The Court Series of French Memoirs
RECOLLECTIONS OF AN OFFICER
OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY
THE EMPEROR
In the Uniform of a Grenadier.
RECOLLECTIONS OF
AN OFFICER OF
NAPOLEON'S ARMY
Captain Elz&ir Blaze
Translated from t&e
E. Jules Maras
SXURGIS & \V ALTON
COMPANY
1911
Copyright 1911
B7 STURGIS 4 WALTON COMPANY
Setnpandelectrotyped. Published October, 1911
INTRODUCTION
Elzear Jean Louis Joseph Blaze, soldier and
writer, was born at Cavaillon, France, in 1788 and
died in Paris in 1848* He was a pupil of the
Fontaincbleau Military School and as a member of
the Grande Armee took part in the Campaigns of
Prussia, 1 807 ; Austria, 1 809 ; Spain, 1 8 1 1 ; Russia,
1812; Saxony, 1813; and in the investment of
Hamburg, 1814. He continued in the army until
the Restauration at which time he retired with the
rank of captain. As a writer he has left us a half
dozen or more works on hunting, and his Vie Mil-
itaire sous I'Empire, ou M&urs de Garnison, de
Bivouac ct de Caserne, which book is here pre-
sented under the title of Recollections of an Officer
of Napoleon's Army.
Although the Empire of the great Napoleon is
the epoch about which the greatest number of
memoirs have been written, yet it is not necessarily
the best known. The Memoirs of the Marshals
INTRODUCTION
of the Empire were those first published, then
came those of the generals, and lastly those of the
subaltern officers.
In a book full of spirit and of a kind of South-
ern humour, from which part of France he came,
Captain Blaze gives us the plain, straightforward
story of the experiences in the field of one of Na-
poleon's soldiers. Having served in the army
from 1806 to the Restauration, Blaze is in a posi-
tion to give us particularly valuable information.
From Friedland to Wagram, having won the rank
of captain, he remained, out of liking for military
life, in direct contact with the troopers. A wide-
awake and judicious observer, Blaze describes the
soldier without flattery. His is a most precious
contribution to the study of the soldier of the Em-
pire whose disappointments and hopes he shared.
ILLUSTRATIONS
The Emperor in the Uniform of a Grenadier . Frontispiece
FACING PACK
Alexander First, Emperor of Russia 46
The Battle of Eylau 66
The Battle of Austerlitz 118
Murat 132
Napoleon at Tilsit 158
"Vive ISEmpereur" 214
Frederick 'William Third, King of Prussia 228
TOE FONTAINEBLEAU MILITARY
SCHOOL
RECOLLECTIONS OF AN OFFICER OF
NAPOLEON'S ARMY
CHAPTER I
THE FONTAINEBLEAU MILITARY SCHOOL
During the Empire, one could enter the service
in three different ways: one could enlist, it was
the simplest and least expensive way; one could
enroll in the velites* or else enter the Fontaine-
bleau Military School as a pupil.
The Fontainebleau Military School opened its
doors for 1,200 francs a year, but the crowd of
young men blocked them ; everyone could not enter.
Those who had not the time to await their turn
of admission entered the velites; it was a harder
way, one won the epaulet with greater difficulty,
but he wore a uniform sooner; at eighteen that
meant something.
One must have been a soldier at that time to
understand what magic there was in a uniform.
3
4 AN OFFICER OF
What a vision of a glorious future there was in
every young head wearing a plume for the first
time I Every French soldier carried his baton of
marshal of France in his cartridge-box; it was only
a question of getting it out. We saw nothing dif-
ficult in that; to-day I even think that at that time
we would not have limited to that our ambitious
dreams.
One thing worried us. " The devil I " we said,
" suppose Napoleon should stop when in so fine
a way. If he should conceive the unhappy idea
of making peace, farewell to all our hopes."
Fortunately our fears were not realised, for he cut
out more work for us than we were able to per-
form.
Two weeks after my arrival, I had worked so
well that I was considered worthy of mounting
guard for the first time. Once installed at the
post, the old soldiers who happened to be with me
made the enumeration of all the young ^elites who,
in a position equal to mine, had paid for their
welcome by treating their comrades at a neigh-
bouring inn. Such a one had done things in fine
style; another had behaved like a pekin, he had
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 5
hardly given enough to drink; one had entertained
lavishly: fresh pork-chops, sealed wine, coffee,
liqueurs. ... I then decided that I should
do as the last mentioned.
That day I wrote my name on the walls, behind
the sentry-box, with my bayonet; chance having
lately led me to the gate of the Champ-de-Mars,
I tried to see if I could still read it; after having
sought for a long time, I finally found it all cov-
ered with moss. The guard-house luncheon came
back to my mind with all its joyous circumstances.
Is there left another guest beside me, said I,
thinking of all the events that had followed one
another in the interval of thirty years. If some
old soldier had shown his face burned by the sun
of the Pyramids, I should have embraced him
heartily; oh! the good dinner we should have had
together 1
Many velites found the soldier's life tedious:
to become officers sooner, they went to the Fon-
tainebleau Military School; I was among the lat-
ter. My turn came to go to Fontainebleau.
... I departed. I was then obliged to re-
commence my education: in the velites we had
6 AN OFFICER OF
mounted drills, there we drilled on foot; from the
carbine I had to change to the musket That was
a small matter.
In the imperial guards the hair was worn short
in front, and the queue in the back; at the military
school we wore the forelock without queue; so that
for six months, cut in front or cut in the back, I
was always cut; my head remained bald and much
resembled that of a choir boy.
General Bellavenne was governor of the Fon-
tainbleau Military School. All those who have
known him can say that the place seemed to have
been created for him. We considered him strict,
but we were wrong; when one has six hundred
eighteen-year-old heads to lead, it is difficult to
do so without being strict. His alter ego, the
brave Kuhmann, seconded him capitally. This
epithet of brave had been given him by a man who
was a judge, by Napoleon himself. He was a
good, excellent Alsatian, who mangled the French
language, a stickler on discipline, and thinking only
of drills. I can still see him on the threshold of
his door, at the moment when the battalion took
their arms, making himself taller by three inches,
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 7
and shouting: " Heads erect, heads erect; immo-
bility in the most beautiful part of the drill! "
At five in the morning, the drum awoke us.
The courses in history, geography, mathematics,
drawing and fortifications kept us busy from hour
to hour; change of work was our relaxation and,
to vary our pleasures, four hours of drill, cleverly
arranged, divided our day in a most agreeable
manner; so that on going to bed, we had our heads
full of the heroes of Greece and Rome, of rivers
and mountains, of angles and tangents, of trenches
and bastions. All these things were a bit mixed
in our minds, the drill alone was positive; our
shoulders, our knees, and our hands prevented us
from mixing it with the rest.
Novels were prohibited at the military school:
one of our officers held them in horror. When
he walked through the study-rooms, he confiscated
everything that looked to him like a novel. He
knew the titles of the books we were supposed to
have, the remainder was reputed novels, forbidden,
and confiscated for good.
The pupils were expected to know Latin; it
was not taught at the school; consequently Virgil
8 AN OFFICER OF
was not on our officer's list; one evening, in the
study room, I was reading the u ^Eneid"; he
stepped behind me, and seized my book as a vulture
would carry away a nightingale.
" Another novel! " he exclaimed with a trium-
phant air.
" You are mistaken, it is Virgil."
" What does that Virgil talk about? "
" Of the siege of Troy, of wars, of battles
j
" Troy ! Troy ! It is fabulous ; another novel,
didn't I say so! Read VEcole de Peloton (the
platoon school) ; that's the best book to form the
youth. If you need diversion, imitate your neigh-
bour. He is acquiring knowledge, he is a young
man who employs his time usefully; if he stops
the reading, and mighty interesting reading it is,
of the roster of 1791, it is to take up books of
philosophy; he does not waste his time, as you do,
in reading twaddle." And my neighbour was
reading Therese Philosophe, a book anything but
philosophical.
" See how sharp all those pupils are ! To baffle
me, they have novels printed in ciphers." This
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 9
is what our good officer used to say as he confis-
cated the Tables of Logarithms.
Our mess at the school was the same as that of
the soldiers at the barracks : army-bread, and bean
alternating with lentil soup; it was the necessary
without extra, as you see. The bringing in of all
sorts of dainties was prohibited. Young people
are greedy, and our minds were always strained
in inventing new ways of smuggling. The door
keeper, a most strict custom's man, seized every-
thing that had the least resemblance to dainties;
they were not taken with the idea of sending them
back, but were retained by him, and the Lord
knows how watchful he was 1
Once a week we went into the forest of Fon-
tainebleau, either to draw plans, or for the cannon
manoeuvres. The artillery officers or professors
of mathematics with whom we were on those days,
much more indulgent than the officers detailed to
keep order in the school, permitted us to patronise
a swarm of pastry-cooks and miscellaneous food
venders who surrounded us with baskets filled with
good things, the prices of which soared as the
supply decreased.
io AN OFFICER OF
Just as those who go outside of the barriers to
get tipsy, we were unable to bring in anything
fraudulently except in our stomachs. On return-
ing we were always examined by piercing eyes,
searched by clever hands, and the smugglers were
punished. Nevertheless it was disagreeable, after
having had poultry, pates and ham ad libitum dur-
ing one day, to go back the next day to a dish of
plain lentils. The difference was enormous, much
too decided; to allow of its disappearing by grad-
ual and insensible changes, and to prolong our
gastronomic enjoyments, I invented the pates de
giberne. This sublimity drew to me from my
comrades the most flattering compliments and
placed my name among those of the benefactors
of the school.
You may or may not know how a giberne (car-
tridge-box) is constructed: it is a leather box con-
taining a piece of wood pierced with holes to
receive the cartridges. On leaving the school we
had our guns and our cartridge-boxes, but they
were empty. One day when, in the forest of
Fontainebleau, I was negotiating with all proper
seriousness a certain affair with a pastry boy, a
NAPOLEON'S ARMY n
luminous idea struck me: the most ordinary men
have at times flashes of genius. I took out the
piece of wood of which I have just spoken; and
showing it to the boy I told him to make pates
for us having exactly the same shape. I notified
all my comrades. The following week, everyone,
before leaving, left the piece of wood pierced with
holes under his bed, and we returned to the beat
of drums, each with a smuggled pdtS which we
had the pleasure of concealing from the glances
of all the custom's men of the school. We re-
peated this every week. During the time of my
stay at Fontainebleau, the secret was well kept.
I do not know what took place later, but as every-
thing has an end in the best possible world, even
the most useful things, the pates de glberne must
have had their day of mourning.
Duels were frequent at the military school. Be-
fore I came there fighting was done with the bayo-
nets, but a pupil having been killed, this weapon
was suppressed. This was no hindrance: pieces
of foils were procured, and if necessary compasses
were fastened to the ends of sticks, all this to ap-
pear bold. When through a duel one had acquired
12 AN OFFICER OF
this tide, and could add to it that of smoker, one
was at the height of glory.
One fine day, during a review, General Bella-
venne announced the names of those who the next
day were to depart for the army. Oh 1 what emo-
tion while he was reading his list! our hearts beat
to bursting in our breasts. What joy among the
chosen! what anxiety among those whose names
had not yet been called! To put on an officer's
coat, wear the epaulet, carry a sword, oh! what
fine things when one is eighteen! We were pri-
vates ; a moment after we became officers : a single
word had produced this happy metamorphosis.
Man is always a child, at all ages he needs a play-
thing; he often esteems himself according to the
coat he wears; he is perhaps right, since the multi-
tude judges according to the clothes. However
that may be, with our second-lieutenant's epaulets,
we considered ourselves something.
A captain of the school was detailed to conduct
us to the Emperor's general headquarters. We
travelled post, so we said; the fact is that we were
piled by the dozen lots in wagons, and that by
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 13
going at a walking pace from morning until night
we made two stages- a day.
In all the towns, our greatest occupation was
to have the sentinels present arms to us; nothing
was so funny as the serious air and especially the
indifference we affected when saluting them; all
the old soldiers before whom we passed and re-
passed ceaselessly must have made great sport of
our childishness.
The ambition of each of us was to have a cer-
tain rakish air: we smoked, we drank liquor; we
imagined that these good habits would give us a
military appearance. Our clothes, our epaulets,
everything was new, everything was fresh from
the shop. We exposed them to the rab and the
sun to give them something of the look of the
bivouac. In spite of this, the buttons of the school,
our beardless faces, betrayed us and Captain Dor-
nier, who marched at our head, showed sufficiently
that with our week-old epaulets, we were still but
school-boys.
We travelled merrily, for we were young, with-
out cares and full of hope. While going through
I 4 AN OFFICER OF
Prussia, then through Poland, then again through
Prussia, now well, now badly, we always laughed.
It was at the birth-place of Copernicus, at Thorn,
that we noticed that we were in the neighbourhood
of Napoleon's army. That city, encumbered with
men from almost all the regiments, had half of
its houses transformed into hospitals. We were
obliged to take lodgings in granaries or in stables ;
there was nothing available between the two. We
were beginning to think that war might possibly
not be the most beautiful thing in the world.
The army at that time occupied the cantonment
which it had taken after the battle of Eylau, won
by the French . . . and by the Russians, as
they said. 2 Napoleon was at Finkenstein,* review-
ing, repairing the losses of the month of February,
imparting to all his extraordinary activity. It is
there that for the first time I saw that astonishing
man, of whom some have attempted to make a god,
and whom certain imbeciles have called a fool.
He has proved that he was neither one nor the
other. The judgments passed on him to this day
have been too close to the events to be free from
partiality. For a long time to come it will be
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 15
impossible to write a good history of Napoleon;
for such a thing to be, his contemporaries and
their sons will have to be dead; enthusiasm cooled,
hatred dead. Then, and not till then, a man free
from prejudice, consulting the thousands of vol-
umes already written and those to be, will be able
to find truth in the well. Out of these materials,
a monument shall arise superb, imperishable. To
assist in this grand construction, I bring a grain
of sand.
THE BIVOUAC AND THE MARAUDERS
CHAPTER II
THE BIVOUAC AND THE MARAUDERS
Here we are in a beautiful plain, furrowed by'
artillery, trampled by cavalry; it has rained all
day. It is here that we are going to sleep. The
order is given; twenty men of each company are
sent into the neighbouring villages to bring back
wood, straw, supplies. Soon a curious sight pre-
sents itself before our eyes. " The market will be
good," say the soldiers, " the dealers are coming."
In fact, from all sides, we see hurrying forward
our fearless freebooters loaded down with sacks
full of poultry, baskets of eggs and loaves of bread
stuck one after the other on ramrods. Some push
before them sheep and cows, oxen and pigs ; others
make peasants, put in requisition, carry the straw
and wood. Judging by the scowling faces of the
peasants, by the interjections which escape them,
one can easily see that they are not pleased, but
19
20 AN OFFICER OF
their words are drowned by the cries of the animals
and by the soldiers' peals of laughter.
When one is at the bivouac, near the enemy,
every man lies down fully dressed; each sleeps,
one might say, with his eyes open; one must be
ready for any emergency. Sometimes, we have
remained in our boots for a month, which is, to
say the least, very uncomfortable. Sometimes also,
when lying down, the desire came over one to
unbutton one's clothes; one loosened a buckle, then
another, and it required more time to remedy this
little disorder than if one had been entirely un-
dressed When the season is cold everyone lies
about the fire ; but one gets toasted on the one side,
while being frozen on the other; one of course has
the resource of turning around, but that is not at
all easy.
When one happens to be in the second rank, one
can then undress; less precautions are necessary.
The officers have linen sacks in which they thrust
themselves and which serve as sheets. As mat-
tresses and feather beds are always replaced by
bales of straw, the linen sack is much more agree-
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 21
able than the sheets: the seam allows nothing to
get inside.
The time of awakening at the bivouac is never
amusing; one has slept because one was tired; but
on rising, the members of the body are benumbed,
the moustaches, like tufts of lucern, have on each
hair drops of dew; the teeth are clinched; one has
to rub one's gums to re-establish the circulation.
Those who have never been to war will never
be able to form an idea of the ills it brings with
it. I shall not give a complete description of
them, it would exceed the limit I have prescribed
for myself. I shall only say a few words about
our life at the bivouac and the waste which took
place in the army. We lived on what the soldiers
found, and living would have been impossible other-
wise : our rapid marches prevented our stores, when
we had stores, from following us. In rich coun-
tries, there were brought to the camp twenty times
more provisions than it was possible to consume.
The remainder was lost The soldier lives from
day to day; yesterday he lacked everything, to-day,
if he has an, abundance, he forgets the privations
a* AN OFFICER OF
of the evening before and does not worry about
the morrow; nor does he consider that the follow-
ing days other regiments will come to the position
he is going to leave, that while taking what he
requires it would be well to leave something to
those who are to follow. . . . Not at all:
one company of a hundred men has already killed
two oxen; it is sufficient; after this there are found
four cows, six calves, a dozen sheep : everything is
pitilessly put to death, so as to eat the tongues,
the kidneys, the brains. A cellar is entered wherein
twenty casks stand in battle-array imposing and
majestic: there are no tools to pierce them, but
soldiers are never embarrassed; they fire gunshots
through them, and soon twenty fountains of wine
gush from all sides, to the loud peals of laughter
of those present. Should a hundred casks be in
the cellar they would have the same fate, for after
all one must be able to taste the best.
Still another motive prompts certain soldiers to
hunt for what they require to live : and while ap-
pearing to be looking for bread, they enter houses
and succeed in taking possession of the owner's
purse. Seeking for bread is an excellent pretext;
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 23
when they do not receive their rations regularly,
it is impossible to prevent marauding. The chief
reply of army plunderers is this: " I am hungry,
I seek bread." There is no answer possible to
this sentence. When it is impossible to give them
bread, you must let them have their way. The
horsemen have a double excuse: they are looking
for fodder for their horses. A hussar was sur-
prised by his captain while he was searching a
wardrobe.
" What are you doing there? " asked the officer
angrily.
" I am looking for oats for my horse."
" A good place to look for it! "
" I have already found in the library of this place
a bale of hay surrounded by a thousand sheets of
paper; why should I not find oats in this ward-
robe?"
The worthy soldier had plundered the plant
collection of an amateur botanist without seeing
aught else in it than a bale of hay for his horse.
In every regiment, in every company, there ex-
isted determined marauders who travelled on the
sides of the road, at two or three leagues from
24 AN OFFICER OF
the column. Sometimes they were attacked by the
enemy; but it may be said that the intelligence of
the French soldier equals his bravery. These gen-
tlemen chose among themselves a dictator who
commanded them, and often these improvised
generals have fought serious battles and won
victories.
