The Russians might have been _satisfied_. It was not likely that they
would return soon to the charge. However, the transactions of the
5th had convinced me of the necessity of different measures, which
I was unwilling to take. They had only succeeded in penetrating as
far as the foot of Bichofsberg, where Colonel Figuier was keeping a
strict look out, by the protection of an old convent of Capuchins:
this neighbourhood was too dangerous; I caused the old edifice to be
pulled down. Some houses in several villages, and particularly in
Schottland, were fortified. We had retaken this place, but with great
difficulty: the resistance had been so great, that it was at one
time a question whether we should not burn it. I rejected this cruel
expedient: I could not make up my mind to ruin inhabitants who had
already suffered so much during the first siege. I thought it more
honourable to drive off the Russians at the point of the bayonet, and
I succeeded; but I did not like to run this perilous risk again.
In the mean time the epidemic was far from subsiding: it appeared, on
the contrary, to gather fresh strength every day. Six thousand men had
already perished; 18,000 men were lying inanimate in the hospitals.
General Franceschi, whom death had spared so many times on the field
of battle, had just expired. Every hour, every minute, increased our
losses, and carried off our most valiant soldiers. Substantial food
would have saved them; but our provisions were coming to an end. We
had no longer any quantity of animal food or cattle; straw even was
wanting for the beds of our sick: I resolved on seeking for some
remedy for evils which so many brave men were enduring. The attempt
was dangerous; but they well deserved that I should expose myself to
some dangers in order to relieve them.
For a long time I had purposed sending an expedition against
Quadendorf, where it was supposed there were abundant resources. I
had hitherto deferred it because the troops which were at my disposal
appeared to me insufficient; but necessity spoke more forcibly than
all these considerations: I hesitated no longer. General Devilliers
crowned the heights of Wonneberg and of Pitzendorf; his right
supported on Zigangenberg, and the left by the brigade of General
Husson. He commenced without delay an alternate fire of artillery and
musquetry. While the enemy returned this harmless fire as well as
they could, General Heudelet debouched by the valley of Matzlaw, and
got possession of the post charged with its defence. General Bachelu
marched in front. Twelve hundred men, and six pieces of cannon, under
the command of General Gault, were advancing in the second line,
and formed the reserve. Five hundred Russians wished to prevent our
entrance into Borgfeld. They were trampled under foot: all who escaped
the bayonet perished by the edge of the sabre: all were put to death.
The enemy came up with their masses, and were not more successful.
Overpowered, broken before they were in a state of defence, they
found safety only in flight. They were not allowed time to place
their artillery in battery; pursued without intermission, they were
obliged to leave the field without firing a single round: the Poles
were irresistible; chiefs and soldiers, all rushed on the Russians
with a determination and boldness of which there is no example. A
drummer, the brave Mattuzalik, knocked down one of the enemy with his
drumsticks, and compelled him to surrender.
While we drove them before us, General Heudelet threatened their
rear. As soon as the enemy perceived this movement, it was no longer
a flight, it was disorder, confusion, of which it is difficult to
form an idea. They deserted their wounded and their hospitals; they
evacuated, with all speed, Schweiskopff, Saint-Albrecht, and did not
halt till they reached the other side of Praust, which our voltigeurs
entered pell-mell with them.
On arriving at Saint-Albrecht, I learned that the Russians were
still maintaining their ground on the banks of the Mottlaw. I made
arrangements to prevent their receiving any relief while we attacked
them. Major Scifferlitz, with a battalion of the 13th Bavarian,
assisted by a company of Westphalians and the flotilla, was charged
with this attack. It took place with perfect concert and great
impetuosity: 300 Russians were laid in the dust with their chief, who
had fallen under the blows of the brave Zarlinwski; the remainder
were drowned or taken. A hundred of them were escaping through the
inundation, when they were overtaken by Lieutenant Faber, who charged
them at the head of some brave troops, up to the neck in water, and
brought them back. A mere boy, young Kern, animated our soldiers; he
went before them; excited them; he threw himself into the thickest
of the fight. His comrades paused, and hesitated to follow him. He
turned to them with the boldness which courage inspires; “Forward!
Bavarians!” he exclaimed, and they were carried away by his impulse.
The day was drawing to a close: the Russians displayed such large
numbers of troops in front of Quadendorf, that I did not judge it
right to continue the attack. We returned to Dantzic, after having
caused the enemy an immense loss, and having taken from them 350 men.
This was almost the only result of so brilliant a sally. Scarcely did
it procure us a hundred head of cattle. We had been anticipated: all
that the villages had contained had been removed to the rear.
Independently of the attempt to procure provisions, I had another
object in view, which did not succeed better. Since the commencement
of the blockade I had no channel of communication with the French
army: I was not aware of its force, or of its fortune. I had put
every means in operation in order to get some information on these
points; but the hatred was so general and so rooted, no bribery had
been able to overcome it. I hoped that the burgomasters would be more
tractable, but they knew nothing but the reports that were circulated
by the Russians. I remained in a state of the most complete ignorance
of every thing that was going on around me.
