SMOLENSK
Julian's regiment arrived at Konigsberg early in March, and found that
it was to form part of Ney's division. The whole country round had been
turned into an enormous camp, and every town was the centre round which
a great array of tents was clustered. The troops were of many
nationalities--French, Poles, Bavarians, Saxons, Prussians, Austrians,
and even Spanish. Never since the hordes of Attila swept over Europe had
so vast an army been gathered. The total force collected for the
invasion of Russia amounted to 651,358 men, of whom some 520,000 were
infantry, 100,000 cavalry, and the remainder artillery and engineers.
They had with them 1372 guns.
April passed without any movement. The troops became impatient, and even
the veterans, whose confidence in Napoleon was implicit, shook their
heads.
"We ought to be across the frontier before this," an old sergeant of
Julian's company said to him, as they smoked a pipe together over two
mugs of German beer.
"It isn't that I think there will be much fighting, for what can Russia
do against such an army as this? They say Alexander has been busy since
the peace of Tilsit, but at that time he could scarce place 50,000 men
in the field. No one fears the Russians; but it is a big country, and
they say that in winter the cold is horrible. We shall have long
distances to march, and you know how much time is always wasted over
making a treaty of peace. If we are to be back again before winter we
ought to be off now. Of course, the Emperor may mean to hold St.
Petersburg and Moscow until next spring, and I daresay we could make
ourselves comfortable enough in either place; but when you come to
winter six hundred and fifty thousand men, and a couple of hundred
thousand horses, it is a tremendous job; and I should think the Emperor
would send all this riff-raff of Spaniards, Germans, and Poles back, and
keep only the French as a garrison through the winter. Still, I would
much rather that we should all be back here before the first snow falls.
I don't like these long campaigns. Men are ready to fight, and to fight
again, twenty times if need be, but then they like to be done with it.
In a long campaign, with marches, and halts, and delays, discipline gets
slack, men begin to grumble; besides, clothes wear out, and however big
stores you take with you, they are sure to run short in time. I wish we
were off."
But it was not until the 16th of May that Napoleon arrived at Dresden,
where he was met by the Emperor and Empress of Austria, the Kings of
Prussia and Saxony, and a host of archdukes and princes, and a fortnight
was spent in brilliant fêtes. Napoleon himself was by no means blind to
the magnitude of the enterprise on which he had embarked, and
entertained no hopes that the army would recross the frontier before the
winter. He had, indeed, before leaving Paris, predicted that three
campaigns would be necessary before lasting terms of peace could be
secured. Thus an early commencement of the campaign was of
comparatively slight importance; but, indeed, the preparations for the
struggle were all on so great a scale that they could not, with all the
energy displayed in pushing them forward, be completed before the end of
June.
Thus, then, while Napoleon delayed in Paris and feasted at Dresden, the
roads of Germany were occupied by great hosts of men and enormous trains
of baggage waggons of all descriptions, moving steadily towards the
Russian frontier. On the 12th of June Napoleon arrived at Konigsberg.
Ney's division had marched forward a fortnight before, and the Emperor
on his route from Konigsberg to the frontier reviewed that division with
those of Davoust and Oudinot, and also two great cavalry divisions.
To oppose the threatening storm Alexander had gathered three armies. The
first, stationed in and round Wilna under General Barclay de Tolly,
comprised 129,050 men; the second, posted at Wolkowich, and commanded by
Prince Bagration, numbered 48,000; the third had its headquarters at
Lutsk, and was commanded by Count Tormanssow; while the reserve, which
was widely scattered, contained 34,000 men. Thus the total force
gathered to oppose the advance of Napoleon's army of 650,000 was but
211,050. It had, too, the disadvantage of being scattered, for it was
impossible to foresee by which of the several roads open to him,
Napoleon would advance, or whether he intended to make for St.
Petersburg or Moscow.
