BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF 1891 hlUSH-t Hi iSL DC 235.V49*" ""'"^'^*^ "■'""'y The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924024322418 "l8l2" NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA /;'' //C /^^^yt^c^^^^ ii I8I2" NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA '''I/. l-y VASSILI VERESTCHAGIN WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY R. WHITEING Illustrated from Sketches and Paintings by the Author NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1899 i\\\'2.(o '5' if 2^ tUi Editim i, for sal, in the Uniud Stat,! of America only, and is not to be imparted into countries signatory to the Berne Treaty. M CONTENTS Page Introduction I Oti Progress in Art . i6 Realism . . . .24 / Napoleon . . c^ II The Burning of Moscow . i?o /// The Cossacks . . 220 IV The Grande Armie . 227 V The Marshals . . . 256 FULL-PA GE ILL US TRA TIONS Page Vassili Verestchagin Frontispiece A Dispatch 72 Russian Grenadiers 78 At Borodino 92 Looking towards Moscow 108 Disillusion 128 On the Way Home 144 Bivouac 154 Despair 162 At a Council of War . 176 Armed Peasant . 186 In a Russian Church . 196 Ney and the Staff 252 "l8l2" NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA INTRODUCTION The following pages are not offered to the reader as a history of the invasion of Russia by Napoleon. They are but the statement of the basis of observation on which M. Verestchagin has founded his great series of pictures illustrative of the campaign. These pictures are now to be exhibited in this country, and the painter has naturally desired to show us from what point of view he has ap- proached the study of his subject — one of the greatest subjects in the whole range of history — especially for a Russian artist. The point of view is — inevitably in his case — that of the Realist ; and this consideration gives unity to the conception of his whole career and en- deavour. He has ever painted war as it is, and therefore in its horrors, as one of its effects, though not necessarily as an effect sought in and for itself He has tried to be " true " in all his representations of the battle-field. His work may thus be said to constitute a powerful plea in support of the Tsar's Rescript to the Nations in favour of peace. My meaning will be best illustrated by a short sketch of M. Verestchagin and his work, as painter, as soldier, and as traveller. 2 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA He was born in the province of Novgorod, in 1 842, of a well-to-do family of landowners. The son wished to be an artist ; the father wished to make him an officer of marines. As the shortest way out of the difficulty, he became both. He passed his work-hours at the naval school, and his play-hours at a school of design, working at each so well that he left the naval school as first scholar, and eventually won a silver medal at the Academy of Fine Arts. He entered the service, but only for a short time, and he was still three years under twenty when he quitted it to devote himself wholly to art. He was a hard-working student, though he always showed a strong disposition to insist on working in his own way. When G6r6me sent him to the antique, he was half the time slipping away to nature. He played truant from the Athenian marbles to flesh and blood. In the mean- time he was true to the instinct — as yet you could hardly call it a principle — of wandering from the beaten track in search of subjects. Every vacation was passed, not at Asnieres or Barbizon, but in the far east of Europe, or even in Persia, among those ragged races not yet set down in artistic black and white. He had been on the borders of a quite fresh field of observation in these journeys ; and he was soon to enter it for a full harvest of new impressions. It was in 1867 ; Russia was sending an army into Central Asia, to punish the marauding Turkomans for the fiftieth time, and General Kauffinan, who commanded it, invited the painter to accompany him as an art volunteer. He was not to fight, but simply to look on. It was the very thing ; Verest- chagin at once took service on these terms with the expedition, and in faithfully following its fortunes, with many an artistic reconnaissance on his own account, he saw Asia to its core. INTRODUCTION 3 He returned from a second Asiatic journey to settle at Munich for three years ; and here he built his first " open- air studio." '' If you are to paint out-door scenes," he says, " your models must sit in the open ; " and so he fashioned a movable room on wheels, running on a circular tramway, and open to sun and air on the side nearest the centre of the circle, where the model stood. The artist, in fact, worked in a huge box with one side out, while the thing he saw was in the full glare of day ; and by means of a simple mechanical contrivance he made his room follow the shifting light. After a long rest at Munich, he was impatient for action once more, and in 1873 he set off for British India. Verestchagin filled one entire exhibition with his Indian studies. They form a definite part of his collection, a section of his life-work. Amazing studies they are. The end of his sojourn coincided with the visit of the Prince of Wales, and he saw India both at its best and at its worst. In one immense canvas he has represented the royal entry into Jeypore, the Prince and his native entertainer on a richly-caparisoned elephant, and a long line of lesser mag- nates similarly mounted in the rear. A .scene of prayer in a mosque is noble in feeling, and it exhibits an amazing mastery of technique. The Temple of Indra, the Caves of Ellora — all the great show-places — are there, with their furniture of priests, deities, monsters, and men-at-arms. He made a prodigious journey, from St. Petersburg by Constantinople to Egypt, Hindostan, the Himalayas, and Thibet. On his return he saw a great national subject at last — the Russo-Turkish War. He followed the armies and saw it all, still as a civilian in name, but as a soldier in fact. He could not keep out of it, both from patriotism and 4 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA from artistic conscientiousness. On one occasion his desire to study the effect of a gun-boat in the air nearly cost him his life. When the Russians were preparing to cross the Danube opposite Rustchuk, their engineers found it almost impossible to carry on their surveys for a bridge, owing to the proximity of the Turkish gun-boats. Some men were accordingly sent out to lay fixed torpedoes across the river to prevent the approach of the gun-boats. But they themselves required protection while engaged in the service, and a few torpedo-launches were accordingly ordered to patrol the river for that purpose. They were not to wait to be attacked, but to boldly assume the offen- sive, and sink or drive off the big gun-boats. It was a most dangerous duty, and when Verestchagin asked per- mission to serve in one of the launches the officer in com- mand tried to deter him. " Russia has many hundreds of officers like me," he said, " but not two painters like you." Verestchagin, however, was allowed to have his way. The launch he chose was very swift ; it went almost at the speed of a train. It soon came in sight of one of the gun- boats, to the great terror of the Turkish crew. They could be seen running about the deck shouting and shaking their fists at one another. The gun-boat turned tail at once, but the little torpedo-launch gained on it every moment. By this time the whole Turkish force had taken the alarm, and a fire was concentrated on the little launch both from the gun-boat and the banks of the river, under which it was evident she could not live. She pushed on, however, shoved the torpedo under the bows of the Turk, and — it hung fire. It touched her fairly, but the wire connecting with the fuse had been cut in half by shot. Having done this, or rather having failed to do it, the launch was carried away by the tide, and just as she got clear of the vessel INTRODUCTION 5 the Turks renewed their awful fire from ship and shore. Verestchagln suddenly felt a sickening sensation, as if he had been roughly pushed, and putting his hand to the place found a wound that would admit his three fingers. At this moment the crew of the Russian launch saw another Turk- ish monitor coming towards them, and firing as she came, so that they stood a good chance of being caught between these two monsters — as they might fairly be called in rela- tion to the size of the launch. However, the launch turned and ran, closely pursued by the nearest gun-boat, which she had amiably tried to destroy. The pursuer was fast gain- ing on them in their crippled condition, when, at a turn in the river, they saw a little creek. They made for it and were saved. The gun-boat could not follow for fear of going aground. This incident nearly finished Verestchagin's artistic career. He lay between life and death for weeks, but a devoted Russian nurse brought him round. Of course he went back to work again as soon as he could move; and in one way or other saw and painted nearly all of the cam- paign, especially Shipka, and the final rush on Constan- tinople. De Lonlay gives us a characteristic picture of Verest- chagln at this time. " On November 24, 1877," he says, " we were in Bulgaria, at the foot of the great Balkans. Our little expeditionary corps, commanded by the brave General Daudeville, had just taken possession of a city after an obstinate fight, and was still trembling with the excitement of the struggle. We ran through the deserted streets of the Turkish quarter, which had been abandoned by its inhabitants. Every- where we saw the same lamentable signs of devastation — doors broken open, windows smashed ; and within the 6 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA houses, furniture in fragments, heaps of wearing apparel in rags, and a quantity of the stuffing of the ottomans strewed all about, the Bulgarian pillagers having cared only for the ornamental coverings. Amid all this confusion lay the bodies of three Redifs and an Arnaut. The marauders had already stripped them of their uniforms, leaving thenl nothing but a little underclothing. A little further on, a Redif, still dressed in his blue tunic, lay on the ground. Suddenly, there came clattering by a troop of Cossacks who had just been hunting the Turkish runaways. They were rough-looking fellows, these soldiers in their white linen, all in rags, and with their fur caps browned by the bivouac fires and half bare with the wear and tear of the campaign; but among them I remarked an elegant horseman who contrasted strongly with the rest of the troop. He was dressed half like a soldier and half like a tourist. He wore a high Circassian cap in Astrakan fur trimmed with silver. From his breast hung the officer's cross of the military order of St. George,^ a high distinction justly envied in Russia. The handle and the scabbard of his poignard and sabre were in chiselled silver. I followed him a long time with my eyes, admiring his bearing. A little later on in the same day I found my unknown once more. He was sitting on a low camp-stool in a corner of the grand mosque, and making a study of the minaret. His aristocratic face, of a long oval, was ornamented with a beard of a chestnut colour, and it contrasted strangely with the olive complexion and high cheek-bones of the Mussulman-Cossacks who sur- rounded him and peeped curiously at the work he was ' The cross of St. George, the highest military distinction in Russia, is not given in the usual way on a mere order of the sovereign, but only after a special inquiry into the circumstances of each case by the Council of the Order. INTRODUCTION 7 doing. It reminded me of Salvator Rosa working in the midst of the bandits of the Abruzzi. At this point a common friend of both of us came on the scene and presented us to one another. I had before me the great Russian painter Basil Verestchagin, who had but just recovered from the serious wound received in the previous June. We talked for a long time of Paris and of the war. Verestchagin complained bitterly of not having been able to take part in the passage of the Danube, and see the winter campaign as he had seen the summer one. ' What good luck you had,' he said, ' to follow Gourko in his expedition beyond the great Balkans ! What things you must have seen, the massacre at Shipka, and the burning of Eski Zara. If you only knew how it enraged me to be tied down to my bed in the ambulance while the arrny was going on ! ' Then he paid me a few compliments on the modest drawings which I was sending to the Monde Illustre, compliments which touched me very much as they were offered by such an eminent artist. " A few days after, the branch of the Cossacks of the Don to which I was attached, and the regiment of the Grenadiers of the Guard, entered the pass of the Balkans by the route which leads to Statitza. At nightfall we halted on a plateau covered with snow, and where the temperature was below zero. We were therefore not at all disinclined to take refuge in an old Turkish block- house and to light up a good fire. There I found Verest- chagin again, with Prince Tzerteleff, the former secre- tary of Ignatieff, and Prince Tchakowski, who were all following our columns as amateurs. Enveloped in our bourkas, we talked away for hours round this bivouac fire, Verestchagin telling us of his perilous expedition in Turkestan. I can still hear him talking in his soft and 8 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA quiet voice of all those scenes of massacre and carnage which he had seen with his own eyes. " A fortnight after, I was at Plevna, which had just fallen into the hands of the Russian army, and there I saw Verestchagin again. He was staying with General Skobeleff, governor of the city. The great artist was fresh from the terrible battles, and from the scenes of misery which he had seen in the camps of the Turkish prisoners, and he was projecting another series of pictures. He was therefore, with his usual passion for accuracy, taking pains to collect arms and uniforms of the enemy as models. He showed great joy when one of the officers present offered to conduct him to the place in which the spoils of the garrison of Osman Pacha were stored. By the light of a torch carried by a grenadier he rummaged a long time in this heap of Peabody-Martini rifles, covered with mud and dust, torn uniforms stained with blood, blue vests with red lacings of the Nizams, brass- buttoned tunics and red waistbands of the Redifs, etc. Next morning we separated. Verestchagin followed the colunm of Skobeleff in its march to Shipka; and I went to Orkanie to rejoin the corps of General Gourko." As a war-painter Verestchagin is a great moralist, and he is a great moralist because he is quite sincere. He paints exactly what he sees on the battle-field, and he is far in ad- vance of the French, who are the fathers of this species of composition, in his rendering of the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, about this bloody sport of kings. There was a whole wide world of difference in spirit be- tween his little military gallery and the big one at Versailles. The earlier Frenchmen give us pretty uniforms, a monarch prancing on his steed in the moment of victory, an elegantly wounded warrior or two in the foreground, obviously in the INTRODUCTION 9 act of crying, " Vive la France ! " a host in picturesque flight, a host in picturesque pursuit, waving banners, and a great curtain of smoke to hide the general scene of butchery, with supplementary puffs for every disgusting detail. Verestchagin's manner, on the contrary, passing like a breeze of wholesome truthfulness, lifts this theatrical vapour, and shows us what is below — men writhing out their lives ' in every species of agony by shot and bayonet wounds, by the dry rot of fever, by the wet rot of cold and damp ; and finding their last glance to heaven intercepted by the crows or the vultures, waiting for a meal. All this is very shock- ing, but looked at in the right way it is supremely moral. His work is his biography. He has lived every one of his pictures, and he has often had to study at almost the cost of his life. All that he represents he has seen ; all that he relates with his pencil he has lived. These pictures are just so many chapters detached from his history. They are the work of an artist of an exceptional nature ; and are worthy of a book written on the critical method of Sainte-Beuve, a book wherein the man would occupy a place at least as considerable as the work itself; for the one and the other are inseparable. He is the first Russian painter who has given his countrymen a true impression of war — something besides those official pictures where victory is displayed and never defeat. Even when he paints victory he never separates it from its sadness, its ruin, its misery, its mourning beyond relief. I seem to have always before my eyes, as in a dream, that pyramid of piled-up skulls which he met with somewhere in his wander- ings, and of which he has made one of his most striking pictures. He wrote underneath it, " Dedicated to the conquerors." Verestchagin had done nothing but draw ; painting lo NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA had frightened him. G6r6me and Bida in vain tried to persuade him to begin. When he returned from his second journey to the frontiers of Persia, among those nomadic tribes with changeless manners, who must have descended from Abraham, he showed his album and note- books to the two painters, and they pressed him all the more. Bida said, " No one draws like you," and he accepted a few sketches, one of which is to be found in his famous Bible. After his Asiatic campaign he had three years' work at Munich, an enormous and improbable labour, so much so that his enemies insinuated that such a number and variety of pictures could not be the work of a single man, and that Verestchagin had been helped by German painters. The calumny reached St. Petersburg, where he was exhibiting at the time. At his request the Art Society of Munich opened a thorough inquiry into the matter. Models, porters, everybody that knew anything about it, testified on oath that no painter but Verestchagin had so much as entered the atelier. The report, covered all over with the best signatures of Munich, and with a postscript of the most flattering kind, was sent on to the Russian capital. When they gave Verestchagin the surname of the Horace Vernet of Russia, no doubt they thought they were saying some- thing in his praise ; but he certainly had a right to feel calumniated, for the general impression left by his work is not admiration for princes nor glorification of war. In telling the truth feelingly about the sufferings of the soldier, without distinction of nationality, with as much pity for the vanquished as for the victors, Verestchagin has shown him- self essentially human. His pictures, with their poignant reality and elevated philosophy, are at the same time a terrible satire on ambitious despots. Verestchagin is a INTRODUCTION ii courtier of nothing but misfortune. A pupil of Ger6me, he seems to have travelled very much in search of himself. Sometimes he has drawn near to Meissonier, then there is something in him of Gdricault and of Courbet, and again he is a true Impressionist in the best acceptation of the term. As a traveller he saw Samarcand when the sight was almost as rare and strange as that from the famous " peak in Darien." " Samarcand," he says, " was occupied by the Russians. Our armies had taken it without assault, after having routed the troops of the Emir. On reaching the summit of the hill I stopped there, dazzled, and, so to speak, awed by astonishment and admiration. Samarcand was there under my eyes, bathed in verdure. Above its gardens and its houses were reared ancient and gigantic mosques, and I who had come from so far was going to enter the city, once so splendid, which was the capital of Tamerlane." On that day, as Vambery has told us, a new era opened for Central Asia. "The countries and cities once absolutely closed to the Western man are now opened before him. There where a European could not make a single step with- out danger of death, he now comes and goes as freely as he pleases, for a Christian army holds the land. At Tashkend, Khojend, and at Samarcand there are clubs, cafes, and churches. Tashkend has its Russian newspaper, and with the plaintive chant of the Muezzin is mingled the tinkling bell of the Greek Church, more terrible to the ear of the true be- liever than the thunder of cannonades. In the streets of Bokhara, where, but a few years ago, the author of these lines heard only Mussulman hymns, the Russian priest, the Russian soldier, and the Russian merchant are now walk- ing together with the pride of the conqueror. A hospital and a storehouse occupy the once splendid palace where 12 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA Tamerlane used to command ; the palace to which all the princes of the East came to do homage, to which the monarchs of Spain and the Indies sent an embassy to beg for the friendship of the great conqueror, and where the Turanians, humble and devout, knelt, to strike with their foreheads the green stone which forms the sacred pedestal of the throne of Timour. By the victory of the Russian eagles in Central Asia, Islam has received a most terrible wound. For the whole thousand years and more during which it has struggled with Christianity it has never been hit so full in the breast. In our time Western civilization acts vigorously on Mussulman Asia from Byzantium to India, and even Mecca and Medina have not escaped its influence. Central Asia alone had remained the sanctuary of Mahomedanism. The evil there had not been changed, and it was not Mecca but Bokhara which passed for the intellectual centre of Islam. The ascetic, the member of a religious order, the theologian, sighed for this sacred city, and the most zealous Mussulmans of the Ottoman Empire, of Egypt, of Fez, and of Morocco, came to cherish their fanaticism in its schools and in its mosques. Samarcand is incontestably the Maracanda of the Greeks, the capital of the ancient