Book Nine: 1812 - Chapter VI

by Leo Tolstoy

　　Though Balashev was used to imperial pomp, he was amazed at theluxury and magnificence of Napoleon's court.

　　The Comte de Turenne showed him into a big reception room where manygenerals, gentlemen-in-waiting, and Polish magnates- several of whomBalashev had seen at the court of the Emperor of Russia- were waiting.Duroc said that Napoleon would receive the Russian general beforegoing for his ride.

　　After some minutes, the gentleman-in-waiting who was on duty cameinto the great reception room and, bowing politely, asked Balashevto follow him.

　　Balashev went into a small reception room, one door of which ledinto a study, the very one from which the Russian Emperor haddispatched him on his mission. He stood a minute or two, waiting. Heheard hurried footsteps beyond the door, both halves of it were openedrapidly; all was silent and then from the study the sound was heard ofother steps, firm and resolute- they were those of Napoleon. He hadjust finished dressing for his ride, and wore a blue uniform,opening in front over a white waistcoat so long that it covered hisrotund stomach, white leather breeches tightly fitting the fatthighs of his short legs, and Hessian boots. His short hair hadevidently just been brushed, but one lock hung down in the middle ofhis broad forehead. His plump white neck stood out sharply above theblack collar of his uniform, and he smelled of Eau de Cologne. Hisfull face, rather young-looking, with its prominent chin, wore agracious and majestic expression of imperial welcome.

　　He entered briskly, with a jerk at every step and his headslightly thrown back. His whole short corpulent figure with broadthick shoulders, and chest and stomach involuntarily protruding, hadthat imposing and stately appearance one sees in men of forty who livein comfort. It was evident, too, that he was in the best of spiritsthat day.

　　He nodded in answer to Balashav's low and respectful bow, and comingup to him at once began speaking like a man who values every moment ofhis time and does not condescend to prepare what he has to say butis sure he will always say the right thing and say it well.

　　"Good day, General!" said he. "I have received the letter youbrought from the Emperor Alexander and am very glad to see you." Heglanced with his large eyes into Balashav's face and immediatelylooked past him.

　　It was plain that Balashev's personality did not interest him atall. Evidently only what took place within his own mind interestedhim. Nothing outside himself had any significance for him, becauseeverything in the world, it seemed to him, depended entirely on hiswill.

　　"I do not, and did not, desire war," he continued, "but it hasbeen forced on me. Even now" (he emphasized the word) "I am ready toreceive any explanations you can give me."

　　And he began clearly and concisely to explain his reasons fordissatisfaction with the Russian government. Judging by the calmlymoderate and amicable tone in which the French Emperor spoke, Balashevwas firmly persuaded that he wished for peace and intended to enterinto negotiations.

　　When Napoleon, having finished speaking, looked inquiringly at theRussian envoy, Balashev began a speech he had prepared long before:"Sire! The Emperor, my master..." but the sight of the Emperor'seyes bent on him confused him. "You are flurried- compose yourself!"Napoleon seemed to say, as with a scarcely perceptible smile he lookedat Balashev's uniform and sword.

　　Balashev recovered himself and began to speak. He said that theEmperor Alexander did not consider Kurakin's demand for hispassports a sufficient cause for war; that Kurakin had acted on hisown initiative and without his sovereign's assent, that the EmperorAlexander did not desire war, and had no relations with England.

　　"Not yet!" interposed Napoleon, and, as if fearing to give vent tohis feelings, he frowned and nodded slightly as a sign that Balashevmight proceed.

　　After saying all he had been instructed to say, Balashev addedthat the Emperor Alexander wished for peace, but would not enterinto negotiations except on condition that... Here Balashev hesitated:he remembered the words the Emperor Alexander had not written in hisletter, but had specially inserted in the rescript to Saltykov and hadtold Balashev to repeat to Napoleon. Balashev remembered thesewords, "So long as a single armed foe remains on Russian soil," butsome complex feeling restrained him. He could not utter them, thoughhe wished to do so. He grew confused and said: "On condition thatthe French army retires beyond the Niemen."

　　Napoleon noticed Balashev's embarrassment when uttering these lastwords; his face twitched and the calf of his left leg began toquiver rhythmically. Without moving from where he stood he beganspeaking in a louder tone and more hurriedly than before. During thespeech that followed, Balashev, who more than once lowered his eyes,involuntarily noticed the quivering of Napoleon's left leg whichincreased the more Napoleon raised his voice.

