Through Russian Snows (25 page)

"It was desperate work," Julian said, "more terrible than anything I
could have imagined. How anyone escaped alive is more than I can say.
Every wall, every house seemed to be fringed with fire. I heard no word
of command during the day; all there was to do was to load and
fire—sometimes to rush forward when the rest did so, sometimes to fall
back when the Russians poured down upon us. Shall we begin again
to-morrow?"

"I suppose so," the sergeant replied. "We certainly sha'n't march away
until we have taken it. Perhaps the enemy may evacuate it. The whole
town is a sea of flames; there is nothing to fight for, and next time we
shall no doubt breach the walls thoroughly before we try. You see, we
undervalued the Russians, and we sha'n't make that mistake again. Well,
lad, we have both got out of it without serious damage, for that bullet
you got through your arm will soon heal up again, but there is one
thing, if you remain in the army for the next twenty years you are not
likely to see harder fighting."

That night, indeed, Smolensk was evacuated by the Russians, contrary to
the wishes of both officers and men, Prince Eugene and General Doctorow
declaring that they could hold on for ten days longer. This might
doubtless have been done, but Barclay was afraid that Napoleon might
sweep round and cross the river somewhere to his left, and that in that
case he must fall back, and the town would have to be evacuated in the
day time when the enemy could sweep the bridges with their fire. By
three o'clock in the morning the whole force in the city had crossed,
and the bridges were burnt behind them. The flames acquainted the French
with the fact that the city had been evacuated, and at daybreak they
entered the town, and soon afterwards their skirmishers opened fire on
the Russians on the other side of the river. At eight o'clock a Spanish
brigade crossed the river waist deep, and entered the suburb known as
St. Petersburg, on the right bank; but they were at once attacked; many
were killed or taken prisoners, and the rest driven across the river
again.

General Barclay then withdrew his army to the heights, wishing to tempt
the enemy to cross, intending to give them battle before all had made
the passage; but Napoleon kept his troops in hand, except that his
artillery maintained a fire to the right against the Russians. At eight
o'clock in the evening some skirmishers crossed the river, and fires
shortly broke out in St. Petersburg, and in an hour several hundred
houses, extending for a mile along the river, were in a blaze, while
those in Smolensk were still burning fiercely. At night the Russians
again fell back. The direct road lay parallel with the river, but as it
was commanded by the enemy's guns General Barclay directed the force,
divided into two columns, to march by cross roads. These led over two
steep hills, and, owing to the harness breaking, these roads soon became
blocked, and the march was discontinued till daylight enabled the
drivers to get the five hundred guns and the ammunition trains up the
hills.

The French, finding that the Russian army was going off, crossed the
river in force and furiously attacked their rear-guard, and tried to
penetrate between it and the main body of the army, but Prince Eugene's
division was sent back to assist General Korf, who commanded there. In
the meantime two columns of the French moved along the main road to
Moscow with the evident intention of heading the Russian army at
Loubino, the point where the cross road by which they were travelling
came into it. This they might have accomplished owing to the much
shorter distance they had to travel and the delays caused by the
difficulty of getting the guns over the hills, but a small Russian
corps under Touchkoff had been sent forward to cover that point. Ney had
crossed the river early by two bridges he had thrown over it, and
Touchkoff, as he saw this force pressing along the main road, took up a
position where he covered Loubino, and for some hours repulsed all the
efforts of the French to pass.

At three o'clock the pressure upon Touchkoff became so severe that
several regiments from Barclay's column, which was passing safely along
while he kept the road open for them, were sent to his assistance, and
the fight continued. Napoleon believed that the whole Russian force had
taken post at Loubino, and sent forward reinforcements to Ney. The woods
were so thick that it was some time before these reached him, the guns
of one of the columns being obliged to go a mile and a half through a
wood before they could turn, so dense was the growth of the trees. Ney
now pressed forward with such vigour that Touchkoff was driven from his
position in advance, upon the village itself, where he was again
reinforced by four infantry battalions, two regiments of cavalry, and
heavy guns. Murat with his cavalry endeavoured to turn the Russian left,
but the two Russian cavalry regiments, supported by their artillery,
maintained their ground. Soon after five o'clock the French had received
such large reinforcements that the Russians were forced to give way, and
were in full retreat when Barclay himself arrived upon the scene, and
rallied them. The battle was renewed, and the last effort of the French
was repulsed by a charge with the bayonet by the Russian grenadiers.

