towards Friedland were still several leagues away, when Marshal
Lannes, having marched all night, arrived before the town. The
marshal would have liked to attack the enemy immediately; but
already they had thirty thousand men drawn up on the level ground
before Friedland, and their lines, the right of which was
opposite Heinrichsdorf, the centre at the mill stream, and the
left at the village of Sortlack, were being endlessly reinforced;
while Marshal Lannes had no more than ten thousand men; however,
he deployed them skillfully in the village of Posthenen and the
woods of Sortlack, from where he threatened the Russian's left
flank, while with two divisions of cavalry he tried to stop their
advance toward Heinrichsdorf, which lay on the route from
Friedland to Konigsberg. There was a brisk exchange of fire
before Mortier's corps arrived. Mortier, to dispute with the
Russians the road to Konigsberg, while waiting for fresh
reinforcements, occupied Heinrichsdorf and the area between this
village and Posthenen. However, it was not possible that Lannes
and Mortier with twenty-five thousand men could resist the
seventy thousand Russians who would soon face them. The situation
was becoming highly critical. Marshal Lannes sent a succession of
officers to warn the Emperor to hasten the arrival of the army
corps which he knew were coming up behind him. Mounted on my
swift Lisette, I was the first to go. I met the Emperor as he was
leaving Eylau; he was beaming with pleasure! He called me to his
side, and as we galloped along, I had to explain to him what had
happened before I left the battle. When I had finished my
recital, the Emperor said to me, smiling, "Have you a good
memory?" "Passable, Sir," I replied. "Well what anniversary is
this, the 14th of June?" "Marengo" I said "Yes! Yes! The
anniversary of Marengo," said the Emperor, "and I shall beat the
Russians as I beat the Austrians!"
Napoleon was so convinced about this, that as he went along the
columns, where the men greeted him with many cheers, he said to
them repeatedly "Today is a lucky day, it is the anniversary of
Marengo!"
Chap. 36.
It was after eleven o'clock when Napoleon arrived on the
battlefield, where several corps had already come to join Lannes
and Mortier. The remainder, including the Guard, were arriving
one by one. Napoleon readjusted the line: Ney was on the right,
positioned in the wood at Sortlack; Lannes and Mortier formed the
centre, between Posthenen and Heinrichsdorf; the left stretched
out beyond this last village. The heat was overpowering. The
Emperor gave the troops an hour's rest, after which, at the
signal of a volley by twenty-five guns, a general attack would
begin.
Marshal Ney's corps had the most difficult task, for they were to
come out of their hiding place in the woods of Sortlack, fight
their way into Friedland, which was filled with the main forces
and reserves of the enemy, seize the bridges and thus cut off the
Russian's way of retreat.
It is difficult to understand why Benningsen had placed his
forces in front of the narrow exit from Friedland, and with their
backs to the Alle with its steep banks, in the presence of the
French who commanded the open country. The explanation given
later by the Russian general was that having been a day ahead of
Napoleon, he did not believe that the French troops could cover
in twelve hours a distance which had taken his men twenty-four
hours, and he had thought that Lannes' corps was an isolated
advance-guard of the French army, which he could easily crush.
When this illusion had been dissipated, it was too late to bring
his army back to the other bank because the narrow defile at
Friedland would have caused certain disaster, so he preferred to
stand and fight.
At about one in the afternoon, the twenty-five guns at Posthenen,
given the order by the Emperor, fired a volley, and battle was
joined all along the line. At first our left and our centre moved
very slowly to give the right, commanded by Ney, time to capture
the town. The marshal, emerging from Sortlack wood, took the
village of that name and advanced rapidly towards Friedland,
sweeping aside everything in his path; but as they moved forward
from the wood and the village of Sortlack to the first houses of
Friedland, Ney's troops were exposed to the fire of the Russian
batteries which, positioned behind the town on the heights of the
opposite bank, caused them severe losses. This fire was made more
dangerous by the fact that the gunners, separated from us by the
river, could aim their guns in safety, knowing that our infantry
could not attack them. This serious problem could have led to the
failure of the attack on Friedland, but Napoleon overcame it by
sending General Senarmont with fifty guns, which he placed on the
left bank of the Alle, and subjected the Russian batteries to
such heavy fire that they were soon silenced. As soon as the
enemy fire had ceased, Marshal Ney resumed his advance, driving
the Russians back into Friedland, and mingled in confusion with
them, entered the streets of the unfortunate town, where the
mortar bombs had started a huge fire.