Sogdiana. It was the queen city of the basin of the Oxus. It lost its preponderance for a time, but recovered it, and under Tamerlane reached the height of its splendour. The Mahomedans had a thousand poetic expressions in praise of its wealth, its abundance of water, its innumerable canals fed from mountain torrents, and running in all directions through the plain." When on the Himalayas Verestchagin ascended the highest mountain but one on the face of the globe — Kan- chinga. Kanchinga is twenty-eight thousand odd feet above the level of the sea, and only Mount Everest in INTRODUCTION 13 Nepaul takes the palm of it with 29,000 feet. But Mount Everest is a peak, and no one can get up there; while Kanchinga is a huge mass of mountain that in- vites the climber. But Verestchagin was at Kanchinga in January, when the mountain was covered with ice and snow, so he could not get higher than 1 5,000 feet, and he was considered a madman for trying to do that. Some English officers in the neighbourhood, when first they heard of his project, did all they could to dissuade him from it. With his characteristic obstinacy he simply thanked them for their advice and went on with his prepar- ations for the ascent. " At least," they said, " you will never take the lady ? " Madame Verestchagin was with him, and had insisted on accompanying him. " That will depend upon her," said Verestchagin, and his wife went with him all the same. It was a frightful ascent. The coolies abandoned them when they had gone a very little way — these dark-skinned races cannot stand the cold — and at last they had only one man, who carried the colour-box and drawing-tools, the use of which was Verestchagin's main object in the journey. The painter wanted to go up there to study effects of snow and cloud. By and by even this man's courage failed him, it became so intensely cold. They were wading in snow up to the knees in some places and in others up to the waist. The ponies had been left below. There was no house or shelter of any kind. They called a halt, and the courier went back to get help, leaving Verestchagin and his wife on the moun- tain in the midst of the snow, with only a small wood fire between them and all but certain death, and with nothing but snow for meat and drink. They cowered over the fire till the falling snow put it out, and then for all that day and night till far into the next day they struggled as best 14 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA they could for life. As a final and desperate effort, Verest- chagin, taking leave of his wife, whom he never expected to see again, roused himself and dragged his almost frozen limbs down the mountain to look for help. When he had gone a long way he met the coolie who had last left them, coming back with food and aid, only just in time to save both the travellers' lives. Verestchagin was so exhausted that he had to be carried back to where his wife lay. As soon as he had recovered, he took out his colour-box and made some capital sketches of Himalayan effects. In 1 88 1, a memorable exhibition of Verestchagin's pictures was held in Vienna. Its success was probably without a parallel in the history of art exhibitions by a single painter. For a whole month the public poured into the rooms at an average rate of certainly not less than eight thousand a day (on the last day twenty thousand passed or tried to pass through the rooms), until, from the Emperor to his humblest subjects, the peasantry included, there was no class, and it may be added no nationality, within the Empire, which had not sent its representatives to the Kiinstlerhaus. An attempt, by some political papers, to make the enthusiasm of the Slavs for Verest- chagin a means of exciting the hereditary jealousy between them and other races of the Empire was happily frus- trated. It is literally true that the broad thoroughfare leading to the exhibition was often blocked by the immense crowd, and that the announcement, " The gallery is full to overflowing," had to be hung out to excuse the temporary closing of the building two or three times a day. The artist did not conceal from his friends that he was proud of the popular and even of the numerical element in his success, because it showed that his work had touched those it was above all meant to reach. He had painted for INTRODUCTION 15 the people in the highest sense, and their response showed that he had not laboured in vain. Du reste, this and this only was his reward, for, beyond the payment of his bare expenses, he had no pecuniary interest in the exhibition. I may now leave the painter to speak for himself in regard to his own guiding principles in art. The theory of them will be found in what he has written on Progress in Art, and on Realism. The practice, in so far as it relates to right methods of historic study for the painter, is, in all that follows relating to the Campaign of Moscow, his latest and his greatest series of works. Richard Whiteing. ON PROGRESS IN ART We artists always learn too little, and if we have recourse to books it is only cursorily, and without a system, as though we held a solid education to be quite unnecessary for the development of our talents. It must be allowed that herein lies one of the principal, if not the chief, reasons why art in its fuller and more complete development is checked, and has not yet succeeded in throwing off its hitherto thankless part of serving only as the pliable and pleasing companion to society, and in taking the lead, not merely in the aesthetic, but essentially also in the more important psychological development of mankind. While in all other regions of intellectual life it is admitted that new ideas arise, and with these the means of realizing and perfecting them, yet, in art, especially in sculpture and painting, and to a degree also in music, the old phrase still asserts itself — "The great masters have done thus, and therefore must we also do the same." In the handling of every subject, an advance in thought may be remarked. Our view of the world is far from being what it was a few centuries ago ; our handiwork itself, in its execution, has changed and improved. Under such circumstances one would think that in the region of art — for instance in painting — either a new idea or a more truthful and natural style might be possible. But no ! One is always met by the same assertion — that, "Not only in the perfect construction i6 ON PROGRESS IN ART 17 of their pictures, but also in the sublimity of conception, the old masters stand on an unapproachable height, and we can only strive after them." The culture of the individual, as well as of society itself, has far overstepped its former level. On the one hand science and literature, on the other improved means of communication, have disclosed a new horizon, have presented new problems to artists. These ought also to have stimulated to some new efforts. But, again the same assertion blocks the way — ■" The old masters have done thus, and therefore . . . . " ,Uf jt* jl^ ^ ^ Jifr 4t In the art of painting, this excessive veneration and imitation show themselves to a certain degree in repre- sentations of the nude and in portraits, for both these branches of art reached a high stage of development among the old masters. But, even here, we are struck by the one-sidedness in the execution — the effect is always one and the same : a very bright light on a very dark and sometimes black ground — an effect often startling, but artificially produced, unnatural, and untrue. Painters' studios were formerly, it is true, small and, owing to the costliness of gas, dimly lighted. But close to these studios there were courtyards, gardens, and fields, with a beautiful background, and an abundance and variety of light, which would have been as effective, and would have made the black tones clearer and less monotonous. We know that the darkness of the ground in old portraits is only partly attributable to the influence of age, and that in most cases it is intentional. On studying a series of old portraits one can only regret that so much technical ability in representing the body, face, clothes, 18 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA lace, jewels, etc., should have been harmonized, not with the light, airy shadows of a summer's day as we all sufficiently know and see it, but with a thick artificial black. Undoubtedly the new school of painters will render a service to art by taking men out of the darkness of attics and cellars into the clear light of gardens. It is indisputable that the monotonous early style, which showed everything in the same light of the studio, spares the artist many difficulties and embarrassments ; but in art there ought to be even less hesitation than in anything else in the face of technical difficulties.. ******* Turning to historical pictures, we are struck by the more thoroughly intellectual and characteristic handling of the subject at the present time. History is certainly still illustrated more or less by amusing anecdotes, and artists content themselves by depicting that which science has established, instead of contributing the results of their own researches ; but even now there is a very marked ad- vance on the usual adulation and the uncritical traditions, legends, and assertions of the old school. If painters were to study history, not in a fragmentary way from this to that page, if they would understand that the imitation of dramatic exaggeration on canvas has become obsolete, they would begin to arouse the interest of society in the past quite in a different way from that which is possible by means of anecdote, picturesque costumes, and types that are for the most part fables of history. It is a fact, that hitherto the treatment of memor- able events by artists has been of a nature to draw a smile from the educated. But by changing the sunny holiday of the historical picture into a more acceptable workday, truth and simplicity would certainly be the gainers. ON PROGRESS IN ART 19 It seems superfluous to mention the extraordinary ad- vance made at the present day in landscape painting, an advance due to very many causes, but chiefly, of course, to the development of natural science. It is not too much to say that the landscapes of the old masters are mere childish essays, as compared with the works of the leading living artists in this field. And it is really difficult to understand how and in what direction landscape painting can be brought to greater perfection. ******* In the so-called religious painting, imitation of the old masters is nearly as great as in portraits. But this is fully explained by the gradual disappearance of religious per- ception, and the consequent preference for an old ideal, rather than the creation of a new one without the strong faith of olden times. Nevertheless, the new school finds it not only possible, but even necessary, to reject inherited ideas, though hallowed by time and custom, when they evidently con- tradict the artistic eye and feeling of our time. First : the manner of placing God and the Saints on clouds, as though these were chairs and stools, and not substances whose physical condition is well known to us. Second : the custom of representing Christ and the holy men and women as a Roman patrician surrounded by his slaves. Third : the representation of God in the style of our kings, in robes of state, seated on a throne of gold, silver, and precious stones, with a crown on his head and a sceptre in his hand, all suspended in clouds. Fourth : the representation of the Virgin Mary in the costly robe of a lady of high rank covered with jewels. Possibly religious painting will not now rise to a second renaissance, but it may nevertheless be assumed that the advance in technical 20 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA knowledge may even be useful in Church paintings, if the painter, in his representation of the Deity and the Saints in their manifestations in heaven or upon earth, would replace the dim, poor, and monotonous light of the studio by a brilliant, clear, sunny atmosphere, and delicate, trans- parent, airy shadows. ******* In order to explain our meaning, we will cite some of the famous religious works of the old masters as examples : for instance, the well-known pictures by Titian in Venice, and Rubens in Antwerp, representing the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. We are not going to speak of the great excellence of those two pictures, recognized all the world over, and by no means valued too highly. If it be also beyond doubt that these pictures have in course of time become darker, it must nevertheless be understood that they were executed within four walls, and produced by the traditional contrast of very strong light and very deep shadow. Now, we ask, whence could these black shadows have come? If the Assumption of the Virgin Mary had perchance taken place in a grotto, or in some dark, artificially-illumined space, these shadows would be in- telligible, but in such case the strong lights would be inexplicable. Now it was accomplished in free air, and we may be allowed to suppose that a beautiful sunny day was chosen by God for so sublime and solemn an event. So much the brighter should the pictures have been painted, both on account of the direct and reflected sunlight. Whence then, we may ask, came these black tones ? Well, they were simply due to the fact that the lights as well as the shadows were not derived from observation, but in- vented, as artists say, " by the head," and were therefore from beginning to end false. But, can it b2 supposed that ON PROGRESS IN ART 21 great painters like Titian and Rubens should not themselves have recognized such defects ? Of course this can be as little understood as that the great Leonardo da Vinci should not have remarked the false light in his celebrated picture of beauty, La Joconde, when he painted her in free air, with hard, metallic tones on the face, and an im- possible landscape in the background. Had he, then, no presentiment of the wonderfully tender lights and half lights, shadows and half shadows, wafted over the face of a lovely woman by the air ? — how everything out of doors has quite another appearance about it than within four walls ? We will not digress too far with our investigations, and only venture to ask whether it occurred to no one at that time to demand so much from the artist ? No ; they were not asked. But these niceties, are they not required in these days from the artist ? Yes, they are. . . . Then the advance is evident. In like manner, we cannot suppose that another short- coming in the artistic conception of such masters could have escaped their acuteness. For instance, in the representa- tions of the Apostles, whose personalities are so clear and convincing in the Gospels, we recognize in their forms, faces, and attitudes — particularly in Titian's pictures — not modest, humble fishermen, but fine Italian models of athletic appearance. This error was evidently acknow- ledged even then by the artists themselves, with their usual tact and good sense ; and Rembrandt went so far as to introduce into his religious subjects Dutch market-figures. But there is still a long stride from this to the true render- ing of the types and costumes recognized at the present day as indispensable. Is this not an advance ? Certainly 22 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA it is. We deny that study iias ever yet created talent ; but, on the other hand, we do not for a moment doubt that it stimulates it. As regards time and place, the worshippers of the earlier style of painting go to such lengths in their imitation, that they not only work with the same colours and in the same manner as their adored masters, but also aim at lending to their pictures that peculiar tint which time has produced on the canvas. They cover their pictures with some dark shiny colour, in order to give an appearance of age, as if they were painted one, two, or three centuries ago. This tendency is even taught in many modern schools, and individual artists have gained great reputation as colourists merely because they can impart to their productions a resemblance to those of Rubens, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, or Velasquez. Let us hope that the new school will go to work with greater deliberation, not only as regards the conception of their subject, but also in colouring ; for it is impossible to treat this aright by imitating, with a quantity of varnish, a canvas which has become yellowish or reddish through time. The young school will rrake it a strict rule to bring every event into harmony with the time, place, and light selected, in order to benefit by all the modern acquisitions of science, in relation to the characteristics, costumes, and every psychological and ethnographical detail. A scene which takes place in heaven or on earth should positively not be painted within four walls, but in the true hght of morning or mid-day, evening or night. The illusion and effect produced by the picture cannot but gain by this, and the language of painting will become more expressive and intelligible. ON PROGRESS IN ART 23 Perhaps the same might be said, with little variation, of sculpture, and even of music. All the arts are now, more than ever, brothers and sisters, and long ago should have been united in one temple of taste, intellect, and talent. * -;s * * * * * REALISM I " Realism — realism ! " How very often do we hear this term, and yet how seldom does it appear to be applied understandingly. " What do you take realism to be ? " I asked a well-educated lady in Berlin, who had been talking a great deal about realism and the realists in art. The lady did not seem to be ready with an answer, for she could only reply that " A realist is he who represents subjects in a realistic manner." I hold, though, that the art of representing subjects in a realistic manner does not entitle a person to the name of realist. And, in order to illustrate my meaning, I may present the following example — When the war of the British with the Zulus came to an end, there could be found no man among the prominent English artists who would take upon himself the task of committing to canvas that epopee enacted between the 24 An old Rtissian. REALISM 25 whites and blacks, and so the Enghsh had to have recourse to a very talented French artist. They gave him money, and explained to him that such and such were the uniforms and the arms of the English soldiers, and such and such vi^ere the clothes, or what represents clothes, among the Zulus. Then, eye-witnesses to the military encounters told the Frenchman of what the background consisted in each case, probably supplementing their accounts with photographic views. Armed with this information the artist set to work, without having the least personal know- ledge of the country he was going to reproduce, nor of the types, the peculiarities, nor the customs of Zululand. With much assurance the artist went on with his task, and turned out several lively pictures in which there are a great many men attacking an enemy — defending itself; a great number of dead and wounded ; much blood ; much gunpowder-smoke, and all that kind of thing; yet, with all this, there is total lack of the principal thing : there are no British nor Zulus to be found in the pictures. Instead of the former we behold Frenchmen dressed up in British uniforms, and instead of Zulus, the ordinary Parisian negro-models, reproduced in various more or less warlike attitudes. Well, is that realism ? No. Most artists, besides, do not take sufficient pains to reproduce the true light under which the events they treat have really taken place. Thus, such scenes as are taken up in the just-mentioned pictures — scenes of battles under the intolerably torrid sun of Africa, are being painted by the greyish light of European studios. Of course the sun- light, and the numerous peculiar effects dependent on it, cannot prove successful in such a case, and the effect is lost. 26 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA Is that realism, then ? Certainly not. ******* I go further, and assert that in cases where there exists but a bare representation of a fact or of an event without idea, without generalization, there can possibly be found some qualities of realistic execution, but of realism there would be none : of that intelligent realism, I mean, which is built on observation and on facts — in opposition to idealism, which is founded on impressions and affirmations, established a priori. Now, can any one bring the reproach against me that there is no idea, no generalization in my works ? Hardly. Can any one say that I am careless about the types, about the costumes, about the landscape of the scenes represented by me ? That I do not study out beforehand the personages, the surroundings figuring in my works ? Hardly so. Can any one say that, with me, any scene, taking place in reality in the broad sunlight, has been painted by studio light — that a scene, taking place under the frosty skies of the North, is reproduced in the warm enclosure of four walls ? Hardly so. Consequently, I can claim to be a representative of realism — such realism as requires the most severe manipu- lating of all the details of creation, and which not only does not exclude an idea, but implies it. That I am not alone in such an estimate of my work, is proved by the following lines, from a correspondent to an American paper,i sent from Paris at the time of the last exhibition of my paintings in that city — " The respect shown to certain pictured ideals — the ideals ' Sunday Express, Albany, July 22, 1888. REALISM 27 of a painter so foreign to Parisian conventions as Verest- chagin — is noted as a pleasing indication of departure from tlie gross realism that was beginning to obtain in French art. Mr. Dargenty, of the Courner de I'Art, does not con- sider Verestchagin as a ' seducing ' painter, but concedes to him knowledge and talent, and declares that for his part he prefers the refinement of an idea to the ' brutal expression of vulgar realism.' He hopes for a reaction and believes that the crowd that ' precipitated ' itself in the exposition of Mr. Verestchagin ' heralded ' a running victory for the idea.'' Still more notable was the judgment of the London Christian of December 2, 1887 — a view having all the more interest to me because of the special character of the paper that published it — "These paintings are the work of a Russian, Verestchagin, a painter equal to any of his contemporaries in artistic ability, and beyond any painter who ever lived in the grandeur of his moral aims and the application of his lessons to the consciences of all who take the least pains to understand him. . . . " I will only say that he who misses seeing these paintings will miss the best opportunity he may ever have of under- standing the age in which he lives ; for if ever the nineteenth century has had a prophet, it is the Russian painter, Verestchagin." I repeat it : I cite this last passage expressed in consideration of its character, as an opinion emitted by a specially religious organ, an opinion made all the more significant in view of the attacks to which I had been submitted by people striving to prove themselves greater papists than the Pope. 28 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA Realism is not antagonistic to anything that is held dear by the contemporary man — it does not clash with common sense, with science, nor with religion. Can any one have anything but the deepest reverence for the teachings of Christ concerning the Father and Creator of all that exists — for the golden rule of Christian charity ? It is true that we are enemies of bigotry, of all ostenta- tious, assumed piety ; but who is it that can blame us for this since Christ Himself has said — " But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do ; for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking." 1 As can be easily conceived, we have a different estimation of many things that were explained in another way some hundreds of years ago. The infancy of science and, con- sequently, of the entire conception of the universe can interest us now, but it can no more direct us. At the threshold of the twentieth century, we can no longer admit that the skies above are peopled by saints and by angels ; that the interior of the earth is occupied by devils engaged in their task of roasting the sinners of the world. We refuse even to accept, in its literal sense, the ancient idea of rewards for good deeds, and that of torments in slow fires as punishment for evil deeds. In our capacity of artists we do not deny the ideals of the past ages and of the ancient masters. On the contrary, we give them an honourable place in the history of art ; but we refuse to imitate them, for the very simple reason that everything is good in its own time, and that the realism of one century already bears in itself the germs of the idealism of the next. The very masters who are held to be great idealists 1 St. Matthew vi. 7. REALISM 29 in art — have not they been great realists in their own time? Who would risk the assertion that Raphael was not a realist in the age in which he lived : that his works did not scandalize many of his contemporaries, whose tastes were formed on the work of primitive masters ? And Rubens, who transgressed all limits of contemporary decency, and that, not only in his capacity of painter, but even as a thinker ? I hope no one would be ready to question the fact that his powerful but one-sided genius has intermingled the types of the personalities of the Christian religion with those of the heathenish mythology ; that his God the Father is the same as his Jupiter of Olympus ; that they are portraits of the very same red-cheeked studio model ; that his Virgin and his Hebe — one may even say his Venus — are all personalities of the same type, all alike red-cheeked, handsome, and self-satisfied ! Who would deny that Rubens, having peopled the Christian heavens with heavy, buxom, healthy, and very immodest ladies and gentlemen, had reversed all traditions and thus had shown himself to be a talented, powerful realist in his time? Doubtlessly, he bewildered and scandalized a good many of his pious contemporaries. And Rembrandt ? and the rest of them, all of whom are now held to be idealists, more or less : was not each one of them a representative of realism in his time — realism that has been considerably smoothed down in our days by the hand of time on one side and the onward march of our self-consciousness on the other? Who would think now-a-days of reproaching those painters for all that boldness, which certainly proved astounding to their contemporaries? And yet how many were the disputes concerning those painters, how many lances have 30 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA been broken in their behalf! As we look back now all that seems strange to us. But is it not a sign of what awaits the noted works of our own time ? These also were received inimically, were proclaimed to be too far-reaching, too bold, too realistic, yet will not they also in their turn acquire lasting strength under the influence of onward marching thought and technique ? Will not the day come when they will also find themselves, unawares, in the archives of old ideals ? ******* But we have to count with our irascible and exacting contemporaries. It is generally held to be unpardonable boldness — quite a scandalous proceeding in fact — to recede from formulas, recognized by successive generations, through centuries. Novelists, painters, sculptors, musicians, are all alike invited to make compromises with triviality and absurdity which invariably retard the development of the idea and of the technique. Even such persons as grudgingly admit that we also are " men of thoughts," that we also are " men of well-developed technique," even they express their regrets that we should prove false to the traditions of the old masters ; that we should not follow the tenets consecrated by great names. Yes, it is true: we differ in many ways. We think differently, we are bolder in our generalization of the facts of the past, the present, and the future ; we even work differently and transfer our impressions in a different manner. Can we take it now in its literal sense — the generally- accepted conception of God, who had once assumed the form of man, and is now sitting on the right hand of the Father Almighty, with all the hosts of saints and angels gathered around Him ? Can we admit as facts the idea of REALISM 31 all those thrones that surpass in richness the celebrated thrones of the Great Moguls of India? Can we admit now the idea of all those splendid vestments, adorned with embroidery, with pearls and precious stones — and all that in the clouds ? Can we sincerely and artlessly represent to ourselves the saints that are supposed to sit on those same clouds as on arm-chairs and sofas, likewise in the richest attire — saints who would thus be found amidst the luxurious surroundings that were so distasteful to them in their life on earth ? All those splendid garments, all those gilded surround- ings, held out as everlasting rewards for virtue practised on earth — do they not appear to us quite childish now, not to say wholly inconsistent with good taste ? ******* A good deal has been written about my works : many were the reproaches brought against my paintings, those treating of religious subjects as well as of military. And yet they were, all of them, painted without any preconceived idea, — were painted only because their subjects interested me. The moral in each case appeared afterwards, coming up of its own account, from the very truthfulness of impressions. Now, for instance, I have seen the Emperor Alexander II. on five consecutive days, as he sat on a little knoll — the battle-field spreading out before him — watching, with field- glass in hand, first the bombardment, and then the storming of the enemy's positions. This surely was also the way in which the old German Emperor attended battles, — as well as his son, that admirable man, the late Frederick of Germany. Of this I have even been assured by eye- witnesses. Certainly, it would be ridiculous to suppose that an Emperor assisting at battles would canter about 32 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA brandishing his sword as a young ensign, and yet the desire has been attributed to me to undermine by my picture the prestige of the sovereign in the eyes of the masses, who are prone to imagine their Emperor prancing on a fiery steed, in times of danger, in the very thick of the fight. I have represented the bandaging and the transporting of the wounded exactly as I have seen it done, and have felt it in my own person when wounded, bandaged, and transported in the most primitive manner. And yet, that again has been declared to be a gross exaggeration, a calumny. I observed during several days how prisoners were slowly freezing to death on a road extending over thirty miles. I called the attention of the American artist, Frank D. Millet, who was on the spot, to that scene ; and when he after- wards saw my painting he declared it to be strikingly correct ; yet for that painting I have been treated to such abuse as would not admit of repetition in print. I have seen a priest performing the last religious rites on a battle-field over a mass of killed, plundered, mutilated soldiers, who had just given up their life in the defence of their country; and that scene again — a picture which I had painted, literally, with tears in my eyes — has been also proclaimed in high quarters to be the product of my imagination, a downright falsehood. My lofty accusers did not deign to pay any attention to the fact that the lie was given them by that same priest who, disgusted with the accusations against me, declared — and that in the presence of the public standing before the picture— that it was he who had been performing those last rites over the massed bodies of the killed soldiers — had done it in the very surroundings reproduced in my picture. Yet, notwithstanding all this, my picture barely REALISM 33 escaped being ejected from the exhibition, and when afterwards it was intended to publish all those pictures in coloured prints, the officials put their veto on the scheme, for fear lest they should find their way among the masses. It should not be imagined, however, that that indignation prevailed exclusively in Russian high spheres. It was a very well known Prussian general who advised the Emperor Alexander II. to have all my military paintings burned as objects of a most pernicious kind. Jfc jtL ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ There were still more inimical commentaries on those of my pictures which treat of religious subjects. Yet have I attacked the Christian morals? No — I hold these very highly. Have I attacked the idea of Christianity or its founder ? No — I have the highest respect for them. Have I tried to detract from the significance of the Cross? No — this would be a sheer impossibility. I have travelled all over the Holy Land with the book of the Gospels in my hand ; I have visited all the places sanctified, centuries ago, by the presence of our Saviour in them. Consequently, I must have, and do have, my own ideas and conceptions as to the representation of many events and facts recorded in the Gospels. My ideas necessarily differ from the conceptions of artists who have never seen the scenery of the Holy Land, have not person- ally observed its population and their customs. ******* Here is my idea, for instance, of the fact of the Adoration of the Magi ; a painting contemplated, but not yet executed : — A clear, starry night ; travellers are approaching Bethle- hem — these are the Magi, men versed in science, having a 34 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA knowledge of astrology. Proceeding on their way toward the city, the wise men notice a star standing over it — a star which they had never yet observed. Since, at that time, the idea was prevalent that every man had his own star, and, vice versa, every star corresponded to some man on earth, so the Magi naturally conclude that this new star indicates the birth of a child somewhere in the neighbour- hood, and that — the star being exceptionally brilliant — the new-born child must develop into a most prominent man. Arriving at Bethlehem, the Magi put up at an inn. Soon after, the servant, who had been attending to the travellers' mules, comes in and tells the Magi that a poor woman had sought refuge in the place where their animals were kept, and there had given birth to a most beautiful child. Hearing this, the Magi exchange significant glances— the coming up of the star has been rightly interpreted by them. " Let us go and see ; it must be an extraordinary child," they say, and thereupon proceed to the grotto of the inn, where the horses, the cows, and the donkeys were kept, being followed by a few other travellers, who are likewise curious to see the new-born child. In a corner of the grotto they observe a beautiful, pale young woman, sitting on a pile of straw and nursing her baby, whilst her husband, an elderly man, is seen in the distance, outside the grotto, preparing something for his family. " What a beautiful child ! " exclaimed the Magi, and, turning to the Virgin, say : " Remember our words. He will be a great man ; we have seen His star." Then, their pity being stirred by the pov^ty of the surroundings, one of the wise men would offer a gold coin REALISM 35 as a gift to the child, while another would, perhaps, pour out a little of the precious myrrh from his travelling-flask. As the wise men get ready to leave the grotto, they turn once more to Mary and repeat their prediction concerning the great future of the child, and " Mary kept these things, and pondered them in her heart." I firmly believe that such a realistic representation of the poverty and simplicity attending the nativity of Christ is incomparably loftier than the idealization of richness and other exaggerations to which the old masters had recourse. But such a treatment of the subject is new ; therefore it appears strange, and very likely will excite comment. And only our descendants in a century or two will be able to decide which of these two opposing views was the correct one. Among the paintings on exhibition will be noticed one portraying a not infrequent event in Palestine in the olden time — an event highly dramatic, yet retaining all its sim- plicity. I mean " A Crucifixion under the Romans." The sky is overcast by heavy black clouds. Just outside the walls of Jerusalem, on a small rock, are erected three crosses, all of the same size, shape, and appearance. The figures of the crucified on the two sides are of a vulgar type and of coarse build, while the central figure is of a more refined form. His face is not seen ; it is hidden by long auburn hair that hangs over it ; long hair indicates that the crucified was a man who dedicated himself to God. The wounds on the hands and feet of the three crucified men bleed profusely (it being a well-known fact that physi- cians find it difficult to stop the flow of blood out of out- stretched palms and feet). In front of the crosses stand two priests of high rank, and they seemingly argue about 36 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA some matter, as if trying to prove something to a Roman in military attire ; possibly they refer to the guilt of the man crucified on the middle cross, a guilt about which the military man seems to retain some doubts. Around the rock soldiers are forming a chain to restrain the crowd. In the foreground of the painting are seen people of every description ; some on foot, some on horseback ; others mounted on camels or on donkeys. Those are country folks or nomads, who, returning home from market, stopped on their way for a moment in order to witness the event of the day — the execution of a man, the renown of whose deeds had reached even their huts and tents — a man whose arrest caused almost an insurrection in the city. Among others in the crowd can be noticed a few Hebrew merchants with their characteristic head-gear (which was discarded at a comparatively late date), and Pharisees with the letters of the Law written on the coverings of their heads. One of the Pharisees is discussing something with his neighbour concerning a woman who is seen weeping bitterly, in the corner of the picture, presumably the mother of one of the crucified men. Her face cannot be seen, but her sorrow must be great indeed, and none of the women surrounding her seem likely to be able to console her. Many a time, probably, had she tried to divert her son from his chosen course, but all in vain, and now his time has come. By the side of the heart-broken mother stands a hand- some young woman plunged into deep consternation at the sight of the executed man ; the tears run down her cheek, but she is not conscious of it, so thoroughly absorbed is she by her terrible, unspeakable grief. As soon as the authorities should retire and the crowd REALISM 37 thin out, there would be a chance for the mother, and those that surround her, to approach the crosses ; then they would find it possible to say their last farewell. . . . ******* Further on, we have a representation of a contemporary execution, among other people and surroundings. Here we see a cold winter day in the North. A mass of people is crowding into one of the squares of St. Petersburg, press- ing toward the gallows and being held back by mounted gendarmes. Close to the gallows only a select few are admitted, mostly the military, all representatives of the gilded youth of the city, who are in hopes of getting a piece of the cord used by the hangman : the superstition being very common that a piece of the cord on which a man is hanged is sure to bring luck at cards to its fortunate possessor. The criminal, enveloped in a white shroud, with the cap drawn over his head, has just been hanged and is still whirling round on the cord, while the people stand in mute bewilderment before the instructive sight. There is but a single hoarse voice raised from among the crowd : " There now — serves him right, too ! " But these words are immediately hushed by several women's voices crying out, "What are you saying? It is beyond us to con- demn him now. Let God Almighty pass judgment on him ! " Meantime the snow continues to fall, the smoke is rising from the factories, work is going on as usual. . . . ******* It is worthy of notice that this last painting, while it did not please the Russians, pleased the English people very much indeed ; on the other side the " Blowing from guns in India" is not at all liked by Englishmen, and yet the 38 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA Russians fancied it very much. Men who had seen much service in India assured me that I was mistaken in present- ing such an execution as a typical, characteristic way of capital punishment in that country ; they insisted that this mode of execution had been adopted but once — in the course of the last insurrection of the Sepoys — and even at that time it had been used only in a very few instances. But I maintain that this mode of execution — a comparatively humane one too — not only has been in constant use during the revolt referred to, when the Sepoys were blown from guns by the thousand, but that it was used by the British authorities in India for many years before and after the Sepoy revolt of 1858. More than that, I am quite positive that that particular mode of execution will have to be used in future times. The Hindoo does not fear any other kind of capital punishment received at the hands of the " heathen- ish, unclean Europeans." They hold that any one shot down or hanged by the European goes to swell the ranks of the martyrs who are entitled to a high reward in the future life. But an execution by means of a gun carries positive terror into the heart of a native, for such a shot tears the criminal's body in many parts, and thus prevents him from presenting himself in decent form in heaven. This bugbear was used by the British, and will be used by them as long as they fear to lose their Indian possessions. In order to hold a population of 250,000,000 in political and economical submission by means of 60,000 bayonets, it is not enough to be brave and to be possessed of political tact — ^punishment and bloody reprisals cannot be avoided. ******* All this is so self-evident, that it seems really wonderful that, while we artists are required to observe and dis- criminate, people are still inclined to be astonished and REALISM 39 indignant whenever we put those faculties of ours to use and transfer our impressions to canvas or paper. The artists are on all hands pressed to give the public something new, something original, something that is not hackneyed by fashion and triviality ; yet, when we make an effort to present something of the sort, we are accused of insolence. And what are the results of such a state of things ? People get tired of books and gorge themselves on crude facts from real life as recorded in daily newspapers ; people get tired of picture galleries and exhibitions, being certain to find in most of them the very same kind of pictures — all treating of the very same subjects, painted in an identical manner ; people find it a dull task to go to the theatres where in nine plays out of ten they will find the very same conventional plot, invariably terminating in a wedding. Well, what is now generally speaking the part of art ? Why, art is brought down to the level of a toy for such as can be and like to be amused by it ; it is expected, as it were, to stimulate the public's digestive powers. Paintings, for instance, are considered simply as furniture : if there happens to remain an empty space on the wall between the door and the corner taken up, let us say, by a what- not surmounted by a vase— why then, that empty space is forthwith covered by a picture of light contents and of pleasant execution ; such a one as would not distract too much attention from the other furniture and bric-a-brac, would not interfere with the dolce far niente of visitors. And yet the influence and the resources of art are enormous. The majority of old-time painters were handi- capped by their allegiance to power and riches ; they were men who were not