our
luck under the new colours, for it has been bad enough under the old."
He laughed in reply, for my new appearance amused him.
"Upon my word, you would make an excellent Tartar, mon oncle," says he;
and whether that were meant to be a compliment or a reproach upon my
shaggy appearance, I did not attempt to discover. The night had come
down, and the moments were precious. It was no time for a trifler's
argument, and I pushed on in silence.
The forest became more open as we proceeded, and I now perceived that
the avenue must be a high road, so orderly were the groves of beeches
which bordered it.
From time to time we heard the howling of wolves, and more than one
watch-fire denoted the presence of the Russians. The prudence of the
step we had taken in assuming the garb of the Cossacks was now
justified by the event. We came face to face with a dozen of these
barbarians not a mile from the scene of the strife, and they passed us
without drawing rein, evidently being set upon a purpose of their own.
Leon was much amused by this, and swore that he would swim the Berezina
in the same clothes.
"Chasseurs are out of fashion," said he, "and hussars have become very
cheap. I will go to the Tuileries as a Cossack, mon oncle, and Paris
will applaud me."
I reminded him that Paris was yet a long way off, and that the dreaded
river still lay between us and freedom. Like so many of my fellows who
deluded themselves with that belief, I thought that we had but to cross
the Berezina to leave our troubles behind us; nor could I foresee in
any way what we must suffer before we reached the bridge at Kovno.
This, however, is to anticipate. Behold us for the moment pressing on
through the darkness of the forest, often losing the road because of
the blackness of the night, and always alert in the presence of our
enemies. That there were Cossacks all about us we knew full well, and
when we emerged from the woods at last we perceived a whole regiment of
them riding southward at a gallop.
This seemed to say that our own army lay in that direction. Undeterred
by the presence of the Cossacks, we kept upon our course, and presently
we heard the barking of watchdogs, and espied the lights of a village.
A little farther on yet, and the rising moon showed us familiar scenes.
There were dead and dying here, the bones of horses and the debris of
an army that had passed. I perceived immediately that we had regained
the high road, and, pressing on to the village, we came up to a
considerable post-house, whose cheerful lights shone out warmly upon
the snow, while the windows revealed the uniforms of Frenchmen.
Now, this was a pleasant happening, and it is droll to recall what
followed upon it. We had thought to grasp our comrades by the hand,
and to change with them the news of yesterday and to-day; but hardly
had we knocked at the door of the post-house when as great a panic
overtook the men within as any I had witnessed since we quitted Moscow.
With a loud cry of "The Cossacks!" our fellow-countrymen bolted
headlong by a door at the rear of the building, and when we entered
there remained but two or three frightened figures huddled about the
stove at the far end of the spacious room.
"Name of a dog," says Leon, "I shall play at the Comedie Francaise yet."
And there he stood, shaking himself like a bear and laughing still at
my appearance and his own.
This was all very well, but, fearing that the affair might have graver
consequences, I went to the door and began to halloo after our
comrades. It was all in vain; they were already at the far end of the
village, and I doubt not that they thought it but a ruse to entrap them.
Meanwhile, the few Russians within the room had come up to Leon and
were staring at him curiously. Very sternly he commanded them to
return to their places, and, bolting the doors, he pointed to the
table, upon which a great cauldron of soup was steaming.
"The spoils to the victors," says he; and, indeed, that was no time for
ceremony. I was just about to tell him as much, when a voice from the
far end of the apartment arrested our attention, and, turning about, we
saw the very last person in all Russia we would have looked for that
night.
"Mademoiselle Valerie, by all that is holy!" cries Leon; and in a
twinkling he had caught her in his arms and was almost tearing the robe
from her back.
"What the devil are you doing here, little witch?" he asked her.
She told him in a word.
"The Emperor is at Bobr. He is a little tired of me, mon ami, so you
see I waited for you."
"The same Valerie, upon my soul. You have quarrelled with His Majesty!
There could be no better news. I salute you, fair Imperatrice, and, by
St. Christopher, I will have supper with you."
She came up to me now, and greeted me very prettily. After all, it was
not so wonderful that we had discovered her, for she had been riding a
few hours ahead of us these many days, and this post-house was just
such a place as her wit would choose for a bivouac. I told her as
much, while chiding her faithlessness.
"Leon has ceased to eat since you went," said I; and God knows that
that was somewhere near the truth.
Well, we all sat down, while she commanded the Russians to serve us.
