Book Five: 1806-07 - Chapter IX

by Leo Tolstoy

　　Bilibin was now at army headquarters in a diplomatic capacity, andthough he wrote in French and used French jests and French idioms,he described the whole campaign with a fearless self-censure andself-derision genuinely Russian. Bilibin wrote that the obligationof diplomatic discretion tormented him, and he was happy to have inPrince Andrew a reliable correspondent to whom he could pour out thebile he had accumulated at the sight of all that was being done in thearmy. The letter was old, having been written before the battle atPreussisch-Eylau.

　　"Since the day of our brilliant success at Austerlitz," wroteBilibin, "as you know, my dear prince, I never leave headquarters. Ihave certainly acquired a taste for war, and it is just as well forme; what I have seen during these last three months is incredible.

　　"I begin ab ovo. 'The enemy of the human race,' as you know, attacksthe Prussians. The Prussians are our faithful allies who have onlybetrayed us three times in three years. We take up their cause, but itturns out that 'the enemy of the human race' pays no heed to ourfine speeches and in his rude and savage way throws himself on thePrussians without giving them time to finish the parade they hadbegun, and in two twists of the hand he breaks them to smithereens andinstalls himself in the palace at Potsdam.

　　"'I most ardently desire,' writes the King of Prussia toBonaparte, 'that Your Majesty should be received and treated in mypalace in a manner agreeable to yourself, and in so far ascircumstances allowed, I have hastened to take all steps to thatend. May I have succeeded!' The Prussian generals pride themselveson being polite to the French and lay down their arms at the firstdemand.

　　"The head of the garrison at Glogau, with ten thousand men, asks theKing of Prussia what he is to do if he is summoned to surrender....All this is absolutely true.

　　"In short, hoping to settle matters by taking up a warlike attitude,it turns out that we have landed ourselves in war, and what is more,in war on our own frontiers, with and for the King of Prussia. We haveeverything in perfect order, only one little thing is lacking, namely,a commander in chief. As it was considered that the Austerlitz successmight have been more decisive had the commander in chief not been soyoung, all our octogenarians were reviewed, and of Prozorovski andKamenski the latter was preferred. The general comes to us,Suvorov-like, in a kibitka, and is received with acclamations of joyand triumph.

　　"On the 4th, the first courier arrives from Petersburg. The mailsare taken to the field marshal's room, for he likes to do everythinghimself. I am called in to help sort the letters and take thosemeant for us. The field marshal looks on and waits for lettersaddressed to him. We search, but none are to be found. The fieldmarshal grows impatient and sets to work himself and finds lettersfrom the Emperor to Count T., Prince V., and others. Then he burstsinto one of his wild furies and rages at everyone and everything,seizes the letters, opens them, and reads those from the Emperoraddressed to others. 'Ah! So that's the way they treat me! Noconfidence in me! Ah, ordered to keep an eye on me! Very well then!Get along with you!' So he writes the famous order of the day toGeneral Bennigsen:

　　'I am wounded and cannot ride and consequently cannot command thearmy. You have brought your army corps to Pultusk, routed: here itis exposed, and without fuel or forage, so something must be done,and, as you yourself reported to Count Buxhowden yesterday, you mustthink of retreating to our frontier- which do today.'

　　"'From all my riding,' he writes to the Emperor, 'I have got asaddle sore which, coming after all my previous journeys, quiteprevents my riding and commanding so vast an army, so I have passed onthe command to the general next in seniority, Count Buxhowden,having sent him my whole staff and all that belongs to it, advisinghim if there is a lack of bread, to move farther into the interiorof Prussia, for only one day's ration of bread remains, and in someregiments none at all, as reported by the division commanders,Ostermann and Sedmoretzki, and all that the peasants had has beeneaten up. I myself will remain in hospital at Ostrolenka till Irecover. In regard to which I humbly submit my report, with theinformation that if the army remains in its present bivouac anotherfortnight there will not be a healthy man left in it by spring.

　　"'Grant leave to retire to his country seat to an old man who isalready in any case dishonored by being unable to fulfill the greatand glorious task for which he was chosen. I shall await your mostgracious permission here in hospital, that I may not have to playthe part of a secretary rather than commander in the army. Myremoval from the army does not produce the slightest stir- a blind manhas left it. There are thousands such as I in Russia.'

　　"The field marshal is angry with the Emperor and he punishes us all,isn't it logical?