weighed down by any sense of serious 40 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA civil responsibility, and yet, notwithstanding this, how powerful was the influence of art during whole centuries ! It was felt in all the corners and hidden recesses of the life of nations ! What, then, is not to be expected from art in our time, when artists are inspired with their duties as citizens of their country — when they cease to dance attendance on the rich and powerful, who love to be called patrons of art — when artists have acquired independence, and have begun to realize that the first condition of a fruitful activity is to be a gentleman, not in the narrow meaning of caste, but in the wide acceptance of the term pertaining to the time we live in ? ******* Armed with the confidence of the public, art will adhere more closely to society, will constitute itself its ally in the face of the serious danger that threatens society now-a-days — that kind of society which we all know, which we are all more or less prompted to love and to respect. There is no gainsaying the fact that all the other questions of our time are paling before the question of socialism that advances on us, threateningly, like a tremen- dous thunder-cloud. The masses that have been for centuries leading a life of expectancy while hanging on the very borders of starva- tion, are willing to wait no more. Their former hopes in the future are discarded ; their appetites are whetted, and they are clamouring for arrears, which means now the division of all the riches, and so as to make the division more lasting, they are claiming that talents and capacities should be levelled down to one standard, all workers of progress and comfort alike drawing the same pay. They ^re striving to reconstruct society on new foundations, and REALISM 41 in case of opposition to their aims, they threaten to apply the torch to all the monuments pertaining to an order that, according to them, has already outlived its usefulness ; they threaten to blow up the public buildings, the churches, the art galleries, libraries and museums — a downright religion of despair ! II My friend, the late General Skobeleff, once asked me, " How do you understand the move- ment of the Socialists and the Anarchists?" He owned that he himself did not understand at all what they aimed at. " What do they want ? What are they striv- ing to attain ? " " First of all," I answered, " those people object to wars be- tween nations ; again, their ap- preciation of art is very limited, the art of painting not excluded. Thus, if they ever come into power, you, with your strategic combinations, and I, with my pictures, will both be shelved immediately. Do 3'ou understand this?" " Yes, I understand this,'' rejoined Skobeleff, " and from this time forth I am determined to fight them." There is no mistaking the fact that, as I have said before, society is seriously threatened at the hands of a large mass of people counting hundreds of millions. Those are the people, who, for generations, during entire centuries, have been on the brink of starvation, poorly clad, living in filthy 42 A Russian tVojuan. REALISM 43 and unhealthy quarters ; paupers, and such people as have scarcely any property, or no property at all. Well, who is to blame for their poverty — are not they themselves to be blamed for it ? No, it would be unjust to lay all the blame at their door ; it is more likely that society at large is more to blame for their condition than they are themselves. Is there any way out of the situation ? Certainly there is. Christ, our Great Teacher, has long ago pointed out the way in which the rich and the powerful could remedy the situation without bringing things to a revolutionary pass, without any upheaval of the existing social order, if they would only seriously take care of the miserable ; that certainly would have ensured them the undisturbed enjoyment of the bulk of their fortune. But there is little hope of a peaceful solution of the question now ; it is certain that the well-to-do classes will still prefer to remain Christians in name only ; they will still hope that palliative measures will be sufficient to remedy the situa- tion ; or else, believing the danger to be distant, they will not be disposed to give up much ; while the paupers — though formerly they were ready for a compromise — may be soon found unwilling to take the pittance offered them. What do they want, then ? Nothing less than the equalization of riches in the society to come. They claim the material as well as moral equaliza- tion of all rights, trades, all capacities and talents ; as we have already said, they strive to undermine all the founda- tions of the existing state of society, and, in inaugurating a new order of things, they claim to be able to open a real era of liberty, equality, and fraternity, instead of the shadows of those lofty things, as existing now. « # . * * * * * 44 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA I do not mean to go into the discussion of the matter ; I would not pretend to point out how much justice or injustice, how much soundness or unsoundness, there is in these claims ; I state only the fact that there is a deep gulf between the former cries for bread and the sharply formulated claims of the present. It is evident that the appetite of the masses has grown within the past centuries, and the bill which they intend to present for payment will not be a small one. Who will be required to pay this bill ? Society, most certainly. Will it be done willingly ? Evidently not. Consequently there will be complications, quarrels, civil wars. Certainly there will be serious complications ; they are already casting their shadows before them in the shape of disturbances of a socialistic character that are originating here and there. In America, most likely, those disturb- ances are lesser and less pointed ; but in Europe, in France and Belgium, for instance, such disorders assume a very threatening aspect. Who is likely to be victorious in this struggle ? Unless Napoleon I. was wrong in his assertion that victory will always remain with the gros bataillons, the " regulators " will win. Their numbers will be very great ; whoever knows human nature will understand that all such as have not much to lose will, at the decisive moment, join the claims of those who have nothing to lose. ******* It is generally supposed that the danger is not so immi- nent yet ; but, as far as I was able to judge, the imminence of the danger varies in different countries. France, for REALISM 45 instance — that long-suffering country which is for ever experimenting on herself, whetlier it be in social or scien- tific questions, or in politics — is the nearest to a crisis ; then follow Belgium and other countries. It is very possible that even the present generation will witness a serious upheaval. As to the coming generations, there is no doubt that they will assist at a thorough reconstruction of the social structure in all countries. The claims of socialists, and, particularly, the anarchists, as well as the disorders incited by them, generally produce a great sensation in society. But no sooner are the disorders suppressed, than society relapses again into its usual unconcern, and no one gives a thought to the fact that the frequency of these painful symptoms, recurring with so much persistency, is in itself a sign of disease. Far-seeing people begin to realize that palliative mea- sures are no longer of use ; that a change of governments and of i-ulers will no longer avail; and that nothing is left but to await developments contingent on the attitude of the opposed parties — the energetic determination of the well-to-do classes, not to yield, and that of the proletariat, to keep their courage and persevere. ******* The only consolation remaining to the rich consists in the fact that the " regulators " have not had time as yet to organize their forces for a successful struggle with society. This is true to a certain extent. But, though they do it slowly, the "regulators" are steadily perfecting their organization ; on the other hand, can we say that society is well enough organized not to stand in dread of attacks ? Who are the recognized and official defenders of society ? 46 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA The Army and the Church. A soldier, there is no doubt, is a good support, he represents a soHd defence ; the only trouble about him is that the soldier himself begins to get weary of his ungrate- ful part. It is likely that for many years to come the soldier will shoot with a light heart at such as are called his " enemies " ; but the time is not far distant when he will refuse to shoot at his own people. Who is a good soldier ? Only one to whom you can point out his father, his mother, or his brother in the crowd, saying, "Those are enemies of society, kill them " — and who will obey. I may remark here, in passing, that it occurred to me to refer to this idea in a conversation I had with the well- known French writer and thinker, Alexandre Dumas, fils, and with what success ? Conceding the justice of the apprehension, he had no other comforting suggestion to offer than to say, " Oh, yes, the soldier will shoot yet ! " The other defender of society, the priest, has been less ill-used than the soldier, and consequently he is not so tired of his task ; but, on the hand, people begin to tire of him, less heed is paid to his words, and there arises a doubt as to the truth of all that he preaches. There was a time when it was possible to tell the people that there is but one sun in the heavens, as there is but one God-appointed king in the country. As stars of the first, second, third, and fourth magnitude are grouping them- selves around the sun, so the powerful, the rich, the poor, and the miserable, surround the king on earth. And, as it all appeared plausible, people used to believe that such arrangements were as they ought to be. All was accepted, all went on smoothly : none of such things can REALISM 47 be advanced now-a-days, however ; no one will be ready to believe in them. ******* Clearly, things assume a serious aspect. Suppose the day comes when the priests entirely lose their hold on the people, when the soldiers turn their guns' muzzles down — where will society look for bulwarks then ? Is it possible that it has no more reliable defence ? Certainly, it has such a defence, and it is nothing else than talent, and its representatives, in science, literature, and art in all its ramifications. Art must and will defend society. Its influence is less apparent and palpable, but it is very great ; it might even be said that its influence over the minds, the hearts, and the actions of people is enormous, unsurpassed, unrivalled. Art must and will defend society with all the more care and earnestness, because its devotees know that the " regulators " are not disposed to give them the honourable, respectable position they occupy now — for, according to them, a good pair of boots is more useful than a good picture, a novel, or a statue. Those people declare that talent is luxury, that talent is aristocratic, and that, consequently, talent has to be brought down from its pedestal to the common level— a principle to which we shall never submit. Let us not deceive ourselves ; there will arise new talents, which will gradually adapt themselves to new conditions, if such will prevail, and their works may perhaps gain from it ; but we shall not agree to the prin- ciple of general demolition and reconstruction, when this has no other foundation but the well-known thesis — " Let us destroy everything and clear the ground ; as to the reconstruction — about that we shall see later on." We 48 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA shall defend and advocate the improvement of the existing order by means of peaceful and gradual measures. ******* It goes without saying that we demand that society, on its side, should help us to fulfil our task ; that it should trust us, give us all the freedom necessary for the develop- ment and exertion of talent. There is the rub ! Well-fed, self-satisfied society quails at every change, at all blame, derision, and comment ; it distrusts the fore- most, daring representatives of science, literature, and art. Society strives jealously to retain the right not only to point out the road for talent, but even to regulate the measure, the degree of its development, and its manifest- ation. In this society of ours anything that is common and conventional is shielded by all kinds of rights and privi- leges, while anything that is new and original is bound to awaken animosity and censure, has to go through a severe struggle under the pressure of wide-spread cant and hypocrisy. Try to create anything ingenious in any of the regions of science and literature, try to present in graphic or plastic form the most original, striking conception, but only forget or refuse to surround it with the conventional layer of triviality and vulgarity so dear to the heart of society, you will be " done for," you will not even obtain a hearing, you will be called a charlatan, if nothing worse than that. Why is that so? Was it society that has shown the way to all great discoveries ? No ; it has always delayed them, has always put brakes on them. Has society, in its collective form, ever evoked any of the great manifestations of art or literature ? No ; society REALISM 49 was always eager to worry, to persecute men of talent, though it erects monuments to them after their death. How did society come to display such arrogance and presumption ? It was tempted that way only by the un- christian conviction that " the aim justifies the means." Can there be anything more exasperating than the con- versation we hear sometimes — " Have you been to the Salon ? " " No ; we did not happen to go there this year, but last year we were there more than once." There is irony here as well as truth, for in the majority of cases, you will find in the Salon the same number of pictures nearly of the same quality, treating on nearly the same subjects, and, most assuredly, painted nearly in the same style. " Have you seen the new play of Sardou .' " " Just imagine, could not possibly get to see it yet, had to go to the country ; but then to-morrow we go to the Comedie Franqaise to see that new thing of Dumas'. They say both plays are very much alike in conception, as well as in plot." And this is perfectly true ; they are doubtlessly more or less alike. Whose fault is this, then, if not the authors' ? Ask the playwrights, whether they would dare to represent the action in such a way as it has been suggested to them by real life, with its logical conclu- sion, made unavoidable by the march of events, omitting, for once, the long-established, hackneyed, conventional termination ? " No," the authors would tell you, " such a thing is not to be thought of," and they will be in the right. Society, weighed down by cant, will not go to see such a play, how- so NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA ever interesting it may be ; so the author has to humour the public if he does not want to bring ruin on his manager and on himself. The same is the case with artists, sculptors, even com- posers. How many favourites of the Muses have been driven into early graves by the animosity of the public against all new construction of poetical as well as musical ideas ? On one side we hear complaints of the dulness, the monotony, even the triviality, prevailing in art ; people clamour for something inspired, something original ; on the other hand, the same public arbitrarily chastises you for all that fails to come within the range of established, conventional ideas ! It is high time, it seems to me, to understand the neces- sity of treating art with tolerance and confidence, if we want it to fraternize with society, to become as one with it, to serve it faithfully and well in the present troubled times when the poet and the artist are soldiers at their posts. ******* "But, you representative of art," I might be asked, "what are the tidings that you are so eager to announce to us — what are your discoveries that would be so entirely new to society ? " Well, what we should say would, perhaps, not be news, yet certainly the idea of it has not yet penetrated the consciousness of the people. Armed with the rich, varied resources of art we should tell people some truths. " Give up," we shall say to them, " give up enjoying yourselves amidst the illusions of the idealism which lulls your senses, of the idealism of high-sounding words and phrases. Look around you through the eye of sensible REALISM 51 realism, and you will acquire the certitude of your mistake. You are not the Christians you assume yourselves to be. You are not representatives of Christian societies, of Christian countries." Those who kill their kind by the hundred thousand are not Christians. Those who are always moved, in private as well as in public life, by the principle of " eye for eye, and tooth for tooth," are not Christians. Those who spend many hours of their lives in churches, yet who give nothing, or next to nothing, to the poor, are not Christians. What have you done with the decree of the Saviour concerning Christian humility, and to help such as are in real need ? What is the stand taken now, let us ask, by those two great branches of the administration of Christ's Church, that call themselves the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Churches, which have separated, thanks to their inability to agree as to whether the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son or from the Father alone? Is it possible that they have not come yet to an understand- ing, and, blinded by mutual hatred, are neglecting the loftiness of their mission on earth ? What is the stand taken by those new Churches originated of late, comparatively speaking, on the plea of a more realistic understanding of the connection of life with its Originator.? Is it possible that, having concluded the fight with their great adversary, those Churches have also drifted into a sweet nap over the existing order of things, and have also renounced taking a hand in any further reforms ? Well if it be so, let men of talent shake the strong and 52 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA the powerful out of the somnolence into which they have fallen ; a difficult task it will be, but a noble one. And if we are refused a hearing, or attempts are made to muzzle us, why, it will be the worse for society. Rouse itself it must ; but it will be too late — the " Vandals will have burned Rome " once again. We may be assured that no churches, no bankers' offices will then be spared. " If any man have ears to hear, let him hear." NAPOLEON Napoleon. It is, no doubt, from the Dresden Conference that we must date Napoleon's open hostility towards Russia. After his unsuccessful endeavour to secure the hand of the Tsar's sister, it was rumoured in well-informed French Court i \ - _:J^^ I circles that Napoleon had made r Nfi H^ M up his mind once and for all to humble the pride of Russia. It was not, however, until the Dresden Conference that Napoleon threw off the mask. He then adopted a distinctly threatening attitude in the face of Alexander's refusal to reconsider his decision and humble himself in the eyes of Europe. The Russian Emperor firmly refused to submit, and his defiant attitude was the more offensive to Napoleon inasmuch as it was open and undisguised. There was no question of concealing it or of receding from the position already adopted. " The bottle is opened — the wine must be drunk," was Napoleon's own expression. It was, moreover, at the Dresden Conference that Napoleon attained the zenith of his power. At Dresden S3 54 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA he was indeed a king of kings. The Emperor of Austria respectfully and repeatedly assured his august cousin that he might " fully rely upon Austria for the triumph of the common cause ; " while the King of Prussia reassured him of his " unswerving fidelity." The splendour and magnificence of the French Court at the time of the Dresden Conference, says an eye- witness, gave Napoleon the air of some legendary Grand Mogul. As at Tilsit, he showered magnificent presents on all sides. At his levees reigning princes danced attend- ance for hours in the hope of being honoured with an audience. This new order of would-be courtiers was so numerous that the Emperor's chamberlains and officials had constantly to give one another warning lest they should jostle a Royal Highness unawares. Every country sent its contingent. There were no eyes but for Napoleon. The populace gathered in crowds out- side the palace, following his every movement, and dogging his progress through the streets, in hourly expectation of some great event. Never, probably, were such elaborate arrangements made as for this campaign. Besides the usual preparations for a war, engagements were made with tradesmen of all kinds — tin-workers, masons, watchmakers, and other skilled artisans. There was no word of explanation as to the place in which their services would be required, ,so that until the opening of the campaign the general public had no inkling of the object of all these preparations. It was even rumoured that Napoleon was about to aid Russia against the Turks. The abrupt departure of the Russian military ag;nt Tczerniche.T from Paris, and the court-martial on certain persons who had treasonably supplied him with various NAPOLEON 55 documents, at last revealed the Emperor's plans, and it was then positively stated in the salons that the pre- parations were directed against Russia. The authorities, however, refused to confirm these reports, and went so far as to issue an order to the army, forbidding the officers and men to discuss the rumoured campaign. The French army was at that moment in the most flourishing condition. It consisted of twelve infantry corps of 20,000 men each, three cavalry corps of the same strength, and with 40,000 men of the Guard, Artillery, Engineers, and Sappers, amounted to 400,000 men, including 300,000 Frenchmen. This enormous force possessed 1200 guns and more