In the charge, however, General Touchkoff, by whose valour the Russian
army had been saved, was carried too far in advance of his men, and was
taken prisoner. It was not until midnight that the rear of Barclay's
column emerged from the cross road, in which it had been involved for
twenty-four hours. In this fight the French and Russians lost about
6000 men each. Had Junot joined Ney in the attack on Touchkoff's force
the greater part of the Russian army must have been destroyed or made
prisoners.

The Russian army now pursued its march towards Moscow unmolested save by
some attacks by Murat's cavalry. Ney's corps d'armée had borne the brunt
of the fighting at Loubino, and had been diminished in strength by
another 4000 men. In this battle, however, Julian's regiment, having
suffered so heavily in the attack at Smolensk, was one of those held in
reserve. Napoleon was greatly disappointed at the escape of the Russian
army from his grasp. Only 30,000 Russians had been engaged both in the
action in their rear and in that at Loubino, while the whole of the
French army round Smolensk, with the exception of the corps of Junot,
had in vain endeavoured to break through the defence and to fall upon
the main body of the army so helplessly struggling along the road.

In the attack on Smolensk 12,000 of Napoleon's best soldiers had fallen.
Loubino cost him 6000 more, and although these numbers were but small in
proportion to the total strength of his army, they were exclusively
those of French soldiers belonging to the divisions in which he placed
his main trust. It was now a question with him whether he should
establish himself for the winter in the country he occupied, accumulate
stores, make Smolensk a great depôt that would serve as a base for his
advance in the spring, or move on at once against Moscow. On this point
he held a council with his marshals. The opinion of these was generally
favourable to the former course. The desperate fighting of the three
previous days had opened their eyes to the fact that even so great a
force as that led by Napoleon could not afford to despise the Russians.
The country that was at present occupied was rich. There were so many
towns that the army could go into comfortable quarters for the winter,
and their communications with the frontier were open and safe. It was
unquestionably the safer and more prudent course.

With these conclusions Napoleon agreed in theory. It had originally been
his intention to winter in the provinces that he had now overrun, and to
march against St. Petersburg or Moscow in the spring. He had, however,
other matters besides those of military expediency to consider. In the
first place, the Poles were exasperated at his refusal to re-establish
at once their ancient kingdom, a refusal necessitated by the fact that
he could not do so without taking from Austria and Prussia, his allies,
the Polish districts that had fallen to their share. Then, too, the
Poles felt the terrible pressure of supporting the army still in Poland,
and of contributing to the vast expenses of the war, and were the
campaign to continue long their attitude might change to one of open
hostility. In the next place, the conclusion of peace, brought about by
the efforts of England, between both Sweden and Turkey with Russia,
would enable the latter to bring up the whole of the forces that had
been engaged in the south with the Turks, and in the north watching the
Swedish frontier, and would give time for the new levies to be converted
into good soldiers and placed in the field.

Then, too, matters were going on badly in Spain. He could place but
little dependence upon Austria, Prussia, or Germany. Were he absent
another year from France he might find these countries leagued against
him. Therefore, although recognizing the justice of the arguments of his
marshals, he decided upon pushing on to Moscow, and establishing himself
there for the winter. He did not even yet recognize the stubbornness and
constancy of the Russian character, and believed that the spectacle of
their ancient capital in his hands would induce them at once to treat
for peace. The decision was welcome to the army. The general wish of the
soldiers was to get the matter over, and to be off home again. The
obstinacy with which the Russians fought, the rapidity with which they
marched, the intense animosity that had been excited among the peasants
by the cruel treatment to which they had been exposed, the recklessness
with which they threw away their lives so that they could but take
vengeance for their sufferings, the ferocity with which every straggler
or small detachment that fell into their hands was massacred—all these
things combined to excite a feeling of gloom and anxiety among the
soldiers.