During the next few days the divisions intended to form the advance
moved down towards the Niemen, which marked the frontier, and on the
24th of June three bridges were thrown across the river near Kovno, and
the passage began. The French cavalry drove off the Cossacks who were
watching the passage, and the same evening the Emperor established his
headquarters at Kovno, and the corps of Davoust, Oudinot, and Ney
crossed the bridges, and with the cavalry under Murat, composing
altogether a force of 350,000 men, marched forward at a rapid pace on
the 26th for Wilna, seventy-five miles distant. It was not until a few
days before Napoleon crossed the frontier that the Russians obtained any
definite information as to the force with which he was advancing, and
their commander-in-chief at once saw that it would be hopeless to
attempt to oppose so large a body. A great mistake had been committed in
occupying a position so near the frontier, but when the necessity for
retreat became evident, no time was lost in carrying it into effect, and
orders were despatched to the commanders of the various armies to fall
back with all speed. Thus, although the French accomplished the
wonderful feat of marching seventy-eight miles in two days, which was
done in the hope of falling upon the Russians before they had time to
concentrate, they found the town already evacuated, and the whole of the
immense magazines collected there destroyed.
Almost simultaneously with the passage of the Niemen by the three corps
under the French marshals, those of Prince Eugene and the other generals
also crossed, but further south, and also advanced at full speed in
hopes of interposing between the three Russian armies, and of preventing
their concentration. For the next week the French pressed hard upon the
rear of the retreating Russians, but failed to bring on a battle, while
they themselves suffered from an incessant downpour of rain which made
the roads well-nigh impassable. The commissariat train broke down, and a
hundred pieces of cannon and 5000 ammunition waggons had to be
abandoned. The rain, and a bitterly cold wind that accompanied it,
brought on an epidemic among the horses, which were forced to depend
solely upon the green rye growing in the fields. Several thousands died;
the troops themselves suffered so much from thirst and hunger that no
less than 30,000 stragglers fell out from the ranks and spread
themselves over the country, burning, ravaging, plundering, and
committing terrible depredations. Such dismay was caused by their
treatment that the villages were all abandoned, and the whole population
retired before the advance of the French, driving their flocks and herds
before them, and thus adding greatly to the difficulties of the
invaders.
[Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE ROUTE OF NAPOLEON'S MARCH TO MOSCOW.]
The greater portion of these straggling marauders belonged not to the
French corps, but to the allies, who possessed none of the discipline of
the French soldiery, and whose conduct throughout the campaign was
largely responsible for the intense animosity excited by the invaders,
and for the suffering that afterwards befell them.
As the pursuit continued even Napoleon's best soldiers were surprised at
their failure to overtake the Russians. However long their marches,
however well planned the operations, the Russians always out-marched and
out-manoeuvred them. It seemed to them almost that they were pursuing a
phantom army, a will-o'-the-wisp, that eluded all their efforts to grasp
it, and a fierce fight between the rear-guard of Barclay de Tolly's army
and the advance-guard of Murat's cavalry, in which the latter suffered
severely, was the only fight of importance, until the invaders, after
marching more than half-way to Moscow, arrived at Witebsk.
Nevertheless they had suffered severely. The savage ferocity with which,
in spite of repeated proclamations and orders, the invading army treated
the people, had exasperated the peasantry almost to madness, and taking
up arms, they cut down every straggler, annihilated small parties,
attacked baggage trains, and repeated in Russia the terrible retaliation
dealt by the Spanish guerillas upon their invaders.
On the right of the French advance there had been heavier fighting.
There General Schwarzenberg with his 30,000 Austrians had advanced
against the third Russian army, under Tormanssow. A brigade of the
division under Regnier, which was by Napoleon's order marching to join
Schwarzenberg, entered Kobrin, where it was surrounded by Tormanssow,
and after a brave resistance of nine hours, in which it lost 2000 killed
and wounded, the remainder, 2300 in number, were forced to surrender.
Tormanssow then took up a strong position with his 18,000 men, and
awaited the attack of the united forces of Schwarzenberg and Regnier,
38,000 strong.
The battle lasted all day, the loss on either side being between four
and five thousand. Tormanssow held his position, but retired under cover
of night. On the 3rd of August the armies of Barclay and Bagration at
last succeeded in effecting a junction at Smolensk, and towards that
town the French corps moved from various quarters, until 250,000 men
were assembled near it, and on the 15th of August, Murat and Ney arrived
within nine miles of the place.