than 100,000 ammunition-wagons and cais- sons. Such a body of troops, accustomed to victory, proud of its traditions, full of confidence in its officers, and led by a commander with the prestige of twenty years' brilliant success, might well be deemed invincible. Every subaltern regarded a campaign in Russia as a pleasant six months' outing. The whole army, fully assured of speedy success, looked forward to the war as a means of rapid promotion. All were eager to start. " We are off to Moscow," they cried to their friends, "a bientot ! " It was said that Prussia would receive from the expected conquests full compensation for her former losses. Napoleon himself suggested this in his proclamation — "At the beginning of July we shall be in St. Petersburg ; I shall be avenged on the Emperor Alexander, and the King of Prussia will be Emperor of the North." There were prophets who declared that " if the Russians do not make their peace in time. Napoleon will divide their European territories into two parts — the Dukedom of Smolensk, and the Dukedom of St. Petersburg. The 56 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA Emperor Alexander, if Napoleon thinks it worth while to leave him his throne, will reign only in Asia." The Comte de , Narbonne, Napoleon's envoy to Vilna, was obliged to admit that the Emperor Alexander con- ducted himself with irreproachable dignity. He displayed neither fear nor arrogance. The answer with which Narbonne returned to his Imperial master at Dresden proved that the Russian Emperor was firmly resolved to offer no other terms than those which his Ambassador at Paris had already communicated. He had nothing to subtract from them, and nothing to add. An eye-witness describes the impression produced in Dresden, where everybody was eagerly waiting to learn the result of his mission, by the arrival of Comte Narbonne's travel-stained carriage, when he returned with the news that "the Emperor Alexander refused to alter his decision." " Although," Alexander said, " no one tells me so to my face, I am well aware, and I am not ashamed to own it, that I am not so great a soldier as Napoleon, and that I have no generals who are a match for his. This assurance on my part should, I think, serve as the clearest proof of my sincere desire for the maintenance of peace." Alexander was extremely indignant at Napoleon's sub- sequent high-handed proceeding in crossing the frontier without declaring war, for although the Russians were ex- pecting hostilities, there were some, including Rumyantsef and other notables, who regarded it to the last as unlikely, firmly believing that the matter would end in a few threats and a compromise. Nine years later, when Napoleon was at St. Helena, the Emperor Alexander caused him to be asked why he had refused the terms brought by Narbonne from Vilna. "Because by the terms of the offer," replied Napoleon, NAPOLEON S7 " a month was required before any definitive treaty could be arrived at, and such a delay might have involved the loss of the campaign, of all our stupendous preparations, and of the alliances that had been entered into, and which there was little prospect of renewing." Napoleon loudly proclaimed that " Fate was leading Russia to her doom," and took upon himself the duty of executing the decree of destiny, by which the Russians, as enemies of European civilization, were to be driven into the wilds of Asia. Napoleon's own baggage-train consisted of seventy wagons, each drawn by eight horses ; twenty carriages, open and closed ; forty pack-mules ; and two hundred riding- horses. During his drives from place to place the Emperor was never idle. When darkness fell, a lamp fixed inside the carriage enabled him to work as comfortably as if he were sitting at home in his own room. Aides-de-camp and orderlies were always within call at the door of his carriage, and a number of riding-horses followed with the body-guard. In this way Napoleon reached the Niemen on June 11/23, ^"d mounted his horse at two o'clock at night. It is said that as he approached the bank of the river, his horse stumbled and threw him, and that some one cried out, " That's a bad omen ; a Roman would have turned back ; " but no one could distinguish whether it was the Emperor or one of his suite who uttered the words. I extract from M. Bertin's book a charcicteristic account given by Count Soltyk, general of the Polish artillery. " On the arrival of the Emperor, several officers, together with myself and Suchorzewski, the major of the regiment, ran up. Napoleon quickly approached the major and asked fpr the colonel of the regiment. Suchorzewski, S8 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA in no wise disconcerted at the absence of the colonel, who was still asleep, answered that he was filling his place, and was ready to receive any orders. Napoleon then asked him which was the road to the Niemen, and made inquiries regarding the outposts and the position of the Russians. Whilst asking these questions, he ordered a change of uniform, as it had been agreed, or rather ordered, that no French soldier should be seen by the Russians. He took off his coat, and the rest of us — the Prince of Neufchatel, Suchorzewski, Colonel Pagowski, who had hurried to the spot, General Bruyeres, and myself — followed his example. There were therefore five or six of us in our shirts in the middle of the bivouac surrounding the Emperor, each with his uniform in his hand. The Poles offered theirs to the French. Altogether the scene was most amusing. Of all our uniforms. Colonel Pagowski's coat and forage cap best fitted the Emperor. He had been offered a Lancer's head-dress, but refused it as being too heavy. All this took place in a few minutes. Berthier also put on a Polish uniform. The colonel's horses were at once led up. Napoleon mounted one of them ; Berthier took the other, and Lieutenant Zrelski, whose company was on outpost duty, was ordered to accompany the Emperor as guide. " They went as far as Alexota, a village about three miles distant, opposite Kovno, and within range of its guns. The Emperor alighted in the courtyard of a house belonging to a doctor, whose windows overlooked the Niemen, and from which one might easily survey the surrounding country. I had myself three days previously made a plan of Kovno from this very spot. From there Napoleon thoroughly reconnoitred the district without himself being seen. His horses were carefully concealed in the courtyard. After NAPOLEON 59 completing his survey he returned to ths bivouac, and called for details as to the position of the enemy. The colonel having told him that I knew the neighbourhood thoroughly, he put several questions to me as to the fords that might be passable, the conformation and irregularities of the ground, and the position of the enemy. The Emperor questioned me searchingly as to where the Russians were massed, whether on the right or left bank of the Vilia. He evidently wished to ascertain whether the road along the Vilia was free, intending to march in that direction in heavy columns, so as to seize this centre of operations, and cut off the enemy's corps, which were spread along the whole length of the Niemen. "When Napoleon returned we noticed a marked change of expression. He looked happy, even merry, being evidently satisfied with the idea of the surprise which he was preparing for the Russians on the following morning, and of which he had calculated the results before- hand. Some refreshments were brought to him, which he ate in our midst on the high-road. He seemed amused at his masquerade, and asked us twice if the Polish uniform suited him. After having breakfasted, he said laughing, ' Now we must return what does not belong to us.' He then took off the garments which he had borrowed, put on his uniform of Chasseur of the Guard, entered his carriage accompanied by Berthier, and rapidly drove away. That very day he inspected several other points on the Niemen, and chose Poni^mon as the place of cross- ing. General Haxo accompanied him on this tour." " This reconnaissance being finished," adds Segur, "he issued an order that on the following evening three bridges should be thrown across the river. . , Then he returned to his quarters, where he passed the 6o NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA day partly in his tent and partly in a Polish house, vainly seeking rest in the sultry heat that prevailed." When the army began the passage next day, Napoleon took up a position near the bridge, and encouraged the soldiers by his presence, while they greeted him with the customary cries. But his impatience would not allow him to remain long on this spot. He crossed the bridge and galloped through the forest that stretches along the bank of the stream, careering along at full speed on his Arab, as though in pursuit of some invisible foe. " What is to be said of an Emperor," remarks an eye- witness, " who dresses up in an outlandish disguise, rides off to his outposts, orders some one to bring him some water from the Niemen in a helmet, and tastes it with the air of a seer waiting for inspiration ? It would have been better to keep these absurd tricks for the banks of the Nile, among the superstitious nations for whose behoof they were in- vented, rather than bring them over to Europe." " Napoleon," says Boutourline, '' was preparing to crush the First Army of the West with his Guards, Davout's, Oudinot's, and Ney's Army Corps, and Nansouty's, Mont- brun's, and Grouchy's cavalry — 250,000 men in all— by a sudden attack on the centre before the Second Army could come to its support. The King of Westphalia, with the corps of Junot, Poniatowski, and Renier, and Latour- Maubourg's cavalry, making a force of 80,000, was to execute the same manoeuvre against the Second Army. The Viceroy of Italy, with an army of about the same strength, consisting of his own corps and that of St. Cyr, was to throw himself between the two Russian armies, and cut off all communication between them. On the left. Major Macdonald's division, some 30,000 strong, was to enter Courland and threaten St. Petersburg and the NAPOLEON 6i Russian right. On the right, Schwarzenberg and the Austrians, also about 30,000 strong, were to hold Tormasof in check." It was a well-conceived plan, and the movements of the French on Vilna were so swift and decisive that General Dokhturof's corps and Dorokhofs division were almost cut off. This brilliant beginning was, however, followed by a number of mistakes. The execution of the plan was marred by the slowness of the King of Westphalia (who soon after- wards threw up his command and returned home), and by the Emperor's own irresolution. Napoleon appears to have lost sight of the fact that he should have taken the direct road from Vilna to Smolensk as his principal line of operations. If he had concentrated the whole weight of his army on this line he would have successfully outflanked Barclay on the left and Bagration on the right, and might then have fallen on either of them with the whole strength of his army, or, indeed, on both simultaneously. It was with the object of taking the Russians by surprise that Napoleon crossed the frontier without declaring war, and appeared at Vilna the day after the Emperor Alexander had left. Mme. de Choiseul-Gouffier, in her reminiscences of Napoleon's stay in Vilna, describes among other events his visit to the church. " A herald shouted, ' L'Empereur !' and I saw a short, stout little man in a green uniform with coat unbuttoned, and displaying a white waistcoat, sur- rounded by a crowd of marshals. He flew by like a bullet, and took up his place behind a prie-dieu. When mass was over he departed at the same lightning speed." She describes Napoleon's arrival at a ball—" At the first signal of his approach the dukes and marshals rushed off to meet 62 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA him as quickly as they could hurry ; and to tell the truth, their faces were a most amusing sight. We were hustled down the stairs almost on all fours. Napoleon's carriage drove up, with the Master of the Horse, M. Caulaincourt, galloping behind. They put down a footstool for' the Emperor to alight on, as if the earth were unworthy of the honour of being trodden by his Imperial foot. He went up-stairs amid shouts of ' Vive I'Empereur ! ' When he entered the m/on he cried, as if giving an order, ' Ladies, be seated !'" " Napoleon's face," says Madame de Choiseul-Gouffier later on, "appeared to me as severe as an antique bust, and of the colour of yellow marble." And further — " Napoleon's expression when lighted up by his beautiful smile was pleasant, and even when seen closer his pallor was not remarkable, What is most noteworthy is that his counte- nance expresses more good-nature than genius. . . . He knew every bit of gossip." The distance between the head-quarters of the two armies led Napoleon to express the belief that "in all probability, they are afraid of Alexander and myself meet- ing and coming to terms." However, when the opportunity of making terms did present itself. Napoleon let it pass. Balachef, the Russian general, presented himself at the French outposts demanding a parley. When they con- ducted him into Napoleon's presence at Vilna, he declared, in Alexander's name — '' If there is war between Russia and France, it will be a long and bloody war, and before enter- ing upon it the Russian Emperor solemnly proclaims that it is not he who is responsible for it. Though the Russian Ambassador has left Paris, war has not yet been declared ; there is still time to come to terms ; it is not yet too late.'' Having been told that the messenger who had been NAPOLEON 63 selected for the embassy was the Minister of Police, the French suspected that the sole object of his coming was to observe the position of the army and to gain time. They regarded his visit, therefore, as a sign of weakness in the Russian Government, and received his overtures with coldness. Besides, it would have cost Napoleon a great struggle, after refusing to listen to any explanations at Paris, to adopt a conciliatory tone in Vilna. What would Europe think of him ? What possible explanation could there be of the enormous preparations, the vast movements of troops and expenditure of money? It would have been tantamount to a confession of defeat. Besides, he had gone so far in his utterances before the allies as to render retreat almost impossible. But this was not all. Napoleon lost control over himself, and broke out, as usual, into complaints and reproaches. He used insult- ing language in speaking of the Emperor Alexander to the Russian general. " Why did he ever come to Vilna ? What does he want ? Does he mean to match his strength with me ? He, this carpet knight ? Napoleon's only counsellor is himself; who will advise the Tsar? Whom does he mean to look to ? Kutuzof is a Russian, he, therefore, will not be selected ; six years ago Benigsen was old and useless — he is in his dotage now ; Barclay, no doubt, is a man of courage and capacity — but he only displays it by retreating." Napoleon added spitefully— "You all imagine that you understand the art of war because you have read your Jomini, but if Jomini's book were enough to teach you generalship, do you think I should have allowed it to be printed ? " It is difficult to understand how, after sending such an insolent answer to his " friend and brother," Napoleon could bring himself to assure him later on of his unswerving 64 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA devotion. On the other hand, it is easy to appreciate why his "friend and brother" after this message received all the French Emperor's subsequent blandishments in stony silence. Napoleon began to be alarmed at the proclamations and manifestoes issued by the St. Petersburg Cabinet. He displayed a na'fve astonishment at the expressions of hatred and anger which were levelled at his own person. What had happened to the Emperor Alexander, who had up to that time been so suave and gentle? It is said that Napoleon endeavoured to keep these vigorous proclama- tions from the knowledge of his army, and commanded that the Russians should be represented as disheartened and on the point of disbanding ; the Russian Emperor as having actually left ,his troops and fled to St. Petersburg in order to implore assistance and mollify the wrath of the Senate, which was demanding an explanation of what had happened ; the Russian generals as having lost their heads ; and the people at large as ready to fling themselves in despair at Napoleon's feet. S^gur has preserved to us the order of march of the French troops. The army advanced in column ready for instant battle, the Emperor on horseback in the centre. Rivers were crossed by fords which soon, however, became impassable, and the regiments in the rear crossed elsewhere, wherever they could ; no one troubled his head about them. The staff neglected these details. No one remained behind to point out the dangers, if there were any, or the route, where several roads met. Each corps d'armife was left to shift for itself Duverger is yet more categorical — " The retreat has often been described, but the long and difficult march which preceded our misfortunes has never been sufficiently NAPOLEON 65 mentioned. Worn out by the rays of a tropical sun, we were reduced to drink foul stagnant water, to eat biscuits served out with a sparing hand. Famine and dysentery destroyed as many soldiers as did the war." Labaume, another eye-witness, completes this picture — " This immense gathering of men on one spot increased the confusion and disorder that reigned on the high-roads. Stray soldiers sought their regiments in vain : orderlies with urgent despatches were unable to deliver them ; while on the bridges and in the ravines a frightful tumult arose. Our soldiers, deprived of their rations, had to provide for themselves by pillage, and the result was the utmost dis- order and paralysis of discipline, the usual forerunners of the approaching decay of an army." The disorganization of the French army was thrown into stronger relief by the excellent order in which Barclay- de-Tolly drew off his men from position to position. There were no deserted wagons, no dead horses, not a single straggler or deserter. The French troops moved, of course, not only along the high-road, but also by by-roads, and often by hardly per- ceptible footpaths, destroying everything they came across on their way, and feeding their horses on the standing corn. They camped at night in the midst of the crops, trampling and destroying them without scruple in the hope of getting some shelter, however slight, from the heat and rain. The soldiers, according to the account of French eye-witnesses, roamed the neighbourhood searching for food, ill-treated the inhabitants, and turned them out of their homes, looted the houses, carried off all the live stock, and indulged in excesses strangely at variance with their vaunted mission of civilization. " The army at last approached Vitebsk," says de la 66 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA Fluse, who accompanied the expedition. " A number of cavalry and infantry regiments were extended in line, sup- ported by strong bodies of artillery. Four strong columns of Foot Guards formed a square, in the centre of which were ^_- three tents — one for the Emperor, the other two for f"'^3 his suite. A squad of twenty Grenadiers, with an ,-^'\\jj,^ officer and a drummer, formed a guard outside the \ tents. The camp-fires were lighted, and the various regiments sent fatigue parties to fetch their rations. These were served out in a neighbouring field, where all the meat and corn had been collected. " Around the Emperor's tent there was a great deal of bustle. Generals and aides-de-camps were constantly coming and going at full speed — for it was known that the enemy were not far off, and a decisive battle was expected. " The Emperor left his camp two or three times with a telescope in his hand. Resting it on the shoulder of one of the officers or men, he inspected Vitebsk and the neigh- bouring hills. Beyond the town a broad plain was visible, on which Russian cavalry and infantry were performing some evolutions. " Napoleon looked at them — ' To-morrow they will be ours,' he said. Then he gave orders to prepare for battle. A proclamation was read before each regiment — ' Soldiers, the day we have longed for has come at last. To-morrow we shall fight the battle for which we have waited so long. We must end the campaign with a single thunder-clap. Remember your victories at Austerlitz and Friedland ; the enemy shall see to-morrow that we have not degenerated.' " The proclamation was enthusiastically received ; the troops were confident of victory ; all hoped that this battle would end a war of which they had already had more than enough. Brandy was distributed, and after NAPOLEON Q-j supper and the various preparations for the morrow they turned in, many thinking, no doubt, that this would be their last night. " Next morning they were up by dawn, dressed in their smartest, as if for some festival. Every eye was turned to the quarter in which the enemy had been manoeuvring on the previous day ; but the plain was empty — as the sun rose it became clear that the Russian army had disappeared. " The drum began to beat outside the Emperor's tent," continues the same writer. " This meant that the Grenadiers on guard were being relieved. I hurried up with my companions in order to ask the officer of the relief if he had heard any news, for, placed as he was close to the Emperor's tent, he might have heard some- thing. He told us that Napoleon flew into a passion when he heard of the enemy's retreat. When Prince Poniatowski — who had instructions to cross the Dvina with the cavalry, sweep behind the Russians and cut off their retreat — entered the tent, the officers of the Guard heard what passed. The Prince came to report that it was absolutely impossible to cross the Dvina, as he could find no ford, and the water had risen in consequence of the recent storm. His horses, moreover, had had no fodder. Thereupon high words passed between the Em- peror and Poniatowski, the former rating the Prince roundly for not carrying out his instructions, Poniatowski for his part being at no loss for a reply. " ' So you urge want of fodder as an excuse. Prince ? ' said Napoleon. 