　　"I desire peace, no less than the Emperor Alexander," he began."Have I not for eighteen months been doing everything to obtain it?I have waited eighteen months for explanations. But in order tobegin negotiations, what is demanded of me?" he said, frowning andmaking an energetic gesture of inquiry with his small white plumphand.

　　"The withdrawal of your army beyond the Niemen, sire," repliedBalashev.

　　"The Niemen?" repeated Napoleon. "So now you want me to retirebeyond the Niemen- only the Niemen?" repeated Napoleon, lookingstraight at Balashev.

　　The latter bowed his head respectfully.

　　Instead of the demand of four months earlier to withdraw fromPomerania, only a withdrawal beyond the Niemen was now demanded.Napoleon turned quickly and began to pace the room.

　　"You say the demand now is that I am to withdraw beyond the Niemenbefore commencing negotiations, but in just the same way two monthsago the demand was that I should withdraw beyond the Vistula and theOder, and yet you are willing to negotiate."

　　He went in silence from one corner of the room to the other andagain stopped in front of Balashev. Balashev noticed that his left legwas quivering faster than before and his face seemed petrified inits stern expression. This quivering of his left leg was a thingNapoleon was conscious of. "The vibration of my left calf is a greatsign with me," he remarked at a later date.

　　"Such demands as to retreat beyond the Vistula and Oder may bemade to a Prince of Baden, but not to me!" Napoleon almost screamed,quite to his own surprise. "If you gave me Petersburg and Moscow Icould not accept such conditions. You say I have begun this war! Butwho first joined his army? The Emperor Alexander, not I! And you offerme negotiations when I have expended millions, when you are inalliance with England, and when your position is a bad one. Youoffer me negotiations! But what is the aim of your alliance withEngland? What has she given you?" he continued hurriedly, evidently nolonger trying to show the advantages of peace and discuss itspossibility, but only to prove his own rectitude and power andAlexander's errors and duplicity.

　　The commencement of his speech had obviously been made with theintention of demonstrating the advantages of his position andshowing that he was nevertheless willing to negotiate. But he hadbegun talking, and the more he talked the less could he control hiswords.

　　The whole purport of his remarks now was evidently to exalthimself and insult Alexander- just what he had least desired at thecommencement of the interview.

　　"I hear you have made peace with Turkey?"

　　Balashev bowed his head affirmatively.

　　"Peace has been concluded..." he began.

　　But Napoleon did not let him speak. He evidently wanted to do allthe talking himself, and continued to talk with the sort ofeloquence and unrestrained irritability to which spoiled people are soprone.

　　"Yes, I know you have made peace with the Turks without obtainingMoldavia and Wallachia; I would have given your sovereign thoseprovinces as I gave him Finland. Yes," he went on, "I promised andwould have given the Emperor Alexander Moldavia and Wallachia, and nowhe won't have those splendid provinces. Yet he might have unitedthem to his empire and in a single reign would have extended Russiafrom the Gulf of Bothnia to the mouths of the Danube. Catherine theGreat could not have done more," said Napoleon, growing more andmore excited as he paced up and down the room, repeating to Balashevalmost the very words he had used to Alexander himself at Tilsit. "Allthat, he would have owed to my friendship. Oh, what a splendid reign!"he repeated several times, then paused, drew from his pocket a goldsnuffbox, lifted it to his nose, and greedily sniffed at it.

　　"What a splendid reign the Emperor Alexander's might have been!"

　　He looked compassionately at Balashev, and as soon as the lattertried to make some rejoinder hastily interrupted him.

　　"What could he wish or look for that he would not have obtainedthrough my friendship?" demanded Napoleon, shrugging his shouldersin perplexity. "But no, he has preferred to surround himself with myenemies, and with whom? With Steins, Armfeldts, Bennigsens, andWintzingerodes! Stein, a traitor expelled from his own country;Armfeldt, a rake and an intriguer; Wintzingerode, a fugitive Frenchsubject; Bennigsen, rather more of a soldier than the others, butall the same an incompetent who was unable to do anything in 1807and who should awaken terrible memories in the Emperor Alexander'smind.... Granted that were they competent they might be made useof," continued Napoleon- hardly able to keep pace in words with therush of thoughts that incessantly sprang up, proving how right andstrong he was (in his perception the two were one and the same)-"but they are not even that! They are neither fit for war nor peace!Barclay is said to be the most capable of them all, but I cannot sayso, judging by his first movements. And what are they doing, all thesecourtiers? Pfuel proposes, Armfeldt disputes, Bennigsen considers, andBarclay, called on to act, does not know what to decide on, and timepasses bringing no result. Bagration alone is a military man. He'sstupid, but he has experience, a quick eye, and resolution.... Andwhat role is your young monarch playing in that monstrous crowd?They compromise him and throw on him the responsibility for all thathappens. A sovereign should not be with the army unless he is ageneral!" said Napoleon, evidently uttering these words as a directchallenge to the Emperor. He knew how Alexander desired to be amilitary commander.

