Kabanata Kabanata 281 · 第281章

The famous flank movement merely consisted in this: after the advance

of the French had ceased, the Russian army, which had been continually

retreating straight back from the invaders, deviated from that direct

course and, not finding itself pursued, was naturally drawn toward the

district where supplies were abundant.

If instead of imagining to ourselves commanders of genius leading the

Russian army, we picture that army without any leaders, it could not

have done anything but make a return movement toward Moscow, describing

an arc in the direction where most provisions were to be found and where

the country was richest.

That movement from the Nízhni to the Ryazán, Túla, and Kalúga roads was

so natural that even the Russian marauders moved in that direction, and

demands were sent from Petersburg for Kutúzov to take his army that

way. At Tarútino Kutúzov received what was almost a reprimand from

the Emperor for having moved his army along the Ryazán road, and the

Emperor’s letter indicated to him the very position he had already

occupied near Kalúga.

Having rolled like a ball in the direction of the impetus given by the

whole campaign and by the battle of Borodinó, the Russian army—when

the strength of that impetus was exhausted and no fresh push was

received—assumed the position natural to it.

Kutúzov’s merit lay, not in any strategic maneuver of genius, as it is

called, but in the fact that he alone understood the significance of

what had happened. He alone then understood the meaning of the French

army’s inactivity, he alone continued to assert that the battle of

Borodinó had been a victory, he alone—who as commander in chief might

have been expected to be eager to attack—employed his whole strength to

restrain the Russian army from useless engagements.

The beast wounded at Borodinó was lying where the fleeing hunter had

left him; but whether he was still alive, whether he was strong and

merely lying low, the hunter did not know. Suddenly the beast was heard

to moan.

The moan of that wounded beast (the French army) which betrayed its

calamitous condition was the sending of Lauriston to Kutúzov’s camp with

overtures for peace.

Napoleon, with his usual assurance that whatever entered his head was

right, wrote to Kutúzov the first words that occurred to him, though

they were meaningless.

MONSIEUR LE PRINCE KOUTOUZOV: I am sending one of my adjutants-general

to discuss several interesting questions with you. I beg your Highness

to credit what he says to you, especially when he expresses the

sentiment of esteem and special regard I have long entertained for your

person. This letter having no other object, I pray God, monsieur le

prince Koutouzov, to keep you in His holy and gracious protection!

NAPOLEON

MOSCOW, OCTOBER 30, 1812

Kutúzov replied: “I should be cursed by posterity were I looked on as

the initiator of a settlement of any sort. Such is the present spirit

of my nation.” But he continued to exert all his powers to restrain his

troops from attacking.

During the month that the French troops were pillaging in Moscow and

the Russian troops were quietly encamped at Tarútino, a change had taken

place in the relative strength of the two armies—both in spirit and in

number—as a result of which the superiority had passed to the Russian

side. Though the condition and numbers of the French army were unknown

to the Russians, as soon as that change occurred the need of attacking

at once showed itself by countless signs. These signs were: Lauriston’s

mission; the abundance of provisions at Tarútino; the reports coming in

from all sides of the inactivity and disorder of the French; the flow of

recruits to our regiments; the fine weather; the long rest the Russian

soldiers had enjoyed, and the impatience to do what they had been

assembled for, which usually shows itself in an army that has been

resting; curiosity as to what the French army, so long lost sight of,

was doing; the boldness with which our outposts now scouted close up to

the French stationed at Tarútino; the news of easy successes gained by

peasants and guerrilla troops over the French, the envy aroused by this;

the desire for revenge that lay in the heart of every Russian as long as

the French were in Moscow, and (above all) a dim consciousness in every

soldier’s mind that the relative strength of the armies had changed and

that the advantage was now on our side. There was a substantial change

in the relative strength, and an advance had become inevitable. And at

once, as a clock begins to strike and chime as soon as the minute hand

has completed a full circle, this change was shown by an increased

activity, whirring, and chiming in the higher spheres.