'I may tell you, sir, that when I was in Egypt it was not once nor twice that I had to make expeditions without fodder.' " ' Of course, your Majesty,' replied Poniatowski, un- 68 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA abashed, ' I do not know what you fed your horses on out there, but I do know this, that my horses cannot dispense with their hay, especially when there is no grazing, which is often the salvation of cavalry. Lacking fodder as I did, I ran the risk of finding myself in the position your Majesty was in at St. Jean d'Acre; for want of horses, if you recollect, you were unable to bring up your guns, and were obliged to raise the siege.' " Then they both raised their voices and spoke at once. Some of the generals who were present joined in, and the din was so great that I could not make out a word of what they were saying. ' They are still at it,' he added ; ' go close up to the tent, you will probably be able to hear something.' " I and my companion approached the tent, as if we were just strolling by. We could indeed hear the voices of Napoleon and Poniatowski, but could gather nothing distinctly except the latter saying — ' No, your Majesty. I know this country better than you do, and I assure you that that is out of the question here, quite out of the question ! ' The two sentries shouldered arms, which meant that the Emperor was just coming out ; so we made off. " On parade the Emperor turned to the group of officers and said—' Gentlemen, you are not maintaining proper discipline in your corps; there are too many stragglers. Officers seem to stop on the march whenever they please, in order to spend their time in country-houses. They are tired of camping out ; but true courage does not fear rainy weather, nor will mud stain a soldier's honour. The men have no regard for discipline; under the pretext of foraging for provisions they desert from their regiments and wander about in disorder. Complaints reach me from every side of their lawless behaviour. This condition of NAPOLEON 69 things must be put a stop to, gentlemen; and those who absent themselves without leave shall be severely punished. In the event of an engagement with the enemy, our regiments would be greatly below their strength. The efificient force of our army is such as it might naturally have been after a battle, whereas we have not yet even seen the enemy. Marshals Oudinot and Macdonald have secured victories because they had their full complement of troops when they came to the banks of the Dvina and Drissa.' " Then the Emperor called for Baron Larrey, but as he was not to be found, Dr. Paulet, the head of the Ambulance Corps, presented himself instead. Napoleon asked him — " ' For how many wounded have you bandages ready ? ' " ' Ten thousand,' replied the doctor. " ' And about how many days does it take to heal a wound ? ' " ' About thirty,' answered the doctor. "'If that is so,' replied the Emperor, 'you cannot even give assistance to four hundred men ! We shall want many more than that ! ' " There was a low murmur in the crowd, and some one remarked, ' I wonder how many he thinks there will be killed ? ' " Napoleon must have heard the remark, but he paid no attention. He continued his cross-examination of the doctor, and asked him, 'Where are the ambulance and medical stores .'' ' " ' They were left at Vilna for want of means of transport.' " ' So the army is entirely unprovided with medicine,' cried Napoleon, ' and if I wanted physic I should have to go without it ? ' 70 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA " ' Your Majesty has your own private medical stores,' replied the doctor. " This made the Emperor very angry. ' I am the first soldier in the army,' he said, raising his voice, ' and I have a right to be attended to in the army hospital' Then he asked where the chief dispenser was. He was told at Vilna. " ' What ! ' cried Napoleon. ' One of the chief medical officers absent from the army ! Let him be sent back to Paris to peddle his drugs to the women of the Rue St. Honore ! Appoint some one else in his place, and let the whole medical service rejoin the army.' " The army did not meet with the same enthusiastic reception at Vitebsk as at Vilna. The inhabitants treated the French not as liberators, but as conquerors. Evidently Lithuania was not particularly well pleased at the prospect of re-union with its native Poland, for the disposition of the inhabitants was by no means friendly. Napoleon made great efforts to impress the Lithuanians. In a single audience he would discourse upon religion and the drama, war and the arts. He rode about at all hours of the day or night, giving orders to build a bridge here, and a bastion there, and on the eve of an engagement he would appear at a ball or a concert. He evidently did his best to astonish the natives by his versatility. As the Russians had left Vilna and it was impossible to overtake them, Napoleon returned to this town on July 28. According to S6gur, when he entered his head-quarters he took off his sword, threw it on the table, which was covered with maps and plans, and said in a loud voice, " Here I am, and here I shall stay ! I shall look about me, complete my army, give it a rest, and organize Poland. The campaign of 181 2 is at an end ; that of 181 3 will do NAPOLEON 71 the rest ! " Orders were given to provision the army for thirty-six days, and extensive plans were announced. Napoleon did not neglect amusements ; actors were to be brought from Paris to Vitebsk for a winter season, and as the town was empty the audience was to be drawn from Warsaw and Vilna. " Murat," said the French Emperor, turning to the King of Naples, " the first Russian campaign is over. We will plant our standards here. Two broad rivers outline our position ; we will build block-houses along this natural entrenchment, commanded by artillery in every direction. We will form a square with guns at the angles and on each front, and within this square we will build our barracks and magazines. The year 181 3 will see us in Moscow; 18 14 in St. Petersburg — the war with Russia shall be a three years' war ! " On the same day he turned to one of the principal civil officials attached to the army and said, " As for you, my dear sir, you must see that we are properly provisioned, for we must not repeat the mistake of Charles XII." It was at this very time that Napoleon received news that peace had been concluded between Russia and the Porte. "The Turks," he said, "will pay dearly for their mistake. It is such a foolish one that I did not even foresee it." Recognizing that the advance of the Russian army of Moldavia on his rear had now become both possible and probable, he began to think that perhaps it would be as well to destroy the two Russian armies in front of him, and that the sooner this was effected the better. These and other circumstances caused him to alter his views. He was no longer convinced that his wisest course was to stay at Vitebsk, and he became at once anxious and irresolute. 72 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA For a solution of his doubts he would appeal in broken phrases to intimates whom he met as he went about. ''Eh, bien, what are we to do ? eh ? Shall we stay where we are, or go on ? Is it right to stop half-way ? " Then without waiting for an answer, he would go on as if looking for somebody or something that would settle the question for him. Brooding over these questions, not daring to make up his mind, he would fling himself on his bed in nothing but his shirt, overpowered by the heat and his anxiety. In this way he passed the greater part of his time at Vitebsk. Meanwhile the advantages of a forward move- ment appealed to him more and more strongly. " If we stay in Vitebsk," he argued, "we must make up our minds to die a lingering death of ennui during the seven long winter months ! I, who have always been the first to attack, obliged to stand on the defensive ! Shame and dishonour await me. All Europe will say, ' He stayed at Vitebsk because he dared not advance ! ' Am I to give Russia time to arm? And how long am I to put up with this uncertainty, which is undermining my reputation for invincibility, already shaken by the resistance of Spain? What will the world think when it learns that, what with the sick and those who have fallen behind or disappeared, I have lost a third of my army ? I must dazzle the eyes of the nations with the glamour of a brilliant success — the laurels of victory will cover a multitude of losses." Napoleon began to find at last that Vitebsk promised nothing but misfortune and loss, with all the discomforts and anxieties of standing on the defensive ; while Moscow on the other hand offered the most signal advantages — provisions, money contributions, glory, and, last but not least, peace ! A Dispatch. NAPOLEON 73 But the more resolutely the Emperor wished to act, the more obtrusive were the prevailing signs of discouragement and discontent. After two weeks of rest the soldiers began to complain that they had gone too far already, and that the prospects of war were gloomy. They abused every- thing that tended to prolong the campaign, and approved of everything that might possibly shorten it. The Emperor, who wished at any cost to secure general approval of his plans, even from those who did not as a rule give expression to their views, called a council of the principal officers of the army, and his colleagues were invited — perhaps for the first time in their lives — to speak their minds freely. " The more vigour the enemy displays," he said to the marshals and generals who surrounded him, " the less ought we to slacken in our attack. We must not give these Oriental fanatics time to gather to- gether against us from their remotest wilds. How can we go into winter quarters in July? And what sense is there," he asked, " in breaking up a campaign like this into several parts?" forgetful of his own recent advocacy of the opposite view. " Be assured, gentlemen, that I have pondered deeply over the question. Our troops are always ready to advance, an offensive war is a war after their own hearts, whereas a long stay in one place is not acceptable to the French tempera- ment. To shelter ourselves behind frozen rivers, sit in mud huts and endure privation and ennui for eight months, with daily manoeuvres and never a step in advance — is that the style of warfare we are accustomed to ? The winter has other terrors than its frosts. It may bring with it end- less diplomatic intrigues. Is it safe, think you, to give all 74 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA these allies — whom we have successfully won over to our side, but who feel strangely out of place, I doubt not, in our ranks — to give them time, I say, to realize how un- natural is their position ? " Why should we remain inactive for eight months when we can attain our end in twenty days ? Let us forestall the winter ! We run the risk of losing all if we do not strike a swift and decisive blow. If we a-re not in Moscow in twenty days, it is possible we shall never get there at all. If peace be signed at Moscow, I shall have won the best and most glorious of all my victories ! " It was, however, already too late in the year, and the marshals were of opinion that further advance was out of the question. Berthier, Prince of Neufchatel, was so bold as to urge this fact upon the Emperor, and to explain his reasons. The Emperor gave him a very warm reception. " Begone ! " he said. " I have no need of you, you are only a . Go back home ! I will keep no one with me against his will." Berthier, however, endeavoured to dissuade Napoleon from the decision he had arrived at, not by argument but by an appealing glance ; there seemed almost to be tears in his eyes. Lobau and Caulaincourt tried to influence him by more open opposition, which took the form of bluntness with the former and persistence with the latter. The Emperor angrily swept all their opinions and advice on one side, and replied with the remark, aimed more particularly at Caulaincourt and Berthier, that he had made his generals too rich. " They can think of nothing but hunting and driving about Paris in expensive carriages — they are sick of the very name of war." To Duroc, who also opposed him, the Emperor replied that he was perfectly well aware that the Russians were NAPOLEON 75 trying to lure him on, but he must get to Smolensk at any cost. There he would go into winter quarters, and in the spring of 1813, if Russia did not end the war, he would end Russia. " Smolensk," he said, '' was the key to two roads, the road to St. Petersburg and the road to Moscow ; and they must seize it because they would then be able to attack both capitals at once — to destroy the one and preserve the other." Caulaincourt remarked that peace would be no nearer at Smolensk or Moscow than it was at Vitebsk, and that to advance so far, relying upon the fidelity of the Prussians, was the height of rashness. When the Emperor asked Count Daru for his opinion, he replied that it was not a popular war, and that neither the im- portation of English goods nor the restoration of Poland was a sufficient justification for so distant a campaign. " Neither we nor our troops can see the necessity or object of it, and everything points to the advisability of stopping where we are." " Great heavens ! " cried the Emperor ; '' do they think that I am out of my mind ? Do they imagine that this war gives me any pleasure ? I have always said that the Spanish and Russian wars are the two sores that are sucking away the life of France, and that they are more than she can bear at once. I wish for peace, but in order to enter upon preliminaries there must be two sides, whereas there is but one at present — for Alexander has not vouchsafed two words as yet. What good can we expect from staying at Vitebsk? True, the position is bounded by two rivers, but in winter there are no rivers in this country ; they will be merely imaginary lines. Here we shall want for everything, and shall have to buy what- ever we need ; whereas in Moscow there is plenty to be had for nothing. I might of course retire to Vilna, but 76 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA even if provisions could more easily be obtained at Vilna, defence is more difificult, and for real safety we should have to retreat beyond the Niemen, which means the abandonment of Lithuania. On the other hand, if I advance to Smolensk I shall either secure a decisive victory or a strong position on the Dnieper. " If we were always to wait for the most favourable combination of circumstances no enterprise would ever be undertaken. There can be no end without a beginning — there never was an enterprise in which everything fitted in perfectly, for chance plays a leading part in all the affairs of men. Obedience to rule does not ensure success, but success on the other hand furnishes a canon of conduct, and if this campaign be successful, these new triumphs will doubtless give new guidance for the future. '' No blood has as yet been spilled, but Russia is too great to yield without a struggle. Alexander could not come to terms, even if he would, except after a serious defeat. I will inflict that defeat, cost what it may, and if need be, I will follow it up by advancing to their sacred city. I am confident that peace awaits me at the gates of Moscow. Even if Alexander remains obdurate, I will win over the nobles and the inhabitants of the city to my side. They will know their own individual interest best, they will recognize the value of liberty." " Moscow," he added, "hates St. Petersburg, and I intend to avail myself of their rivalry — the consequences of their mutual jealousy may prove incalculable." Such, according to Sf^gur, and others, was the line of reasoning adopted by Napoleon, who inclined more and- more strongly to an immediate advance on Moscow. Sebastiani's disaster at Incova at last furnished him with a definite excuse for advancing. The Russian cavalry NAPOLEON 77 utterly routed the opposing French horse, and the dash and daring of the attack compelled the Emperor to seek some opportunity of retrieving the disaster by a decisive victory. Napoleon's want of decision at this moment was, how- ever, reflected in the movements of the French army, and the well-conceived plan of separating the two Russian armies and destroying each of them in detail was never carried out. The great efforts of the Russians to effect a speedy junction helped to upset the invader's plans. Every man in Russia, from the Emperor to the last recruit, believed that if the armies were once united, not only would they cease their retrograde movement, but they would be able to fall upon the enemy, who had already over-reached him- self by penetrating too far into the country. As a matter of fact the Russian Commander-in-chief had no intention of assuming the offensive against such overwhelming forces. The account given by Dumas, General-Intendant of the French army, throws valuable light upon this point. He says that one of the officers spent three months in Memel on terms of intimacy with Barclay-de-Tolly, who was brought there after receiving a terrible wound at Eylau. The officer in question clearly recollected the details of the plan of "successive retreats" " by which the Russian general hoped to lure the formidable French army into the very heart of Russia, if possible beyond the Moskva ; to wear it out, separate it as far as possible from its base of opera- tions, and tempt it to waste its ammunition and provisions. At the same time he proposed carefully to nurse the Russian forces until the frosts came to their aid and the time was ripe for commencing offensive operations, and 78 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA subjecting Napoleon to a second Pultava on the banks of the Volga. This grim programme was but too faithfully executed." Napoleon was aware that he was being " lured on," as he called it ; but, as we have already seen, he could not refrain from advancing, if not to Moscow, at any rate to Smolensk. He moved on, therefore, to the latter town, still adding to the list of so-called " victories " chronicled in his bulletins. These bulletins were the more credible, inasmuch as the Russian plan of retreat lent them a sort of colour. The French were always advancing and the Russians always retreating ; the inference was of course that the former were gaining a series of victories. Even Neverofsky's exploit is described in Bulletin XVII. as an "engagement in which the advantage rested with the French." The " engage- ment " really amounted to this — Neverofsky's division, while hurriedly withdrawing towards Smolensk, was overtaken by Murat and surrounded by thirty regiments of cavalry, together with Nansouty's and Grouchy's army corps and the Light Brigade. Finding himself in this dangerous position, the Russian general formed square, and continued his retreat in that order. The French cavalry, though they fell upon the little detachment on every side, found it impossible to break through, even after forty attacks. The French surrounded the Russians so closely that they were able to exchange words with them, and Murat more than once called upon Neverofsky to surrender. He only managed, however, to capture seven Russian guns, and Napoleon greeted him with the remark, not unmerited, that he should have brought back " not only those wretched guns, but a whole Russian division as well." At Smolensk Napoleon spent an evening in personally Russian Grenadiers. NAPOLEON 79 questioning prisoners, and in congratulating himself on the fact that he had at last come up with the Russian army. He attacked it, however, in front, instead of outflanking it and falling on its rear. He might have made a demonstra- tion before the city with a strong detachment, and mean- while sent the main body of the army to the right over the Dnieper to attack the left flank of the Russians defending the town, for Napoleon's army was so numerous that he could well afford to divide his forces. It is said that he did in fact intend to cut off Prince Bagration, but could not find the ford over the river. The French censure Marshal Davout for the fearful losses sustained at Smolensk, holding that these sacrifices were due to his want of foresight. They blame Napoleon, moreover, almost unanimously, for failing to surround the Russians. " In storming the fortifications of Smolensk," says the author of the Letters on the Russian Campaign of 1812, " when he might have contented himself with sur- rounding the city and cannonading it, he committed a mistake. In allowing the Polish infantry to be cut to pieces so near their own country, he made a second mistake. In advancing into a huge and resourceless country at the beginning of winter, he fell into a third and far more serious error." After the battle of Smolensk Napoleon was seen riding over the field and rubbing his hands with an air of glee. " Five Russians," he said, " for every Frenchman ! " This, however, was not the fact, for the French lost not 8000 as they said, but nearer 20,000. Bourgeois admits a loss, besides 6000 killed, of 10,000 wounded, though according to the usual ratio the number of wounded would be still o-reater. He puts the Russian loss at the same number, not more. This is not surprising, in view of the fact that 8o NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA the Russians were fighting under cover, while the French were attacking in the open, and were several times repulsed. Russian authorities, on the other hand, admit that our losses at Smolensk filled many of our countrymen with dismay, although they had hitherto looked upon the in- vasion with the utmost indifference. The scenes of terror and desolation presented by the interior of the town were fearful in the extreme. Some of the streets were literally burned to cinders, and the roadway filled with dead and dying, many of whom were half-consumed by the flames. When Napoleon, from the old tower on the city walls, surveyed the position that had been occupied by the Russian army on the previous day, he perceived that Barclay -de-Tolly was no longer there — he had again escaped ! Napoleon had failed in his endeavour to annihi- late the Russian army, and the capture of a city in ashes did not represent the final paralyzing blow which could justify his losses in the eyes of Europe. The French Emperor already appreciated the necessity of lowering his haughty Dresden tone, and took every oppor- tunity of throwing oil on the troubled waters that threatened to engulf him. The letter sent by Marshal Berthier to Barclay-de-Tolly under the specious pretext of offering his sympathy and condolence, but serving as a matter of fact to cloak an attempt to open indirect overtures, contained the following passage — " The Emperor, to whom I have communicated the contents of this letter, desires me, Monsieur le Baron, to beg you to convey the assurance of his respect to the Emperor Alexander if he is still with the army. Pray tell him that the sentiment of esteem and friendship which the Emperor Napoleon entertains towards him will be impaired neither by the vicissitudes of warfare nor by any other circumstances." NAPOLEON 8 1 These tentative approaches did not ehcit any reply. Napoleon then availed himself of the first convenient opportunity that occurred to mention his peaceful inclina- tions and intentions to his prisoner, General Tutshkof, beg- ging him to communicate them to his brother, another general in the Russian army. " It was not I that began the war," he said. " Why do the Russians retreat ? Why have they abandoned Smolensk to me ? There is nothing I desire so heartily as peace." He also begged Tutshkof to mention that the Commander-in-Chief was wrong in carrying all the civic functionaries away with him. He invited Tutshkof to constitute a sort of tribunal of arbitration to decide which of the contending parties had more chance of victory, and if that question was decided in favour of the Russians, to appoint a rendezvous for a battle ; if for the French, then why shed blood in vain, and why not discuss terms and conclude peace ? It was also through Berthier that he called upon the Emperor Alexander to instruct the governors not to leave their posts. Such overtures could not of course be expected to have any result ; their only justification is to be sought in the pitiable frame of mind to which Napoleon was then reduced. He began to realize how gigantic was the enterprise he had undertaken — an enterprise that grew in magnitude the further he advanced. He was now dealing with a nation in arms— with a second Spain, but more powerful, more remote, vaster in extent, and more unproductive The name of Charles XII., we are told, was at this time always on his lips. Murat was once heard to say to Napoleon, " If the Russians refuse to give battle it is not worth while to pursue them ; it is time to stop." The Emperor answered him with some warmth ; though what he said is not known. 