　　"This is the first act. Those that follow are naturally increasinglyinteresting and entertaining. After the field marshal's departure itappears that we are within sight of the enemy and must give battle.Buxhowden is commander in chief by seniority, but General Bennigsendoes not quite see it; more particularly as it is he and his corps whoare within sight of the enemy and he wishes to profit by theopportunity to fight a battle 'on his own hand' as the Germans say. Hedoes so. This is the battle of Pultusk, which is considered a greatvictory but in my opinion was nothing of the kind. We civilians, asyou know, have a very bad way of deciding whether a battle was wonor lost. Those who retreat after a battle have lost it is what we say;and according to that it is we who lost the battle of Pultusk. Inshort, we retreat after the battle but send a courier to Petersburgwith news of a victory, and General Bennigsen, hoping to receivefrom Petersburg the post of commander in chief as a reward for hisvictory, does not give up the command of the army to GeneralBuxhowden. During this interregnum we begin a very original andinteresting series of maneuvers. Our aim is no longer, as it shouldbe, to avoid or attack the enemy, but solely to avoid GeneralBuxhowden who by right of seniority should be our chief. Soenergetically do we pursue this aim that after crossing anunfordable river we burn the bridges to separate ourselves from ourenemy, who at the moment is not Bonaparte but Buxhowden. GeneralBuxhowden was all but attacked and captured by a superior enemyforce as a result of one of these maneuvers that enabled us toescape him. Buxhowden pursues us- we scuttle. He hardly crosses theriver to our side before we recross to the other. At last our enemy.Buxhowden, catches us and attacks. Both generals are angry, and theresult is a challenge on Buxhowden's part and an epileptic fit onBennigsen's. But at the critical moment the courier who carried thenews of our victory at Pultusk to Petersburg returns bringing ourappointment as commander in chief, and our first foe, Buxhowden, isvanquished; we can now turn our thoughts to the second, Bonaparte. Butas it turns out, just at that moment a third enemy rises before us-namely the Orthodox Russian soldiers, loudly demanding bread, meat,biscuits, fodder, and whatnot! The stores are empty, the roadsimpassable. The Orthodox begin looting, and in a way of which our lastcampaign can give you no idea. Half the regiments form bands and scourthe countryside and put everything to fire and sword. Theinhabitants are totally ruined, the hospitals overflow with sick,and famine is everywhere. Twice the marauders even attack ourheadquarters, and the commander in chief has to ask for a battalion todisperse them. During one of these attacks they carried off my emptyportmanteau and my dressing gown. The Emperor proposes to give allcommanders of divisions the right to shoot marauders, but I muchfear this will oblige one half the army to shoot the other."

　　At first Prince Andrew read with his eyes only, but after a while,in spite of himself (although he knew how far it was safe to trustBilibin), what he had read began to interest him more and more. Whenhe had read thus far, he crumpled the letter up and threw it away.It was not what he had read that vexed him, but the fact that the lifeout there in which he had now no part could perturb him. He shut hiseyes, rubbed his forehead as if to rid himself of all interest in whathe had read, and listened to what was passing in the nursery. Suddenlyhe thought he heard a strange noise through the door. He was seizedwith alarm lest something should have happened to the child while hewas reading the letter. He went on tiptoe to the nursery door andopened it.

　　Just as he went in he saw that the nurse was hiding something fromhim with a scared look and that Princess Mary was no longer by thecot.

　　"My dear," he heard what seemed to him her despairing whisper behindhim.

　　As often happens after long sleeplessness and long anxiety, he wasseized by an unreasoning panic- it occurred to him that the childwas dead. All that he saw and heard seemed to confirm this terror.

　　"All is over," he thought, and a cold sweat broke out on hisforehead. He went to the cot in confusion, sure that he would findit empty and that the nurse had been hiding the dead baby. He drew thecurtain aside and for some time his frightened, restless eyes couldnot find the baby. At last he saw him: the rosy boy had tossed abouttill he lay across the bed with his head lower than the pillow, andwas smacking his lips in his sleep and breathing evenly.

　　Prince Andrew was as glad to find the boy like that, as if he hadalready lost him. He bent over him and, as his sister had taughthim, tried with his lips whether the child was still feverish. Thesoft forehead was moist. Prince Andrew touched the head with his hand;even the hair was wet, so profusely had the child perspired. He wasnot dead, but evidently the crisis was over and he was convalescent.Prince Andrew longed to snatch up, to squeeze, to hold to his heart,this helpless little creature, but dared not do so. He stood over him,gazing at his head and at the little arms and legs which showedunder the blanket. He heard a rustle behind him and a shadowappeared under the curtain of the cot. He did not look round, butstill gazing at the infant's face listened to his regular breathing.The dark shadow was Princess Mary, who had come up to the cot withnoiseless steps, lifted the curtain, and dropped it again behindher. Prince Andrew recognized her without looking and held out hishand to her. She pressed it.

　　"He has perspired," said Prince Andrew.

　　"I was coming to tell you so."

　　The child moved slightly in his sleep, smiled, and rubbed hisforehead against the pillow.

　　Prince Andrew looked at his sister. In the dim shadow of the curtainher luminous eyes shone more brightly than usual from the tears of joythat were in them. She leaned over to her brother and kissed him,slightly catching the curtain of the cot. Each made the other awarning gesture and stood still in the dim light beneath the curtainas if not wishing to leave that seclusion where they three were shutoff from all the world. Prince Andrew was the first to move away,ruffling his hair against the muslin of the curtain.

　　"Yes, this is the one thing left me now," he said with a sigh.