A savage bayonet fight ensued in which the Russians, crammed
together and scarcely able to move, suffered enormous losses! ...
At last, in spite of their courage, they were compelled to
retreat in disorder and seek refuge by crossing the bridges to
the other bank; but General Senarmont had moved his guns into a
position from which he could fire on the bridges, which he soon
broke, after killing many of the Russians who were attempting to
escape across them. All those who remained in Friedland were
either killed, captured or drowned while trying to cross the
river.
Up until this point, Napoleon had, so to speak, made his left and
his centre mark time; he now moved them rapidly forward. General
Gortschakoff, who commanded the centre and right wing of the
enemy, attempted, bravely, to recapture the town, (which would
have been of no use, because the bridges were down, although he
did not know that). He charged at the head of his men into the
burning Friedland; but driven out by Ney, who was occupying the
town, and forced back into the open, he found himself confronting
our centre, who drove him back to the Alle at Kloschenen. The
Russians defended themselves heroically and refused to surrender
although completely surrounded. Many of them were killed by our
bayonets, the remainder rolled down the steep banks into the
river, where a large number were drowned.
The extreme right of the enemy was composed mostly of cavalry who
tried during the battle to capture or outflank the village of
Heinrichsdorf; but driven off by our troops, they went back to
the banks of the Alle, under the command of General Lambert, who,
seeing that Friedland was in the hands of the French and that the
Russian left and centre were defeated, gathered all he could of
the regiments of the right wing and made off from the battlefield
down the side of the Alle. Nightfall prevented the French from
following, so his was the only body of Russian troops to escape
the disaster.
Our victory was one of the most complete; we captured all the
Russian guns; we did not take a many prisoners during the action,
but a great many of the enemy were killed or wounded, amounting
to more than twenty-six thousand; our losses were no more than
three thousand dead and four or five thousand wounded. Of all the
battles fought by the Emperor, this was the only one in which the
number of his troops exceeded that of the enemy. The French
strength was eighty thousand and the Russian's only seventy-five
thousand. The remnants of the Russian army marched in disorder
all night, and retired behind the River Pregal, having destroyed
the bridges.
Marshals Soult, Davout and Murat had not been involved in the
battle of Friedland, but their presence induced the Russians to
abandon Konigsberg, which town our troops entered. We found there
an immense store of all kinds of material.
I did not suffer any injury during the battle, though I ran into
a number of dangers. You saw how I left Posthenen in the morning,
on Marshal Lannes' orders, to go as quickly as possible to warm
the Emperor that the Russians were crossing the Alle, and that a
battle appeared imminent. Napoleon was at Eylau; I had therefore
to make a journy of about six leagues to reach him, which would
have presented no difficulty to my excellent mare if the road had
been clear, but as it was congested by the troops of various
units hurrying to the aid of Marshal Lannes at Friedland, there
was no way in which I could gallop along it. I therefore went
across country, which meant that Lisette, having had to jump
hedges, fences and ditches, was already very tired when I met the
Emperor, who was just leaving Eylau. However, I had, without a
moment of rest, to return with him to Friedland, and although
this time the troops moved to one side to let us pass, my poor
mare, having galloped over twelve leagues altogether, six of them
being across country, and in very hot weather, was utterly
exhausted by the time I had rejoined Marshal Lannes on the
battlefield. I realised that Lisette could not continue to carry
me during the action, so, taking advantage of the rest which
Napoleon allowed the troops, I set out to look for my servant, in
order to change horses; but in the middle of such a large
collection of troops there was not much hope of finding him. It
was, in fact, impossible, and I went back to the staff still
mounted on the weary Lisette.