Smolensk, a town of considerable size, on the Dnieper, distant 280 miles
from Moscow, was surrounded by a brick wall thirty feet high and
eighteen feet thick at the base, with loopholed battlements. This wall
formed a semicircle of about three miles and a half, the ends resting on
the river. It was strengthened by thirty towers, and at its forts was a
deep dry ditch. The town was largely built of wood. There were no heavy
guns upon the walls, and the city, which was completely commanded by
surrounding hills, was in no way defensible, but Barclay de Tolly felt
himself obliged to fight.
The greatest indignation prevailed in Russia at the retreat of the
armies without attempting one determined stand, the abandonment of so
large a tract of country to the French, and the suffering and ruin
thereby wrought among the population of one of the richest and most
thickly-peopled districts of Russia. Barclay's own plan had been to draw
the enemy farther and farther into the country, knowing that with every
mile of advance their difficulties would increase and their armies
become weakened by fatigue, sickness, and the assaults of the peasantry.
But the continued retreats were telling upon the spirit of his own
troops also. To them the war was a holy one. They had marched to the
frontier burning to meet the invader, and that, from the moment of his
crossing the Niemen, they should have to retreat, hunted and harassed
like beaten men, goaded them to fury. The officers were no less
indignant than the men, and Barclay found that it was absolutely
necessary to make a stand.
The French were as eager as the Russians to fight, and when it became
known that the enemy seemed determined to make a stand at Smolensk they
were filled with exultation. Ney's corps was the first to appear before
the town, and took up its position on rising ground a short distance
from the suburbs lying outside the wall and next to the river. Davoust's
corps was to his right, Poniatowski's division came next, while Murat
with his cavalry division completed the semicircle.
"The Russians must be mad," was the comment of the veterans of Julian's
regiment. "The place is of no strength; the artillery will breach the
walls in no time. They have but one bridge by which to retreat across
the river, and we shall soon knock that to pieces with our guns on the
right, and shall catch all who are in the town in a trap."
The obstinate resistance, however, that had been given by the Russians
to the attacks on their rear-guard had impressed the invaders with a
respect for their foes, that was in strong contrast to the feeling
entertained when they crossed the frontier, save only among the soldiers
who had met the Russians before, and who knew with what dogged valour
they always fought, especially when on the defensive.
"It is going to be tough work, Jules, I can tell you," one of them said
to Julian, whose English birth was now almost forgotten, and who, by
the good temper he always manifested, however long the marches and
however great the fatigues, had become a general favourite. "I guess we
are only going to fight because the Russians are tired of retreating,
just as we are tired of pursuing them. They can gain nothing by fighting
here. We outnumber them tremendously. The great bulk of their army lies
on the heights on the other side of the river, and there is nothing to
prevent their retreating to some strong position, where they might give
battle with advantage. On the other hand, there is no reason why we
should fight here. We have come down thirty or forty miles out of the
direct road to Moscow, and if, instead of doing so, we had crossed the
river, and had gone straight on, the Russians must have evacuated the
town and pushed on with all speed in order to get between us and Moscow.
But this marching about without getting a battle discourages men more
even than defeat, and I hope that it will do something to restore
discipline among the Germans and Austrians, ay, and among our own troops
too. I have been through a number of campaigns, and I have never seen
such disorder, such plunder, such want of discipline as has been shown
since we entered Russia. I tell you, Jules, even a defeat would do us
good. Look at the Russians; they never leave a straggler behind them,
never a dismounted gun, while the roads behind us are choked up with our
abandoned guns and waggons, and the whole country is covered with our
marauders. I should be glad if one of the brigades was ordered to break
up into companies and to march back, spreading out across the whole
country we have traversed, and shooting every man they met between this
and the frontier, whether he was French, German, Austrian, or Pole."
"It has been terrible," Julian agreed, "but at least we have the
satisfaction of knowing that Ney's corps d'armée has furnished a smaller
share of stragglers than most of the others."