The place was well enough after our night in the woods, and it did a
man good to breathe its warm air and smell the savour of its primitive
cooking. Not only had we the soup, but the fellow in charge produced a
bottle of excellent Warsaw gin, and the first thing we did was to drain
a glass to our reunion.
"We must not separate again until we cross the Pont de Jena," says
Leon, catching mademoiselle's hand and looking deep into her eyes.
The words were cheering, and such as a good supper might prompt a man
to speak. Alas! hardly were they uttered than we heard the blare of
bugles, and, leaping to her feet, Valerie cried out that they were the
Cossacks.
IV
Now here we were, hoist by our own petard. We had cast aside the heavy
capes of the Russians as we entered the room, and thrown down their
busbies, but, as upon a common impulse, we caught them up again when we
heard the blare of the bugles, and, running to the window, peered out,
to see the whole street full of hussars, and a couple of their officers
beating upon the door of the post-house.
"It is the regiment that passed us on the road," said I; "eight hundred
men, at a hazard. What the devil now, my nephew? We are caught like
rats in a trap!"
He looked very serious, to be sure, while mademoiselle had turned as
white as a sheet. Presently it seemed to dawn upon her that we were
wearing Russian uniforms, and at that she got an idea.
"Go there!" she cried, indicating the low seats by the stove. "I will
deal with them. You must pretend to sleep. It is your only chance."
We obeyed her instantly. Leon upon the left hand of the stove, and
myself upon the right, we smothered our heads in the capes and curled
ourselves up as men heavy with fatigue. Hardly had we done this when
Valerie opened the door and the Russians swarmed headlong into the
room. So great was their need of food that some twenty of them were
about the table in an instant, eating as ravening wolves, and far too
busy in that employment to pay any attention to us.
Looking at them as I lay, I perceived that they were all officers of
cavalry, and mostly men of some distinction; while it was also apparent
that they contemplated no considerable halt in this vicinity, but were
riding toward the Berezina. For all that, our situation could well
justify them in shooting us like dogs if we had been discovered; and it
was impossible to forget that they had but to lift the capes which
covered us to undo our little plot in a twinkling. Do you wonder that
we lay there as men who waited for a sentence of life or death?
Meanwhile, be sure that Mademoiselle Valerie was not idle.
Many times have I admired the wit and resource of that wonderful woman,
but never as I did upon that fateful night. Anyone who had heard her
would have sworn that she was the arch-enemy of Napoleon and of all his
works, and that nothing but the direst necessity had carried her into
the train of his army. With a candour which seemed childish she
recited to them all that she had not done these many days. I could
have laughed aloud at the fables she invented for the benefit of these
simpletons. It was as inspiring as wine to see her smoking their
little paper cigars and drinking the horrid gin to their successes.
And all the time Leon and I lay there wondering if the filthy Russians
round about would utter the word which betrayed us. To this day I
believe that they did not for mademoiselle's sake. It was otherwise
with the cavalrymen themselves. When they had eaten and drunk they
naturally drew near the stove, and soon there were a dozen of them
swarming about it, and one actually sitting upon my knees. A more
anxious moment is not to be described; and when the fellow began to
banter me in Russian upon the profundity of my sleep I thought for a
truth that all was lost.
The spirit had mounted to their heads by this time, and they were
disposed to any humour that occurred to them. An imp of mischief
prompted an ensign among them to suggest that Leon should be lifted on
to the stove, and there left to roast until he came to his senses; and
this idea was applauded by them all. Lifting my nephew by the legs,
his ragged and mud-stained French breeches were laid bare for all to
see; but, oddly enough, no one remarked the colour, and this I set down
to the fact that clothes were often exchanged between the army in those
days, and that a Russian with a hole in his breeches made no bones at
all about wearing those of a Frenchman.
The danger was really from the fire itself, and the loud oaths it
brought to Leon's lips. He was up and awake in an instant now, and
with a curse upon them all he struck right and left, and brought them
to their senses. They were just like men who handled a dog, to
discover suddenly that he was a wolf and had bitten them; and with
amazed cries they drew back and turned to mademoiselle. She, however,
answered them with one of her merry laughs. The little Russian that I
knew permitted me to see that she was warning them against some peril
of which they were unaware; and no sooner was this done than they
apprehended the danger for themselves.