When the English army of General Moore was
retreating at Corunna, 4 our advance-guard, which
was in pursuit, was much astonished to come across
a stockaded village. The tricolor flag waved over
the steeple, the sentinels wore the French uniform.
Officers approached and soon were told that for
three months two hundred marauders had occu-
pied this village.
Cut off in their retreat, they had established
themselves in this post and had fortified it. Often
attacked, they had always repulsed the enemy.
Their general in chief was a corporal; sovereign
of this colony, his orders were obeyed like those
of the Emperor. On entering the village the offi-
cers directed their steps towards the residence of
the commander; he was on a hunt with his staff.
Shortly after he returned and told his story, then
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 25
was seen what bravery combined with intelligence
can do.
We were at the bivouac on a beautiful night;
I was not asleep ; seated by the fire, I was smoking
my pipe by the side of the soldier in charge of the
soup. While looking at the boiling billows, I
noticed from time to time something black which
passed above and disappeared immediately in the
depths of the enormous kettle. This something
excited my curiosity. I bravely drew my sword
and stood there watching for the black spot in its
passage; after having missed it several times, I
finally caught it: it was one mouse, two mice, three
mice, four mice. I awakened the cook.
" Well I comrade, it appears that we have queerly
seasoned soup to-day ! "
" The same every day, lieutenant: potatoes and
cabbage, I never vary."
" And the whole thing cooked in a decoction of
mice. Here, look at the fine vegetables I have
fished out of your kettle."
" Impossible, lieutenant."
" It is so very possible that it is true. Where
the devil did you get your water? "
26 AN OFFICER OF
" In a vat, at the neighbouring village."
" Then you did not see what it contained? "
" It was dark, I felt that it was water, I took
some to make my soup. Who would ever imagine
that, in a vat at a peasant's, one would find a
squadron of mice?"
" You might have poisoned the entire company,
for if your vat is made of copper . . ."
" It is made of wood, I am sure of it, do not
worry."
" All the same, you must throw away your soup
and make some other."
" Impossible, lieutenant, I should not have the
time. All those big fellows who are snoring about
us will awaken shortly: their appetites will be
awake before they are; and if by ill luck the soup
t were not ready, I should be rewarded by fifty kicks
or so, you know where. I beg you, lieutenant, the
mice are taken out, tell no one, the soup will be
good all the same and all you will have to do is
to eat with some other company."
" And what will you do?"
"HI eat some."
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 27
He did. Later he told me that he had never
before tasted soup so good.
Now, this is how this accident had happened.
In many farms in Germany, to get rid of mice,
people make use of a vat half filled with water.
A few small boards are placed on top. Bacon is
placed on these, flour, any sort of bait. As soon
as the mice walk on this bridge, a spring is set in
motion, the board tips and the mice fall and are
drowned. The spring is reset automatically: it
is always ready to do its duty. It is from that
sort of a reservoir that our bivouac chef had drawn
the water of which he made so queer a soup. No
one noticed anything; the soup was considered
excellent.
Between the camp and the bivouac properly
called there still exists something which is neither
the bivouac, nor the camp. At the bivouac one
sleeps entirely in the open air; at the camp one is
in barracks well set in line; but in that something
which takes after both, one finds oneself under
small shelters which protect from the rain.
They are built only in places where it is expected
28 AN OFFICER OF
to remain some days: for a single night no such
trouble is taken. This sort of shelter is simply
a roof of straw on three walls of straw; the open
part is the highest, the closed part is toward the
wind. Each establishes himself as he pleases,
selects the ground to his liking, and the whole pre-
sents a rather attractive picture.
In this sort of barrack it is impossible to stand,
except perhaps near the entrance. One sleeps very
well in them, but in the morning one must make
one's toilet in the open air, which saves one from
opening windows. .What varied scenes a clever
artist could sketch! But all of them would not
find admission to the Louvre.
On the day of our arrival at 'Tilsit, there were
rumours of a peace armistice; immediately the shel-
ters were constructed solidly enough to resist the
inclemencies of the season for a whole week. I
was lying in the evening by the side of Laborie,
my lieutenant, when we were visited by H&nere,
sub-lieutenant of our regiment I was beginning
to fall asleep; his coming awoke me; but on hear-
ing the turn taken by the conversation, I thought
NAPOLEON'S ARM? 29
it proper to pretend to sleep. This is the dialogue
word for word; I shall never forget it:
" Good evening, Laborie."
" Good evening, well I aren't you going to
sleep?"
" Ah ! yes, go to sleep, I have something else to
do, faith! I'll be on foot all night."
" I understand that peace is about to be made,
that the amnesty has even been signed, and I be-
lieve it, since the quartermaster and the musicians
have arrived."
" Whether they make peace or war, will not
change the fact that after having marched all day
long, I still have a fine task for to-night."
"What is it?"
" The colonel is sending me out to look for a
mill which stands six leagues from here. I have
no one to show me the way; the villages are de-
serted, not a peasant to serve me as a guide. All
I have been told is that the mill is called Bruns-
miihl. I have four wagon loads of grain to be
ground; I am taking along some bakers to make
bread and we shall bring it back here."
30 AN OFFICER OF
"Good news, comrade; hurry, and above all
try to put aside a few good loaves for me."
" That goes without saying, but I came to see
your map. I have been told that you had a
map."
" Yes, I have, and a fine one, too."
" Shall we find the mill on it? "
" I should say so I Everything is on my map."
Now, you must know that Laborie's map had
been picked up at the bivouac, among the various
objects found by marauding soldiers. To give
himself an air of importance, Laborie unfolded his
map at every instant: we often gave one another
the cue and as soon as he had folded it up, each
on some pretext or other came along and made him
unfold it again.
" Here is my map," said Laborie as he spread
it on the ground near the fire, and stretched him-
self flat on his stomach by its side; "what's the
name of your mill? "
" Briinsmiihl. 11
< Come ... let us look for it ...
here, there is Berlin, here is Saint Petersburg, it
must be between the two."
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 31
" That's so, you must be right; yet I see no mill;
it may have been forgotten."
" Forgotten 1 I tell you there's everything on
my map."
" And I tell you that I do not see it."
"And yet it's large enough; hello, there it is."
And Laborie pointed out to Hemere the star
of the winds printed on the margin, and whose
four points were not unlike the wind-sails of a mill.
" Hello, why sure enough," said Hemere, admir-
ing the superior knowledge of Laborie. " Do you
think it is very far? "
" Why no, can't you see? "
And Laborie measured with his hand the dis-
tance from the mill to the intermediate point of
Berlin and St. Petersburg. It was at most a foot.
" But what road shall I take to reach it? "
" You must admit that you're very stupid, the
least thing troubles you; there's your mill: there,
look at the map, the mill is there; well! on leaving
this place, you turn to the right, go straight ahead,
and if you walk fast, you will soon have reached
it."
My conscience reproached me a little for allow-
32 AN OFFICER OE NAPOLEON'S ARMY
ing this poor devil to spend the night running after
the star of the winds. I was on the point of wak-
ing up, but M. Hemere was of a teasing disposition,
a bit evil-tongued, clamouring against the young
people, who had become officers without serving as
he had in the army of Sambre-et-Meuse, and, faith,
I resolved to abandon him to his fate, so as to
make game of him in turn. I assure you that he
was well received when he returned three "days after
with his wagons of wheat, and without having been
able to locate his mill.
THE MARCHES
CHAPTER III
THE MARCHES
We marched to the right, to the left, forward,
sometimes backward; we marched all the time.
Very often we knew not why; the bobbin which
turns while unwinding its thread does not ask the
machinist the reason of the movements through
which it goes; it turns, that is all; we did as the
bobbin. It was not always a pleasure, but the habit
contracted, the necessity of obeying, the example
which each set and witnessed, all that had
turned us into machines; they go, we were going.
When we stopped, the soldiers, all astonished,
asked each other the reason.
"That's funny," they said, "the clock has
stopped."
On the morrow of the first bivouac of a cam-
paign, he who saw the enormous quantity of
breeches, long black and white gaiters, collars,
stockings, covering the plain where we had slept,
35
3 6 AN OFFICER OF
might have imagined that the enemy having sur-
prised us during the night, we had run away in
our shirts. You will perhaps not be sorry to know
why all these breeches were left there, empty and
forsaken.
Formerly a soldier received gratis a pair of
breeches which he seldom wore; he was made to
pay for a pair of trousers which he always wore.
The contractors for linens and foot-gear, specu-
lators aiming at consummation, stuffed the knap-
sacks with long white and black gaiters, stockings,
black and white collars, things useful solely to
those who sold them. In the garrison, the soldiers
had to keep all these effects under pain of being
compelled to buy others the next day. But at
the first bivouac, on beginning a campaign, each
one reduced his knapsack to the smallest possible
size by ridding it of all useless articles.
The military administration has made immense
progress since peace was declared. To-day the
soldier receives a pair of doth trousers, and it is
a great improvement : the breeches no longer exist.
I have never been able to understand why under
Napoleon, when we were always at war, the sol-
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 37
diers should have been dressed in the disgraceful
breeches which, squeezing his leg, prevented him
from walking freely. Beside this, the knee, cov-
ered by a long gaiter which buttoned above, was
again squeezed by a strap which held tight the
strap fastening the breeches. Underneath this an
under garment held by a string added to the
hindrance to the legs. All told, there were three
thicknesses of cloth, two rows of buttons super-
posed, and three straps bound to paralyse the efforts
of the most dauntless walkers.
In 1806, Napoleon had adopted white clothes
for the infantry; all the recruits coming from
France were dressed as clowns; which made a
very ugly combination when they found them-
selves mingled with other soldiers dressed in blue.
It was a very strange idea to give white clothes
to troops destined to pass their lives in the bivouac. 5
You should have seen how dirty these young fel-
lows were; accordingly the first time that the Em-
peror saw them, the counter-order was given, the
white clothes were withdrawn. This did not hin-
der the promoters of the Restauration from again
trying the experiment in 1815. They at least
3 8 AN OFFICER OF
had an excuse ; they wanted to do as before. But
the Emperor, who always made us sleep in the
open air, how could he ever imagine that he would
have a beautiful army with soldiers dressed as
clowns?
The Imperial Guard was magnificent and ren-
dered great services when it fought. This should
not astonish; it was recruited in the picked com-
panies of our regiments. For this guard were
taken the strongest and bravest men, who already
had four years of service and two campaigns.
What could one not expect from a company of
such soldiers! it was formed of the pick of
the picked. The soldiers of the line called those
of the Guard the immortals because they seldom
fought. 6 They were reserved for grand occa-
sions and that was proper, no doubt, for the
arrival of the Imperial Guard on the battlefield
almost always decided the question. Between the
line and the Guards, there existed a jealousy which
was the cause of many quarrels. Everyone knows
that each member of the Guard had the rank im-
mediately above the one he occupied. In the line
all cried against this privilege and all did their
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 39
utmost to acquire it. Those who had obtained it
considered it perfectly natural: they could not
imagine how petty officers of the line could have
the stupendous pretension to march as equals with
the Imperial Guard. Such is man, and thus he
will remain until the end of the ages. When in
France the question of equality has come up, every-
one wanted it with those ranking above him, but
not with the others.
" I am the equal of the Montmorencys, the
street-sweeper is not my equal " ; that is what many
people had said to themselves. People have cried
against titles and decorations; and after having
taken them from those who had them, they loaded
themselves down with them. How many austere
republicans have we not seen become chamber-
lains, tribunes become peers of France, who with-
out the slightest ceremony exchanged the title of
citizen for that of Monsieur le Due or Serene
Highness.
We were on the march ; a baggage-wagon drawn
by four mules tried to cross the line of my regi-
ment, and the soldiers successively passing before
the noses of these poor beasts took a mischievous
40 AN OFFICER OF
delight in preventing them from advancing because
they belonged to the Imperial Guard; one of the
soldiers exclaimed in a bantering tone :
" Come, soldiers of the line, make way for the
mules of the Guard."
" Bah ! " replied another, " they are donkeys."
" I tell you they are mules."
" And I, that they are donkeys."
" Well ! suppose they are, what difference does
it make? Do you not know that in the Guards
donkeys have the rank of mules? "
The Imperial Guard, at first composed of old
regiments of grenadiers and of chasseurs, had been
increased by fusileers, and then to these were added
sharpshooters, flanking troopers and cadets. The
organisation of this corps was exceptional. The
old regiments were members of the old Guard and
the others of the young Guard. Superior officers
and captains had been taken from the first to form
the second; they retained their ranks and preroga-
tives, while the lieutenants and sub-lieutenants
stood about where they did in the line, excepting
for the uniform of the Guard which they had the
honor of wearing. There existed therefore an
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 41
enormous disproportion between the captain and
the lieutenant as to rank in the army and pay.
In the regiments of flanking troopers, who wore
the green uniform, the captains and superior
officers wore the blue uniform of the old Guard,
which produced a singular combination.
In creating new regiments, the administration
had exhausted all denominations, even to making
grenadiers recruits of the Imperial Guard. These
words Imperial Guard and recruits sounded badly ;
they seemed astonished at finding themselves
together. The officers of this body gloried in the
first of these tides, but they admitted the second
with difficulty.
On their baggage-wagons could be read in letters
two feet high: Imperial Guard, regiment of
Grenadiers, then in pica letters the word recruits
abridged to RCS seemed to be ashamed of being
in such fine company. From that time these young
grenadiers were called nothing but RCS. This
denomination became proverbial. RCS was
synonymous to recruit. " You're only an RCS,"
said the soldiers to each other in a dispute, and I
have even heard officers say seriously: "We are
4 a AN OFFICER OF
going to have from France a detachment of RCS."
Napoleon is the one man who knew best how
to make an army march. These marches were fre-
quently very painful, sometimes half of the soldiers
remained behind, but as willingness was not lacking
in them, they reached their destination later, but
they reached it Nothing so annoys them as a
badly given order, badly understood and which
makes them walk more than they should; that is
what they call marcher pour les capucins.
Or else when some hesitation causes them to
remain a few moments on the same spot without
knowing if they are to stay or go, that is called
droguer. A French army is always in good hu-
mour when fighting; but her best soldiers are good
for nothing when they droguent or marchent pour
les capucins.
Demand of them all possible efforts; they will
obey without a murmur; but see that your orders
are positive, well worded, properly transmitted
In the contrary case, they will send the general
to all the devils. Frederick II was saying one day,
and M. de Montazet, a general in the service of
Austria, who was a prisoner at Berlin, heard it
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 43
and repeats it in his Memoirs : " If I commanded
Frenchmen, I should make of them the best troops
in the four quarters of the world. Overlook a few
slight blunders, never annoy them unseasonably,
encourage the natural gaiety of their minds, be
just to them, even to scruple, do not trouble them
with any trifles, such should be my secret to render
them invincible."
After the campaign of 1809, we were cantoned
in the neighbourhood of Passau, on mountains cov-
ered with six feet of snow. It was another uni-
verse, a new Siberia; we might have said as the
soldier who, on the heights of the Tyrol, wrote
to his parents : " We have reached the end of the
world; at a hundred paces from our camp, the
earth ends, with our hands we can touch the sun."
It would have been the more difficult for us to
touch the sun, as it was invisible. In this charm-
ing country of wolves, the layers of snow piled one
on the other become so hard that it is impossible
to bury the dead during the winter; they are put
on the roofs while waiting for the thaw, what a
thaw, good gracious 1 what an ocean of mud I each
gutter becomes a river, each road a torrent
44 AN OFFICER OF
We were very quiet in our villages, when we
received, one fine night, the order to leave at once
to assemble at Passau. The south wind had been
melting the snows for several days ; nothing could
give an idea of the difficulty we had in climbing,
and descending all these flooded mountains. A
painter who might wish to portray a scene of the
deluge should visit that country under similar cir-
cumstances. The aides de camp, the estafettes,
the orderlies on foot and on horseback crossed each
other in every direction to hurry the detachments
which they met. We had to be at Passau dead or
alive at break of day. Officers and soldiers, every-
body thought that war had begun again; what
other motive could be given for this hurried march
in times of peace I
In proportion as a company, a fraction of a
company arrived at Passau, officers designated by
the general embarked it on the Danube, which
rolled mountains of water. The current was so
increased by the melting of the snows that we
reached the right shore only by going several
leagues out of our way. Artillery horses fell in
the water, boats upset, men perished. When we
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 45
had crossed the Danube, we continued on our way
without a moment's rest; we marched during forty
hours. " But why are we running this way? " said
the soldiers; " what's going on that nothing should
stop us, neither night, torrents, nor rivers ? "
Finally we knew the motives of this forced march,
the longest, the most painful ever made, even dur-
ing the war : we had to go to Braunau, to render
military honours to Marie-Louise who was coming
to France to marry Napoleon. Judging from the
manner we were hurried along, it seemed as if the
Empress was waiting for us. ... We arrived
two weeks ahead of time.
On the frontier of Bavaria and Austria, near
the village of Saint-Pierre, not far from Brau-
nau, 7 architects who had come from Paris had
constructed a superb barrack; it is there that Marie-
Louise was handed over by the plenipotentiaries of
Emperor Francis to those of Napoleon appointed
to receive her. The Queen of Naples, and the
prince of Neufchatel had arrived with an army
of chamberlains, ladies in waiting, equerries, valets
in all colours, of all ranks, of all kinds, in short
all the bootless (debotte). These people are no
46 AN OFFICER OF
doubt indispensable, for swarms of them are to be
found under all regimes and in all countries; an
army of fifty thousand men could be set on foot
with what the bootless of a sovereign cost. When
Her Majesty appeared, the artillery made a ter-
rific noise, the music of the regiments played out
of tune ; the drums rumbled dully, for it was pour-
ing, we had mud to our knees, and the Paris jour-
nals went into ecstasies on the good fortune we
had had of being the first to salute our august
and gracious sovereign.
And yet this is the way history is written. The
next day the Empress left for Paris; we again
took by short stages the road to our mountains,
trying to persuade ourselves that we had had a
very good time.
To reach the battlefield of Austerlitz, the third
army corps marched forty leagues in thirty-six
hours, that is to say that the twentieth part of the
soldiers arrived, the rest came in from hour to
hour; officers left on the road picked up the strag-
glers, and after a few moments' rest, they directed
them towards their regiments. This rapid march
was very painful for the soldiers; they did not com-
ALEXANDER FIRST OF RUSSIA.