Marshal Lannes and my comrades, who saw my problem, had advised
me to dismount and allow my mare a few hour's rest, when I caught
sight of a Hussar leading a horse which he had captured from the
enemy. I took it over, and gave Lisette to one of the troopers of
the marshal's escort, so that he could take her back behind the
lines, let her have some food and hand her over to my servant,
when he could find him. I then got astride my new mount, took my
place among the aides-de-camp, and when it came to my turn, I
went off.
I was, at first, very pleased with my fresh horse, until the time
came when, Marshal Ney having gone into Friedland, Marshal Lannes
sent me to warn him of an enemy movement. I had barely entered
the town when this devil of a horse, which had behaved so well in
the open country, finding itself in a little square, where all
the houses were on fire and the street covered with burning
planks and furniture, in the midst of which a number of bodies
were being roasted, was so frightened by the sight of the flames
and the smell of burning flesh that it would go neither forward
nor back, and, digging in its heels, it remained motionless,
snorting loudly, and no amount of spurring would persuade it to
move. Now the Russians, having gained a momentary advantage,
pushed our men back to the point where I was, and from the height
of a church and some neighbouring houses, they were raining down
bullets, while two guns which they carried with them fired
grape-shot at the soldiers among whom I was.
Many men were killed around me, which recalled to my mind the
position in which I had found myself at Eylau in the middle of
the 14th. As I was not anxious to be wounded again and in any
case, in staying where I was I was not carrying out my mission, I
simply dismounted, and abandoning my infernal mount, I slipped
through the houses to contact Marshal Ney at another spot, which
was pointed out by some officers.
I was with him for some fifteen minutes; there were some bullets
flying around, but nothing like so many as there had been at the
place where I had left my mount. The Russians were eventually
driven back at bayonet point and forced to retreat toward the
bridges, whereupon Marshal Ney sent me to take the good news to
Marshal Lannes. To get out of the town, I took the same route as
I had taken to get in, and went through the little square where I
had left my horse. It had been the scene of a fierce encounter
which had left many dead and dying, among whom I saw my stubborn
horse, its back broken by a cannon-ball, and its body riddled by
bullets!.... From there I made for the outskirts in something of
a hurry because the burning houses were collapsing on all sides
and I was afraid of being buried beneath the debris. At last I
got out of the town and reached the edge of the lake.
The heat of the day, added to that of the fire which was raging
in the streets through which I had passed, had bathed me in
sweat, and I was dropping with fatigue and hunger, for I had
spent a night on horseback to come from Eylau to Friedland, I had
galloped back to Eylau and returned to Friedland once more, and
had not eaten since the previous evening. I was not looking
forward, therefore, to crossing, under a blazing sun, the large
area covered with high standing corn which separated me from
Marshal Lannes. But once again I had a stroke of luck. General
Grouchy's division of dragoons had been engaged not far away in a
sharp encounter in which, although victorious, they had lost a
number of men, and the colonels had, as was usual, collected the
horses of the men who had been killed and put them in the hands
of a detachment which would lead them away. I saw this body of
men, of which every trooper was leading four or five horses and
was taking them to the lake to drink.
I spoke to the officer in charge who, encumbered by all these led
horses, was only too glad to let me have one, which I promised to
return to his regiment in the evening. He picked out for me an
excellent beast, which had been the mount of a sous-officier
killed during the charge; astride of this horse, I returned
rapidly to Posthenen.
I had hardly left the edge of the lake when it became the theatre
of the most savage encounter, which was due to the desperate
attempt made by Gortschakoff to reopen a way of retreat by
capturing the road to Friedland which was held by Marshal Ney.
Caught between the marshal's troops and those of our centre, who
were now advancing, Gortschakoff's Russians defended themselves
bravely amongst the houses bordering the lake; so that if I had
stayed there, where I had thought of resting for a while, I would
have landed in the middle of this fierce outbreak of fighting. I
rejoined Marshal Lannes at the moment when he was moving towards
the lake to attack the rear of the Russian troops whom Ney was
driving away from the front of the town, and I was able to give
him some useful information about the terrain on which we were
fighting.