After all, whatever might be the course of events, the place was to
be defended, and defended to the very last moment; that is to say,
we had to live as long as possible with the resources that we still
possessed. I redoubled my economy; and, as something is generally
gained by an interchange of ideas, I formed a commission which was
exclusively charged with the care of the provisions. Count Heudelet
was the president; it was of very great service. It applied itself in
a particular manner to ameliorate the condition of the hospitals. It
made purchases of linen, of medicines, and substituted for butter,
which was no longer to be procured, gelatine. All the wine and fresh
meat we had was reserved for the sick; and in order that they might
not fail us, the commission seized, after a valuation on both sides,
the cellars and the cattle which were found in the place. The troops
no longer received any animal food but the flesh of horses, which had
been obtained in the same way. But all the cares of the commission
could not subdue the epidemic: it might be said that this cruel pest
was inflamed in proportion to the opposition it met. Continually more
violent, more irremediable, it burst forth with fresh strength in
those places that it had already attacked, and assailed those that had
before escaped. Weichselmunde, Neufahrwasser, previously free from its
attacks, now became a prey to its ravages. The troops, the population,
from one extremity of our lines to the other, struggled in the agonies
of a cruel disease. Those who escaped, and those who fell, equally
deserved pity. Given up to all the convulsions of delirium, they wept,
they groaned, they dwelt on the remembrance of their battles and their
pleasures, which no longer existed but in their dreams.—Now calm, now
furious, they called on their country, their parents, the friends of
their childhood; they prayed for, they shuddered at, the destiny of
the brave men who had perished;—torn alternately by contrary passions,
they breathed out the remnant of life in the horrors of despair.
The more remedies were lavished, the more the sufferings increased.
The evil spread by means of those very efforts which were used to
destroy it. Every day of the last fortnight of March carried off more
than 200 men. The epidemic gradually ceased to be so destructive; but
it was not till the end of May that it was subdued altogether. It had
by that time swept away 5500 inhabitants, and 12,000 brave soldiers.
Among this number was General Gault: an excellent officer, a soldier
full of courage—he deserved a better lot.
Disease was making war on us for the benefit of the Russians, while
they themselves disturbed us but very little. The expedition of
Borgfeld had cooled their courage; they made intrenchments, they
fortified themselves, they were only engaged in defensive measures.
Nevertheless, as it was absolutely necessary to give some signs of
life, they every now and then endeavoured to surprise my advanced
posts. Annoyed by these insignificant attacks, I wished in return
to break their slumbers as they were breaking ours. They had above
Brentau a signal which furnished me with the means. Our business was
to burn it: I intrusted the management of it to two officers, whose
intelligence and courage I had experienced. They were the chiefs
of battalion Zsembeck and Potocki. On a dark night they went forth
from Langfuhr, and marched for a long time without being perceived:
discharges of musquetry at length apprised them that they were
discovered; they immediately rushed on and overthrew the enemy.
Potocki advanced towards Brentau, and dispersed a numerous body of
infantry which opposed his passage. Forty men threw themselves into
a kind of block-house: a voltigeur followed them, and summoned them
to surrender; he was killed. The Poles, quite furious, immediately
inundated the redoubt, and exterminated all the Russians that it
contained.
Whilst these things were going on in the village, Zsembeck made
himself master of the signal. He set fire to it, and immediately
descended into the plain, overthrew and cut to pieces the detachments
which he found in his way, and pushed on as far as the walls of Oliwa,
where he threw some shells. At the same time the brave Devillain,
quarter-master to the eighth, swept, with a dozen hussars, all that
part of our advanced posts. He charged with so much boldness that
the Cossacks were terrified and broken. Success encouraged him; he
extended himself to the right, reconnoitred, searched the wood, and
did not join our troops till the moment they were retiring.
Meanwhile all the signals were on fire. The Russian army ran to arms,
and expected every moment to see itself attacked; it passed in this
state the rest of the night and the whole of the next day. We repaid
them in a mass the alarms which they had given us in detail.
The political horizon became every day more cloudy. Prussia had thrown
aside the mask; she made war against us by insurrection. This event
could not be hidden from the soldiers, the Russians had too great an
interest in informing them of it. I consequently threw no obstacle in
the way of its being made known. Immediately attempts to seduce the
soldiers again began to be resorted to. The enemy thought that the
confidence and attachment of our troops were shaken. The disproportion
between the means of attack and defence, money, promises, every thing
was brought into play to engage them to desert. A bounty was offered
as a recompense for shame: I was justified in offering one as a reward
for fidelity. I promised a reward of 200 francs to any one who should
deliver up a man convicted of seducing our soldiers. This measure had
its effect. Most of the emissaries that the besiegers had in the place
were pointed out to me. According to our laws they had incurred the
pain of death; but men in general are less wicked than unfortunate.
Nearly all of them were fathers of families who had yielded to
necessity. I delivered them up to the derision of the soldiers; I
ordered their heads to be shaved, and dismissed them. This device
kept them at home; I was freed from them without having recourse to
executions.
The garrison appeared very little disturbed by the increase which
it had learned the enemy had received. Nevertheless I wished it to
judge of itself what it was still capable of. It was near Easter.
The weather was mild, the sky clear. I appointed a review; it took
place in the face of the army which was besieging us. At daybreak
the inhabitants, the sick even, occupied the heights of Langfuhr;
they spread themselves on the glacis and avenues, and crowned all the
ascents from the plain which separates Stries from Oliwa. The troops
were not long before they appeared. Seven thousand men, followed by a
numerous artillery, all in magnificent condition, successively ranged
themselves in order of battle. They manœuvred, they defiled, with
unparalleled precision. The Russians, astonished at so much boldness,
did not venture to trouble us: they, also ranged in order of battle,
were spectators of our movements, without throwing any obstacle in the
way. It would have been, however, a fine opportunity for them; not a
piece was loaded; I had particularly prohibited the use of cartridge.
The bayonet alone was to punish them, if they were rash enough to
give the slightest insult. This measure was, perhaps, rather a bold
one, but it was necessary to exalt the courage of the soldier, and to
convince him of the contempt that the boasting of foreigners deserved.