"That is true enough, but bad is the best, lad. Some of our battalions
are nearly all young soldiers, and I can't say much for their conduct,
while the seven battalions of Spaniards, Wurtemburgers, and men from the
Duchy of Baden have behaved shamefully, and I don't think that the four
squadrons of Polish cavalry have been any better. We have all been bad;
there is no denying it; and never should we have conquered Germany,
crushed Prussia, and forced Austria to submit, had our armies behaved in
the way they have done of late. Napoleon would soon have put a stop to
it then. He would have had one or two of the worst regiments drawn up,
and would have decimated them as a lesson to the rest. Now his orders
seem to go for nothing. He has far too much on his mind to attend to
such things, and the generals have been thinking so much of pressing on
after the enemy that they have done nothing to see the orders carried
into effect. It was the same sort of thing that drove the Spaniards into
taking to the mountains, and causing us infinite trouble and great loss
of life. Fortunately, here we are so strong that we need fear no
reverse, but if a disaster occurred I tell you, Jules, we should have
good cause to curse the marauders who have converted these lazy peasants
into desperate foes."
"I should think we ought not to lose many men in taking that town,
sergeant. There seem to be no guns on the walls. We have the suburbs to
cover our advance, and attacking them on all sides, as we shall do, we
ought to force our way in without much trouble."
"It would seem so, lad; yes, it would seem so. But you know in Spain it
once cost us five days' fighting after we got inside a town. I allow it
was not like this. The streets were narrow, the houses were of stone,
and each house a fortress, while, as you can see from here, the streets
are wide and at right angles to each other, and the houses of brick,
and, I fancy, many of them of wood. Still, knowing what the Russians
are, I would wager we shall not capture Smolensk with a loss of less
than ten thousand men, that is if they really defend it until the last."
The following day, the 16th of August, a cannonade was kept up against
the walls by the French artillery, the Russians replying but seldom. The
next morning it was discovered that Prince Bagration had marched with
his army from the hills on the other side of the river to take post on
the main Moscow road so as to prevent the position being turned by the
advance of a portion of the French army by that route. During the night
Barclay had thrown two pontoon bridges across the river in addition to
the permanent bridge. At daybreak a dropping fire broke out, for both
Davoust and Ney had sent bodies of troops into the suburbs, which they
had entered without opposition, and these now opened an irritating fire
on the Russians upon the wall. At eight o'clock the firing suddenly
swelled into a roar. Doctorow, the Russian general in command of the
troops in the town, made a sortie, and cleared the suburbs at the point
of the bayonet. Napoleon, believing that the Russian army was coming out
to attack him, drew up Ney and Davoust's troops in order of battle, with
70,000 infantry in the first line, supported by Murat's 30,000 cavalry.
Partial attacks were continued against the suburbs, but the Russians
obstinately maintained themselves there. Finding that they showed no
signs of advancing to attack him, Napoleon at two o'clock gave orders
for a general assault, and the whole of the French troops advanced
against the suburbs. The attack of Ney's corps was directed against the
Krasnoi suburb, which faced them, and against an advanced work known as
the citadel. For two hours a terrible struggle went on. The Russians
defended all the suburbs with desperate tenacity, every house and garden
was the scene of a fierce encounter, men fought with bayonet and clubbed
muskets, the cannon thundered on the heights, and Poniatowski
established sixty guns on a hill on the French right, but a short
distance from the river, and with these opened fire upon the bridges. It
seemed that these must soon be destroyed, and the retreat of the Russian
troops in Smolensk entirely cut off. In a short time, however, the
Russians on the other side of the river planted a number of guns on a
rise of equal height to that occupied by Poniatowski's artillery, and as
their guns took his battery in flank, he was ere long forced to withdraw
it from the hill.
[Illustration: PLAN OF THE BATTLE OF SMOLENSK.]
