Nothing extraordinary occurred for several days. The governor had the
plants and bushes growing in the crevices of the ramparts torn away, to
make desertion less easy, and he forbade the officers being too rough
with the men, which had a good effect.
At this time, hundreds of thousands of Austrians, Russians, Bavarians,
and Wurtemburgers, by squadrons and regiments, passed around the city
beyond range of our cannon, and marched upon Paris.
Then there were terrible battles in Champagne, but we knew nothing of
them.
The uniforms changed every day outside the city; our old soldiers on
top of the ramparts recognized all the different nations they had been
fighting for twenty years.
Our sergeant came regularly after the call, to take me upon the arsenal
bastion; citizens were there all the time, talking about the invasion,
which did not come to an end.
It was wonderful! In the direction of St. Jean, on the edge of the
forest of La Bonne-Fontaine, we saw, for hours at a time, cavalry and
infantry defiling, and then convoys of powder and balls, and then
cannon, and then files of bayonets, helmets, red and green and blue
coats, lances, peasants' wagons covered with cloth--all these passed,
passed like a river.
On this broad white plateau, surrounded by forests, we could see
everything.
Now and then some Cossacks or dragoons would leave the main body, and
push on galloping to the very foot of the glacis, in the lane _des
Dames_, or near the little chapel. Instantly one of our old marine
artillerymen would stretch out his gray mustaches upon a rampart gun,
and slowly take aim; the bystanders would all gather round him, even
the children, who would creep between your legs, fearless of balls or
shells--and the heavy rifle-gun would go off!
Many a time I have seen the Cossack or Uhlan fall from his saddle, and
the horse rush back to the squadron with his bridle on his neck. The
people would shout with joy; they would climb up on the ramparts and
look down, and the gunner would rub his hands and say, "One more out of
the way!"
At other times these old men, with their ragged cloaks full of holes,
would bet a couple of sous as to who should bring down this sentinel or
that vidette, on the Mittelbronn or Bichelberg hill.
It was so far that they needed good eyes to see the one they
designated; but these men, accustomed to the sea, can discern
everything as far as the eye can reach.
"Come, Paradis, there he is!" one would say.
"Yes, there he is! Lay down your two sous; there are mine!"
And they would fire. They would go on as if it were a game of
ninepins. God knows how many men they killed for the sake of their two
sous. Every morning about nine o'clock I found these marines in my
shop, drinking "to the Cossack," as they said. The last drop they
poured into their hands, to strengthen their nerves, and started off
with rounded backs, calling out:
"Hey! good-day, Father Moses! The kaiserlich is very well!"
I do not think that I ever saw so many people in my life as in those
months of January and February, 1814; they were like the locusts of
Egypt! How the earth could produce so many people I could not
comprehend.
I was naturally greatly troubled on account of it, and the other
citizens also, as I need not say; but our sergeant laughed and winked.
"Look, Father Moses!" said he, pointing from Quatre-Vents to
Bichelberg--"all these that are passing by, all that have passed, and
all that are going to pass, are to enrich the soil of Champagne and
Lorraine! The Emperor is down there, waiting for them in a good
place--he will fall upon them! The thunder-bolt of Austerlitz, of
Jena, of Wagram, is all ready--it can wait no longer! Then they will
file back in retreat; but our armies will follow them, with our
bayonets in their backs, and we shall go out from here, and flank them
off. Not one shall escape. Their account is settled. And then will
be the time for you to have old clothes and other things to sell,
Father Moses! He! he! he! How fat you will grow!"
He was merry at the thought of it; but you may suppose, Fritz, that I
did not count much upon those uniforms that were running across the
fields; I would much rather they had been a thousand leagues away.
Such are men--some are glad and others miserable from the same cause.
The sergeant was so confident that sometimes he persuaded me, and I
thought as he did.
We would go down the rampart street together, he would go to the
cantine where they had begun to distribute siege-rations, or perhaps he
would go home with me, take his little glass of cherry-brandy, and
explain to me the Emperor's grand strokes since '96 in Italy. I did
not understand anything about it, but I made believe that I understood,
which answered all the purpose.
There came envoys, too, sometimes on the road from Nancy, sometimes
from Saverne or Metz. They raised, at a distance, the little white
flag; one of their trumpeters sounded and then withdrew; the officer of
the guard received the envoy and bandaged his eyes, then he went under
escort through the city to the governor's house. But what these envoys
told or demanded never transpired in the city; the council of defence
alone were informed of it.