If the French army did not take many prisoners during the battle
of Friedland, it was a different matter the next day and the days
following; for the Russians, pursued with a bayonet at their
backs, thrown into complete disorder and utterly exhausted, were
abandoning their ranks and lying down in the fields, where we
captured a great number. We also collected a large quantity of
artillery. All those members of Benningsen's army who escaped
hurried back across the Nieman, behind which was the Russian
emperor who, perhaps recalling the danger to which he had been
exposed at Austerlitz, had judged it unwise to assist in person
at the battle of Friedland; and two days after our victory he
hastened to ask Napoleon for an armistice, to which Napoleon
agreed.
Three days after the battle the French army reached the town of
Tilsit and the river Nieman, which at this point is only a few
leagues from the frontiers of the Russian empire.
The rear of a victorious army presents a most dismal spectacle.
The path of their advance is strewn with the dead, dying, and
wounded, while the survivors, soon forgetting those comrades who
have fallen in the fighting, rejoice in their success and go
forward cheerfully to new adventures. Our men were delighted to
see the Nieman, whose opposite bank was occupied by the remains
of that Russian army which they had defeated in so many
engagements; and where, in contrast to their own lighthearted
songs, there reigned a mournful silence. Napoleon established
himself at Tilsit, and his troops encamped around the town. The
Nieman separated the two armies; the French occupied the left
bank and the Russians the right.
The Emperor Alexander having requested a meeting with Napoleon,
this took place on the 25th of June, in a pavilion on a raft
anchored in the middle of the river, in sight of the two armies
which lined the banks. It was a most imposing spectacle. The two
emperors arrived, each from his own side, accompanied by only
five of the principal officers of their armies. Marshal Lannes,
who flattered himself that he should accompany the Emperor, saw
himself displaced by Marshal Bessieres, an intimate friend of
Prince Murat; and he never forgave the marshals for depriving him
of what he considered his right.
So Marshal Lannes stayed with us on the quay at Tilsit, from
where we saw the two emperors embrace on meeting, which
occasioned much cheering from both camps. The next day, the 26th,
in the course of a second interview which took place once more in
the pavilion on the Nieman, the Russian emperor presented to
Napoleon his unfortunate friend, the King of Prussia. This prince
whom the fortunes of war had stripped of a vast kingdom, leaving
him only the small town of Memel and some miserable villages,
maintained a bearing worthy of a descendant of Frederick the
Great: Napoleon greeted him politely but coolly, for he
considered that he had reason to complain of his conduct, and he
planned to confiscate the greater part of his states.
To facilitate the meetings of the two Emperors, the town of
Tilsit was declared neutral, and Napoleon handed over half of it
to the Russian emperor, who set himself up there with his Guard.
The two sovereigns spent some twenty days together, during which
time they decided the fate of Europe. During these proceedings,
the King of Prussia was relegated to the right bank, and had no
quarters in Tilsit, which he visited but rarely. One day Napoleon
went to call on the Queen of Prussia, who was said to be greatly
distressed. He invited her to dine with him on the following day.
She accepted the invitation, no doubt with little pleasure, but
realising that at a time when peace was being sought it was
necessary to take every measure to soften the heart of the
victor.
Napoleon and the Queen of Prussia thoroughly detested one
another: she had grossly insulted him in several proclamations,
and he had returned the complement in his bulletins. Their
meeting, however, did not display their mutual hatred; Napoleon
was respectful and attentive, the queen gracious in her attempts
to captivate her former enemy; attempts made all the more
determinedly as she was not unaware that the peace treaty
created--under the name of the kingdom of Westphalia--a new
state, whose territory was to be provided by the electorate of
Hesse, and by Prussia itself.
The Queen was resigned to the loss of several provinces, but she
could not accept the loss of the fortified city of Magdeberg,
possession of which was needed for the security of Prussia. For
his part, Napoleon, who planned to nominate his brother Jerome as
King of Westphalia, intended to add Magdeberg to this new state.