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 47
plain, for they felt its necessity, because it had a
great influence on the result of the day. On the
contrary, our run on Braunau became for them
a subject of continuous complaint and of grum-
bling. It was the topic of comparison every time
they feared to march uselessly, or marcher pour
les capucins: " It is just as when we went to Brau-
nau," they said. This march of thirty-six hours
on Austerlitz, without a moment's rest, was of
great importance. An officer taken prisoner was
questioned by Alexander.
" To what army corps do you belong? "
"The third."
" Marshal Davout's? "
"Yes, sire."
" That is not true, that corps is at Vienna."
" It was there yesterday, to-day it is here."
Emperor Alexander was astonished at this news.
Night marches tire the most; the greatest need
of man is sleep. Pichegru paid thirty thousand
francs for a night of rest during which he was
arrested. Sometimes the soldiers slept standing
on the march, a stumble made them fall into a
ditch one on top of the other.
48 AN OFFICER OF
In Bavaria and In Austria, there are many bees,
consequently much wax is gathered; the soldiers
found quantities of it at the peasants'. In the
night marches, in calm weather, each man lit two,
three, four candles, some carried as many as fifteen
or twenty. Nothing was so pretty as the sight of
a division thus illuminated, as it climbed a hill by
a winding road; all these thousands of moving
lights presented a charming spectacle. The merry
fellow of the company sang sentimental songs and
everybody joined in the chorus. Farther off, an-
other related the endless story of La Ramee who,
after having obtained his leave, returned from
home and travelled two hundred leagues to claim
a ration of bread from his sergeant-major. La
Bruyere has ascribed to Menalque all the examples
of absent-mindedness he ever knew; the soldiers
ascribe to La Ramee all the stories of old troopers;
La Ramee is the type of the French soldier.
At two leagues from Neubourg, the regiments
which were marching along, carrying their arms
as they pleased, suddenly dose their ranks; the
drums beat a salute, the soldiers fall into a regular
solemn step, the officers salute with their swords;
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 49
a witness would think that he beheld a parade at
the Tuileries. Why all these honours? They are
addressed to the first grenadier of the Republic,
to La Tour d' Auvergne ! 8
His tomb, standing near the road, is always
saluted by the regiments of all nations ; it is known
by the name: Tomb of the Hero. It is built of
stone and bears the following inscription:
A LA M&MOIRE
DE LA TOUR D'AUVERGNE
PREMIER GRENADIER DE L'ARM^E
TU LE VIII MESSIDOR AN VIII
DE L'^RE RfiPUBLICAINE
On the opposite side may be read :
\ LA MfiMOIRE
DE FORTIS DE LA 4 fo DEMI-BRIGADE
TUfi LE VIII MESSIDOR AN VIII.
DE L'ERE RfiPUBLICAINE
Fortis was La Tour d'Auvergne's colonel; they
died together at the very spot where their tomb
stands. While we were protecting the Confeder-
50 AN OFFICER OF
ation of the Rhine, this modest monument, re-
spected by all, was cared for by the town of
Neubourg. I like to think that no change has
occurred: the hero of heroes should be honoured
in all the countries of the world.
La Tour d'Auvergne was the most brave among
the brave; his disinterestedness and his modesty
equalled his bravery. At the moment that his
body was being laid in the tomb, it is reported
that one of the grenadiers turned it in the direction
of Neubourg saying : " Dead he must be placed
as he was when living, always facing the enemy."
His heart was embalmed, enclosed in a box of
silver-gilt, and carried by the oldest grenadier in
his company. It was a second flag for all the sol-
diers of the 46th demi-brigade. The consuls of
the Republic ordered that the name of La Tour
d'Auvergne should be always at the head of the
roll of the company of which he had been a mem-
ber. The sergeant-major, at each roll-call, began
with the name of La Tour d'Auvergne; the oldest
grenadier would immediately reply : " Died on the
field of honour."
Ordinarily, in the army, the subordinates inherit
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 51
the ranks and titles of their chiefs, but on the death
of La Tour d'Auvergne, it was the contrary: his
captain was proclaimed first grenadier of the Re-
public by the soldiers of the 46th demi-brigade;
later events have proven that he was worthy of
this high distinction. This captain was Cam-
bronne.
When you see a regiment marching rapidly on
the highway, you believe perhaps that nothing is
more easy than to direct it. At the command of
march, it starts, you say, and if it walks a long
time straight ahead, it finally reaches its destina-
tion. A colonel who should take no other care
would leave behind half the soldiers of his regi-
ment. The non-commissioned officer who marches
ahead must have a short and regular step, for if
the right walks at an ordinary pace, the left will
gallop. The slightest obstacle to be found on the
road were it only a rut to cross, causes all the sol-
diers of the last battalion to run if they wish to
make up their distance. If the first which meets
the obstacle slows down for only a half second,
the last will have to gallop for a quarter of an hour.
An experienced chief sees these things at a glance,
52 AN OFFICER OF
he orders a short halt, and everything is restored
to its accustomed course. When a regiment has
walked for an hour, it stops five minutes to light
pipes, this is called the halt of the pipes. A sol-
dier should be deprived of no pleasure ; for many
this pleasure is even a need; in the middle of the
day, there is the long halt which lasts an hour,
each one lunches on what he has in his knapsack,
then the march is resumed with a halt of five
minutes between each league.
To appreciate all these things, one must live
with the soldier, one must see him at all hours,
one must be with him under all circumstances.
The officers of the ancient regime were quite as
brave as those of the new, but seeing their soldiers
only on battle days, at the King's review, to at
once return to Versailles, they were totally igno-
rant of these most important details. Had they
known them, I greatly doubt if they would have
bothered with them; their concern was to arrive
at the army by post, the eve of a battle; none ever
failed to be there.
Many women followed their husbands in the
army, 9 either because they did not wish to be sep-
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 53
arated from them out of conjugal affection, or be-
cause their modest fortune did not permit of
keeping up two households. However, when we
entered on a campaign, they remained behind at
the garrison; but as soon as peace was made, they
were seen coming by wagon loads. These ladies
travelled in cabriolets, barouches, wagons, or
walked with the baggage-vans; chaste ears must
have daily heard very improper conversations;
eyes must have seen strange sights. In Germany,
these ladies who followed the army lived in a
rather agreeable manner: no danger existed for
them; but in Spain things were very different.
Travelling along the road, they were, as we were,
exposed to gun shots, and when their escort, fall-
ing in an ambush, placed them at the mercy of
Spanish brigands, they suffered the most infamous
treatment. At the Salinas engagement, the wife
of one of the battalion chiefs gratified the bru-
tality of two hundred guerilleros. . . . She
died as a result of the attack; others whom I know
did not die.
In a skirmish near Burgos, the wife of an officer
of my acquaintance had had her carriage broken,
54 AN OFFICER OF
and she was consequently compelled to follow on
foot. She was soon overcome by fatigue; the
perspiration ran down her forehead, her delicate
members could no longer carry her body; it was
impossible for her to walk a step farther. The
good husband was in despair to see his wife in
such a sorry state.
" Poor Laura," he said to me, " she will die
on the road if I can not find a carriage, a mule,
a horse, to carry her."
" We shall find none to-day; but it seems to me
that IVe noticed in the rear-guard a soldier lead-
ing a donkey, and if you could induce him to sell
it, or else lend it to you . . ."
" Yes, you are right, you're a friend of mine,
you ... Where is that soldier? . . .
Where is that donkey? I would give fifty louts
for a donkey, I must have a donkey for Laura;
poor Laura, how tired she is ! "
" She can go no further."
" I would give a hundred louis for a donkey.
Money is made to use, and what do I care about
money if Laura is suffering? Let us go and look
up that donkey."
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 55
" I believe you'll get it much, cheaper."
" What do I care if it's dear, so long as I find
a donkey? But where shall we find it? "
" In the rear-guard; I believe it belongs to a
marauder who is in hiding. Let us allow the regi-
ment to pass; let us wait, we shall soon have what
we are looking for."
" Come, Laura, a little courage; walk on, I shall
soon return."
Little by little the column passes before us, the
rear-guard appears, and we see a footsoldicr who
was leading by the bridle the long-eared animal,
on which he had placed, on one side his knapsack,
and on the other his gun to act as a counter-balance.
" Ah I there it is at last, the donkey I seek. I
say, soldier, my wife is ill, she can no longer walk,
you must sell me your donkey."
"Willingly, captain."
" How much do you want for it? "
" Twenty francs."
"Are you joking? Twenty francs! twenty
francs I and for a stolen donkey, for you have
stolen it, and you deserve that I denounce you to
the general in chief."
56 AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY
" But, captain, I hare not stolen it; I found it,
while going through the last village."
" Yes, found, found. I'm not to be imposed
upon."
" Even though I had stolen it, you should be
very glad, since you are in need of it."
" Come now, here are two one hundred sous
pieces; give me your donkey."
" Oh! no, I want twenty francs."
"Well! choose between my two one hundred
sous pieces, or a complaint to the general in chief."
" All right, take my donkey."
" My friend," said he to me, " it's devilish dear,
ten francs for a stolen donkey I But, never mind,
money is made to circulate."
THE CANTEEN-WOMEN
CHAPTER IV
THE CANTEEN-WOMEN
It was a fine profession, that of canteen-woman.
These ladies usually began by following a soldier
who had inspired them with some tender senti-
ments. At first they were seen trudging along on
foot with a keg of brandy slung over the shoulder.
A week after they were comfortably seated on a
found horse. To the right, to the left, in front,
behind, kegs, Bologna sausage and cheese, cleverly
arranged, held one another in equilibrium. The
month never ended without a van with two horses,
filled with provisions of all sorts, being there to
testify to the growing prosperity of their industry.
It often happened that a party of Cossacks plun-
dered these ladies when travelling in the rear of
the army; then they began all over again, and
soon everything was as before.
An officer could give them no greater pleasure
than to borrow money from them : the prospect of
59
60 AN OFFICER OF
a few insolvent debtors was to them much less fear-
ful than the Cossacks and the bands of stragglers
who frequently relieved them of their ecus. They
were thieves who robbed other thieves; such things
are seen occasionally in this world.
In camp, the canteen-woman's tent serves as a
company parlor; a tap-room, a coffee-house; it is
the central gathering point. One plays, drinks,
smokes there; for what can one do in a camp when
one's sole baggage is a porte-manteau as big as
a sausage and, consequently, no books? On the
first day of my arrival, I was taken to the canteen-
woman in fashion then, and I there found thirty
officers ready to play a game of lotos. Although
this game is not very difficult, and although it does
not require a great effort of the mind to follow its
skilful combinations, I was ignorant of the way to
call out the numbers: long had the winning num-
bers come out, but I had as yet marked nothing.
This is why: it is the custom in the army to call
numbers by periphrasis; a fine is imposed on the
one who dares use any other technical denomina-
tion. I shall give a few examples : i is called the
beginning of the world; 2, the little hen; 4,
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 61
the commissary's hat; 5, the shoemaker's awl; 7, the
gallows; 33, the two hunchbacks; 89, the Revolu-
tion ; 90, our grandfather. I set myself to study-
ing and I soon became strong enough to play my
game.
Laborie, of whom I have already spoken,
thought very little of young officers graduated
from military schools. My ignorance surprised
him greatly.
" What the devil did you learn anyway at Fon-
tainebleau? "
" Mathematics."
"What else?"
11 History."
"What else?"
" Drill."
"What else?"
" Fortification, drawing, . . ."
11 But do you do any of this?" said he to me,
placing himself on guard, as if to make a pass at
me.
" Oh, some."
" My dear, that's what you need; all the rest is
good for nothing, it's nonsense."
62 AN OFFICER OF
The worthy fellow was quite right, for his in-
telligence did not go beyond a bottle or a tobacco
pipe. To give you an idea of it, I shall tell you
that one day I found him reading the " Tales "
of Marmontel; there were hardly more than two
hundred pages missing from the middle of the
volume. This solution of continuity brought to-
gether the end of " Annette and Lubin " and the
beginning of " Laurelte" Laborie continued his
reading without noticing the deficit; the characters,
the action, the location of the scene, all was
changed; Laborie saw nothing but black on
white.
The canteen-women rendered great services to
the army, while making their own fortunes; they
were useful in certain circumstances. These
women, endowed with uncommon energy, were
tireless; they defied the heat, the cold, the rain
and the snow like old grenadiers, they went all
over to secure the component parts necessary to
their trade. Those who have never lacked any-
thing indispensable to life, can not imagine of what
importance is a bottle of wine, a glass of brandy
at certain moments.
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 63
A well trained canteen-woman always had a
small reserve for the officers; she kept that for
the grand days, which more than doubled the im-
portance of the service. What a happiness, in
fact, when one finds oneself in ploughed land, wet
to the skin, and expects to go to bed without sup-
per, to find near at hand a good fire, a slice of ham
or a bowl of hot wine; or both, which certainly
is better still I
That cost dearly sometimes, but money is good
only to get what one needs. When one can no
longer exchange its representative value for bread,
gold is not worth so much as iron. In the cam-
paign of Russia, the soldiers passed in front of
the treasury vans, abandoned on the road, without
touching an ecus, because there was no baker in
the neighbourhood. The great thing in this
world is bread, it is the stomach whose periodical
demands must always be listened to. Before it,
passions, interests are silent; satisfy it first, you
will think of the rest afterwards.
Many canteen-women were as brave as old gren-
adiers. That of my company, Theresa, carried
brandy to the soldiers in the midst of shots and
64 AN OFFICER OF
shells; she was wounded twice. Do not believe
that the hope of gain made her face dangers, it
was a nobler sentiment, since on days of battle
she asked for no money. In her disputes with
other women, Theresa triumphed by reproaching
them for not daring to do as she. With all these
generous sentiments, Mme. Fromageot was terri-
bly homely; but few women, judging from what
I have seen (honni soit qui mal y pense) have had
so fine a leg.
It was rather amusing to see these ladies dressed
in gowns of velvet and satin found by soldiers,
and who had sold them in consideration of a few
glasses of brandy. The remainder of the attire
was not in keeping, for riding-boots and a forag-
ing-cap completed it in a rather grotesque manner.
Imagine, now, some buxom woman thus attired,
astride a horse flanked by two enormous baskets,
and you will have an idea of the queer sight which
all this presented.
These ladies were delivered, along the road, at
the foot of a tree, continued on their way, and the
mother and child were in good health. They
never had vapours, nor attacks of the nerves, and
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 65
never did barley water nor tea of any kind mod-
erate in them the fires produced by alcoholic
liquors. On this diet they enjoyed an iron consti-
tution ; I should like to have the ladies' physicians
of Paris reason on this matter.
In the cities we did not bother with the canteen-
women, they were left in the barracks to live with
the soldiers ; if we met them on the streets, we did
not deign to look at them. But in camp, it was
altogether different; one then had a certain con-
sideration for them, the homeliest became almost
pretty; thus does a famished hunter devour with
delight the piece of dry bread he by chance finds
at the bottom of his game-bag.
Laborie spent at the canteen all the time which
the military service did not require of him; he
never failed to say, as he sat in front of a bottle
of wine or his glass of brandy: "Ah! we are
better here than at Eylau." This battle of Eylau
always came up in his conversation, it served as a
subject of comparison, it was for him the superla-
tive of misery. No one could have any merit in
the estimation of Laborie if he had not fought in
the plain of Eylau. We received the Journal de
66 AN OFFICER OF
I'Empire; one day, after having read it, I said to
Laborie :
" I see a work announced for which I am going
to send."
" What is it?"
a Le Precis de la Geographic Unvverselle"
"Who wrote that ?"
11 Malte-Brun."
" Who is that Malte-Brun? "
" He is one of our best geographers."
" To what regiment does he belong? "
" He is not a soldier, he is a man of learning, a
man of great merit; he lives in Paris."
" He's a great bird, your Malte-Brun ! I should
have liked to see him at Eylau with his geography
and snow up to his knees, with his science and no
bread, with his merit and nothing to drink. He
should have been there, we would have seen if he
would have written books."
We had in the army canteen-women who,
through their bravery and the talents of their hus-
bands, had risen very high in the world. Some
were called Madame la baronne, others Madame
la generale ; some even, on awaking one fine morn-
5.
X
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 67
ing, had found themselves Madame la duchesse.
I have known some who were bored in their
splendid parlours, and regretted the animated and
eventful lives which they formerly led.
I have known others who, in fine carriages
drawn by four horses, considered it very improper
to have their progress delayed by new debutantes
perched on a stubborn horse between two kegs.
They forgot that formerly the meeting of a fine
carriage annoyed them just as much. One even-
ing, at Fontainebleau, the French comedians had
just played the Manage de Figaro, in the pres-
ence of the Emperor. When the curtain had
fallen, Marechal Lannes exclaimed:
" When I think that formerly I almost had my-
self trampled on and smothered to see that com-
edy! Well! to-day, I see nothing amusing in it."
" That's because," replied Napoleon, " at that
time you were in the pit, and now you are in the
first boxes."
And the Emperor was certainly right, but it is
probable that that play had been murdered a bit
by the artists of the camp.
THE LODGINGS
CHAPTER tf
THE LODGINGS
In general, the place we liked best was pre-
cisely that which we left the soonest and vice versa.
It was for us a very rare thing when the higher
orders agreed with our preferences. One day in
a chateau, the next day in a hut, we were more
in contact with the inhabitants of a country than
he who leaves one inn to go to another. People
will find in this chapter a few observations of cus-
toms taken on the spot, from day to day, among
the different peoples we have visited. It is by
lodging with other men, by dining with them, that
one succeeds in knowing them.
The soldiers travelling in France receive a billet
for lodgings which entitles them to a place near
the fire and the light (place au feu et a la chan-
delle) ; therefore our Romans of the Empire pre-
fer Germany to France. Among the good Ger-
Z 2 AN OFFICER OF
mans 10 they found their dinner ready, their pay
remained intact and could serve for other pur-
poses: a little drop, tobacco and the rest. In
Spain it was frequently worse than in France ; they
found at their hosts' neither fire nor light.
So as to have themselves well served, the sol-
diers had a singular method. Living several to-
gether, they agreed on the part they each had to
play before entering the peasant's house. One of
them played the ugly fellow; he swore, stormed,
drew his sword and threatened every one. The
women were frightened, and sometimes the men
also. The master of the house came; then the
other comrades acted the good apostles, said that
the blusterer was the best fellow in the world, but
that one had to know how to take him.