We lived confined within our walls as if we were in the middle of the
sea, and you cannot believe how that weighs upon one after a while, how
depressing and overpowering it is not to be able to go out even upon
the glacis. Old men who had been nailed for ten years to their
arm-chairs, and who never thought of moving, were oppressed by grief at
knowing that the gates remained shut. And then every one wants to know
what is going on, to see strangers and talk of the affairs of the
country--no one knows how necessary these things are until he has had
experience like ours. The meanest peasant, the lowest man in Dagsburg
who might have chanced to come into the city, would have been received
like a god; everybody would have run to see him and ask for the news
from France.
Ah! those are right who hold that liberty is the greatest of blessings,
for it is insupportable being shut up in a prison--let it be as large
as France. Men are made to come and go, to talk and write, and live
together, to carry on trade, to tell the news; and if you take these
from them, you leave nothing desirable.
Governments do not understand this simple matter; they think that they
are stronger when they prevent men from living at their ease, and at
last everybody is tired of them. The true power of a sovereign is
always in proportion to the liberty he can give, and not to that which
he is obliged to take away. The allies had learned this for Napoleon,
and thence came their confidence.
The saddest thing of all was that, toward the end of January, the
citizens began to be in want. I cannot say that money was scarce,
because a centime never went out of the city, but everything was dear;
what three weeks before was worth two sous now cost twenty! This has
often led me to think that scarcity of money is one of the fooleries
invented by scoundrels to deceive the weak-minded. What else can make
money scarce? You are not poor with two sous, if they are enough to
buy your bread, wine, meat, clothes, etc.; but if you need twenty times
more to buy these things, then not only are you poor, but the whole
country is poor. There is no want of money when everything is cheap;
it is always scarce when the necessaries of life are dear.
So, when people are shut up as we were, it is very fortunate to be able
to sell more than you buy. My brandy sold for three francs the quart,
but at the same time we needed bread, oil, potatoes, and their prices
were all proportionately high.
One morning old Mother Queru came to my shop weeping; she had eaten
nothing for two days! and yet that was the least thing, said she; she
missed nothing but her glass of wine, which I gave her gratis. She
gave me a hundred blessings and went away happy. A good many others
would have liked their glass of wine! I have seen old men in despair
because they had nothing to snuff; they even went so far as to snuff
ashes; some at this time smoked the leaves of the large walnut-tree by
the arsenal, and liked it well.
Unfortunately, all this was but the beginning of want: later we learned
to fast for the glory of his Majesty.
Toward the end of February, it became cold again. Every evening they
fired a hundred shells upon us, but we became accustomed to all that,
till it seemed quite a thing of course. As soon as the shell burst
everybody ran to put out the fire, which was an easy matter, since
there were tubs full of water ready in every house.
Our guns replied to the enemy; but as after ten o'clock the Russians
fired only with field-pieces, our men could aim only at their fire,
which was changing continually, and it was not easy to reach them.
Sometimes the enemy fired incendiary balls; these are balls pierced
with three nails in a triangle, and filled with such inflammable matter
that it could be extinguished only by throwing the ball under water,
which was done.
We had as yet had no fires; but our outposts had fallen back, and the
allies drew closer and closer around the city. They occupied the
Ozillo farm, Pernette's tile-kiln, and the Maisons-Rouges, which had
been abandoned by our troops. Here they intended to pass the winter
pleasantly. These were Wurtemburg, Bavarian, and Baden troops, and
other landwehr, who replaced in Alsace the regular troops that had left
for the interior.
We could plainly see their sentinels in long, grayish-blue coats, flat
helmets, and muskets on their shoulders, walking slowly in the poplar
alley which leads to the tile-kiln.
From thence these troops could any moment, on a dark night, enter the
trenches, and even attempt to force a postern.
They were in large numbers and denied themselves nothing, having three
or four villages around them to furnish their provisions, and the great
fires of the tile-kiln to keep them warm.
Sometimes a Russian battalion relieved them, but only for a day or two,
being obliged to continue its route. These Russians bathed in the
little pond behind the building, in spite of the ice and snow which
filled it.
All of them, Russians, Wurtemburgers, and Baden men, fired upon our
sentinels, and we wondered that our governor had not stopped them with
our balls. But one day the sergeant came in joyfully, and whispered to
me, winking:
"Get up early to-morrow morning, Father Moses; don't say a word to any
one, and follow me. You will see something that will make you laugh."
"All right, sergeant!" said I.
He went to bed at once, and long before day, about five o'clock, I
heard him jump out of bed, which astonished me the more, as I had not
heard the call.