　　"The campaign began only a week ago, and you haven't even beenable to defend Vilna. You are cut in two and have been driven out ofthe Polish provinces. Your army is grumbling."

　　"On the contrary, Your Majesty," said Balashev, hardly able toremember what had been said to him and following these verbalfireworks with difficulty, "the troops are burning with eagerness..."

　　"I know everything!" Napoleon interrupted him. "I know everything. Iknow the number of your battalions as exactly as I know my own. Youhave not two hundred thousand men, and I have three times that number.I give you my word of honor," said Napoleon, forgetting that hisword of honor could carry no weight- "I give you my word of honor thatI have five hundred and thirty thousand men this side of theVistula. The Turks will be of no use to you; they are worth nothingand have shown it by making peace with you. As for the Swedes- it istheir fate to be governed by mad kings. Their king was insane and theychanged him for another- Bernadotte, who promptly went mad- for noSwede would ally himself with Russia unless he were mad."

　　Napoleon grinned maliciously and again raised his snuffbox to hisnose.

　　Balashev knew how to reply to each of Napoleon's remarks, andwould have done so; he continually made the gesture of a man wishingto say something, but Napoleon always interrupted him. To thealleged insanity of the Swedes, Balashev wished to reply that whenRussia is on her side Sweden is practically an island: but Napoleongave an angry exclamation to drown his voice. Napoleon was in thatstate of irritability in which a man has to talk, talk, and talk,merely to convince himself that he is in the right. Balashev beganto feel uncomfortable: as envoy he feared to demean his dignity andfelt the necessity of replying; but, as a man, he shrank before thetransport of groundless wrath that had evidently seized Napoleon. Heknew that none of the words now uttered by Napoleon had anysignificance, and that Napoleon himself would be ashamed of themwhen he came to his senses. Balashev stood with downcast eyes, lookingat the movements of Napoleon's stout legs and trying to avoidmeeting his eyes.

　　"But what do I care about your allies?" said Napoleon. "I haveallies- the Poles. There are eighty thousand of them and they fightlike lions. And there will be two hundred thousand of them."

　　And probably still more perturbed by the fact that he had utteredthis obvious falsehood, and that Balashev still stood silentlybefore him in the same attitude of submission to fate, Napoleonabruptly turned round, drew close to Balashev's face, and,gesticulating rapidly and energetically with his white hands, almostshouted:

　　"Know that if you stir up Prussia against me, I'll wipe it off themap of Europe!" he declared, his face pale and distorted by anger, andhe struck one of his small hands energetically with the other. "Yes, Iwill throw you back beyond the Dvina and beyond the Dnieper, andwill re-erect against you that barrier which it was criminal and blindof Europe to allow to be destroyed. Yes, that is what will happen toyou. That is what you have gained by alienating me!" And he walkedsilently several times up and down the room, his fat shoulderstwitching.

　　He put his snuffbox into his waistcoat pocket, took it out again,lifted it several times to his nose, and stopped in front of Balashev.He paused, looked ironically straight into Balashev's eyes, and saidin a quiet voice:

　　"And yet what a splendid reign your master might have had!"

　　Balashev, feeling it incumbent on him to reply, said that from theRussian side things did not appear in so gloomy a light. Napoleonwas silent, still looking derisively at him and evidently notlistening to him. Balashev said that in Russia the best results wereexpected from the war. Napoleon nodded condescendingly, as if tosay, "I know it's your duty to say that, but you don't believe ityourself. I have convinced you."

　　When Balashev had ended, Napoleon again took out his snuffbox,sniffed at it, and stamped his foot twice on the floor as a signal.The door opened, a gentleman-in-waiting, bending respectfully,handed the Emperor his hat and gloves; another brought hima pockethandkerchief. Napoleon, without giving them a glance, turned toBalashev:

　　"Assure the Emperor Alexander from me," said he, taking his hat,"that I am as devoted to him as before: I know him thoroughly and veryhighly esteem his lofty qualities. I will detain you no longer,General; you shall receive my letter to the Emperor."

　　And Napoleon went quickly to the door. Everyone in the receptionroom rushed forward and descended the staircase.