" He is fond of good food, good wine; he can't
help it; that's his way. When he is served to his
liking, he is as gentle as a lamb, as a new-born
babe, but when he receives only potatoes to eat
or bad beer, he becomes terrible; none of us and
even all combined could prevent him from doing
something awful. For example, only yesterday,
no later than yesterday, at eight leagues from here,
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 73
this veritable demon set fire to the house of a
peasant who had been so rude as to put water in
the wine he gave us. We don't want to excuse
him, but our comrade was not in the wrong, you
should never deceive anyone. Reflect . . .
see ... doing things conscientiously . . .
let the dinner be good, the drinks choice, and don't
worry about the rest, we answer for everything."
These speeches, amplified, paraphrased by the
squad, usually made a great impression; the host
complied with good grace; our jolly dogs asked
for nothing better and everything went along
smoothly. These comedy scenes were often acted
by officers, but the occasion seldom presented it-
self, for it was rare that in the same lodgings
there should be a sufficient number to permit of
distributing the parts.
We were not beloved in Germany; far from
it. The passing of the regiments was an enormous
burden on the country. Our army was hated as a
whole, but the individuals were liked. The jovial,
frank and open character of the French easily won
for them the friendship of good Germans, who
are generally serious. In spite of the hatred of
74 AN OFFICER OF
one people for another, it was- rare if one hour
after his arrival, the French soldier who made an
effort to please, was not on as good terms with
his host as if he had known him for ten years.
Share their tastes, smoke, drink beer, the Germans
will like you. And then they had been so often
told that the French were devils, that when they
had to deal with well bred people nothing was
spared to show the delight they felt!
In Spain, the individuals were no better liked
than the whole. During a general uprising, a
Spaniard would have murdered a Frenchman
sleeping under his roof; a German would have
saved him. Almost everywhere in Germany, I
was well received; almost everywhere I have been
asked to come back, if chance should give me the
opportunity.
When we had arrived at a lodging, officer, sub-
lieutenant or private, everybody thought of pay-
ing court to the lady or daughter of the house;
often this served no purpose, sometimes they were
successful, in any case it was good to keep in prac-
tice.
My captain was married, but he willingly for-
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 75
got it; I have known many officers who, under
certain circumstances, had no better memories. In
all these lodgings, they passed themselves off as
bachelors; if they saw a young girl, they immedi-
ately made love to her, spoke of marriage, and
occasionally they were listened to. Marriage!
you know that this is a magic word for a maid;
a man whom she would not deign to look upon
as a man, she considers with good will as soon as
she believes him susceptible to making a husband.
A husband I it is a great affair, every day this
sweet word comes in the mind of young persons.
As a kaleidoscope, their imagination makes them
take on all forms, they build on the subject many
castles in Spain, and the Lord knows how often
they are disappointed.
However that may be, my captain caused him-
self to be listened to by means of this little un-
truth, and I who almost had a proposal ready,
but did not possess the face of a marrying man,
was frequently repulsed with loss, although I was
twenty years younger than my rival. The respect
of which I have always made profession in favor
of good morals, conjugal fidelity, and perhaps a
76 AN OFFICER OF
bit of jealousy, made me contrive a means of sup-
planting him. As soon as my man began to play
the gallant:
" Captain," I said to him aloud, " the baggage-
master has just arrived, I believe that he has a
letter from your wife."
" Keep quiet," he would whisper.
But I pretended not to understand and I con-
tinued bravely:
" Napoleon, your oldest son (all officers' sons
were called Napoleon), must be big; he must be
progressing, he is a very intelligent boy; is he
still at the Antwerp College? "
"What is that to you?"
"And little Hortense (all officers' daughters
were called Hortense; later they took the name
of Marie-Louise), is little Hortense as mischie-
vous as ever?"
" That will do, that's enough, it's none of your
business."
"Ma foi, it is mighty fine to be married, to
have children, one sees one's self again as one used
to be; this bachelor's life is often very dull and I
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 77
have never been so inclined to abandon it as I am
to-day."
Immediately the young lady's answers to the
captain became cooler, soon she no longer looked
at him; he was married, consequently, he was a
useless being. All the ground he lost, I gradu-
ally gained and sometimes I have profited by these
indiscretions.
A country in which we were both very comfort-
able and the extreme opposite, was Poland: indi-
gence and luxury, that's what one finds at every
step. The villages are frightfully filthy, in every
peasant's house there is a room, or to speak more
accurately, a stable wherein sleep the cow, the
horses, the hens, etc.; one-fourth of the room is
taken up by an immense bed which serves for the
entire family. The father, the mother, the daugh-
ter, the son-in-law all sleep there together, on
straw and very much as a litter of pigs- Go out
of this hovel wherein you have left nature in its
primitive state, go to the chateau, you will find
there all the refinements of civilisation: a choice
library, all the polish of well bred people, an agree-
78 AN OFFICER OF
able conversation, all the comforts it is possible to
have in Poland. A voyage in that country is a
perpetual succession of antitheses.
In truth, the Polish nobles spend eleven months
of the year in their chateaux. They live there
very economically, but they make up for this at
the time of carnival and at Saint- John's feast;
they then go to Warsaw, to Posen, to Cracow.
There, everyone makes a ruinous display; the din-
ners, the fetes succeed each other from day to day;
the streets are encumbered with superb carriages,
high gambling is indulged in; finally, the travellers
return home and seek to re-establish the equilibrium
of their finances by making the peasants work.
This chateau life is not very agreeable in
Poland; each family is isolated in each village;
the roads being horribly bad, people can visit one
another only when it freezes very hard or during
the summer. I do not advise the professional
gastronomists to go to Poland to take a practical
course in the sublime meditations of Brillat-
Savarin. Nowhere, except in the cities, is there to
be found a butcher or a baker ; the nobleman must
have at home all that is necessary to animal life.
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 79
An ox which has to be killed supplies the family
with fresh meat for three days and salt meat for
three months, thus it is with everything else.
In Poland, I have seen young ladies with the
strange habit of sticking on their faces very black
pear seeds ; this resembled the patches with which
our ladies formerly decorated themselves, and set
off the whiteness of their complexions.
" I am astonished, 11 said I to one of these, " that
you should succeed in placing your seeds on the
same spot as the day before."
" But I never take them off."
" Then you do not wash your face ? "
"What's the use? My face is always clean."
At Warsaw, one-half of the inhabitants is com-
posed of foreigners, and specially Germans. The
Polish Jews exclusively, or almost exclusively, do
business there; they are inn-keepers, merchants,
tailors, shoemakers; the Germans are doctors, sur-
geons, apothecaries, lawyers ; the Poles themselves
are either nobles or peasants, slaves or lords; in
that country no intermediate class exists.
The society of Warsaw is very much like that
of Paris ; its women are very gracious and in no
8o AN OFFICER OF
way inferior to our charming compatriots. They
follow French fashions and affect Parisian cus-
toms. The Poles speak nothing but French even
among themselves ; it is very bad form in Warsaw
to speak Polish, unless one adjiresses servants.
The Polish language is banished from good society
as the Provengal patois is in Marseilles. The
study of foreign languages serves as a basis for
the education of the Poles of both sexes. They
are quite right in learning the languages of other
peoples for no one, to my mind, will be tempted
to learn theirs. I have tried to do so, but how
can one succeed in pronouncing words which
have four or five consonants one after the
other?
In the cantonments occupied by the French army,
the inhabitants were compelled to clean the streets,
and it was the most vexatious task one could give
diem. Still these peasants, dirty, indolent, become
very fit and brave soldiers. In their peasant
clothes they look beastly, stupid, dull, but as soon
as they have put on a uniform and they have been
limbered up in the regiment, they are different be-
ings. From beasts they become men, proud, fit,
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 81
intelligent, and they are not one bit inferior to
the soldiers of the most civilised nations.
The Polish horses are small, they are harnessed
four abreast (these Konia are excellent and very
fast) , they feed on anything given them, even old
straw which has seen service on the roofs of houses.
They have been able to resist all the privations
that are experienced in war, while our handsome
Normandy horses were like skeletons when they
had gone without oats for two weeks. The car-
riages de luxe have two horses abreast; they usu-
ally have four or six horses. The traces are of
excessive length. At Warsaw, a four-horse car-
riage takes up more space than that of the King
in Paris when it has eight horses. This mode of
travelling is rather pompous, it is for that reason
that the Poles have adopted it; they are fond of
all that glitters and presents an appearance of
magnificence; their servants are covered with
braid, in imitation gold, it is true, but from a dis-
tance no one would know the difference. It is
specially in winter that the Poles display great
luxury in their equipages. One sees sleighs of all
shapes; horses laden with bells t servants wrapped
82 AN OFFICER OF
in furs, present a singular sight. In summer, the
north of Europe resembles our southern countries,
but in winter it has an aspect particular to itself.
In Poland, the roads are not paved; the trouble
has been taken of tracing them through the forests,
that is all. During the winter, and when the
French army tracked over that country in all di-
rections, we encountered oceans of mud which it
was impossible to cross. The mud of Pultusk has
become unhappily celebrated : " mounted men have
been drowned in it with their horses, others have
been seen to blow out their brains, despairing of
ever getting out
Speaking of the mud of Pultusk, I shall tell the
sad adventure of an officer of engineers. He
found himself stuck in mud up to the neck and
could not get out. A grenadier appeared:
" Comrade," calls out the officer, " come to my
aid, I am lost, I am drowning, the mud will soon
choke me. . . ."
"Who are you?"
" I am an officer of engineers."
"Ah! you're one of those who solve problems;
well! draw your plan."
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 83
And the grenadier went on his way. The sol-
diers did not like the officers of engineers, because
they never saw them fighting with the bayonet.
They found it difficult to understand that one
could render services to the army with a pencil
and compass, and they resembled Laborie, who
did not believe that Malte-Brun could be a good
geographer for the reason that this scholar had
not been on the battlefield of Eylau.
I have made you acquainted with the Germans
and the Poles ; since we have the time, you and I,
we are going to take a trip to Spain. Usually,
when one crosses a frontier, one is prepared in
advance to the changes in customs and language,
but these changes are gradual. Here people
speak French, while they understand German; a
little further they speak German while they jabber
French. It is only after having gone ten leagues
on the other side of the Rhine that you find your-
self in Germany. The same may be said with
regard to the frontiers of Italy and Poland; but
when you have crossed the Bidassoa, you are in
Spain, entirely in Spain. Two minutes before you
were in France; when you have crossed the river,
84 AN OFFICER OF
you are a thousand leagues away from it; the
customs, the language, the dress, all are different.
The transition is the same from Saint-Jean-de-Luz
to Irun, as it is from Calais to Dover, and yet
the Bidassoa is but a brooL
Everything was new to me in this singular coun-
try, and I spent my days in visiting the streets,
the cafes, the shops, to make my observations. 12
The Spanish language is very easy for a Provencal
who knows Latin, and I soon was able to hold
my own with any one. But the Spaniards are
not talkers; instead of the gaiety, the openness,
the frankness and loyalty which characterises our
nation, I found only careworn, sombre brows,
crafty faces of which our villains of the melo-
drama are admirable copies. See those groups on
the street corners, in the public places; to smoke
a cigar and do nothing seem to be, for those who
compose them, supreme happiness. In France,
when ten persons are assembled, you can not hear
yourself, each wishes to speak, each seeks to shine
in the conversation; in Spain all is silence.
Wrapped in their dirty cloaks covering clothes
still more dirty, allowing only a half of their faces
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 85
to be seen and the two fingers that hold the cigar,
the Spaniards remain entire hours facing one an-
other saying nothing, blowing on one another
clouds of smoke. From time to time someone
speaks, which he always does as briefly as possible ;
then the most loquacious of those present replies
pues. This pues is a preposition, a conjunction,
an interjection which answers everything. Ac-
cording to the manner in which one pronounces it,
according to the affirmative, dubitative or nega-
tive sign which accompanies it, it means yes, no,
according, but, however, you are right, I do not
believe it, etc., etc.
There is still to be found in the Spanish lan-
guage a word as frequently used: it is carajo.
Should these two words be suppressed from Span-
ish conversations, only the smoke of the cigars
would be left Instead of saying carajo, the
women make use of a diminutive : coral is to carajo
what our French je m'en fche is to a certain ex-
pression which the Academy has not yet sanctioned.
What a difference from our lodging of Ger-
many, and specially with the good faces of our
hosts! To the most careful cleanliness, to the
86 AN OFFICER OF
good nature of the inhabitants beyond the Rhine,
succeeded the filth, the scowling faces of the Span-
iards. Moreover, although accustomed to the
climate of Poland, we were cold in Spain. In
Biscay, in Castile, it is impossible to keep warm
in winter; people there do not suspect that doors
and windows are made to be closed. They know
nothing of floors, carpets, the trade of chimney-
sweep is unknown, for there are no chimneys. In
the kitchens one sees a hole through which the
smoke escapes, when it is willing to escape. In
the great cities like Burgos and Valladolid, one
can count one or two chimneys in the houses of
tie great lords, and the majority of these have
been built by French generals who wished to be
lodged comfortably. General Dorsenne had a
chimney built in every one of his lodgings.
To get warm, people make use of a brasero, a
metal vase full of coals lit in the street in the
morning. It is placed in the principal room where
all the members of the household assemble; there,
forming a circle, they toast their knees, which, how-
ever, establishes a just compensation with their
backs which are always freezing. Men and
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 87
women pass around the clganto which each smokes
alternatively, and the conversation is as lively as
in the street The prettiest woman shows no re-
pugnance in taking the cigar which comes from a
monk's mouth; as for me, I smoked alone, for my
own account, as in Poland, I drank from a glass
belonging to me exclusively.
When we lodged at inns, as it was militarily,
we were not charged for the noise we made, the
hill would have been too large for the smallness
of our purses; for we avenged ourselves by sing-
ing at the top of our voices, for the privations
imposed on us by Castilian prodigality. This
vengeance reached its destination. Of all the
peoples in the world, the Spanish is certainly the
one who eats and drinks the least; with what is
consumed by one hundred Paris bourgeois, one
thousand Spaniards could be fed.
The olla oulle, a soup, in itself alone composes
the three courses of the Spanish meals ; I am mis-
taken, the cigarito always comes in to act as a not
very substantial dessert. Put in a kettle full of
water, some chick-peas, some cabbage, a goodly
number of green peppers, a small piece of bacon
88 AN OFFICER OF
or meat, cook the whole to a turn, and you dine
as all Spain dines, when it dines well.
In the villages, enter anywhere at the meal hour,
you will always see the same course, without any
variation. The people who live alone eat bread
and raw onions, they do not go to the trouble of
making olla because fire would be needed. The
most essential things are at the lowest prices, and
the result is that in this country, a household which
possesses six hundred francs income lives in rela-
tive opulence, envied by die entire neighbour-
hood.
Since the beginning of the war, a swarm of
French restaurateurs had pounced on Spain.
They were located from halting-place to halting-
place, from Irun as far as Seville inclusively. In
their establishments were to be found the best
productions of French soil; their active relations
with the best restaurateurs of Paris, supplied to
the moneyed gastronomist a salutary resource as a
change from the olla of the Spaniards.
These dealers in beefsteak and chops charged
very dear for what came out of their kitchens;
they were approachable only by those who in an
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 89
army are in the habit of trebling their pay by what
they call le tour du baton (pickings) .
The day after my arrival at Vittoria, I entered
a shoemaker's shop to have my shoes mended.
There was no one in the place; the master of the
establishment was on the opposite side of the street
smoking his cigarlto. His shoulders covered by
a mantle with many holes, he looked like a beggar,
but like a Spanish beggar wrapped in his misery,
of which he seemed more proud than ashamed
He comes near me, I explain my business.
" Wait," he says; and immediately calls his wife.
" How much is there still in the purse? "
" Twelve piecettes " ( 14 Fr. 40) .
"Then I don't work."
" But," said I, " twelve piecettes wiU not last
for ever."
" Quien has visto magnana? " (Who has seen
to-morrow?) he replied, turning his back on me.
JLwent to one of his colleagues who, probably
not being the master of so important a sum, was
good enough to work for me.
The pride of the Spaniards has become pro-
verbial; in that country, the lowest of beggars con-
go AN OFFICER OF
siders himself as noble as the King. Dressed in
rags, he drapes himself like a Roman senator; you
must be particular as to how you refuse him alms ;
and it is a ceremony which one has to repeat often,
because of the innumerable quantity of beggars
with which Spain is filled; it is the country of
Guzman d' Alfranche; this hero of beggary could
have been born nowhere else.
Begging is a trade; every church door, every
street corner decorated with an image of the
Virgin or a saint has its particular beggar. It is
a business which one exploits and sells. A ruined
man, who knows not what else to do, buys a
second hand saint, he christens it with the name
of Saint James or Saint Pancrace, stands it near
a mile-stone and becomes santero. The peasants
give him alms, he prays for the dead in considera-
tion of a salary, he recites in your presence the
seven psalms of penitence, which he applies to
the person you mention : this costs those interested
two sous. But if you wish to buy psalms said at
his home, in his leisure moments, these cost less;
he will sell you as many as you please at fifty
per cent, less than the regular price. In such a.
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 91
contract as the seller delivers nothing, it is to be
feared that he may sell to others what you have
just purchased; then things are bound to be some-
what mixed. The devout woman who spends a
real in this manner believes she is redeeming her
former sins, just as the courtesan considers herself
unseen because she has drawn the curtain in front
of the image of the Virgin which always orna-
ments her boudoir.
If the Spanish men are morose and not given to
talking, the women are lively, sparkling, fond of
babbling and they do it quite well. In general
they have but little education, but the natural wit
and the charm which they display in saying noth-
ings prevent one from noticing it at first. They
have a thorough knowledge of the vocabulary of
gallantry; all phrases of love and of sentiment are
familiar to them; they have an immense repertory
of these. When the occasion offers, all that gushes
forth as from a spring; they seem to have acquired
them by heart. As soon as I perceived their
taste, I composed some very high-sounding tirades;
I began to use them in writing and in speech, and
things went along as smoothly as could be.
ga AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY
The Spanish women possess a great charm: it
is that they do not make you languish too long.
The main thing is to he to their liking; when you
are beloved, the preliminaries are soon gone
through, and they are soon yours. I have read,
I know not where, that a lover said to his mistress :
" But what shall we do? Your mother does not
leave you alone an instant." " Try to please me
enough," she replied, " and do not worry about
the rest.** Spanish women all seem to say to you :
" Be attentive to me, please me, if you can; do not
think of my husband, do not bother about the
others who may be watching ; in spite of them all,
the favorable moment will come; the sooner the
better.'*
THE FENCING-MASTERS AND THE
DUELISTS
CHAPTER VI
THE FENCING-MASTERS AND THE DUELISTS
In all regiments, there is a man whom the sol-
diers respect at least as much as their colonel, and
this man is the fencing-master. He has several
lieutenants who, under the name of assistants,
exercise a part of that moral authority which the
great master delegates to them. On my arrival
in the regiment, I requested M. Malta . . .
to give me lessons in his art which I knew very
imperfectly, and he taught me by rule how one
should go about it to kill his man without ever
being killed For, as M. Jourdain's master has
so well put it : " The whole secret of fencing con-
sists of two things: in giving and not receiving.