82 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA It was, however, subsequently understood from the King of Naples' own lips that he went on his knees to his brother- in-law, and implored him to stop. Napoleon, however, would hear of no halt short of Moscow, which held every- thing that was dear to him — honour, glory, and repose. " Every one remarked," says Segur, " that when Murat left Napoleon after his interview his face wore an expression of deep affliction, and his gestures were excited and abrupt- he repeatedly uttered the words, ' Oh, ce Moscou ! ' " So soon as he made up his mind to advance, Napoleon again acquired complete command over himself He became cheerful and tranquil, as was usual when he had definitely settled upon any project. After the battle of Zabolotye— or Valutina, as the French called it — he said : " We have come too far to retire ; if I thought of glory alone I should return to Smolensk, plant my standard there, and treat the town as my own. The campaign would be ended, although not the war. Peace lies before us — we are only eight days' march from it. Shall we hesitate now that we are so near our goal ? En avant ! to Moscow ! " The best answer to this resolve was given in one of the Emperor Alexander's proclamations — " He threatens to march on Moscow — let him do so. Even if he is victorious he will still share the fate of Charles XII." Napoleon himself was far from feeling the confidence which he endeavoured to inspire into others. For instance, in writing to Marshal Victor from Smolensk he said — " It may be that I shall not find peace where I seek it ; in that case I shall be able to retire under cover of your reserves steadily and without precipitation." If one compare the words of Napoleon at the beginning of the campaign, when his intention was to remain at Vitebsk, or even at Smolensk, with what he said when his NAPOLEON 83 decision to march on Moscow was irrevocable, one is struck with wonderment at the total change of ideas, and at the irresistible impulse of which he was the victim. We have already mentioned the plan sketched out by Barclay-de-Tolly as to the best method of carrying on the war in Russia. Barclay was not the only person to recog- nize the weak spot in Napoleon's genius. When the storm first began to gather, Tczernicheff, the military agent, pointed out with remarkable penetration both the French Emperor's probable course of procedure and the best way of replying to his intended moves. " The preparations for the war are complete," he wrote to the Minister of War at St. Petersburg in 181 1. "The Emperor Napoleon's animosity against us increases day by day, and if this autumn does not see us at war it will only be because the season is late, and Napoleon, taking a lesson from the Pultusk campaign, will perhaps be afraid of the marshes of Poland. They would of course hinder him in his plans, which are no doubt to end the campaign in one lightning stroke, as he has done in all preceding wars. " Accepting the conclusion that hostilities are unavoid- able, we must make every preparation, not only for. with- standing the first shock, but for prolonging the war as much as possible. Experience tells us that this is the only method by which we can hope for success against Napoleon ; and it also tells us that he has always been embarrassed and led into mistakes of strategy when he has met with pro- longed resistance. This is the course which our Govern- ment should adopt, in this difficult and critical situation. It is the only course that offers any hope of final triumph over the world's oppressor. " The proper way to conduct this war, in my opinion, is to avoid a general engagement and to conform as far as 84 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA possible to the guerilla tactics adopted against the French troops in Spain, so as to gradually demoralize them, and reduce by starvation the enormous forces they will bring against us." The advice given by Marshal Bernadotte, who was at that time King of Sweden, is also interesting : — " In the position in which Russia stands towards France, it is to her advantage to prolong the war, because it is in her power to do so, but not in Napoleon's. One ought to depend as little as possible upon chance. It is therefore essentia! to avoid big battles and endeavour to reduce the war to a series of petty skirmishes. You must have plenty of Cos- sacks. You must capture Napoleon's baggage and cut off his supplies. Even if you have to retire behind the Dvina, nay, behind the Neva, so long as you continue to offer a stubborn resistance everything will turn out well, and Napoleon will meet at the hands of Alexander with the fate meted out to Charles XII. by Peter the Great. " Napoleon neglects nothing that can conduce to suc- cess ; but his means are already exhausted, and he can- not stand a two years' war. He lacks men, money, and horses for such an undertaking; and the further he advances the worse he will fare. But of course it would be best if such extremities could be avoided, for the provinces will suffer severely, and the reverses that may be expected in the early part of the campaign will produce a bad impression." In spite of these prudent counsels, we were all but hoist with our own petard at Drissa. Nevertheless, looking back, we may now say that it was a good thing for Russia that we were obliged to retire behind the Dvina, inasmuch as we should otherwise have had great difficulty in coping with our opponents. NAPOLEON 8s Napoleon marched straight on Moscow. In passing through Viazma he came upon signs of want of discipline that made him furious. He rode into a crowd of soldiers ; struck some of them, knocked others down with his horse, and ordered a canteen-keeper to be arrested, tried, and shot. But they allowed the poor wretch to kneel in the road, surrounded by a fictitious family group consisting of a woman and a few borrowed children, when the Emperor was passing by, and this stratagem saved his life. Fezensac mentions it — " In passing through the little town of Viazma, Napoleon came upon some soldiers who had looted a wine- cellar. He flew into an ungovernable passion, charged down upon them, and began abusing them and hitting right and left with his riding-whip. The impossibility of catching up the Russian army, and the devastations they had made on our line of march, angered him so much that he fell foul of everybody he came across." ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ Jjj^ !k Prince Kutuzof had been appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Russian army, and Napoleon hastened to gather all possible information as to his new opponent. He was de- scribed to him as " an old man who had originally attracted notice by virtue of a most interesting and unusual wound." From that time he had made the most of his opportunities. Even the defeat .which he had suffered at Austerlitz, and which he had foretold, served only to raise his reputation. But it was exalted still higher by the last campaign against the Turks. There was no doubt that he was a man of 1 There seems to be no doubt about the incident in question. But though it would appear that the French plundered the houses in Viazma, Napoleon writes in Bulletin XVI.— "The Cossacks pillaged Viazma so completely before their departure that the inhabitants do not think there is much chance of the town ever renewing its allegiance to Russia." 86 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA parts, but he was accused of attending too closely to his own interest, and having an eye to some personal end in all his actions. He was, further, a man of phlegmatic and unforgiving character, and above all of great cunning — in fact a thorough Tartar — rather a courtier than a general, but redoubtable on account of his reputation. To the Russians his person, his conversation, his dress, and, last but not least, his superstitions and even his age, recalled Suvoroff and the Russia of the days of Catharine the Great — a fact that endeared him to his fellow-countrymen. In Moscow the popular enthusiasm aroused by his appoint- ment was so great that the people exchanged congratu- latory embraces in the streets. All were confident that the new Commander-in-Chief would, by hook or by crook, prove more than a match for Napoleon. The arrival of Kutuzof at head-quarters created an excel- lent impression on the army, especially as the constant succession of retreats had undermined, not to say destroyed, confidence in their commanders. The person chiefly blamed for what was considered the cowardice of our strategy was of course the Commander-in-Chief, a man of great talent and intelligence, who, when once a plan of operations had been definitely adopted, was accustomed to carry it out to the bitter end. He was completely misun- derstood by his contemporaries, including the Emperor Alexander, who, yielding to the pressure of his entourage, expressed signs of impatience, and demanded offensive tactics and immediate victories. The impulsive Prince Bagration, who was an especially strong advocate of the offensive, so far forgot himself as to make complaints to the Emperor against the Commander-in-Chief He, how- ever, had not the terrible responsibilities that devolved upon Barclay, and he practically admitted in private that a NAPOLEON 87 decisive battle might be disastrous to Russia. The Em- peror Alexander's Council of War might decide upon an attack, but the Commander-in-Chief would inevitably defeat their intentions, although he would at first pretend to share their enthusiasm. This course of action rendered him extremely unpopular. Kutuzof, the new Commander-in-Chief, was unwilling to endanger his enormous popularity, and decided to accept battle, although, as a prudent man, he was almost as strongly opposed to such a course as was his predecessor. It cannot be denied that the selection of the plain of Borodino for the great defensive battle was creditable both to Kutuzof and to Colonel Tol, the head of his staff. " On two lines," says G. de Pimodan, " it is an extremely strong position, and still worthy of a visit from officers of the general staff, who may profitably study the scheme of the defences that were hastily constructed. Their only weakness was on the left flank." The French army, which at the passage of the Niemen numbered 400,000 men, after comparatively insignificant losses in battle mustered no more than 160,000 when it reached the plain of Borodino. The question natur- ally arises : what had become of the 240,000 men who, even on the admission of Bulletin XVII., were missing? Moreover, where did all the Russian troops come from after being incessantly slaughtered by the French, tens of thousands at a time according to Napoleon's bulletins, for the space of ten weeks, and after the wholesale desertions which he chronicled ? On the day before the battle of Borodino, Napoleon, according to the evidence of his valet, was in a perfectly tranquil state of mind. He spoke of Russia as if it were a smiling province of France. From his conversation it 88 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA might have been supposed that the neighbourhood was a vast granary ready-stored for the army, and offering all facilities for the establishment of winter quarters. The first step of the new administration which he was about to establish at Gjatsk would be the encouragement of agricul- ture. He was evidently enchanted by the vistas that opened up before him. Seldom had the Emperor appeared so much at ease or displayed such calmness in his con- versation and demeanour. It should be mentioned that the entrenchments at Borodino were very slight, partly on account of the haste in which they were constructed, and partly owing to the fact that the Second Army, which constituted the left flank, had no entrenching tools. Bayefsky's battery, there- fore, and the entrenchments on the Semyonof heights, were far from formidable. Scarcely anything was done to Tutshkof's position at Utitsa owing to want of appliances. ^ Napoleon regarded the left flank as the weakest part of the Russian position, and after a careful survey of the heights of Borodino he decided to concentrate all his efforts on this point, i. e. on an attack with his own right. Marshal Davout then requested the assistance of Ponia- towski, whose forces were too weak for independent action, to help in outflanking the enemy. He proposed to move before daybreak with Poniatowski's troops and his own five divisions, numbering 3S,ooo men, under cover of the woods on which the Russians were resting, get behind them, along the old Smolensk road, and fall suddenly on the rear of the left flank. He pointed out that while the Emperor was leading the attack from the front, he would move rapidly from redoubt to redoubt and from reserve to 1 It is stated that for a long time there was only one sapper attached to Miloradovitcli's detachment. NAPOLEON 89 reserve, disperse any force he found on the Mozjaisk road, annihilate the Russian army, and finish the war at a single blow. This proposal furnished one more proof that Davout was the best tactician of all the marshals trained in the school of Napoleon. If his daring project had been carried out, it would most probably have thrown the Russian army into utter confusion. But Napoleon, after listening attentively to what the Marshal had to say, replied after a few minutes of silent deliberation — " No, it is too un- heard-of a manoeuvre ; it will lead me away from my main object, and make me lose a great deal of time.'' The Duke of Eckmtihl, confident in the correctness of his views, still persisted. According to Segur, he under- took to execute the whole manoeuvre by six o'clock in the morning. He would answer, he said, for the utter rout of the Russians. But Napoleon, evidently displeased at the Marshal's persistence, interrupted him with — " Oh, you are always urging these flanking movements ; it is too hazardous ! " So Marshal Davout said no more, and, fortunately for the Russian army, left without gaining his point. Kutuzof was not slow to divine the enemy's intentions. When the battle began, in the face of the enemy's fire he moved Boggavut's corps across from the right flank, against which Prince Eugene was making an ineffectual demon- stration, to the support of the Second Army, and in his turn alarmed the French by a movement round their left flank with Uvarof's cavalry and the Cossacks. Both sides appreciated the fact that the Semyonof heights were the real key to the position. We must not omit to mention that throughout the night preceding the battle Napoleon was apprehensive lest the 90 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA Russian army should again retreat. The fear of this prevented him from sleeping ; he kept calling to his attendants, asking what the time was, and whether any sound could be heard from the Russian camp, and sending to see whether the enemy was . ^ __ still in the same place. When he was .tni '"" reassured on this score, he began to ex- "^L", «'*'' *i press anxiety for his hungry and ex- ^*S,J^ -f» < «^-i hausted troops — how would they bear the ■ "■ shock of battle ? He sent for Bessieres.'the ^s^jp^^^-?^:- Marshal in whom, apparently, he had the greatest confidence, and inquired whether the Guards had everything they needed. He more than once, in fact, made inquiries on this point. At last, still unsatisfied, he rose and asked the sentinels outside his tent whether they had had their rations served out to them. Receiving an affirmative answer, he lay down again and fell into a troubled sleep. But he soon called out again. The aide-de-camp who entered found him with his head resting on his hand. He appeared to be musing on the vanity of human glory. Napoleon reviewed the critical situation in which he was placed, and added — " The eventful day draws near. It will be a terrible struggle ! " Then he asked Rapp if he was confident of victory. " Certainly," the latter replied, " but we shall not get it without much bloodshed." Once more Napoleon became restless and uneasy. Again he sent to inquire whether the Russians were in the same position, or whether they had slipped away. Receiving a reassuring report, he endeavoured to calm his agitation ; but the exhausting journeys he had lately performed and his sleepless nights, together with his many NAPOLEON 91 cares and anxieties, had so told upon him that as the temperature fell during the night he grew feverish, and was seized with a dry cough and nervous irritation. During the latter part of the night he suffered from intense thirst. And to add to all this he was troubled by his old complaint, for on the previous day he had had an attack of dysuria, a disease from which he had long suffered. Five o'clock struck at last. An officer came from Ney to report that the Russians were in front, and requesting leave to begin the attack. Napoleon brightened up, rose from his bed, summoned his attendants, and issued from his tent with the words — " They are in our hands at last ! Forward ! The gates of Moscow are before us ! " Such is S^gur's account. The battle of Borodino, famous in the annals of war, had begun. The roar of the guns, borne upon the wind, was heard eighty miles away from the battle-field. The Emperor was seen throughout the whole day sitting" or slowly walking up and down near the landslip on the left front of the captured Shevardino redoubt ; but he could scarcely view the battle from that place after it had been for some time in progress. He rose now and again, walked a few paces and seated himself once more. Those who attended him regarded him with astonishment. They were accustomed under such circumstances to see him managing affairs with a confident and tranquil air; but instead of this they now saw nothing but feebleness, lethargy, and inertia. Some ascribed his want of energy to fatigue ; others thought that he was tired of everything, even of fighting, while some suspected internal sufferings. The last supposition was probably the correct one. Napoleon's attendant. Constant, positively asserts that during the whole of the battle of Borodino he was suffering 92 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA from an attack of his chronic malady. He had contracted, moreover, some time previously a severe cold which he had neglected, and it was rendered still worse by the anxieties of the day. So seriously, in fact, did it affect him that he almost lost his voice. " Napoleon never once mounted hi.s horse," says de la Fluse, " during the whole of the battle. He walked about with his officers, pacing up and down upon the same spot. It was said that his indisposition prevented him from riding. " His aide-de-camp was kept busy in receiving and de- livering his orders. Behind Napoleon were the Guards and a few corps in reserve. A regimental band was playing a succession of military airs, recalling the battle-fields of the first Revolution, such as 'Allans, enfants de la patrie!' But at Borodino these strains had no effect on the soldiers, and some of the oldejt^ officers laughed at the contrast of the two periods. The panorama of a bloody battle was spread before our eyes, but we could see nothing, owing to the smoke of a thousand guns thundering without a pause. I got as close as I could to the Emperor, who kept looking