الفصل الفصل 169 · 第169章

On the twenty-ninth of May Napoleon left Dresden, where he had spent

three weeks surrounded by a court that included princes, dukes, kings,

and even an emperor. Before leaving, Napoleon showed favor to the

emperor, kings, and princes who had deserved it, reprimanded the kings

and princes with whom he was dissatisfied, presented pearls and diamonds

of his own—that is, which he had taken from other kings—to the Empress

of Austria, and having, as his historian tells us, tenderly embraced the

Empress Marie Louise—who regarded him as her husband, though he had left

another wife in Paris—left her grieved by the parting which she seemed

hardly able to bear. Though the diplomatists still firmly believed in

the possibility of peace and worked zealously to that end, and though

the Emperor Napoleon himself wrote a letter to Alexander, calling him

Monsieur mon frère, and sincerely assured him that he did not want war

and would always love and honor him—yet he set off to join his army,

and at every station gave fresh orders to accelerate the movement of his

troops from west to east. He went in a traveling coach with six horses,

surrounded by pages, aides-de-camp, and an escort, along the road to

Posen, Thorn, Danzig, and Königsberg. At each of these towns thousands

of people met him with excitement and enthusiasm.

The army was moving from west to east, and relays of six horses carried

him in the same direction. On the tenth of June, * coming up with the

army, he spent the night in apartments prepared for him on the estate of

a Polish count in the Vilkavisski forest.

* Old style.

Next day, overtaking the army, he went in a carriage to the Niemen, and,

changing into a Polish uniform, he drove to the riverbank in order to

select a place for the crossing.

Seeing, on the other side, some Cossacks (les Cosaques) and the

wide-spreading steppes in the midst of which lay the holy city of Moscow

(Moscou, la ville sainte), the capital of a realm such as the Scythia

into which Alexander the Great had marched—Napoleon unexpectedly, and

contrary alike to strategic and diplomatic considerations, ordered an

advance, and the next day his army began to cross the Niemen.

Early in the morning of the twelfth of June he came out of his tent,

which was pitched that day on the steep left bank of the Niemen, and

looked through a spyglass at the streams of his troops pouring out of

the Vilkavisski forest and flowing over the three bridges thrown across

the river. The troops, knowing of the Emperor’s presence, were on the

lookout for him, and when they caught sight of a figure in an overcoat

and a cocked hat standing apart from his suite in front of his tent on

the hill, they threw up their caps and shouted: “Vive l’Empereur!” and

one after another poured in a ceaseless stream out of the vast forest

that had concealed them and, separating, flowed on and on by the three

bridges to the other side.

“Now we’ll go into action. Oh, when he takes it in hand himself, things

get hot... by heaven!... There he is!... Vive l’Empereur! So these

are the steppes of Asia! It’s a nasty country all the same. Au revoir,

Beauché; I’ll keep the best palace in Moscow for you! Au revoir. Good

luck!... Did you see the Emperor? Vive l’Empereur!... preur!—If

they make me Governor of India, Gérard, I’ll make you Minister of

Kashmir—that’s settled. Vive l’Empereur! Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah! The

Cossacks—those rascals—see how they run! Vive l’Empereur! There he

is, do you see him? I’ve seen him twice, as I see you now. The little

corporal... I saw him give the cross to one of the veterans.... Vive

l’Empereur!” came the voices of men, old and young, of most diverse

characters and social positions. On the faces of all was one common

expression of joy at the commencement of the long-expected campaign and

of rapture and devotion to the man in the gray coat who was standing on

the hill.

On the thirteenth of June a rather small, thoroughbred Arab horse was

brought to Napoleon. He mounted it and rode at a gallop to one of the

bridges over the Niemen, deafened continually by incessant and rapturous

acclamations which he evidently endured only because it was impossible

to forbid the soldiers to express their love of him by such shouting,

but the shouting which accompanied him everywhere disturbed him and

distracted him from the military cares that had occupied him from the

time he joined the army. He rode across one of the swaying pontoon

bridges to the farther side, turned sharply to the left, and galloped in

the direction of Kóvno, preceded by enraptured, mounted chasseurs of the

Guard who, breathless with delight, galloped ahead to clear a path for

him through the troops. On reaching the broad river Víliya, he stopped

near a regiment of Polish Uhlans stationed by the river.

“Vivat!” shouted the Poles, ecstatically, breaking their ranks and

pressing against one another to see him.

Napoleon looked up and down the river, dismounted, and sat down on a log

that lay on the bank. At a mute sign from him, a telescope was handed

him which he rested on the back of a happy page who had run up to him,

and he gazed at the opposite bank. Then he became absorbed in a map laid

out on the logs. Without lifting his head he said something, and two of

his aides-de-camp galloped off to the Polish Uhlans.

“What? What did he say?” was heard in the ranks of the Polish Uhlans

when one of the aides-de-camp rode up to them.

The order was to find a ford and to cross the river. The colonel of the

Polish Uhlans, a handsome old man, flushed and, fumbling in his speech

from excitement, asked the aide-de-camp whether he would be permitted

to swim the river with his Uhlans instead of seeking a ford. In evident

fear of refusal, like a boy asking for permission to get on a horse, he

begged to be allowed to swim across the river before the Emperor’s

eyes. The aide-de-camp replied that probably the Emperor would not be

displeased at this excess of zeal.

As soon as the aide-de-camp had said this, the old mustached officer,

with happy face and sparkling eyes, raised his saber, shouted “Vivat!”

and, commanding the Uhlans to follow him, spurred his horse and galloped

into the river. He gave an angry thrust to his horse, which had grown

restive under him, and plunged into the water, heading for the deepest

part where the current was swift. Hundreds of Uhlans galloped in after

him. It was cold and uncanny in the rapid current in the middle of the

stream, and the Uhlans caught hold of one another as they fell off their

horses. Some of the horses were drowned and some of the men; the others

tried to swim on, some in the saddle and some clinging to their horses’

manes. They tried to make their way forward to the opposite bank and,

though there was a ford one third of a mile away, were proud that they

were swimming and drowning in this river under the eyes of the man who

sat on the log and was not even looking at what they were doing. When

the aide-de-camp, having returned and choosing an opportune moment,

ventured to draw the Emperor’s attention to the devotion of the Poles

to his person, the little man in the gray overcoat got up and, having

summoned Berthier, began pacing up and down the bank with him, giving

him instructions and occasionally glancing disapprovingly at the

drowning Uhlans who distracted his attention.

For him it was no new conviction that his presence in any part of

the world, from Africa to the steppes of Muscovy alike, was enough to

dumfound people and impel them to insane self-oblivion. He called for

his horse and rode to his quarters.

Some forty Uhlans were drowned in the river, though boats were sent to

their assistance. The majority struggled back to the bank from which

they had started. The colonel and some of his men got across and with

difficulty clambered out on the further bank. And as soon as they had

got out, in their soaked and streaming clothes, they shouted “Vivat!”

and looked ecstatically at the spot where Napoleon had been but where he

no longer was and at that moment considered themselves happy.

That evening, between issuing one order that the forged Russian paper

money prepared for use in Russia should be delivered as quickly as

possible and another that a Saxon should be shot, on whom a letter

containing information about the orders to the French army had been

found, Napoleon also gave instructions that the Polish colonel who

had needlessly plunged into the river should be enrolled in the Légion

d’honneur of which Napoleon was himself the head.

Quos vult perdere dementat. *

* Those whom (God) wishes to destroy he drives mad.