Now, so as not to receive, turn the sword of your
adversary from the line of your body, which only
depends on a little motion of the wrist, either
inward, or outward."
M. Malta . . . who, I believe, had never
95
g6 AN OFFICER OF
read the " Bourgeois Gentilhomme" made use of
exactly the same language, which might prove, were
it necessary, that Moliere was well acquainted with
the human heart. He was a good eccentric; I
am speaking of M. Malta . . . the things
of which he boasted most, and which he regarded
as claims to glory, were precisely those that a man
of honour would have been ashamed to confess.
He had sought a quarrel with all the most famous
of his time, and he had killed them by the dozen.
. . . I believe that he exaggerated the number
of the dead somewhat; however, if one spoke in
his presence of some celebrated fighter, I can affirm
that his greatest desire was to measure himself
with him. I was tractable at his lessons and he
appeared very well pleased with my progress.
" Lieutenant," said he to me one day, " if you
continue this way, in two months I shall teach you
politeness." By this he meant that he would teach
me the salute and all the pretences of courtesy that
ordinarily precede a fencing match.
When we had reached the point where I could
learn politeness, M. Malta . . . always urged
me to make big eyes while saluting: " Lieutenant,
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 97
open your eyes, . . . more . . . still
more. . . . When you salute, you must open
your eyes like the crystals of a watch; you must
show that you're present." When we wished to
arouse his anger, we praised before him the fen-
cing-masters of the other regiments; then M.
Malta . . . would shrug his shoulders as a
sign of contempt, and always ended by saying:
"Not one of those people would be worthy of
sweeping my fencing-hall."
Among his assistants, Dupre, a drummer, held
a very distinguished place; he was his coadjutor,
his successor, the heir-apparent of that great office.
In the taverns, Dupre made the firstcomer buy
him a drink, or else he invited the reluctant indi-
vidual to follow him on the field to refresh them-
selves with sword blows; it was his favorite expres-
sion. Never did more insolent and blustering
personage wear the shako on his ear.
" You see that cuirassier drinking alone," said
Dupre one day to his comrade PEtoile, " wait a
bit, I am going to demolish him.' 9
" Be careful! should he fall on you, you would
be crushed."
9 8 AN OFFICER OF
" My sword will compel him to fall on his
back."
And Dupre, approaching, seizes the glass of the
man with the jacket of steel and drinks down its
contents without stopping to breathe. It is but
right to tell you that a fighting f ootsoldier always
prefers to pick a quarrel with a horseman; the
horseman is his natural enemy. Among the men
on horseback, he will choose the cuirassier, espe-
cially if the latter is very tall and stout ; if he kills
him, the act deserves greater praise.
" Comrade, you are making a mistake."
" Rather it is you who do not see clearly."
lc You take me for someone else."
" Not at all, my dear, it is done on purpose."
" Then you are trying to pick a quarrel with
me?"
" Of course; look, he is beginning to notice it."
" If I put you in my boot, it will serve you
as a guard-room."
" Yes, but you have to put me in it first, and
you will be dead before that happens."
" Mille tonnerres! "
" No noise, my friend, softly, let us not shout;
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 99
between Frenchmen there is a way of settling mat-
ters; come this way to show me your boot.*'
" And my sword at the same time."
Five minutes after, the cuirassier was dead.
However, one fine day Dupre found his master:
the sword of a young recruit ran him through. The
news was brought to us ; everybody was delighted
to hear it; everyone said that the blackguard had
only what he deserved. Nevertheless the surgeon-
major betook himself on the field of battle; he
wanted to withdraw the steel from the wound
to apply a dressing; the thing was at first consid-
ered impossible, because the weight of the body
in falling, had bent the point of the sword. It
was necessary to call the armorer who straightened
it. The operation was a long one; the wretched
fellow must have suffered horribly; nothing, how-
ever, appeared on his face; on the contrary, while
jesting with those present, he urged the surgeon
to do his duty well. The sword was withdrawn,
the wound bandaged; Dupre remained two months
in the hospital and then ... he came out
more of a blackguard than ever. One hundred
thousand good people would have died of such
ioo AN OFFICER OF
a wound. Dupre did not. Besides, it is remark-
able that all these fighters were ordinarily very
bad soldiers; the man who, counting on his
strength, seeks to pick a quarrel with the weak,
is necessarily a coward. On the days of battles,
these blusterers always had a new pretext for
remaining behind; they were to be seen only the
following day.
A recruit in their place would have received
la savate, 1 * but the reason they offered and always
at the point of the sword closed the mouth of the
whole company.
The drummer is in general a duelist, a fencing-
master or at least an assistant master. The drum-
mer is quarrelsome, hard to get along with, a
banterer, always ready to draw his sword; he is
the Paris gamin in uniform. Carrying no gun,
having a sword as a sole weapon; he caresses it,
polishes it, handles it as long as the day lasts,
and when the occasion comes to draw, the blade
does not stick in the scabbard. Not only is he
clever in handling the broadsword, but he also
knows how to handle the small sword. When
he travels, look at the top of his knapsack: two
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 101
capped foils, rolled up in his cape, present to the
amateur their sharpened points adorned with two
corks to prevent rusting.
As long as he is in the garrison, the drummer-
assistant carries an orderly's short saber, he has to ;
should he lose it, he would be compelled to buy
another at the regiment store. But as soon as a
campaign is begun, he throws far away from him
that vulgar blade to put in its place an awl which
he is very careful to mount en quarte. It is by
this token that one recognises all the fiends of a
regiment ; they all have the handle of the orderly's
sword, but a blade as long as an ell at every step
strikes their right heel. Indeed, it is not com-
fortable in marching, but one must suffer some
inconvenience if one wishes to afiect a ferocious
air. They make themselves feared, or at least
they think so, and that's a great pleasure for these
gentlemen.
I have seen fencing-masters fight together
seriously, without motive, without hatred, without
a reason capable of causing a duel. They fought
to try their strength; one of them was killed;
the other strutted about adding one more triumph
102 AN OFFICER OF
to his past exploits. I have seen two of these
who in a match, quarreling over a denied pass,
of common accord left their foils for their swords,
and fought in the presence of fifty spectators who
allowed them to do it. " You will not deny that
one ! " said the victor as he ran his adversary
through. It would be truly difficult to deny a
sword thrust which pierced your chest. A fencing-
master had placed over his door this singular sign :
" Fighting here from ten to four." It was very
convenient for the amateurs: they were always sure
to find a champion ready to face them.
One day I was crossing the bridge of Stettin;
I was on my way to the faubourg Lastadie ; there I
met an assistant, he was a sapper, a drunken, quar-
relsome fellow; he combined all these qualities in
one person ; to-day such a person is called a plural-
ist. Our man had been drinking as usual, he was
speaking to himself, zigzagging, and, to use a sol-
diers' expression, he was on bad terms with equi-
librium and was making scallops.
" How ! " he was saying while pulling out the
hair of his long beard, " shall I not find out of
the whole garrison a good fellow to face me? not
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 103
one who will permit me to cut a button-hole in
the middle of his stomach? Formerly I should
have found a hundred ready to take sword in hand ;
to-day not one; you are all soldiers of the pope.
If I were the Emperor, I would put you before a
cannon and set it off to teach you manners."
" Well! what's the matter, friend? " asked one
of his comrades whom he met fishing at the end
of the bridge.
"What's the matter? you ask me what's the
matter? Well, I'll tell you what's the matter. It
is that for the past two hours I have been looking
for some good fellow willing to be freshened up
by a few sword thrusts, and I have found none;
I provoke them all and not one gets angry."
" If you wish it, I am ready to do you that
service."
"Good, that's what I call speaking! I had
always said that one could count on you. Let me
embrace you. You are a Frenchman, you are a
friend; that's the kind of a comrade to have."
" Wait, let me take in my line, and I'm with
you."
" Ah ! the good fellow ! he is a grenadier I We
104 AN OFFICER OF
shall go yonder in that small wood, near the road
to Dam; we shall be alone; no one will disturb
us; it will be very comfortable, we shall fight as
we please. Your sword is sharp, is it not? "
"Don't worry!"
" Good, mine cuts better than the razors of the
company's barber."
" That's the way it should be. Let's be off."
I thought it was a joke and that the fisherman,
being in full possession of his senses, had only
agreed with the drunkard so as to take him home.
Nothing of the sort; in the evening I heard that
the combat had taken place seriously, and that my
jolly dogs, both wounded in the face, had returned
to the barracks, arm in arm, each one proclaiming
the other his best friend.
I know that the public will not believe me; if
they had the occasion to study the ways of gar-
risons and of guard-houses, they would see things
more startling than this. But let us go farther
up in military hierarchy; I am going to tell you
about a scene of which I was a witness in Paris.
An officer of my company has a quarrel one even-
ing on the boulevard with a captain who lived at
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 105
Courbevoie. The discussion becomes heated and
they make an appointment for the next day at
the Bois de Boulogne. It was almost midnight,
the captain was going to leave us, when we called
his attention to a storm which was about to break.
He replies that at this hour he would not be admit-
ted in a rooming-house : " I am going to hire a
cabriolet," he adds; " besides, I am not afraid of
the storm." Then his adversary approaches and
says to him :
" Stay here, you will sleep with me, I offer you
a half of my bed. We shall leave together for the
Bois de Boulogne, it will be much more convenient,
neither one will have to wait for the other."
" I accept. But we shall fight."
" Would I otherwise have offered you half of
my bed? "
Our two men went to bed together, talked of
politics, manoeuvres, love affairs, and the next
morning, after having eaten some cold chicken and
drunk a bottle of champagne, they merrily went
to try and cut each other's throats. One of them
was gravely wounded, but did not die.
I have known many officers who were a prey
io6 AN OFFICER OF
to diiellomanla; they thought themselves obliged
to have an affair of honour every month.
We also had generals who had the same tastes ;
to kill a man in a duel was a pastime with them.
They did not digest the less well on that account,
and they only slept the better; it was with them
as it is with us when we kill a few partridges.
A general whom I do not wish to name was fight-
ing a pistol duel with a young lawyer. " You are
the offended party, monsieur, fire first, it is your
right, but try to aim straight, for if you miss me,
you are a dead man." The young man fired.
" Imbecile! your bullet is in the trees, and mine is
going to hit the third button of your coat, it will
go through your heart, you will not suffer." As
the cat which prolongs the agony of a mouse held
In its paws, the general took a long and careful
aim. " Yes," he said, " it is too bad to die at
thirty, with fine prospects, fame at the bar, a mis-
tress. ... I understand your regrets . . .
you should not have crossed my path. Come, say
good-bye." A shot was heard: the young man
was dead.
At Ragusa, thirty officers were assembled at a
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 107
general's ; while lunching, duels were discussed, pis-
tol shooting; each cited some remarkable feat.
One killed sparrows on the fly, another split bullets
on the blade of a knife. The general sees a grena-
dier passing in the street and calls him in. On
entering, the soldier puts in his pocket a short pipe
which a moment before he held in his mouth,
" Keep your pipe," says the general; " continue to
smoke, stand in the position of a soldier without
weapons, still, head high, attention ! Turn to the
right ! Don't move 1 " At this moment the gen-
eral takes a pistol, fires and breaks the pipe in the
smoker's mouth.
" Here is a louis with which to drink. Gentle-
men, this is what I call shooting with a pistol."
" Thank you, general," said the astounded
grenadier; " another time, I shall not smoke when
coming to your house."
M. Hemere, the man of the mill, he who con-
sulted Laborie's map with so much success, was a
consummate fighter. Of a very small size, of a
teasing disposition, he thought that people were
always making game of him ; the least gesture was
misunderstood; always asking for an explanation,
io8 AN OFFICER OF
he obtained it sometimes; but, very often, these
quarrels without motive, thanks to the intervention
of the witnesses, ended on the field by an explana-
tion and without recourse to the sword.
To finish with M. Hemere, I shall say that owing
to his continual teasing and getting angry at trifles,
he found someone who meant business. The poor
devil died in a duel, on the eve of the battle of
Wagram.
During the forty days which preceded that great
day, the entire army was working at the fortifica-
tions of the island of Lobau. Our soldiers were
paid at the rate of fifty centimes a day. A young
officer of engineers, in charge of the inspection of
the works, seeing that the grenadiers rested too
long, reproached them for it. The latter imme-
diately went to complain to their captain of the
manner in which M. Problem had treated them.
It is thus that they designate the officers of
engineers of whom they think very little.
The captain, furious that someone else should
dare to lecture his grenadiers, curls up his mous-
tache and hastens to the officer to ask an explanation
of his language. He was one of those brave fel-
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 109
lows who speak only of killing and cutting in two,
one of those men, in short, who, to use the expres-
sion of Moliere, are all sword thrusts and whom
our soldiers call dealers in sudden deaths.
" Monsieur, you have dared to say that my
grenadiers . . ."
" Do not work. Yes, monsieur, and that's the
truth."
" I shall teach you, my little greenhorn, to hold
your tongue."
" Greenhorn ! Greenhorn 1 "
" Yes, greenhorn, recruit, and I shall prove it
to you presently."
"I say, captain I Do you imagine that you
frighten me with your great moustachios? You
no doubt think yourself very terrible because you
haven't shaved for two weeks? But learn, mon-
sieur, that if I wished, I myself could go without
shaving."
" Ahl you pretend to make fun of me I We
shall see if you will be in a humour to jest when
I shall have run you through."
" Softly, monsieur I If we should come to that,
I hope to be there."
no AN OFFICER OF
" No explanation: on guard I "
" On guard, I am willing; but I wish to
say something: I am cool, you are angry, the
match would be unequal; let us wait until to-mor-
row."
" To-morrow? to-morrow, you will have been
dead twenty-four hours, I shall already have eaten
your liver, I shall have digested your conscience.
On guard I I want my grenadiers to bury you
under your fortifications, then they'll work with a
will."
" You wish it, monsieur, I am ready."
The young pupil of the Polytechnic School and
the moustachiod captain draw their swords and the
fight begins in the midst of the laborers who are
delighted to leave the shovel and pick for an
instant and see the vexatious overseer punished.
At the captain's first lunge, the officer of engi-
neers warded the blow; his sword falling on the
hand of his adversary, touched the little finger
which was almost cut off.
" You are wounded, monsieur," he said to him;
" we shall stop right here, if it suits you."
NAPOLEON'S ARMY in
" Ah ! scoundrel ! do you not know that coups de
manchette 1 * are not allowed?"
" Monsieur, I am ignorant of everything, it is
the first time I fight; I strike wherever I can, do
the same."
" Ah! d recruit, I am going to give you a
lesson which you'll remember ! "
" Monsieur, you are wounded; I have too much
advantage over you, let us postpone this affair."
" On guard, scoundrel, on guard! "
"Here I am I"
After a few thrusts and parries, the captain re-
ceived a wound which, beginning at the top of the
thigh, stopped only at the knee. He was com-
pelled to cease the combat, but nothing can be
compared to the anger he felt at having been
wounded twice by a young man without a mous-
tache! a greenhorn! a recruit!
"I shall have my revenge," he said to him;
" Til fix you later; I'll look for you; were you at
the devil's, and we shall see ... recruit, if
coups de manchette will still be in your favour."
They carried away the captain, who was ill a
ii2 AN OFFICER OF
long time: finally he recovered; but during the mo-
ments of fever which he suffered, he was continually
heard repeating: " A recruit, a d greenhorn!
a dirty coup de manchetteff"
At Dantzig a captain had just received from
the quartermaster the arrears of his pay, in the
neighbourhood of 1,500 francs. He was on his
way home, but recalling that he was on guard duty,
and that it was time to report at the barracks, he
gives the bag of ecus to his lieutenant : " Since you
are going home," said he to him, " and we are
neighbours, be kind enough to give this money to
my wife."
The lieutenant immediately goes to the lady's
home, and on entering lays on the table the bag
of money. He talks, makes himself agreeable,
and from one thing to another, he makes a declara-
tion of love. Spurned at first, he does not lose
courage, he plays the lover well, the passionate
man; he becomes excited, he throws himself
at the feet of his captain's wife. No sacrifice
will be too great to make her listen to his plea.
He would give his life for a quarter of an hour's
happiness. " I have just received a year's pay,
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 113
and if you wish these 1,500 francs, they are
yours."
Many women would have considered the propo*
sition very impertinent: this one judged it differ-
ently; her husband gave her for the purchase of
her dresses only what was absolutely necessary, and
although very pretty, she always found herself
thrown into the shade at all receptions. The
demon of coquetry caused her to see in that 1,500
francs dresses, hats, lace collars and flounces, trifles
which women love above all things. In turn she
might now shine; with a few falsehoods and cun-
ning her husband would suspect nothing. The
lieutenant took advantage of this moment of hesi-
tation, he became pressing and the lady surren-
dered
The next day, the captain, on coming off guard,
meets the young officer, they have a dispute over
service matters, harsh words are spoken, and each
returns home.
On reaching his house, the captain was in an
angry mood.
" What's the matter, my dear? "
"That rascal, he'll hear from me! "
n 4 AN OFFICER OF
"Who?"
"My lieutenant; I have just put him under
arrest for two weeks."
"What for?"
" You will know it later. Where are the 1,500
francs?"
" What?" says the wife, thunderstruck.
" Didn't he give you 1,500 francs? " he asked,
shouting like a madman.
" What do you mean? "
" Not another word ! Did he give them to you,
yes or no?"
" There they are! " said the wife falling at the
knees of her husband. " Mercy, forgive me ! he
took advantage of a moment of weakness . . ."
" What's that you say? "
" That he is a wretch to have told you."
If the captain was angry on entering, imagine
the fit which followed when he had discovered
this strange secret in this equally strange manner.
There was an explanation, the woman confessed
everything so as to obtain her pardon, having
already admitted too much to permit of her retract-
ing. These 1,500 francs asked for by her husband
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 115
had led her to believe that the lieutenant was a
babbler.
" He will die by my hand only," she said.
" Leave him to me, I am going to punish him,
and after that we shall settle our score."
The offended husband rushed to his rival's quar-
ters; they go on the field, swords are drawn; two
minutes later the captain was dead.