You will understand this more readily when you remember that the
post-house was on the high road, and that while the van of the army was
then at Bobr, the rearguard, under Marshal Ney, had yet to march
through. The outposts of this had entered the village while the
officers were at supper, but the main body now appearing, the others
made an immediate descent upon the post-house, and the shots and
bullets rained upon it like hail. In a twinkling the plates upon the
table went flying, the glass of the windows was shattered, and the
crazy lamps put out.
The Russians themselves, believing that they had been taken in an
ambush, went headlong through the back door of the building in quest of
their horses; and soon we heard them rallying in the village street,
and crying to their fellows to come out. The alarm had spread like
wildfire, and such an appeal was not made in vain. The whole hamlet
now became a scene of battle, upon which the moon shone brightly and
the lamps in the house cast a derisive aureole. Odd that men should be
killing each other upon that terrible night of winter, with food and
shelter all about and nothing but the wilderness of death beyond! Yet
so it befell, and such was the affair in which we now played our parts.
Naturally, we got out into the street as quickly as possible. We were
both armed with pistols and had our swords drawn, but it was apparent
that we could do nothing until the others had made good their entrance
and got at the cavalry. The latter, finding themselves attacked on
both sides, rode up and down the wide street like madmen, cutting and
slashing at invisible figures, and plainly drunk with the hospitality
they had pillaged. So much our own men perceived, and, advancing from
house to house, and taking cover wherever it was to be had, they fired
at the enemy with deadly effect, and blotted the snow with the figures
of the terrified horsemen who had been caught in this trap of fate.
Soon the place became a veritable shambles. The infantrymen, under
Marshal Ney himself, grew bolder every instant, and, led both by the
marshal and Prince Eugene, they came out into the open, and took the
cavalry at the bayonet's point. There was no longer the necessity for
Leon and myself to be spectators of the affray, and, rushing out into
the melee, we shot and sabred where we could. Wiser men would have
remained in the post-house, and remembered the uniform they wore. I
shall not soon forget the instant when some _chasseurs a pied_ rushed
upon me, and I had to cry "Vive l'Empereur!" with all my lungs to keep
their bayonets from my throat. This, however, was but an episode, and,
throwing the Cossack's cape and busby aside, I fought bareheaded until
the last of the Russians had staggered to the post-house and fallen
headlong at the feet of Valerie, who stood waiting and watching at the
door.
I say the last of the Russians, and this is to give you a fair account
of it. A few, it is true, got away through the court of the house to
the open fields beyond; there may have been one or two who made good
their escape on their way to Bobr; but of some five hundred who entered
the village there were more than two hundred and fifty dead in the wide
street, and almost as many prisoners when the end came.
We ourselves, amazed both at the swiftness of the victory and at our
own good fortune, returned immediately to the post-house, and there
found Valerie bending over the figure of the fallen Russian. The man
had received a terrible blow from a sabre, which laid open his head
almost to the ear, and he was stone dead when we found him. To us he
was as one of the many whose bodies lay black and stiff in the
moonlight, but to Valerie St. Antoine he had told another story.
"I know him well," she exclaimed. "He is General Kutusoff's
aide-de-camp. Search his wallet, and you will know why he is on the
road to Bobr. Do you not understand how much it may mean to His
Majesty?"
We heard her with amazement, but did not lose a moment in doing her
bidding. There were many papers and letters in the dead man's sack,
but we knew enough to detect those of importance, and especially to
pick out the documents which concerned the Emperor. Here Mademoiselle
Valerie's knowledge of Russian was something beyond price. One by one
she read the documents and told us their contents. When she came to
that concerning the Berezina, the miracle of this man's death in such a
place was beyond compare the event of that memorable night.
In a word, the paper told us that the bridge across the river was held
by the Russians, and that if His Majesty and the army were not to
perish another must be found.
V
I have told you that Marshal Ney himself had come in at the head of the
rearguard, and to him we carried the paper immediately.
Be sure the importance of it was not lost upon him, and he heard us
with an amazement akin to our own.
Naturally, such a man would lose no time in such an emergency, and,
entering the post-house but to write a dispatch, he handed it to Leon,
and commanded him to press on at all hazards and overtake the Emperor
at Bobr.
"The fate of the army depends upon your diligence," said he. "Lose no
time, sir, and I will see that you are well rewarded."
To this he added the order that an escort of a squadron of Prince
Eugene's own cavalry should accompany us, and with this we set out
immediately upon the high road to the river.