It was only after two hours' fighting that the Russians withdrew from
the suburbs into the town itself, and as the bridges across the river
had not suffered greatly from the fire of the great French battery,
Barclay sent Prince Eugene of Wurtemberg across to reinforce the
garrison. As soon as the Russians retired into the town a hundred and
fifty guns opened fire on the wall to effect a breach, and at five a
desperate assault was made upon one of the gates, which was for a moment
captured, but Prince Eugene charged forward with his division and
recaptured it at the point of the bayonet. The French shell and grape
swept the streets and set fire to the town in a score of places, and
several of the wooden roofs of the towers upon the wall were also in
flames. After a pause for a couple of hours the French again made a
serious and desperate assault, but the Russians sternly held their
ground, and at seven o'clock made a sortie from behind the citadel, and
drove the French out of the Krasnoi suburb. At nine the cannonade
ceased. The French fell back to the position from which they had moved
in the morning, and the Russians reoccupied the covered ways in front of
the wall to prevent a sudden attack during the night.
"What did I tell you, Jules?" the old sergeant said mournfully, when the
shattered remains of the regiment fell out and proceeded to cook their
food. "I said that the capture of that town would cost us 10,000 men. It
has cost Ney's corps alone half that number, and we have not taken it;
and yet we fought well. Had every man been as old a soldier as myself
they could not have done their duty better. _Peste!_ these Russians are
obstinate brigands."
"It was desperate work," Julian said, "more terrible than anything I
could have imagined. How anyone escaped alive is more than I can say.
Every wall, every house seemed to be fringed with fire. I heard no word
of command during the day; all there was to do was to load and
fire--sometimes to rush forward when the rest did so, sometimes to fall
back when the Russians poured down upon us. Shall we begin again
to-morrow?"
"I suppose so," the sergeant replied. "We certainly sha'n't march away
until we have taken it. Perhaps the enemy may evacuate it. The whole
town is a sea of flames; there is nothing to fight for, and next time we
shall no doubt breach the walls thoroughly before we try. You see, we
undervalued the Russians, and we sha'n't make that mistake again. Well,
lad, we have both got out of it without serious damage, for that bullet
you got through your arm will soon heal up again, but there is one
thing, if you remain in the army for the next twenty years you are not
likely to see harder fighting."
That night, indeed, Smolensk was evacuated by the Russians, contrary to
the wishes of both officers and men, Prince Eugene and General Doctorow
declaring that they could hold on for ten days longer. This might
doubtless have been done, but Barclay was afraid that Napoleon might
sweep round and cross the river somewhere to his left, and that in that
case he must fall back, and the town would have to be evacuated in the
day time when the enemy could sweep the bridges with their fire. By
three o'clock in the morning the whole force in the city had crossed,
and the bridges were burnt behind them. The flames acquainted the French
with the fact that the city had been evacuated, and at daybreak they
entered the town, and soon afterwards their skirmishers opened fire on
the Russians on the other side of the river. At eight o'clock a Spanish
brigade crossed the river waist deep, and entered the suburb known as
St. Petersburg, on the right bank; but they were at once attacked; many
were killed or taken prisoners, and the rest driven across the river
again.
General Barclay then withdrew his army to the heights, wishing to tempt
the enemy to cross, intending to give them battle before all had made
the passage; but Napoleon kept his troops in hand, except that his
artillery maintained a fire to the right against the Russians. At eight
o'clock in the evening some skirmishers crossed the river, and fires
shortly broke out in St. Petersburg, and in an hour several hundred
houses, extending for a mile along the river, were in a blaze, while
those in Smolensk were still burning fiercely. At night the Russians
again fell back. The direct road lay parallel with the river, but as it
was commanded by the enemy's guns General Barclay directed the force,
divided into two columns, to march by cross roads. These led over two
steep hills, and, owing to the harness breaking, these roads soon became
blocked, and the march was discontinued till daylight enabled the
drivers to get the five hundred guns and the ammunition trains up the
hills.