A BATTLE DAY
CHAPTER VII
A BATTLE DAY
People, after having read history, generally
think that a battle is like a review at the Champ
de Mars, and that one hundred thousand men
placed opposite one hundred thousand men amuse
themselves in shooting down each other at their
ease to the accompaniment of cannon to produce
the effect of the double-bass in an orchestra. I
am going to explain to them how a battle is fought.
Our army is on the march preceded by its ad-
vance guard, composed of light troops. The
hussars go like very devils ; they trot, they gallop,
the enemy flees before them; but soon they stop,
our hussars stop also. A village defended by a
few hundred men is in front of us, it is ordered
attacked by sharpshooters. At the moment that
our men enter the gardens, a battalion of the
enemy appears which makes them lose ground.
.We send a regiment to support them, the others
119
AN OFFICER OF
send two; we order forward ten, the enemy shows
us twenty; each side makes the artillery advance,
the cannon growl, soon everyone takes part in the
merry-making, fighting goes on, they slaughter one
another; one cries for his leg, another for his nose,
others cry for nothing, and there is food for the
crows and for the makers of official reports.
The science of a general-in-chief amounts to this:
to have on a set day, at a given point, as many men
as possible. Napoleon said it, and Napoleon was
a judge. A general must know which point of
the map will be most seriously disputed. It is
there that the battle will be fought, it is conse-
quently there that he must bring all his troops by
twenty different roads. An order badly given,
badly understood, often causes the failure of the
finest strategic combinations, to-wit: Grouchy's
corps which did not reach Waterloo. The First
Consul, before leaving Paris, had marked with a
pin on the map the plain of Marengo for the scene
of a new triumph; the result justified his prevision.
The science of a general consists also in knowing
the strength of the enemy at such a point, his weak-
ness at such another. To succeed in this, the serv-
NAPOLEON'S ARMY zai
ice of spies is indispensable. Good ones must be
had and they must be well paid. Napoleon gave
gold by the handfuls, it was a good investment.
We have had generals put to rout because they
haggled on the subject of secret funds.
When one approaches a battlefield where the
fighting is on, nothing is so discouraging for the
young soldiers as the remarks of the wounded who
are going back.
" Do not go so fast, do not hurry," they say,
" to be killed, it is not necessary to run so quickly.*'
" The enemy is ten times more numerous than
we."
" They've cut off my leg, they'll cut off some-
thing else of yours."
" You look like living corpses. 11
"Hello, look at that one, does he not seem
dead? 11
" He is; yesterday he forgot to get buried; he
remembers it today, etc."
In vain are they told to be silent; an arm in a
sling, a gash across the face guarantee impunity,
give the right of insolence, and the jeremiads con-
tinue so long as they find someone to listen to them.
122 AN OFFICER OF
One of these poor devils was passing before us
with his head split open and his arm broken.
Everyone was moved to pity at sight of him.
" How sad ! " the men said : " two wounds ! what
a long road to go to be bandaged ! "
"You are all fools," exclaimed the wounded
man: "you'll have more than that presently: I
know my fate, but you do not know yours."
You should have seen the faces of the recruits
on hearing these remarks, and specially on seeing
the first bodies they came across. They went
twenty feet out of their way for fear of touching
them, soon they came nearer, later they marched
over them without ceremony.
Man becomes accustomed to everything, to
pleasure and to pain. How often have you expe-
rienced that a great grief, a great joy, after two
weeks becomes dull sensation, a very ordinary
thing? Remember this at your next sorrow, and
say: " This will pass as other sorrows have passed."
To prove the truth of my reasoning, I am going
to tell you a little story. You know that after the
siege of Toulon, the Republic caused all those who
at that time were opposed to it to be shot down.
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 123
After the guns had thrown down entire lines, a
voice called out: " Let all those who are not dead
rise ! The Republic pardons them ! " A few
wretched wounded, others whom the grape-shot
had spared, deluded by this promise, raised their
heads: at that moment, a squadron of butchers
(history says a squadron of dragoons ; history must
be mistaken) rushes on them, sword in hand, com-
pleting what the guns had commenced; soon the
sun set over this atrocious slaughter.
On a beautiful night, one of these wretches
awakes in the middle of this ocean of bodies; he
is wounded in ten places, in the head, in the legs,
in the arms, in the chest, everywhere. He rolls
over, he drags himself along.
" Who goes there? " cries the sentry.
"Finish me."
"Who are you?"
" One of those wretches who has been fired on;
finish me."
11 1 am a soldier, I am not an executioner."
" Finish me, you will do me a service ; you will
perform an act of humanity."
" I am not an executioner, I tell you."
124 AN OFFICER OF
" Finish me, I beg of you, all my members are
broken, my head is split open, it is impossible for
me to recover; you will spare me horrible suffer-
ing, finish me."
The sentry drew near, verified the condition of
the wounded man; believing in the impossibility
of a cure, compassion determined him ; had he fired
his gun, the post would have taken up arms, he
thought it best to use his bayonet, which he thrust
into the body of the wretched man. Would you
believe it? this man did not die; the next day,
while burying all these corpses, a grave-digger saw
that he was still alive; he carried him to his home,
nursed him, and life returned. All the wounds
were cured. That man was M. de Launoy, a
naval officer under Louis XVI ; he might well have
spared himself that last bayonet thrust
The surgeon establishes his ambulance at a little
distance from the battlefield: it is towards there
that the wounded are going; after the first aid,
they go to the rear of the army, and they enter
the hospitals, until they are able to begin again.
It is a curious sight, that of an ambulance, all these
surgeons cutting and paring off, the cries of the
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 125
wounded, these severed members which fill the
yard, the wagons taking away those who are ban-
daged, stretchers bringing newcomers; it is a
mournful company of human miseries. At the
battle of Wagram, a grenadier of my regiment is
wounded by a bullet; his comrade loads him on his
back and carries him to the surgeon-major; but, on
the way, another bullet comes and kills the poor
wounded man without the bearer noticing it.
The latter continues on his way, reaches the am-
bulance, and lays the grenadier on the operat-
ing table.
"What are you bringing there? He is dead,
what do you want me to do to him? "
" Major, he is wounded."
"There, look, imbecile, don't you see he's
dead?"
" That's true, see how one is deceived in this
world even by his best friend. The sly fellow told
me he was only wounded."
It must not be believed that in the army every-
one is brave; I have seen some who could never
become accustomed to the sound of the cannon.
At Wagram, a soldier of my company had a vio-
126 AN OFFICER OF
lent attack of epilepsy which was ended by the
whizzing of the first shot.
An officer of my regiment, with thirty years of
service, had never been on the fighting line; the
sight of a sword made him pale, and he confessed
it frankly. " I should very much like to go on
the battlefield, but it is not possible, I should fall
back at the first gunshot, and it would be a very
bad example." He was usually left behind at the
garrison where, however, he made himself very
useful by drilling the recruits.
If everyone was not brave in the army, there
were some to be found whose courage was not to
be compared to anything; and this in all ranks, in
all degrees, from King Murat to the common
fusileer, from General Dorsenne to the drummer.
I could write ten volumes simply on the truly fabu-
lous acts of bravery of our warriors. I shall men-
tion but one which the entire third army corps
witnessed in Spain.
General Suchet had just takea Mount Olivo in
spite of the predictions of the Spaniards. " The
trenches of Mount Olivo," they said, " will bury
all the troops of Suchet, and the trenches of Tar-
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 127
ragone all the troops of Bonaparte." He meets
a wounded soldier whom his comrades were carry-
ing to the ambulance: "Victory, victory, Mount
Olivois taken!"
" Are you gravely wounded? "
" ^> general, but unfortunately wounded seri-
ously enough to be obliged to leave the ranks."
" .Well answered, friend. What do you wish
as a reward for your services ? "
" To be allowed to lead the attack when you
take Tarragone."
" Better and better."
" You promise me this? "
"Yes."
On the 3Oth of June, 1811, that is to say one
month after, the general-in-chief was about to
storm the place. The troops were forming their
columns of attack when a footsoldier in dress uni-
form, as resplendent as on a parade day, ap-
proached Suchet.
" I came to remind you of your promise : I wish
to lead the attack."
" Ah ! it's you, my brave fellow, very good; but
soldiers of your kind are too rare that I should be
128 AN OFFICER OF
wasteful of their blood. Remain in your com-
pany; by imparting your noble courage to all, you
will render greater service than by having your-
self killed alone."
" I wish to lead the attack."
" You shall infallibly be killed, I can not allow
it."
" General, I have your word, and I wish to be
the first to attack."
11 So much the worse, my brave fellow, so much
the worse for us, do as you please."
The columns start and my footsoldier passes
them by twenty paces; he rushes forward in the
midst of the grape shot, he is the first to climb the
breach, and there, falls riddled with bullets.
Picked up by order of Suchet, this brave soldier was
carried to the hospital: a breath of life permitted
him to see on that same day the entire corps of
officers, with the general at their head, who came to
visit him* Suchet took off his cross to decorate
the breast of the footsoldier who died admired by
the whole army.
That hero's name was Bianchelli. Chateau-
briand has said: " Glory must be something very
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 129
real, since it causes the heart of the one who is
only its witness to beat."
I am going to cite an act of courage of another
kind.
During the civil wars in Vendee, a republican
soldier was taken prisoner of war, and condemned
to death together with all his comrades. They
were taken to the field to be shot, when one of
the Vendean chiefs, admiring the fine bearing of
the grenadier, asked his pardon from the general-
in-chief.
" No pardon," he replied, " they had none for
our men in the Republican army."
" Never mind, you will be generous, you will
save a hero; he is a Frenchman, he will be one
more support for our cause, and for you a devoted
friend who will owe his life to you."
" At this price, I consent, if he is willing to
march with us and shout : ' Vvue le roil ' "
" Leave it to me. Grenadier, come here, I have
asked your pardon from the general, he has granted
it if you shout : ' Vwe le roi! ' "
" Five la Republique/ " replied the soldier.
"Let him be shot!"
130 AN OFFICER OF
The grenadier returns proudly back to his com-
rades, several were already dead. He stands with
his arms folded across his breast, his head high,
facing the muskets, when the Vendean chief throws
himself at the general's feet.
" I have always served with honour, you know
it; as a reward for the blood I have shed, I ask
for the pardon of the grenadier without conditions;
do you refuse it? "
" So be it, I grant it"
" Come forward, grenadier, the general grants
you your life, and I trust that you will not make
use of it against us."
" Is it unconditionally? "
" Unconditionally."
"Well then, m* broil"
The name of this hero is not known, I knew it
once. . . . I am ashamed to confess it ...
I have forgotten it Had he lived in ancient
Greece or Rome, the sculptors would not have
failed to make him immortal.
" I defy anyone to frighten me ! " said a long-
sworded hero, with the tufted moustaches of the
King of clubs. " That's what we'll see ! " replied
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 131
some friends. A wager is made, a large sum is
deposited; the winner is to get it A date is set
after which, if the hero has not said: "I am
afraid," he will have won the wager.
The bettors take every precaution. By means
of secret intelligence, they render themselves mas-
ters of the doors, enter the room in which their
man sleeps ; they take the bullets out of his pistols
and saw into four quarters the blade of his sword.
On a beautiful night, they all enter his room.
He awakens with a start, and sees a dozen strolling
corpses covered with shrouds, they carry a bier and
chant unintelligible words. They set down the
coffin, surround it with wax-tapers, making signs
to the hero to come and take his place in it. The
latter loudly bursts into laughter, and the chanting
continues.
After a half hour thus passed without any sort
of variation, the bettor, magnetised by the monoto-
nous chant, the burning candles, the open bier, was
beginning to feel uncomfortable.
" Gentlemen," said he, " this is quite enough, I
think; I wish to sleep, withdraw."
The chanting still continues.
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" This is beginning to annoy me, and if you do
not go at once, I shall take other means."
The chanting still continues.
Our man draws his sword, attempts to strike
one of the phantoms with it ; it breaks.
The chanting still continues.
Furious, he takes his pistols, threatens to fire;
no answer is given, only the chant, he fires and
two of the phantoms hand him back his bullets
while chanting.
11 Gentlemen," he says, " it's all over, I am
afraid ! I have lost my wager, speak to me, hurry,
it is time!"
The chanting still continues.
The hero falls at full length : he was dead.
I shall not play the blusterer here, the capitan
Matamore, by saying that I have never been afraid,
a thing that I have heard others say time and
again. I declare, on the contrary, that the first
time that a cannon ball whizzed over my head, I
bowed to it by an involuntary movement ; with the
second I was less polite; I stood firm at the third;
but every time I reached the firing line, I confess
MURAT.
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 133
that the same form of politeness was always pre-
cisely followed.
When one manoeuvres, when one is firing, when
one is actively fighting, these feelings disappear,
the smoke, the roar of the cannon, the shouts of
the combatants intoxicate everybody, one has no
time to think of self. But when one has to remain
still in his line without firing, and receive a hail of
cannon balls, it is not at all comfortable.
There are some men, however, who, endowed
with extraordinary strength of spirit, see the great-
est danger with calmness. Murat, the bravest of
the brave, always charged at the head of his cav-
alry, and never returned without having his sword
dyed with blood. That is easily understood; but
a thing which I have seen done by General Dor-
senne, 15 and which I have seen done by him only,
was to stand still, with his back on the enemy,
facing his shot riddled regiment, and saying:
"Close ranks!" without looking behind him a
single time. On other occasions, I have tried to
imitate him, tried to turn my back; I was unable
to remain in that position, curiosity always com-
134 AN OFFICER OF
pellcd me to look at the place from which the shots
came.
An entire army can not march on the same road,
with its artillery and its wagons; the head would
have reached Strasburg while the tail would still
be on the Place du Carrousel ; and then that army
must be fed; all together, it could not find food,
the more so as the big fellows who compose it
usually have an astounding appetite. When one
sees the separate divisions approach, when the de-
tached generals make a junction with the principal
corps, it is easy to predict a battle. Of all those
that have been fought in our time, the battle of
Wagram was the longest expected; the field was
known, each had studied it. On both sides, for
forty days, all the dispositions of attack and de-
fence were studied at leisure.
In the evening after the victory, we were weak
with hunger and specially with thirst; soldiers
enter a house, and find there some Austrians drink-
ing, half tipsy, and making no hostile demonstra-
tion. They drink with them and everything is
as pleasant as can be. Two officers of my regi-
ment appear:
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 135
"What are you doing here?" they say to the
French soldiers; "why are these Austrians not
prisoners? Break their weapons and take these
men to general headquarters."
"Hello! . . . what's the matter with
monsieur I'officier? He wants us to throw these
good friends in prison, these kind people who have
given us to drink, these excellent Austrians who
wish us no harm ! "
"I order it. 1 '
" Listen; if you don't get out of Here at once,
we'll show you what we think of your orders."
And immediately my drunken fellows aim at
their officers and fire. It was necessary to send a
company of grenadiers to bring them to reason;
several were killed and wounded in the fray.
The whole French army was intoxicated on the
night of the battle of Wagram; it slept in the
vineyards, and, in Austria, the wine-cellars are lo-
cated in the middle of the field where the vine is
grown. It was good, very abundant, the soldiers
drank beyond measure, and if ten thousand Aus-
trians, knowing that we were somno vinoque
sepulti, had attacked us during the night, we should
136 AN OFFICER OF
have been totally routed. It would have been
wholly impossible to make one-tenth of the sol-
diers take up arms. On what does the destiny of
empires depend! All might have been changed
that day; the fifth act of the great drama which
had been playing for so long a time in Europe
might have had a cellar for an ending. Men of
genius, make your calculations then; it needs but
very little to make them fail. It is probable that
the Austrians were in a similar condition, because
if we had drunk to celebrate our victory, they
had no doubt done the same to forget their de-
feat. During a campaign, the great difficulty con-
sists in knowing the state in which the enemy is:
the general who could know this would always be
victorious.
The battle of Wagram had no great material
result: that is to say that there were no great
hauls as there were at Ulm, at Jena and Ratisbon;
there were hardly any prisoners; we took nine
pieces of cannon from the Austrians, and we lost
fourteen. When this was reported to the Em-
peror, he replied with great calmness: "Nine
from fourteen leaves five."
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 137
Ordinarily, after a battle, an order of the day
informed us of what we had done; for, like M.
Jourdain, we made history without knowing it.
In his proclamations to the army which Napoleon
himself wrote, and the style of which was perfect,
he informed us that he was pleased with us, that
we had surpassed his expectations, that we had
rushed on with the rapidity of the eagle, then he
gave us the details of how we had conducted our-
selves: the number of soldiers, of cannons, of
wagons we had taken; it was exaggerated, but it
was high-sounding and very effective. After
Wagram we did not have the slightest proclama-
tion, not the smallest order of the day; for more
than three weeks we were ignorant of the name
which that famous day would have in history;
among ourselves we called it the battle of the 5th
and 6th of July: we only heard of the name of
Wagram through the Paris papers.
It is not sufficient that a general have talent,
he must besides be lucky; in war circumstances
combine in such a fashion that something unfore-
seen always presents itself. When the services of
a new man were proposed to Cardinal Richelieu,
i 3 8 AN OFFICER OF
the shrewd old man always asked if the applicant
was lucky; and if the answer was in the affirmative,
the place was granted. Napoleon believed in his
destiny, although he possessed astounding genius;
it was modesty. How many occasions are there
in his life when chance, the blunders of his enemies,
favoured him !
We were in camp, near Ratzeburg, in Holstein ;
the enemy was at two leagues from us; there was
no fighting, or at least but very little, just enough
to show from time to time that we were around.
Each general knew very well that he was not to
decide the question: all depended on what should
take place in the Grand Army which was then at
Leipsic.
One day, Marechal Davout decided to order a
general reconnoitring to compel the enemy to
take up arms, count them and know the number
of men we had opposite us. A formidable column
started off one fine morning, and two hours after
we were opposite the Russian, Prussian and Swed-
ish camp ; for it was composed of all these nations.
The camp appeared to us to be uninhabited; fear-
ing an ambuscade, we advance with precaution;
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 139
scouts are sent forward; they enter all the barracks,
and see no one. What has become of the enemy?
While awaiting for the reply to the question, the
order is given to set fire. The camp burns; in an
instant all these straw roofs become piles of ashes.
While we were gazing at this immense bonfire,
and each was making his own conjectures as to
the disappearance of the enemy, the cannon thun-
ders behind us; the noise increases, and everything
leads us to believe that our camp is attacked.
" We are cut off," say the soldiers: " the Russians
have had knowledge of our movements, they have
allowed us to advance; they are taking our camp,
and then they will easily get the better of us."
