Bab Bab 294 · 第294章

In the early days of October another envoy came to Kutúzov with a letter

from Napoleon proposing peace and falsely dated from Moscow, though

Napoleon was already not far from Kutúzov on the old Kalúga road.

Kutúzov replied to this letter as he had done to the one formerly

brought by Lauriston, saying that there could be no question of peace.

Soon after that a report was received from Dórokhov’s guerrilla

detachment operating to the left of Tarútino that troops of Broussier’s

division had been seen at Formínsk and that being separated from the

rest of the French army they might easily be destroyed. The soldiers and

officers again demanded action. Generals on the staff, excited by the

memory of the easy victory at Tarútino, urged Kutúzov to carry out

Dórokhov’s suggestion. Kutúzov did not consider any offensive necessary.

The result was a compromise which was inevitable: a small detachment was

sent to Formínsk to attack Broussier.

By a strange coincidence, this task, which turned out to be a most

difficult and important one, was entrusted to Dokhtúrov—that same modest

little Dokhtúrov whom no one had described to us as drawing up plans

of battles, dashing about in front of regiments, showering crosses on

batteries, and so on, and who was thought to be and was spoken of as

undecided and undiscerning—but whom we find commanding wherever the

position was most difficult all through the Russo-French wars from

Austerlitz to the year 1813. At Austerlitz he remained last at the

Augezd dam, rallying the regiments, saving what was possible when all

were flying and perishing and not a single general was left in the rear

guard. Ill with fever he went to Smolénsk with twenty thousand men

to defend the town against Napoleon’s whole army. In Smolénsk, at the

Malákhov Gate, he had hardly dozed off in a paroxysm of fever before he

was awakened by the bombardment of the town—and Smolénsk held out all

day long. At the battle of Borodinó, when Bagratión was killed and nine

tenths of the men of our left flank had fallen and the full force of the

French artillery fire was directed against it, the man sent there was

this same irresolute and undiscerning Dokhtúrov—Kutúzov hastening to

rectify a mistake he had made by sending someone else there first.

And the quiet little Dokhtúrov rode thither, and Borodinó became the

greatest glory of the Russian army. Many heroes have been described to

us in verse and prose, but of Dokhtúrov scarcely a word has been said.

It was Dokhtúrov again whom they sent to Formínsk and from there to

Málo-Yaroslávets, the place where the last battle with the French was

fought and where the obvious disintegration of the French army began;

and we are told of many geniuses and heroes of that period of the

campaign, but of Dokhtúrov nothing or very little is said and that

dubiously. And this silence about Dokhtúrov is the clearest testimony to

his merit.

It is natural for a man who does not understand the workings of a

machine to imagine that a shaving that has fallen into it by chance

and is interfering with its action and tossing about in it is its most

important part. The man who does not understand the construction of

the machine cannot conceive that the small connecting cogwheel which

revolves quietly is one of the most essential parts of the machine, and

not the shaving which merely harms and hinders the working.

On the tenth of October when Dokhtúrov had gone halfway to Formínsk and

stopped at the village of Aristóvo, preparing faithfully to execute the

orders he had received, the whole French army having, in its convulsive

movement, reached Murat’s position apparently in order to give

battle—suddenly without any reason turned off to the left onto the new

Kalúga road and began to enter Formínsk, where only Broussier had

been till then. At that time Dokhtúrov had under his command, besides

Dórokhov’s detachment, the two small guerrilla detachments of Figner and

Seslávin.

On the evening of October 11 Seslávin came to the Aristóvo headquarters

with a French guardsman he had captured. The prisoner said that the

troops that had entered Formínsk that day were the vanguard of the whole

army, that Napoleon was there and the whole army had left Moscow four

days previously. That same evening a house serf who had come from

Bórovsk said he had seen an immense army entering the town. Some

Cossacks of Dokhtúrov’s detachment reported having sighted the French

Guards marching along the road to Bórovsk. From all these reports it was

evident that where they had expected to meet a single division there

was now the whole French army marching from Moscow in an unexpected

direction—along the Kalúga road. Dokhtúrov was unwilling to undertake

any action, as it was not clear to him now what he ought to do. He had

been ordered to attack Formínsk. But only Broussier had been there at

that time and now the whole French army was there. Ermólov wished to act

on his own judgment, but Dokhtúrov insisted that he must have Kutúzov’s

instructions. So it was decided to send a dispatch to the staff.

For this purpose a capable officer, Bolkhovítinov, was chosen, who

was to explain the whole affair by word of mouth, besides delivering

a written report. Toward midnight Bolkhovítinov, having received the

dispatch and verbal instructions, galloped off to the General Staff

accompanied by a Cossack with spare horses.