The French, finding that the Russian army was going off, crossed the
river in force and furiously attacked their rear-guard, and tried to
penetrate between it and the main body of the army, but Prince Eugene's
division was sent back to assist General Korf, who commanded there. In
the meantime two columns of the French moved along the main road to
Moscow with the evident intention of heading the Russian army at
Loubino, the point where the cross road by which they were travelling
came into it. This they might have accomplished owing to the much
shorter distance they had to travel and the delays caused by the
difficulty of getting the guns over the hills, but a small Russian
corps under Touchkoff had been sent forward to cover that point. Ney had
crossed the river early by two bridges he had thrown over it, and
Touchkoff, as he saw this force pressing along the main road, took up a
position where he covered Loubino, and for some hours repulsed all the
efforts of the French to pass.
At three o'clock the pressure upon Touchkoff became so severe that
several regiments from Barclay's column, which was passing safely along
while he kept the road open for them, were sent to his assistance, and
the fight continued. Napoleon believed that the whole Russian force had
taken post at Loubino, and sent forward reinforcements to Ney. The woods
were so thick that it was some time before these reached him, the guns
of one of the columns being obliged to go a mile and a half through a
wood before they could turn, so dense was the growth of the trees. Ney
now pressed forward with such vigour that Touchkoff was driven from his
position in advance, upon the village itself, where he was again
reinforced by four infantry battalions, two regiments of cavalry, and
heavy guns. Murat with his cavalry endeavoured to turn the Russian left,
but the two Russian cavalry regiments, supported by their artillery,
maintained their ground. Soon after five o'clock the French had received
such large reinforcements that the Russians were forced to give way, and
were in full retreat when Barclay himself arrived upon the scene, and
rallied them. The battle was renewed, and the last effort of the French
was repulsed by a charge with the bayonet by the Russian grenadiers.
In the charge, however, General Touchkoff, by whose valour the Russian
army had been saved, was carried too far in advance of his men, and was
taken prisoner. It was not until midnight that the rear of Barclay's
column emerged from the cross road, in which it had been involved for
twenty-four hours. In this fight the French and Russians lost about
6000 men each. Had Junot joined Ney in the attack on Touchkoff's force
the greater part of the Russian army must have been destroyed or made
prisoners.
The Russian army now pursued its march towards Moscow unmolested save by
some attacks by Murat's cavalry. Ney's corps d'armée had borne the brunt
of the fighting at Loubino, and had been diminished in strength by
another 4000 men. In this battle, however, Julian's regiment, having
suffered so heavily in the attack at Smolensk, was one of those held in
reserve. Napoleon was greatly disappointed at the escape of the Russian
army from his grasp. Only 30,000 Russians had been engaged both in the
action in their rear and in that at Loubino, while the whole of the
French army round Smolensk, with the exception of the corps of Junot,
had in vain endeavoured to break through the defence and to fall upon
the main body of the army so helplessly struggling along the road.
In the attack on Smolensk 12,000 of Napoleon's best soldiers had fallen.
Loubino cost him 6000 more, and although these numbers were but small in
proportion to the total strength of his army, they were exclusively
those of French soldiers belonging to the divisions in which he placed
his main trust. It was now a question with him whether he should
establish himself for the winter in the country he occupied, accumulate
stores, make Smolensk a great depôt that would serve as a base for his
advance in the spring, or move on at once against Moscow. On this point
he held a council with his marshals. The opinion of these was generally
favourable to the former course. The desperate fighting of the three
previous days had opened their eyes to the fact that even so great a
force as that led by Napoleon could not afford to despise the Russians.
The country that was at present occupied was rich. There were so many
towns that the army could go into comfortable quarters for the winter,
and their communications with the frontier were open and safe. It was
unquestionably the safer and more prudent course.
With these conclusions Napoleon agreed in theory. It had originally been
his intention to winter in the provinces that he had now overrun, and to
march against St. Petersburg or Moscow in the spring. He had, however,
other matters besides those of military expediency to consider. In the
first place, the Poles were exasperated at his refusal to re-establish
at once their ancient kingdom, a refusal necessitated by the fact that
he could not do so without taking from Austria and Prussia, his allies,
the Polish districts that had fallen to their share. Then, too, the
Poles felt the terrible pressure of supporting the army still in Poland,
and of contributing to the vast expenses of the war, and were the
campaign to continue long their attitude might change to one of open
hostility. In the next place, the conclusion of peace, brought about by
the efforts of England, between both Sweden and Turkey with Russia,
would enable the latter to bring up the whole of the forces that had
been engaged in the south with the Turks, and in the north watching the
Swedish frontier, and would give time for the new levies to be converted
into good soldiers and placed in the field.