French soldiers are easily demoralised: four
hussars behind them worry them more than a thou-
sand in front. " We are cut off," they continued
to repeat, " in this case." It took many words to
prove to them that if someone was cut off, it could
only be the four hussars.
" Captain, I have a prisoner," exclaimed a re-
cruit in a skirmish.
"Well, bring him here I"
"He will not walk."
140 AN OFFICER OR
" Draw your sword."
" He has taken it from me."
But in the plight in which we were, the soldiers
seemed to be telling the truth, their fear appeared
well founded. The Russians, informed of our
movements, had allowed us to pass; they were
taking advantage of our absence to crush our com-
rades. All hesitation was impossible, we must fly
to their aid, it was specially necessary to take cer-
tain heights from which three hundred men would
suffice to prevent our communicating with our fel-
low soldiers.
We start off, we arrive almost on the run at
the narrow pass of Gros-Mulsahn and meet no
one.
Then we began to see clearly, the enemy must
necessarily be unaware of our march, since he had
not taken possession of so fine a position. For
the same reason that we did not know his move-
ments an hour before, he probably did not know
ours. These conjectures turned to certainty, when,
having readied our camp, we saw it attacked on
all sides.
Chance was the cause that the two generals op-
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 141
posing each other had had the same idea on the
same day, at the same hour; they had decided to
attack one another and had taken a different
route.
The Emperor liked to bestow the ranks and
decorations. After a battle, he held reviews, dis-
tributing ribbons and epaulets; each man hoped
for something, but following an affair wherein two
or three hundred men were engaged, no matter
what the outcome might be, hope was not even
permitted to the petty officers or soldiers. The
chief was careful to draw up a superb report inter-
spersed with glory, daring, able manoeuvres, and
If any reward came kter, it was always for him.
I am going to give an idea of the manner in
which history was then written. During the cam-
paign of 1 8 13, we had an outpost affair at Sprottau,
a small city of Saxony; the Russian rear-guard de-
fended itself an instant, there were on all sides
three or four companies engaged. In brief, the
enemy withdrew, leaving in our hands some pris-
oners and a few baggage wagons. An hour after,
we were strolling on the public square talking of
our prowess of the morning.
i 4 2 AN OFFICER OF
" There is food for the makers of bulletins,"
said an officer. " You will later see that we have
done superb, magnificent things ! "
" I do not know," said another, " whether we
have done much, but I answer for it that they
will not fail to say so."
" It will be reported that the general has gath-
ered laurels by the armful, but our regiment will
not be named."
" Well, we'll have a line, and he a page."
"We'll have nothing at all"
" Nothing at all will be said of the affair, it is
really not worth while."
" You'll see, when the Paris papers come. But
the better to judge, let us write down on the spot,
so as not to forget them, the brilliant results of
the day. Here are the prisoners: let us count
them; good! there are sixty-four, plus three bag-
gage-wagons with twelve horses; plus a cannon
and a caisson."
Two weeks after, the papers arrive. Mercy!
what wonders we had done I when I say we, I
mean General S . With unbelievable daring,
with learned tactics, he had surrounded, attacked,
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 143
overthrown, taken, killed. Three hundred dead,
a thousand wounded, two thousand prisoners, ten
pieces of cannon, sixty baggage wagons, were the
glorious results of his strategic science and noble
courage. He had done all that alone; our regi-
ment was not even mentioned.
In fact, if the general had said that with such
a regiment, he had done such fine things, everyone
would have considered it quite natural, and the
honour would have been shared; but in writing that
" giving way to his natural impetuosity, with a
small part of his advance guard, he had over-
thrown the enemy, who necessarily owed their
salvation only to the quickness of their legs," the
glory is his alone. This advance guard is an ideal,
fantastic being, impossible to personify. It may
perhaps be four men, and as the general has done
all with so small a number, he must be a formida-
ble fellow. Ah 1 if I dared, how many similar
heroes I might mention !
The sic vos non vobis of Virgil daily received
its application to the army. For everything,
savoir faire is necessary to succeed. At the battle
of Eylau, a recruit brings to his captain a Russian
144 AN OFFICER OF
flag which he had found in the snow in the midst
of twenty bodies.
" Imbecile, you take that for a flag? It is a
company guidon of no importance; every day I
find such things, and I don't stoop to pick them
up."
A quarter of an hour after, the captain was
addressing the marechal.
" Here is a flag," he was saying, " which I've
taken from the Russians, four men were defending
it; they are all dead. . . ." The captain was
chief of battalion the next day.
The word advancement lodges itself in a mili-
tary brain at the moment of entering service; it
does not come out until the day of retirement It
is about the same as the word husband in the mind
of a young girl ; she thinks of it every day. " We
are going to the ball this evening, I shall perhaps
find a husband there I " says the maid " We are
starting on a campaign, there may be advance-
ment," says the soldier. This idea engrosses the
whole army, from the drummer to the marshal.
When we were dictating laws to Europe, the gen-
erals nightly dreamed that deputies from a neigh-
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 145
bouring kingdom came to offer them a gold crown
on a velvet cushion.
The example of Bernadotte turned all heads.
" Such a marshal is going to be promoted King,
such a grenadier is to be promoted corporal"
This form of expression was very natural; we all
thought we had a sceptre in the scabbard of our
sword. A soldier had become king, each thought
he might become one also.
Much is said to-day of military advancement
under the Empire, and specially of the soldiers*
gratitude towards the Emperor. The word grati-
tude is very amusing; is not this a strange misuse
of words? Candidly, had we to be so thankful
to his Imperial and Royal Majesty when he was
gracious enough to give the places of the dead to
those who remained? We yearly drew lots as to
who should take his neighbour's place. And very
often, he who won could not lay his hands on the
stake. After each battle, a swarm of officers sent
from Paris pounced upon our regiments to take
possession of the best vacant places. The new
nobility was as greedy as the ancient; all possible
nobilities are the same. Had the Empire lasted
i 4 6 AN OFFICER OF
ten more years, it would have been considered re-
markable if a plebeian had been named colonel.
The name of officer of fortune was beginning to
return to favour, and we were on the verge of sec-
ing the greatest plebeian ambitions age in the ob-
scure honours of a major's rank. The sons of
marshals, generals, counts and barons, councillors
of state and prefects, took on a new rank every
two weeks; it was by rewarding them in the army
for what they had not done that their fathers were
encouraged.
Not that Messieurs the marshals and generals
were lacking in courage : they have proven the con-
trary on a thousand occasions; but the profession
was beginning to bore. When one possesses a
handsome residence in Paris, and a fine chateau in
the suburbs, it is not agreeable to waste one's life
in the smoke of a bivouac. Ten years, twenty
years, that's long enough, but for ever !
Who was named at each battle? ten people
out of three hundred thousand, and yet every
one did his duty, but every one could not be
named.
I daily hear people repeating that one went to
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 147
the army to serve the country, to serve the Em-
peror.
Men went there, go there, will go there so long
as armies exist; some by force, others to have
advancement.
Advancement is the country, the Emperor, the
King.
Men went to the army because they knew that
some, from common soldier, had become generals,
marshals, princes, kings. " Why should I not do
as they? " said every soldier as he put on his knap-
sack.
We each have a brevet of marechal of France
in our cartridge-box, it is only a question of get-
ting it out.
" My neighbour has won a quaternary in the
lottery, why should I not win one also? " That
is the reasoning of all cooks; how many ten cent
pieces have been lost in the hope of reaching that
goal and without ever reaching it . . .
When we received a new rank, we were very
glad; the next day we thought no more of it, our
ideas were turned towards the day when we might
receive another.
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Man is thus made and will not change, he runs
after a shadow which constantly flees before him.
His life is short, and he always wishes to be older
in the hope of possessing gains of which he will
soon tire. " I congratulate you," I was one day
saying to a captain who had just been promoted
chief of battalion. " Now I want the officer's
cross," he immediately replied, " that completes a
position" To complete his position, each paid
court to his chief, because it was on that chief that
his lot always depended. It was he who proposed
the candidates to the Emperor or to the minister;
one had therefore to be in his good graces, under
pain of remaining in a disgraceful statu quo.
From the corporal to the marechal of the Empire,
everyone courted the one who held the list of
bounties. All the low bows which it was neces-
sary to make had little by little changed the char-
acter of our army. The greed for baronies and
of endowments had given our old officers, formerly
republicans, all the habits of the courtiers of Ver-
sailles, and often in the most humble barrack,
scenes worthy of the CEil-de-Bauf have taken place.
After a battle, the Emperor granted a certain
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 149
number of crosses of the Legion of Honor to each
regiment: eight, ten, twelve for the officers, and
as many for the non-commissioned officers and sol-
diers; the colonel named the lucky ones. After
Friedland, the number was eight in one regiment
of the army, but among the officers newly deco-
rated, there were but seven. " Who is the
eighth? " was asked. Three months later, they
knew; a relative of the colonel, arriving from
France, had received the cross on the road, and on
putting on his uniform for the first time, he had
found it ornamented with the red ribbon. Truly,
there was some little complaining, but in such low
tones, that the colonel could not hear it. These
gentlemen were great powers which one should
not have as enemies. The fools alone spoke their
minds freely, and I was always among the fools*
THE CAMP
CHAPTER VIII
THE CAMP
In the days of Louis XIV and Louis XV, a
camp was often but a theatrical performance given
in honour of the ladies of the Court, tired of the
pleasures of Versailles. The officers, the majority
of them, only troubled themselves under the tent
with gossip and love letters ; they left the details of
the service to the majors and to the self-made
officers. The business of the colonels and gen-
erals was to arrive at the camp with fine equipages,
numerous servants, a good cook, and to keep open
table. Some ruined themselves at the camp, but
they made themselves noticed. When it was
necessary to risk their lives, these gentlemen did
not spare themselves; they fought like brave men
exactly as we have done and as we shall do when
the occasion presents itself; but they had of the
military profession only the roses without thorns,
154 AN OFFICER OF
for I do not call thorns the cannon shots and the
drolleries of that sort
The camp for them was a diversion, a means
of putting themselves In evidence; each had the
hope of being noticed by the King, by his mis-
tresses ; a word could be said in the King's select
circle, and that word was worth a regiment It is
something prodigious, the amount spent then in a
three months' camp. Marechal de Boufflers, at
the camp of Compiegne, in 1698, wasted or caused
millions to be wasted; he had messengers who,
each day, brought wines from all countries, the
best game, the finest fish; he had the honour of
dining Louis XIV and the King of England; that
honour cost him dearly. In the poetical life of
Versailles, men did not reckon, affairs we kept
going. " See my steward," said a grand lord,
" arrange with him; my duty is to spend, the rest
concerns him."
In those times, when one was tired of a month's
campaign, a truce was agreed upon between the
outposts, and each took his quarters without the
minister being notified. "When it rains, stay
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 155
away, we shall not budge; it is most disagreeable
to get muddy."
To-day, when an army is on a campaign, it
sleeps at the bivouac; it is only made to camp dur-
ing the armistices or when peace is signed. In
the cantonments, the troops are too scattered, it
takes too long to assemble them, the soldiers can
not be watched sufficiently; discipline suffers from
it. In a garrison, it is seldom that enough regi-
ments can be assembled to have grand manoeuvres,
while at a camp anything may be included, there
is always some space.
A camp is a city of wood and straw, sometimes
of canvas carefully built on lines, with its streets
large and small, long and short; the whole is kept
excessively dean. A camp is a mighty fine dung,
but I maintain that a stay in a city is infinitely
preferable.
In general, to build our camps, we demolish
villages; at Tilsit, each regiment had some thirty
to cut up ; one or two were assigned to each com-
pany. We had a great quantity of carriages and
found horses which served to transport the map
i 5 6 AN OFFICER OF
tcrials. With such resources, It is easy to believe
that our camps were superb; those who have not
seen them can not imagine what they were.
When the barracks had been made of uniform di-
mensions, each busied himself decorating his own
in an elegant manner, and soon the order came to
take model for certain things from such a com-
pany, from such a regiment. The soldiers, piqued
at being obliged to begin again, invented new
decorations to make the innovators work in their
turn. There was no existing reason why this
should ever end. It may be said that a camp is
never finished: as long as an army stays there,
there is work to do.
The two Emperors and the King of Prussia
came to visit our camp, and we performed grand
manoeuvres in their presence. 16 General Mouton
(since comte de Lobau), aide de camp to Na-
poleon, commanded in chief. We filed before the
three sovereigns and before an army of princes,
marshals, and generals of three nations. I do not
believe that there has ever been brought together
in any part of the globe so large a quantity of
embroidered clothes. Napoleon commanded that
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 157
multitude in his plain uniform of mounted chas-
seur; Alexander and Frederick-William galloped
behind him, not permitting their horses to take the
same step as his. Later, they made Napoleon pay
dearly for the glory with which he overwhelmed
them at Tilsit.
In passing in front of our barracks, the King of
Prussia stopped to talk with us; the letter-box of
the regiment, which on campaign is placed near
the flag, astonished him greatly.
" Of what use is that box?" asked Frederick
William.
u Sire, to receive the letters which each one of
us writes to France."
" During a campaign, is your mail so organised
that it can take care of the letters of all the sol-
diers?"
"Yes, sire, it leaves every day, every day it
arrives, and we receive the Paris papers in two
weeks."
" It is admirable I Certainly, gentlemen, it is
impossible to make finer camps than yours, but
you must admit that you make ugly villages."
The Queen of Prussia came to Tilsit. Na-
i S 8 AN OFFICER OF
polcon was very attentive to her. It was a singu-
lar sight for a spectator, all these assembled sov-
ereigns, going out together every day, eating at
the same table, in short looking like old friends,
they who a few days before, tore each other to
pieces in their official gazettes, weapons more dan-
gerous for kings than the cannon. Besides, this
recent friendship seemed sincere between Alex-
ander and Napoleon, and if there are circum-
stances in politics when one may trust appearances,
it is probable that at Tilsit they acted in good
faith. The Queen of Prussia was very beautiful,
I saw her; she was said to have been very amiable,
I know nothing about that; but it is certain that
she obtained many concessions from Napoleon.
This pretty Queen dining one day with the three
sovereigns, filled a glass of champagne, and said
with that infinite grace which she possessed to a
supreme degree, a grace which at this moment
came to the aid of politics at bay: "To the
health of Napoleon the Great! he has taken our
states and he returns them to us I " The Em-
peror arose, returned the bow with courtesy, and
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 159
replied to the Queen : " Do not drink all,
Madame."
After the armistice which followed the battle
of Zna'im, the whole army camped until peace was
restored. We were in the neighbourhood of
Briinn and Austerlitz, on the former battlefield.
Napoleon wished to give himself a second repre-
sentation of the battle of Austerlitz; on a beautiful
day in September, the whole army occupied the
same position, the same manoeuvres took place as
four years before. Everything passed pleasantly,
the regiments which represented the Russian and
Austrian corps allowed themselves to be van-
quished as agreed in advance, and no one was
drowned in the famous lake of Sokolnltz which
was not frozen.
Louis XV liked to give the ladies of the Court
representations of battles; one day he wished to
have a make believe siege. The memoirs of the
time speak very seriously of the courage shown by
the besiegers and besieged, all inspired by the
King's presence. The place was stormed, the
mines exploded, cardboard heads, arms and legs
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were seen flying in the air; it would have been dif-
ficult to carry imitation further. Nevertheless
they did not stop there. The besieged were
obliged to sign a capitulation which, having come
down to us, proves how much these gentlemen
liked to seriously busy themselves with trifles or
else play soldiers. 11
The most favourable spot for the location of
a camp is always the neighbourhood of a beautiful
chateau which is used as general headquarters; as
soon as the staff is installed, all is as well as can
be.
An encamped regiment must occupy the same
place as when under arms. Usually each com-
pany has six barracks standing in three rows.
Opposite the centre of these barracks and towards
the rear are the kitchens. Farther are to be
found the barrack of the captain and that of the
lieutenants; farther still that of the chief of battal-
ion, and behind all these is that of the colonel,
placed facing the centre of the regiment.
The colonel's barrack exists, but usually it is
not occupied; these gentlemen prefer to lodge at
the nearest village, of course this is when we are
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 161
far from the enemy, or when peace is made; for,
in times of war they are with the soldiers night
and day.
In camp, the officers eat, either at the canteen-
woman's, who keeps the restaurant with a dining-
room holding one hundred, or in their own quar-
ters, several eating together. In every company
there is always to be found a soldier who can cook
fairly well. And then, on occasion, everyone
helps, and the result is often a delicious dinner.
During a campaign, the officers are entitled to
the distributions of supplies; they receive their
rations of bread, meat, salt, rice, etc. When
eight or ten get together, and know how to agree,
they live very nicely, provided a few supplemen-
tary provisions can be found at the near by
town.
In camp, the day is spent in visiting the bar-
racks, in inspections, parades, drills, manoeuvres,
a life certainly most agreeable for those who like
it When one has books, one reads in one's
leisure moments; when one has none, one walks,
and then in the evening one plays, one drinks hot
wine in the midst of the smoke of pipes. This
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takes place under the canteen-woman's tent or In
the barrack of each officer in turn.
If the officers play for money, the soldiers play
fillips, nothing is more comical than to see an old
veteran receiving 1 fillips on his nose. Sometimes
they are administered by a young recruit, which
does not prevent the old soldier from bearing them,
without complaint, but not without making a very
amusing grimace. And then, to vary the amuse-
ments, drogue is played; the loser having to wear
on his nose a pair of wooden pincers wHich squeeze
his nostrils. You have often noticed these little
scenes when passing near a guard-house, or else in
looking over a collection of prints.
THE CANTONMENTS
CHAPTER IX
THE CANTONMENTS
The cantonments are the thing which the sol-
diers like best. The bivouac finally bores one:
it rains, it is cold there; camp life is too hard, there
is too much work to do : one must be at one time
a mason, roofer and carpenter. At the garrison,
the service is hard : there is too much guard duty,
drill periodically returns each day with its weari-
some monotony.
In the cantonments, all that does not exist, there
is nothing to do or very little. The companies,
scattered in several villages, do not often assemble ;
each soldier finds at his host's food and shelter;
he walks around with his stick in his hand, plays
the wit with the men, the sentimental with the
ladies, and sometimes everybody is satisfied.
In the cantonments, military service left us long
hours of leisure, and we hunted. Master of the
country, the game belonged to us by right of coot-
165
166 AN OFFICER OF
quest. If this manner of spending our time was
disagreeable to the barons and grand lords, who
owned the forests where we hunted, it was very
pleasing to the plebeian citizens at whose homes
we were lodged. First because in bringing to
their kitchens the contents of our game-bags, they
found in it a useful compensation for the expenses
incurred for us; and then they were not sorry to
see their lords and masters, so jealous of their hunt-
ing rights, annoyed in their turn, after having so
often vexed the others.