It was now about midnight, intensely cold, but very clear and bright,
and the detestable north wind but a gentle breeze. The road itself no
longer traversed the terrible plains, but wound in and out of a low
range of hills, which protected us a little from the rigours of the
night. Unhappily, our escort was already fatigued with marching, and
we had not ridden a league when it became apparent that they would
hinder rather than help us. So much Leon indicated to their captain,
and, bidding him return to the prince, he stated our resolution of
travelling henceforth alone. "Two may go," says he, "where a hundred
cannot. If this news does not reach the Emperor before daybreak the
army is lost. It is our only chance, captain, as you must see for
yourself. Leave it to me and the major here, and we will do all that
can be done."
The captain agreed, admitting that the horses of his squadron could go
no farther, and that the men were entirely unable to support the
fatigues of such a venture. We left them accordingly, and pushed on
henceforth alone. It was a relief to discover a road where a man could
pass without stepping over the dead bodies of his comrades, and for a
full hour we rode with none of those dreadful emblems of tragedy to
which we had become so accustomed. In the end we entered a little
defile which stood upon the brink of the forest. The high road became
narrower, and was often wholly obliterated by the snow. I perceived
that we were lost, and, drawing rein, I compelled my nephew to realise
the extent of our misfortune.
"There are no dead here," said I. "If the army had passed by this
road, you know what we should have witnessed. The stars seem to tell
me that we are too far to the north; there is nothing for it but to
return as we came."
He cursed and swore at this, for he was as impetuous as every zealous
soldier should be.
"If day finds the Emperor at Bobr," said he, "all is lost. We should
have taken a guide in the village; that is the folly of it, mon oncle.
We have acted like children, and deserve what we get. Had we listened
to Valerie----"
"Ah," said I, "always the women! Well, what did she say?"
"That she would conduct us to Bobr herself. I would have named it to
the marshal, but you know what he thinks of women. There is nothing
for it, as you say, but to return, and God keep us from a court-martial
when we get there."
We turned about, and began to ride up the defile. A light shone
through the trees almost at the head of it, and we perceived what we
had overlooked on our western journey--a house standing in a clearing
and lighting a welcome patch in that lonely forest. The idea came to
me that these people might set us on the road, and, without waiting to
ask my nephew's opinion, I turned aside and knocked upon the door. It
was opened immediately by as handsome a young Jew as I have ever seen.
Alas! he could not understand a word I addressed to him, but, drawing
back as one in great fear, he called to someone inside; and presently
there appeared a young woman as good-looking, but very much less afraid
of the soldiers.
To my astonishment, a greeting in my own tongue was responded to
immediately by this intelligent girl.
"Come in, messieurs," said she. "We do not fear your countrymen; we
know that the French are our friends."
I hallooed to Leon to come down to the place, and then entered the
cottage. A bright lamp burned upon the table, and food was set out
there. When I remembered that it must have been nearly one o'clock of
the morning, the fact seemed not a little suspicious; but a thought
immediately came to me, and I turned to the girl and questioned her.
"Why are you awake at this time of night?" said I.
She flinched at that, and could not answer me; but I told her
immediately.
"Your husband has been out to rob the soldiers who have perished," said
I. "Come, be frank with me, and you shall not be punished. Has he not
just come home and brought you some pretty things? Do not be afraid to
tell me, and I will see that you do not suffer."
She admitted it at length. Her excuses were familiar and difficult to
deal with. The men who had been robbed were dead, and their friends
had deserted them. Of what use was money to them? The Cossacks took
everything, she said; why did we begrudge them such trifles?
To which I responded very sternly that they had rendered themselves
liable to the penalty of death, and would be pardoned upon one
condition only.
"Doubtless you know the way to Bobr, young man," said I.
He did not deny it.
"Then you will conduct us there immediately. Come, where is your
horse? You will have need of him."
He swore that he had no horse, and really I believe this was true. The
girl's fears had now become distressing to behold, and it was evident
that she had her doubts of our honesty.
"Isidore is a very bad guide," she exclaimed, looking at us with
searching eyes. "You would do much better to take me. I know the road
to Bobr. I have walked there many times."
"Then," said I, "if you have walked there, we are not far from our
destination. I will make you a proposition, my dear. It is that you
both come. Nothing will happen to your house for an hour or two, and
you can go back to-morrow."
The suggestion appeased her, but the man still seemed afraid.
"How shall I protect her from your countrymen?" said he. "Every road
is full of soldiers nowadays. You know what that means, Excellency."
He spoke in Russian, but I gathered his meaning none the less.