There were no merry songs round the bivouac fires now; even the thought
of the plunder of Moscow failed to raise their spirits. The loss of so
many tried comrades was greatly felt in Ney's division. It had at first
numbered over 40,000, and the losses in battle and from sickness had
already reduced it by more than a fourth. Even the veterans lost their
usual impassive attitude of contentment with the existing state of
things.

"What I don't like," growled one of the old sergeants, "is that there is
not a soul in the villages, not a solitary man in the fields. It is not
natural. One gets the same sort of feeling one has when a thunderstorm
is just going to burst overhead. When it has begun you don't mind it,
but while you are waiting for the first flash, the first clap of
thunder, you get a sort of creepy feeling. That is just what the sight
of all this deserted country makes me feel. I have campaigned all over
Europe, but I never saw anything like this."

A growl of assent passed round the circle, and there was a general
repetition of the words, "It is not natural, comrade. Even in Spain,"
one said, "where they hate us like poison, the people don't leave their
villages like this. The young men may go, but the old men and the women
and children remain, and the priest is sure to stop. Here there is not
so much as a fowl to be seen in the streets. The whole population is
gone—man, woman, and child."

"It makes one feel," another said gloomily, "as if we were accursed,
infected with the plague, or something of that sort."

"Well, don't let us talk about it," another said with an effort at
cheerfulness. "There is Jules, he is the merriest fellow in our company.
Come here, Jules. We are all grumbling. What do you think of things?"

"I don't think much about them one way or the other," Julian said as he
came up. "We have not a great deal further to go to Moscow, and the
sooner we get there the better. Then we shall have the satisfaction of
seeing some people."

"Yes, Jules, that is what is vexing us, that everyone runs away at our
approach."

"And no fools either," Julian replied, "considering the villainous way
in which they have been harried. Even peasants have some feeling, and
when they are treated like wild beasts they will turn. It seems to me
that instead of ill-treating them we ought, with such a march as this
before us, to have done everything in our power to show them that,
although we were going to fight any armies that opposed us, we had no
ill-feeling against the people at large. If they had found us ready to
pay for everything we wanted, and to treat them as well as if they had
been our own country people, there would have been no running away from
us. Then, as we advanced we could have purchased an abundant supply of
food everywhere. We should have had no fear as to our communications,
and might have wandered a hundred yards outside our sentries without the
risk of having our throats cut. However, it is of no use going over
these arguments again. The thing has been done and cannot be undone, and
we have but to accept the consequences, and make the best of them. A man
who burns a wood mustn't complain a month afterwards because he has no
fuel. However, I hope that in another day or two we shall be moving on.
As long as we are going there is no time to feel it dull; it is the
halt, after being so long in motion, that gives us time to talk, and
puts fancies into our heads. We did not expect a pleasure excursion when
we started."

WITH THE RUSSIAN ARMY

When Frank arrived at Canterbury he found things in confusion, and
received the news that two troops had orders to march the next morning
for Portsmouth, where they were to embark for Spain.

"Why, the major said he would write!" he exclaimed. "His letter must
have missed me somehow. I shall have enough to do to get ready
to-night."

"You are not going, Wyatt," Wilmington, who was his informant, said.
"The order expressly stated that Cornet Wyatt was not to accompany his
troop, as his services were required in another direction, and that
another officer was to take his place, and I am going with your troop.
Lister has been grumbling desperately. What on earth can they want you
for? However, there is a batch of letters for you in the ante-room, and
I daresay you will learn something about it from them."