through his glass at the field of battle. He was dressed in his grey overcoat, and spoke but little. When a cannon- ball rolled towards his feet, as sometimes happened, he stepped on one side just like the rest of us." By three o'clock in the afternoon the French had cap- tured the redoubt on the Semyonof heights, but the Russian army, far from taking to flight, had no intention even of retiring. Napoleon, aghast at the unprecedented losses of men, officers, and generals, put a stop to any further attack, and, in spite of all representations, refused to allow the reserves to be used for a final decisive assault. The marshals sent General Belliard for assistance. The NAPOLEON 93 general declared that from the position they occupied they could see the whole of the Mozjaisk road, covered with men and wagons in full retreat, that nothing was needed but one vigorous onset to finally crush the Russian army. The Emperor wavered and hesitated ; then he bade the general return and report again. Belliard rode off in some surprise, and soon returned with the news that the enemy was apparently rallying, that the opportunity for the decisive blow was passing, and that if they did not strike at once a second battle would be needed to decide the first. Bessieres, however, returned at this moment from the hills to which he had been sent by Napoleon to inspect the Russian position. He insisted that the Russians, far from retreating in disorder, had only retired to their second position, and were actually prepar- ing to attack. Then the Emperor informed Belliard that it was not yet clear what had happened ; that before making up his mind to allow his last reserves to be brought into action he wished to be more certain regarding the position of the pieces on his chess-board. He repeated this phrase several times. Belliard returned completely dumfoundered to Murat and the other Marshals, who were impatiently awaiting re- inforcements, and informed them that they were not forth- coming. " He had found the Emperor still at the same spot, evidently in pain, and in a state of despondency ; his features were downcast, his eyes dull and heavy, and he gave his orders in a listless way. " Every one was surprised. Ney, in an access of un- governable temper, said bluntly, ' What is the meaning of this? Have we come out here for the pleasure of taking the plain ? What is the Emperor doing in the rear ? There he can only see the reverses and not the successes. If he 94 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA does not mean to lead the army himself, if he has ceased to be a general and is playing at Emperor, let him return to the Tuileries, and leave the command in our hands ! ' " Daru, in his turn, was instigated by Dumas and Berthier to whisper to the Emperor that the universal cry was, " Now is the time for the Guards to attack ! " But Napo- leon answered, "And if I have to fight a second battle to-morrow, what troops shall I have to fight it with ? " Napoleon's sufferings were evidently increasing; it was as much as he could do to mount his horse and ride at a foot pace to the Semyonof hills. He saw that he was far from being master of the field of battle; that it was still disputed by the cannon-balls, and even the rifle-bullets, of the enemy. Murat declared that he saw none of the genius of Napo- leon displayed on this momentous day, and Prince Eugene, the Viceroy, admitted that he could not understand his adopted father's indecision. When Ney was appealed to for his opinion he was so angry that he recommended retreat. The whole of the French army was disappointed with the result of the battle, and with the want of energy displayed by Napoleon. Bessieres was especially blamed ; for, at the critical moment, when the Emperor was on the point of making up his mind to let the reserves be brought into action, the Marshal approached him and whispered in his ear — " Sire, do not forget that you are eight hundred leagues from your capital." There are, however, some who take the opposite view. Chambrey, for instance, assures us that "the whole of the French army was astonished at the stubbornness with which this terrible battle was fought," and Gourgot, in de- fending Napoleon, goes so far as to say, " If the ranks of the NAPOLEON 95 Guards had been thinned at the battle of Borodino, the remains of the French army, of which it was the pillar and pride during the retreat, would hardly have managed to reach the Niemen." Of the Russian authorities, some find fault with Napoleon, and others are of opinion that he adopted the only possible course. " Nothing," says Buturlin, " can justify Napoleon's course in stopping the fight at three o'clock when a little further effort might have ensured a victory. The last Russian reserves had already gone into action, while on the side of the French neither the Old Guard nor the Young, nor any of their cavalry, amounting to over 20,000 men, had taken any part in the battle. There is no doubt that if Napoleon had made use of the twenty- three battalions and twenty-seven squadrons of which this select force consisted, he would have utterly routed the Russians, and compelled them to spend the remaining four hours of the day in continual retreat instead of preparing for attack." Danilevsky asserts that the French, after occupying the redoubt on the Semyonof hills, so far from pressing the Russians, who had fallen back on another position in the immediate neighbourhood, withdrew all along the line for the night ; and reminds his readers of the fact, that until eleven o'clock on the following day the French made no attempt to renew the assault, but awaited an attack on the part of the Russians, and only advanced at last when their opponents began to retire.^ He expresses an opinion that for Napoleon's refusal to use the Young Guard to sup- port the cavalry in breaking through our left flank, our army was indebted to the movement made on the left by ' To be more accurate, it appears that the Russians had already begun to retire in the night. 96 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA Uvarof s cavalry, — that is to say, to a movement ordered by Kutuzof himself. We may add that neither Uvarof nor the Cossacks did all that might have been expected from them. Had the latter attacked the French more boldly in the rear, plundered their baggage, and generally caused con- fusion in that quarter, as 'they had every opportunity of doing. Napoleon would in all likelihood have had to send his reserves not to the front but to the rear ; and the result would probably have been to demoralize, and perhaps to spread panic throughout the whole of the French army. Many incline to Marshal Davout's opinion, which we have already mentioned, that Napoleon could have made much more certain of victory if, instead of attacking the Russian left, he had made a strong demonstration there, and sent a large force on to the old Smolensk road to sup- port Poniatowski against Tutshkof He would certainly have been enabled to fall on the rear of the Russian army, which, being thus cut off from Mozjaisk and cornered between the rivers Kolotsha and Moskva, would have been in a very critical position. It was at first Prince Kutuzofs intention to accept battle on the following day in the position which the Russian army then occupied. But the reports sent in at night by the commanders of the various army corps as to the disordered condition of the different divisions, and above all as to the scantiness of ammunition, caused him to change his plans. Grabbe was sent that night to the First Army with orders to retire. Deep silence, he says, reigned at the village of Gorki. When he had found the cottage in which Barclay-de-Tolly was quartered, he obtained a candle with much difficulty and entered the parlour where the general was asleep on the floor, side by side with his aides-de-camps and orderlies. He gently NAPOLEON 97 awakened him, gave him the note which he had brought with him, and explained his mission. The general leaped to his feet, and, probably for the first time in his life, there burst from his lips, generally so mild and gentle, a torrent of bitter invective against Benigsen, whom, for some reason or other, he took to be the principal author of the decision to retreat. The Russian army began once more to retreat, and the French to advance. The French had therefore nominally won the battle. " Monsieur L'Eveque," writes Napoleon to the Bishop of Metz, "the passage of the Niemen, of the Dvina and the Dnieper, and the battles of Mohilef, Drissa, Polotsk, Smolensk, and lastly of Moskva [Borodino], call for thanks- giving to the God of Might. We desire that on receipt of this letter you will make the necessary arrangements. Summon my people to the churches and sing praises unto the Almighty according to the forms laid down by the Church for such occasions. " In sending you this letter, I pray the Lord that, etc. " Given in our Imperial Quarters in Mozjaisk, lotk Sep- tember, i8i2. Napoleon." In accordance with these instructions, the Bishop of Metz issued the following proclamation : — ■ " Claudius Ignatius Laurent, by the Grace of God, Bishop of Metz, General Administrator of the District, and Baron of the Empire, to the clergy and to all true sons of the District of Metz, greeting. "Beloved Brethren, "The whole universe now gazes in profound wonder upon new exploits and new triumphs yet more glorious than those that have hitherto filled us with astonishment. Napoleon has once more shown himself a veritable Titan, 98 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA capable of the most gigantic achievements. His victorious phalanxes have swept Hke eagles from the mouth of the Guadalquivir to the sources of the Volga. No longer shall the Northern barbarians trample on the blessed valleys of the South ; the glorious warrior of the West is driving the common foe before him to the ice-bound regions of the Pole. " For more than a century have, the presumptuous dwellers of the hyperborean shores, relying on a reputation they have ill deserved, menaced and intimidated the humble and confiding monarchs of civilized Europe. Long time, too long indeed, have they lent the hireling aid of their would-be invincible legions, to nations whom it was their aim thereafter to subdue, and whom they have set in arms one against another, only to break faith with their kings and lead them astray into difficulties from which there was no escape. He whom the Creator, the God of War, hath chosen to root out all manner of crafty cunning, to break the spells of witchcraft, to humble the proud, to cast down earthly idols, to triumph over the kings of the nations and subdue their chief cities, he has seen, beloved brethren, that the time has come to humble their intolerable pride and arrogance, and to show to all men that these savage warriors are no more invincible in their native steppes than in the valleys of Helvetia, or the plains of Poland and Moldavia. " What the mind hath conceived, that the hand hath performed. Though few be the months that have passed, the rapidity of our successes and the splendour of our victories fill the whole world with astonishment. " The immortal instrument by whom these wonders have been worked, he himself marvels, it would seem, at his own successes. He humbly acknowledges that it is the right hand of God, and not his own, that triumphs over the enemy who has summoned him to the fight. " On the field of battle, in the midst of his victories, he is the first to raise the hymn of thanksgiving, and, from the ends of the earth, where he is now contending with the foe, he calls upon the pastors of his realm to summon the NAPOLEON 99 people to the churches, and join him in singing praises unto the Lord, in gratitude for His victories. Who is so proud that he will not bow down before the Most High when the victor, who casteth down the thrones of kings, himself falls at the throne of the Lord who giveth as He will, victory or defeat, life or death, peace or war ? " Never, my brethren, has Napoleon the Great missed any occasion of proclaiming these eternal truths whenever he has achieved one of his wondrous victories. The joyful epistle which his Imperial and Royal Majesty has graciously vouchsafed to us is a convincing testimony of the depth of his religious faith. "Let us give thanks to the Fountain of these great mercies even as our most gracious Emperor lays his triumphs at the feet of the Almighty, the Lord of heaven and earth. " And to this end that the praiseworthy intentions of our most august Emperor and King may be worthily fulfilled, we, having duly considered the matter, do hereby order and command . . . . " It is admitted on all hands that the French losses at Borodino were quite as great as the Russian, namely, about 50,000. Segur puts them at 40,000. Dumas says that " the losses were beyond calculation." At about nine o'clock in the evening Napoleon summoned Daru and Dumas. His camp was in the middle of a square formed by the Guards. " He had only just supped," says Dumas, " and was sitting all alone. He made one of us sit on his right, and the other on his left. After questioning us as to the arrangements made for giving assistance to the wounded, he began to talk of the result of the battle. Then, after dozing in his chair for about five minutes, he gave himself a shake, and began talking again. ' People are surprised, I dare say,' he said, ' that I did not let my reserves be used in order to secure a more decisive result ; loo NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA but you see I was obliged to save them for the final blow which we must deal before we can enter Moscow. The success of the day was certain ; I had to think of the issue of the campaign — that is why I kept the Guards out of action.' " Napoleon attempted the same night to resume his routine work which had been interrupted for five days. But his voice failed him, and he could neither converse nor dictate. He was obliged to have recourse to the assistance of the pen, writing his orders on scraps of paper. His secretaries and all the members of his staff who could be of any assistance copied them out as fast as they could. Count Daru and the Prince of Neufchatel set to work with the others ; but the Emperor's handwriting was extremely difficult to decipher, for he was writing at the rate of an order a minute. He would frequently rap on the table as a sign to remove the papers which were accumulating in great piles. Twelve long hours were spent in this work. Not a sound was to be heard but the scratching of Napoleon's pen and the rapping of his hammer. ******* The French army at last approached Moscow. Napo- leon, who had been previously seated in a carriage, mounted his horse when half-way through the last march. In the distance, through a cloud of dust, could be seen the long columns of Russian cavalry retiring in good order before the French troops. At last a number of towers came into view, with golden domes glittering in the sun — a vast city lay before the advancing host, and the van of the army, in a transport of enthusiasm, cried, " Moscow ! Mos- cow at last ! " The cry was taken up by the whole army ; officers and men clambered on to the heights in order to NAPOLEON loi gaze at the famous city, destined perhaps to be the new boundary of the French Empire. Napoleon feasted his eyes upon the spectacle from the Pilgrim's Hill — Poklonnaya Gora. Behind him was a group of delighted marshals. To the left and right they could see Prince Eugene and Poniatowski approaching the city. In front, on the high- road, Murat and his scouts had almost reached the suburbs ; but still no deputation of the inhabitants came out to meet them. It was afternoon, but Moscow gave no sign of life ; it was like a city of the dead. Those officers who had already been in the city reported that Moscow was deserted ! But for a long time no one dared to communicate these tidings to Napoleon ; all feared an outburst of the Emperor's fury. When Napoleon was at last informed of the condi- tion of the city he flatly refused to believe the report. Then he mounted his horse and rode up to the Dorogomilof gate. He gave orders that the strictest discipline should be observed, clinging to the hope that the rumour would prove to be untrue. Perhaps these people did not know the proper mode of surrendering. The whole situation was new to them ; the French and their ways must be as strange to the Russians as they and their ways were to the French. But every fresh report confirmed the alarming news ; doubt was no longer possible. Napoleon summoned Daru — " Moscow is deserted ! The thing is preposterous ! Ride into the place and find the boyards." Daru, however, was unsuccessful in his mission, for there was not a boyard in the city. There was no smoke from the chimneys — not a sign of habitation.; unbroken silence brooded over the vast city. But Napoleon insisted ; he still waited and hoped. At I02 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA last one of the officers, evidently willing to oblige at any cost, rode in, seized a few vagrants in the streets and drove them out before him — as a deputation. Rostopchin says that the deputation consisted of some twelve men clad in the worst of garments ; the civic autho- rities, nobility, clergy, and principal merchants were repre- sented on this solemn occasion by a simple type-setter. Napoleon saw the humorous side of the situation, and turned away. Convinced at last that Moscow was really deserted, he abandoned his hopes and projects, shrugged his shoulders, and said with a contemptuous air — "The Russians do not understand the impression that will be produced by the occupation of their capital." One can well understand Napoleon's impatience to receive the keys of the city ; for this would have meant the realiza- tion of a long-cherished ambition. An hour before reaching Moscow he summoned Count Durosnel, who was in charge of the Imperial head-quarters, and said — " Go into the city, get everything in order, and select a deputation to bring me the keys." There is no doubt that he had thought out all the details of his entry into Moscow ; his speech to the nobility, in which he would have availed himself of the jealousy between the old capital and St. Petersburg, and the shortcomings of the constitution of the empire, to win these brave but barbarous people over to his side ; his arrange- ments for a contribution to be paid in gold, and the issue of the false lOO rouble notes which he had had printed ex- pressly in Paris, and with which he hoped to make good the expenses of the war. He had, of course, already decided whom he would punish, or reward, to whom he would extend his Imperial clemency ; what changes he would make in the administration ; and, last but not least, how he would conduct the negotiations for peace — whether slowly NAPOLEON 103 or quickly, haughtily and sternly, or graciously. He who had so long been accustomed to apply his genius to every detail of the subjugation, pacification, and organization of newly-conquered countries, must of course, now that he had reached the goal of his ambition, consider and decide every- thing beforehand. And, after all, — how aggravating to find that there was nothing, positively nothing, with which to satisfy the curiosity of the Moniteur and of Europe, which had been expecting this climax open-mouthed. A Frenchman, who was an eye-witness of the scene, tells us that he came upon the Emperor in one of the suburbs, awaiting envoys from the Russians, and examining their cavalry, which was retiring on the left, through a field-glass. A few peasants and shopkeepers were marched up. They presented a pitiable spectacle, and were quaking with terror, under the impression, apparently, that their last hour had come. Napoleon dismounted. He was evidently cold ; he coughed as he gave his orders, and he seemed to be unde- cided as to what course to adopt. Apparently considering that it would be wisest not to run the risk of entering the city at that moment, he stationed himself in one of the neighbouring wooden houses. This was in the suburb of Dorogomilof Marshal Mortier was appointed Military Governor of the town. Napoleon .said emphatically — " See to it that there is no plundering ! You will be answerable with your own head — save me my Moscow from everybody and everything ! " At the Dorogomilof Bridge, Riess, the bookseller, was brought to Napoleon. Riess afterwards related that he had been compelled to remain at his shop, but hearing the drums and trumpets in the street he went out, was taken prisoner and brought before the Emperor. I04 NAPOLEON I IN RUSSIA " Who are you ? " asked Napoleon. " A French bookseller." " Ah ! then you are one of my subjects." " Yes ; but I have lived for a long time in Moscow." " Where is Rostopchin ? " " He has gone." " Where are the magistrates — municipal council ? " " Gone also." " Who is left in Moscow ? " " None of the Russians." " C'est impossible ! " Riess apparently swore that what he said was true. Napoleon frowned and remained for some time buried in thought ; then, as if he had made up his mind to some daring project, he gave the word, " Forward — march ! " One of the Russians says^" They went searching for the keys and for a deputation in the Government offices, the town-hall, the head-quarters of the police, the Governor- General's house, and, in fact, every place in which there was the least chance of finding an official. After a long but ineffectual search, the zealous Polish general who had undertaken the task returned to Napoleon and reported that there was not a single functionary left in Moscow, and that the town was deserted by all except a few foreigners who had stayed behind. The Emperor accordingly post- poned his entry ; he thought perhaps that by next day some of the inhabitants would have returned, and that a deputation would arrive after all, or that at any rate his French, Italian, and German subjects would come to the rescue and present themselves to pay him their respects." He was again disappointed. He spent the night before the gates in an innkeeper's house, apparently unable to sleep. " There was such a horrible smell in the house,'' NAPOLEON 105 says his valet, "that his Majesty l