Precious moments were being lost in this argument, and I would hear no
more of it.
"By God!" said I, drawing a pistol from my belt. "If you do not start
immediately I will blow your brains out."
The threat was quite sufficient. Methodically the woman caught up a
heavy woollen cloak and addressed a few words to her husband in a
whisper. A moment later she was haggling with me about terms, for such
is the habit of these people.
"You will pay us for our trouble," she protested. "It is a long way to
Bobr, messieurs, and we are very poor."
"I will give you a hundred francs if you bring me to the Emperor at
daybreak," said I. And, refusing further parley, I went out to the
bridle track immediately, and left them to decide. Not a little to my
surprise, they followed me without protest, and we all set out again,
the woman on Leon's saddle, the young Jew at my horse's head.
I think it was a little warmer by this time; but this may have been due
to the wooded nature of the country through which we now rode. A
stranger would not have found his way in a lustre of years; so narrow
was the path, so dense the trees, that we might have entered an
enchanted land full of hobgoblins and far beyond the confines of the
civilised world. It was difficult to remember that the Grand Army
could not have been ten leagues from us, and were marching and dying
this night, as upon so many weary nights since we had left Moscow. For
all that, we made good headway, and were apparently about to regain the
open country, when the Jew said something to his young wife, and she
translated it for our benefit.
"We are coming to a very dangerous place," said she. "Your
Excellencies must be prepared. There are robbers here who are a menace
to all strangers. We ourselves pay them tribute--a large sum, much
more than we can afford. But that concerns ourselves, and they will
rob you if they can. Please, therefore, be very careful, and do not
speak as you go."
I looked at Leon, and it was evident that the same thought was in both
our minds. These brigands would very likely be the kinsmen of this
engaging couple, and possibly we had been led to their lair for no
other purpose than that of robbery. So I took my pistol from my
holster again, and, showing it to the young Jew, I warned him.
"Robbers or no robbers," said I, "you will be a dead man the moment you
let go of my bridle rein."
He shook his head, and professed not to understand me. It was clear,
however, that he had made a pretty shrewd guess at my meaning, and he
pressed on so quickly that I began to doubt my previous view of his
honesty.
Was it possible that he was really afraid of this ghostly place? Well,
I could understand as much. The fables of Hades never painted a
gloomier abyss or a nether pit so awe-inspiring.
Sheer cliffs of sandy rock rose up to a great height on every hand.
There was but a hand's breadth of sky to be seen above us; while below,
far down in a crevice, there glistened the ice of a frozen rivulet.
The path itself would have served for a nimble goat, but was
treacherous enough for a horse. We all dismounted, and for a full hour
went as mountaineers upon a precipice. Then we came to a sudden halt
at the young man's bidding, and listening, we heard a piercing scream
echoing and re-echoing in that frightful abyss.
"Good God!" cried Leon; "they are butchering a Frenchman. A man has
died by the knife. I know that sound; I have heard it too often."
The young Jew began to tremble like an aspen at this, and his wife
vainly tried to comfort him. Turning to us, she whispered a reminder
of her prophecy concerning the dangers of the journey.
"It is the brigand Orlof," she said. "You see what has befallen us.
We must return immediately."
"Oh, come," said I; "such is not the habit of our countrymen. Who is
this precious Orlof, and how many friends has he?"
She responded that it was impossible to say. There might be two or
three, there might be twenty. To which I answered that we would take
our chance, and pushing the young Jew on before me, I covered him with
my pistol.
It was then that I discovered that madame had a great Russian pistol of
her own, and was already looking to its priming. So the brigands were
not her fathers and mothers after all.
We turned the corner of the pass, and a flickering red light fell
suddenly on the path before us. It came from a hole in the wall of the
rock, giving access to a cave of melancholy aspect. The question
whether we should pause or go on was answered by me in an instant.
"Attention!" I whispered to them, and, raising my hand, I now took
command of the expedition, and crept stealthily to the aperture. Ten
strides and I was up to it, and had the mystery before my eyes.
There were three of the filthiest and most revolting moujiks I have
ever looked upon squatting upon the floor of a considerable cave, and
they were busy dividing the property of a man who lay dead by their
fireside. The latter was an officer of the fusiliers, as I could see
by his epaulettes. They had hacked his head off with a scythe, which
lay by the tumbled corpse, and were now counting his money.
You will understand with what feelings of rage and fury my nephew and I
beheld this spectacle, and the steps we took to avenge our comrade.