Then, too, matters were going on badly in Spain. He could place but
little dependence upon Austria, Prussia, or Germany. Were he absent
another year from France he might find these countries leagued against
him. Therefore, although recognizing the justice of the arguments of his
marshals, he decided upon pushing on to Moscow, and establishing himself
there for the winter. He did not even yet recognize the stubbornness and
constancy of the Russian character, and believed that the spectacle of
their ancient capital in his hands would induce them at once to treat
for peace. The decision was welcome to the army. The general wish of the
soldiers was to get the matter over, and to be off home again. The
obstinacy with which the Russians fought, the rapidity with which they
marched, the intense animosity that had been excited among the peasants
by the cruel treatment to which they had been exposed, the recklessness
with which they threw away their lives so that they could but take
vengeance for their sufferings, the ferocity with which every straggler
or small detachment that fell into their hands was massacred--all these
things combined to excite a feeling of gloom and anxiety among the
soldiers.
There were no merry songs round the bivouac fires now; even the thought
of the plunder of Moscow failed to raise their spirits. The loss of so
many tried comrades was greatly felt in Ney's division. It had at first
numbered over 40,000, and the losses in battle and from sickness had
already reduced it by more than a fourth. Even the veterans lost their
usual impassive attitude of contentment with the existing state of
things.
"What I don't like," growled one of the old sergeants, "is that there is
not a soul in the villages, not a solitary man in the fields. It is not
natural. One gets the same sort of feeling one has when a thunderstorm
is just going to burst overhead. When it has begun you don't mind it,
but while you are waiting for the first flash, the first clap of
thunder, you get a sort of creepy feeling. That is just what the sight
of all this deserted country makes me feel. I have campaigned all over
Europe, but I never saw anything like this."
A growl of assent passed round the circle, and there was a general
repetition of the words, "It is not natural, comrade. Even in Spain,"
one said, "where they hate us like poison, the people don't leave their
villages like this. The young men may go, but the old men and the women
and children remain, and the priest is sure to stop. Here there is not
so much as a fowl to be seen in the streets. The whole population is
gone--man, woman, and child."
"It makes one feel," another said gloomily, "as if we were accursed,
infected with the plague, or something of that sort."
"Well, don't let us talk about it," another said with an effort at
cheerfulness. "There is Jules, he is the merriest fellow in our company.
Come here, Jules. We are all grumbling. What do you think of things?"
"I don't think much about them one way or the other," Julian said as he
came up. "We have not a great deal further to go to Moscow, and the
sooner we get there the better. Then we shall have the satisfaction of
seeing some people."
"Yes, Jules, that is what is vexing us, that everyone runs away at our
approach."
"And no fools either," Julian replied, "considering the villainous way
in which they have been harried. Even peasants have some feeling, and
when they are treated like wild beasts they will turn. It seems to me
that instead of ill-treating them we ought, with such a march as this
before us, to have done everything in our power to show them that,
although we were going to fight any armies that opposed us, we had no
ill-feeling against the people at large. If they had found us ready to
pay for everything we wanted, and to treat them as well as if they had
been our own country people, there would have been no running away from
us. Then, as we advanced we could have purchased an abundant supply of
food everywhere. We should have had no fear as to our communications,
and might have wandered a hundred yards outside our sentries without the
risk of having our throats cut. However, it is of no use going over
these arguments again. The thing has been done and cannot be undone, and
we have but to accept the consequences, and make the best of them. A man
who burns a wood mustn't complain a month afterwards because he has no
fuel. However, I hope that in another day or two we shall be moving on.
As long as we are going there is no time to feel it dull; it is the
halt, after being so long in motion, that gives us time to talk, and
puts fancies into our heads. We did not expect a pleasure excursion when
we started."