It appears that, during the meal, the Queen deployed her not
inconsiderable charms, and when Napoleon, to change the
conversation, praised a superb rose which the Queen was wearing,
she said to him, "Would your majesty not accept this rose in
return for Magdeberg?" A more chivalrous person might have
accepted, but Napoleon was too much of a realist to be won over
by a pretty proposition. One may be sure that he restricted
himself to admiring the beauty of the rose and also of the hand
which proffered it, but he did not take the flower, which brought
tears to the Queen's eyes. The conqueror, however, did not seem
to notice. He kept Magdeberg and politely conducted the Queen to
the boat which was to carry her to the opposite bank.
During our stay at Tilsit, Napoleon held a review of his Guard
and the army in the presence of Alexander, who was impressed by
the martial air and bearing of these troops. The Russian Emperor,
in his turn, put on display some fine battalions of his Guard,
but he did not dare to parade his line regiments, whose numbers
had been so greatly reduced at Heilsberg and Friedland. As for
the King of Prussia, of whose regiments there remained only the
broken debris, he did not exhibit them at all.
Napoleon drew up, with Russia and Prussia, a peace treaty in
which the principal articles related to the creation of the
kingdom of Westphalia for the benefit of Jerome Bonaparte. The
elector of Saxony, now an ally and friend of France, was elevated
to the dignity of king, and was awarded, in addition, the Grand
Duchy of Warsaw, composed of a vast province of the former
Poland, which was recovered from the Russians. I shall not go
into the less important articles of the treaty, which resulted in
the re-establishment of peace between the great powers of
continental Europe.
In elevating his brother to the throne of Westphalia, Napoleon
added to the mistakes he had already made in awarding the kingdom
of Naples to Joseph and that of Holland, Louis. The people of
these countries felt humiliated at being ruled by foreigners who
had not themselves done anything of importance and who were, in
fact, nonentities, who had no merit except that of being
Napoleon's brothers. The dislike and distrust which these new
kings attracted contributed largely to the Emperor's downfall.
The conduct of the King of Westphalia in particular made very
many enemies for Napoleon.
Having concluded the treaty, the two Emperors parted with mutual
assurances of friendship, which at the time seemed sincere.
Chap. 37.
The French army was spread out into the various provinces of
Germany and Poland under the command of five marshals, in whose
number Lannes had asked not to be included, since his ill-health
required his return to France. If I had been his permanent
aide-de-camp, I would have had to return with him, but I had an
even better reason for going, and that was to rejoin Marshal
Augereau, to whose staff I had not ceased to belong, my
attachment to Marshal Lannes being only temporary. I made ready
to return to Paris: I sold, as well as possible, my two horses,
and I sent Lisette to the registrar-general, M. de Launey, who,
having taken a liking to her, had asked me to let him have her
when I had no further use for her. Her injuries and hard work
had calmed her down, and I lent her to him for an indefinite
period; he mounted his wife on her, and kept her for seven or
eight years until she died a natural death.
During the twenty days which the Emperor had spent at Tilsit, he
had despatched a great many officers, some to Paris, some to
other parts of the empire, so that there were hardly any left
available for duty. Napoleon did not want to take officers from
their regiments, so he ordered a list to be made of all those who
had joined the campaign voluntarily and those who did not belong
to any army corps nor to the staff of any of the five marshals
who were in command. I was included in this list, and felt sure
that the Emperor, for whom I had already carried despatches,
would choose me in preference to officers whom he did not know;
and indeed, the Emperor sent for me on the 9th of July, and
having given me some voluminous portfolios and some despatches
for the King of Saxony, ordered me to go to Dresden and await him
there. The Emperor intended to leave Tilsit that same day, but
was going on a long detour to visit Konigsberg, Marienwerder, and
Silesia, so that I would be several days ahead of him.
I crossed Prussia once more, and saw again several of our
battlefields; I went through Berlin and arrived at Dresden two
days before the Emperor. The court of Saxony was aware that a
peace had been agreed, and that it raised the elector to the rank
of king, and awarded him the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, but they did
not yet know that the Emperor was to pass through Dresden on his
way to Paris; it was I who gave this information to the new king.