Hardly had I clapped eyes upon the dead fusilier than I shot
point-blank at the biggest of the Russians, and saw him fall forward
into the very fire he had kindled. The two with him sprang to their
feet, uttering the shrillest cries of alarm, but Leon settled the first
of them with his pistol, and, to my amazement, the young Jew shot the
third.
"I am well quit of him," said he; "there will be no more tribute next
year."
And, upon this, what must he do but dash into the cavern and seize the
money and the jewels which the robber still held in his quivering
fingers.
At this I confess that I laughed aloud, and had not the heart to
deprive him of his plunder. Sufficient that the dead was avenged and
that these assassins would butcher Frenchmen no more.
VI
This delay had been unfortunate, and thereafter we pressed on as fast
as the difficulties of the path would permit. The night was speeding,
and the fate of the French army depended upon our swiftness. The day
must be an enemy if the Emperor were not discovered.
This was all very well, but we knew no more than the dead how far from
Bobr we then stood; nor did the young Jew who guided us. Indeed, it
dawned upon me after a time that he himself was lost, and knew the way
no better than we. This was a terrible reflection, and led me to the
bitterest reproaches upon them both. I swore that they should be shot
if they had played us false; to which the woman answered bravely
enough, while the man whined an excuse which led me to doubt him more
than ever. The road must be across the wide ravine which we were then
entering, he declared. There was a bridle path through the thicket,
and that would lead us out to the high road to Bobr. So much he said,
and so little did the facts justify him.
We had now come to a wide pit, deep in snow and everywhere surrounded
by the forest. Even the path by which we entered it was difficult to
trace once we had been caught in the trap. And so we went, round and
round, the horses often up to their girths and Isidore to his neck in
the half-melted slush. Half an hour of it found the brutes exhausted
and we at the end of our tether. The night had been lost, and,
perhaps, the army with it. Never have I known a greater chagrin than
overtook me at such an hour. To have been entrusted with so great a
thing and to have failed! Good God! what a reckoning when next we came
before His Majesty!
All this was black in the mind when the day began to dawn and a wan
glimmer of chilly light to break above the white foreground of the
frozen trees.
The young Jew, who had been weeping bitterly, recovered his composure
when the day broke, and, seeming to recollect himself, he declared that
a shrine in the wood was the landmark, and that if we could but detect
it the road also would be regained. Perhaps he would have proved a
false prophet after all, but for the distant blare of a bugle, and upon
it the echo of rifle-shots far away down the valley. This immediately
indicated to us that we looked towards the south, and another ten
minutes had not passed when madame clapped her hands and declared that
she espied the shrine in a clearing of the trees.
Rarely can a mistake have been redeemed with such tragic irony as upon
this fatal morning. We had lost the way and had found it--alas, too
late!
It was a safe passage thereafter, and one of which I remember little.
The forest became less dense from league to league, and ultimately
showed us the great white plains we knew so well. Even from afar the
black bodies of our dead were to be discerned. We knew that this was
the road to Bobr, and, as our guides declared, that we stood barely a
league from the hamlet itself.
Of the Jews we had now no further need, and paying them the money we
had promised, we set spurs to our jaded horses and rode on at a gallop.
The last I saw of Isidore and the woman showed them quarrelling over
the money at the wood's edge; and this was just what one would have
expected them to be doing. We had almost forgotten their existence
when, some half an hour later, we set eyes upon the whitened spires and
low walls of the picturesque town of Bobr. The Emperor was there, and
to him we must give an account of our stewardship.
God knows it was with no fair prospect that we entered the place at the
moment when the army was waking to hear the fatal news.
VII
I say it was with no fair prospect, and yet there is an after-word.
Hardly were we in the main street of the place when we heard the
clatter of horses' hoofs ahead of us, and presently we perceived a
young hussar coming down the street at a canter.
"Good God!" cried Leon. "It's Valerie!"
I stared with all my eyes.
"Valerie, by all that's wonderful! Then she has followed us after all,
and herself has carried the news to the Emperor. Thank God for that."
He admitted the truth of it with a sigh.
"We shall look the biggest fools in Russia to-day," said he.
But that I doubted.
"She is a woman," said I, "and--well, you are the best judge of what
she has done. I will wager a hundred louis that she has not said a
word of our failure."
He seemed to think it possible. Valerie herself had now drawn rein
before the door of a considerable house, and there she waited for us to
come up.