When we were not hunting, we called on each
other, and for this important occasion, the burgo-
master was commanded to put in requisition a
carriage or else a sleigh. Our trips were so often
repeated that the horses were constantly occupied
in serving our caprices. These perpetual visits in-
terfered with agriculture, commerce was suspended,
the markets were short of supplies, famine was
impending; an order of the day forbade under the
most severe penalty to place any carriage in requi-
sition.
I pretended to have no knowledge of it, and
every time I had a mind to change air, without
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 167
the slightest hesitation, I ordered harnessed the
carriage of the burgomaster at whose house I
lodged. My man complained, and my arrest fol-
lowed. The honourable body of sub-lieutenants
sided with me ; I received numerous visits from the
most distant points of our cantonments. At these
secret meetings, we meditated a striking vengeance
against the informing burgomaster, and this is the
one adopted.
During a fine night, I say fine, because it was
pouring, we took apart the carriage, the innocent
cause of my arrest; and at the risk of breaking our
necks, we had the patience to hoist it piece by
piece over the roof. When we had everything up
there, we put it together again and placed it be-
tween two chimneys; it was ready to start, it only
needed horses.
At break of day, the burgomaster having to go
on a trip, wants to harness, but he finds no car-
riage; he shouts and complains that he has been
robbed. People run in all directions; they seek,
but do not find. Finally, a child perceived the
carriage in the singular coach-house where we had
placed it. Imagine, if you can, the anger of the
i68 AN OFFICER OF
poor man; it was enough to make one die of
laughter; he swore loudly and vigorously enough
to make his house fall. By their jests, our soldiers
increased his anger the more. One said that thus
located, the carriage was safe from thieves; an-
other, that by taking the horses on the roof, it
could soon be got down, etc. Finally the entire
village assembled, everyone set to work, it took
them three days to undo what we had done in a
single night.
If there existed good cantonments, some very
bad ones were at times found When the coun-
try, devastated by the two armies, offered no re-
sources, genius was required to secure the daily
sustenance. For example, in the direction of
Osterode, after the battle of Eylau, those rascals
of peasants, to use the soldiers' expressions, hid
their provisions under die ground and in the
woods. But no matter what they did, each day
a new hiding place was discovered.
Our old foxes walked about, ramrod in hand,
sounding the freshly turned earth; the result of
these excursions was put in the stores of each com-
pany to be distributed equally to all The art of
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 169
feeding an army during a campaign has never
been known among us, at least it has never been
put into practice. We had a swarm of employees
with large and small staffs; these gentlemen were
busy making their fortunes, they have succeeded
by the grace of God. Their principal care was to
provide for the Imperial guard, and the rest made
shift as best it could. When the picked troops
had received supplies for four days, it was said in
the Emperor's salons that the army was well sup-
plied; the papers repeated, amplified, paraphrased,
and everything was as fine as could be in the best
world possible.
One day soldiers found in a hiding place some
sacks of oats; it was a piece of good luck, for our
horses only lived on rank straw taken from the
roofs. The officers of the regiment cantoned in.
the neighbouring villages, having heard this news,
came to visit us so as to have the opportunity of
treating their horses to a peck of oats. Each day
the same thing was repeated, the supply was dimin-
ishing perceptibly. Laborie bethought himself of
a rather good expedient to remedy this. He in-
structed the soldier whose duty it was to put the
170 AN OFFICER OF
horses in the stable, never to give them oats when-
ever he said to him: " Give the horse oats, do
you hear?" and to put some in the trough when
he simply said: " Give the horse oats." So that,
barring a few exceptions, when an officer said to
us on alighting:
" Will you see that my horse gets oats? "
" Certainly," replied Laborie. Then turning
towards the soldier:
" Give the horse oats, do you hear? "
"Yes, lieutenant"
The officer went away again. A few digs of
the spurs produced the same effect as the oats.
Later, I told this anecdote, people laughed much
over it: the expression "Do you hear?" even be-
came a saying: for when we had had a good lunch,
we did not fail to say: it was without do you hear?
We often went fishing in a pond near Peters-
wald, for to live, we had to make use of all possi-
ble resources. One day, when, pole in hand, we
were fixedly looking on the cork floating on the
surface of the water, one of our comrades who was
also fishing, noticed that his hook was caught by
some fagots which he saw at the bottom of the
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 171
pond; with, a stick he tries to move the obstacle,
at once a body comes to the surface. Great
astonishment on our part; we continue, other
bodies appear; in short we counted thirty-eight,
among them that of a woman. They were
naked and all appeared to have been killed by
blows of an axe.
Notice was at once sent to the colonel, to the
general, to the marshal; the village was sur-
rounded, all the inhabitants cast in prison. An
investigation was begun; search was made every-
where, uniforms and weapons were discovered,
and it was proven that a French detachment which
was thought to have been taken prisoner of war,
had perished in that village, on the same night,
the same hour, and had been a victim of a new
Sicilian Vespers. Thirty-eight inhabitants were
shot, and the village totally destroyed by fire.
What renders military life very agreeable, is
that situations vary continually; when one finds
himself in an unpleasant position, one is easily con-
soled, soon that will change. One day, in the
mud to the knees, lacking food and straw on which
to sleep; the next day, in an excellent chateau
172 AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY
stocked with pretty ladies, and possessed of a
kitchen supplied with all necessary things and cel-
lars filled to the vaults.
All these things combined are an agreeable di-
version, but they must be combined: sine Baccho
et Cerere fiiget Vemis, which may be translated
that it is difficult to talk sweet nonsense to the
ladies when one has not dined.
THE GARRISON
CHAPTER X
THE GARRISON
The priest must read his breviary every day,
the drill is for the officer what the breviary is for
the priest. It is a very amusing thing, this drill;
after having gone through it for thirty years, one
must continue it, unless one retires. When one
does not know it, one must learn it, it is quite
natural; when one knows it, one must teach it to
others; it is just; when all the regiment manoeuvres
well, it must be repeated once more to show that
one knows it. So that one is always drilling.
An officer is always returning from drill or else
going to it. If his sergeant-major meets him, he
is certain to hear these sacramental words:
" Lieutenant, or captain, we shall have the drill
at such an hour to-day, if the weather permits."
Captain G , of the Imperial guard, had to
go through the drill. I have seen him sick,
in bed, command the manual of arms to the pun-
175
i 7 6 AN OFFICER OF
ished men whom he caused to be taken out of the
guard-room. One day the hour strikes, no men
appear, he sends for his sergeant-major :
" Well ! " he says to him, " how about my pun-
ished squad? "
" Captain, the guard-room is empty, we have
no men under arrest."
" That concerns you, arrest some."
In cold weather of 10 degrees he ordered those
poor devils to shoulder arms in the yard, and woe
to him who made the slightest movement. Some-
times, frozen to the very bones, they fell in a
faint on the pavement.
" Is the musket broken? " asked the captain.
" No."
"That's lucky."
Sergeant Roussel was an able instructor; none
knew better than he how to make the soldier
carry arms, and go through the various steps while
keeping their shoulders squared, a most essential
thing in such a case. Naturally gentle he did
not allow his modest mouth to make use of those
gross expressions, those guard-house oaths which
hb equals always used. When he was very angry,
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 177
he called his recruits candidates. " Just look at
those candidates, they are as limp as rags; they all
manoeuvre like seamstresses who have eaten cab-
bage."
You know that a soldier when marching must
start with the left foot; once Sergeant Rousscl
drilling his men through various steps, orders
march. One soldier starts with the right foot
while his neighbour raises the left; Sergeant Rous-
sel was standing in the back; this lack of harmony
in the lines of all these legs astonishes his sense of
exactness; but on seeing the effect he is mistaken
in the cause, he comes forward very angry:
" Who is the candidate/ 9 he says, " who has both
his legs up?"
He was not very strong on orthography. One
day, in a report on the guard, wishing to write
down the strength of his post composed of four
men (quatre homines), he bravely wrote in large
letters KATROM. Sergeant Roussel was then only
Corporal Roussel.
Strictly speaking, he did not need to know any
more than that; but Laborie who, enlisted in 1780,
had been made corporal there and then in 1789,
I 7 8 AN OFFICER OF
doubtless because of the great events of that time,
then sergeant in 1794, sub-lieutenant in 1802 and
lieutenant in 1806, Laborie making a report on
the distribution of bread, and wishing to state that
it was not good and not sufficiently baked (lc
pain n'est pas bon ni rtest pas assez cult) wrote
the whole thing in one word and in the following
manner: " Pinpaboninepaasecui."
And I could mention colonels and generals who
knew no better. The one who said while speak-
ing to Napoleon: " Monsieur, sire, I do not know
'matics, but I can give a good sabre blow," was
general in the Imperial Guard, and certainly never
was brigade commanded by a braver man.
And that general who had received the order to
proceed with his brigade as far as Lintz and to
remain mounted on the road to Vienna and who,
like Don Quixote, did actually remain mounted in
the middle of the highway and would still be there
if new orders had not made him dismount !
And that colonel, commander of a fortified town,
who received the order to redouble his watchful-
ness so as not to be surprised by the enemy; the
equinox being about due, the nights becoming
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 179
longer, he was to be on his guard, etc. He re-
viewed his posts, his artillery, and when he was
certain that everything was in condition, he ex-
claimed: "Let him come, that d General
Equinox, we'll receive him with cannon shots."
These men have conquered Europe; besides it is
not necessary to know so very much to get killed.
At the garrison, in the cafes, billiards play a
great part; it is there that the officer squanders
his money, wasting almost all the time he does
not devote to military service. I say about all,
because the ladies claim a part of it, and that is
certainly the best employed.
The officers meet at the cafe on the way to the
parade, to the drill, and on the way back. It is
there that the army news are spread, those of the
regiment and the tittle-tattle of the barracks. They
gamble, drink and smoke there : an officer is always
found ready to play a game of billiards, smoke a
cigar, have a drink. The glass of spirits is a thing
that the young men newly dressed in the uniform
dare not refuse ; they would fear to be taken for a
fop. To take a drop, is a custom essentially mili-
tary; one affects an old trooper air after having
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swallowed the stuff and draining the glass to the
last drop, one tells some good drinking story. We
at times heard some that were worthy of Rabelais.
These habits are very injurious to health, all know
it, but all wish to imitate the others. For a long
time I drank a drop because I considered it very
necessary; for form's sake, I regularly drank my
three or four glasses of spirits a day.
These pleasures, if they are pleasures, are the
result of idleness, and are very costly; it is not
unusual to see officers who, in this manner, spend
in advance the month's pay. I have been through
that many times; what I received was not suffi-
cient to settle my open account at the garrison
cafe.
A sub-lieutenant of my acquaintance had been
a sutler during the first campaigns of the Revolu-
tion, and so as not to derogate, he had married
Margot the canteen-woman. On receiving his
epaulet, he left the lucrative business of serving
drinks to others, but he retained for the tavern a
very decided taste. Every evening, man and wife
went arm in arm, the latter in a velvet hat with
feathers, the former in uniform, to a wretched
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 181
pot-house; and there, while drinking their bottle,
they sang at the top of their voices. Nothing was
more amusing than to see that loving couple bawl
in chorus : " As soon as the dawn, etc.," and that
without a smile, with imperturbable seriousness.
Every day they began again, they would have been
unable to go to sleep had they not sung their
drinking song, to the very last verse. Whether
the tavern was full, or they were alone, made no
difference ; they looked at no one. Enjoying them-
selves in their own way, it may be said that these
two were very happy. Happiness I it is every-
where that one believes it to be.
When we were to remain a long time in a gar-
rison, we had two ways of jovially passing the
time. If a lodge of free-masons existed, we pre-
sented ourselves en masse, or else we organised
one of our own. Everyone knows that while seek-
ing the philosopher's stone, the brothers like to
enjoy themselves, to feast In many regiments,
the officers formed a lodge of which the colonel
was the master.
After free-masonry came theatricals. This is
another very pleasant way of passing the time when
i8a AN OFFICER OF
one is young. At Magdeburg, the theatre hall
of the town was exploited by bad German come-
dians; they refused to lend it to us, we immediately
made another out of a fodder store. The garrison
was at that time composed of twenty-five thousand
men; each officer gave monthly one day's pay to
defray the expenses of lighting, costumes and deco-
rations. Soon our theatre was perfectly organ-
ised, planned, fully supplied. It goes without
saying that there was no paying at the door, and
we were always applauded. Tickets we distrib-
uted in the town, we had a full house, that is to
say all the agreeableness of the profession with-
out any of the inconveniences. Add to this that
the wives of the officers, war commissaries, and
supply clerks, who acted with us, were very
amiable.
At Magdeburg, the officer-actors performed no
duties; as the time spent behind the scenes served
for the pleasure of their comrades, the latter did
guard duty, commanded the drills, and everybody
was happy. We played everything, tragedy, com-
edy, opera, vaudeville. The orchestra, chosen
among the musicians of all the regiments, was per-
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 183
feet. We have acted certain plays, on our Magde-
burg stage, just as well as at the best theatres of
France. We received all the novelties from Paris;
they were studied at once and played as soon as
at Lyons, Rouen, and Bordeaux. The poor Ger-
man actors were unable to stand the competition
of comedians who played gratis, and they went
elsewhere to seek their fortune.
There was some little friction as to the distri-
bution of parts, and as is usually the case, each
wanted the brilliant one. When there was a part
in which the actor had only to bring in a letter
from Araminte, no player would have it, we were
obliged to make use of a private for that service.
All these little quarrels occasionally caused schism
among the players; we separated, came together
again, it was as at the theatres of Paris.
One finds army men who always want to intro-
duce the military subordination and hierarchy into
everything. Some claimed the character of Alceste
as their own, because they were battalion chiefs;
others of Scapin or Mascarille, because they were
war commissaries; a captain of grenadiers never
would accept the part of Trissotin, because he
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would have been called a scoundrel by Clitandre,
without being able to get any satisfaction.
These pretensions were much greater with the
wives of colonels or generals. They demanded a
sort of subordination, marks of respect from the
other women. Each had a party composed of
officers of her regiment; often some have been
seen, like Achilles, to withdraw to their tents, tak-
ing with them a crowd of malcontents. But ennui
soon got the better of them, diplomatic negotia-
tions were begun, and the dissenting troop came
back shortly after, with two or three plays learned
with which they enriched our repertory.
Let us speak of our garrison balls; they were
as they are in Paris, there was much walking there,
not much dancing. We had a system of piling
in as many as possible; in this manner the lovers
(they were very numerous in our regiments) were
nearer their sweethearts, and the mammas, sepa-
rated from their daughters by a wall of uniforms,
could see nothing. Notes were exchanged, pres-
sures of the hand, winks, whispered sweet nothings
took the place of dancing, and everyone thought
the ball delightful
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 185
With women, it is the same thing; the ball is
but a pretext, an opportunity to see the happy
mortal one does not expect to meet elsewhere.
And then, in a parlour a tender conversation would
be too much noticed; when one dances, the music,
the movements, the crowd, create a useful diver-
sion. At the ball, the women appear to the best
advantage, without considering the wonderful
dresses ; they may walk, jump, go, come, instead of
remaining seated, stiff on their haunches, as straight
as asparagus, a most uncomfortable and ungraceful
position. Look a lady in the face, a moment after,
you will see her turn her head to make you admire
her profile.
Behold in a parlour several young women assem-
bled; they embroider, sew, read, speak, all is done
very seriously. A young man comes in, suddenly
they are seen to whisper; they seem to be telling
one another the most amusing things, for they laugh
very much. Yet they have really said nothing,
but their faces have become animated, which sets
off the brightness of their beautiful eyes. If, when
the young man has entered, the shoulders of these
young ladies were covered by a shawl, be certain
i86 AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY
that, five minutes after, without fear of catching
cold, they will have caused to disappear everything
that may hinder their forms from being admired.
A hundred times have I paid particular attention,
and each time the shawl has slipped behind the
arm-chair.
CORPS VISITS
CHAPTER XI
CORPS VISITS
Corps visits arc really so entertaining a thing
for the visitors as well as for those visited that it
would be a pity not to devote a short chapter to
them.
A Chinese proverb says with reason: "When
a man has ten paces to go, and has gone nine, he
has gone half way." We, who are not obliged
to know the language of the Celestial Empire, say
prosaically, in kitchen style : " The tail is the hard-
est to skin." When a regiment is travelling and
has reached its halting place, the soldiers go and
rest at their lodgings, the officer has not finished
his day's work. If he has reached a large city,
he must during two or three hours walk the streets
to visit the prefet, the general, the bishop, the
mayor; so wills the regulations of 1791, an ordi-
nance very wise, no doubt, but very boring for
those who have to carry it out.
189
igo AN OFFICER OF
Whatever the weather, you have to go; you
arrive, and the colonel speaks:
" Monsieur le Prefet, I have the honour of pre-
senting to you the corps of officers of such and
such a regiment; I am glad, Monsieur le Prefet,
that the orders of the minister of war, in sending
me to your city (or in making me go through it)
have procured me the honour of knowing so dis-
tinguished an administrator."
"Monsieur le colonel, I myself am much flat-
tered to make the acquaintance of the officers of
so fine a regiment." (The regiments are always
fine.) " I was at my window when you arrived,
I found your companies of grenadiers superb."
(The companies of grenadiers are always superb.)
"You have had very bad weather to-day?"
(Sometimes M. le Prefet said that we had had
good weather.)
" Yes, Monsieur, but the roads of your depart-
ment are so fine, so well cared for ! " (The prefet
bowed.)
" Your companies of footsoldiers are composed
of less tall men, but they have appeared to me
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 191
strong, vigorous, clean, full of enthusiasm." (The
colonel bowed.)
" A thing which struck me in the villages we
have gone through to-day, is the air of comfort,
of happiness of all the inhabitants." (The prefet
bowed.)
"As to your middle companies, one would
hardly believe, on seeing them, that from these
the picked regiments have been selected." (The
colonel bowed.)
" We saw, on the roadside, ploughmen, broad-
shouldered, young, ruddy, full of spirits ; they sang
as they worked."
" They were rejoicing at the prospects of being
a part of the next conscription; they are anxious
to march. Yours is such a fine career, Messieurs,
in the times of glory in which we are living."
" Yours, Monsieur le Prefet, is not less honour-
able."
" In which department do you recruit? "
" In Ardennes, Finistere, Calvados."
" These departments furnish a fine species of
men." (The reply was the same for all depart-
ments.)
xg 3 AN OFFICER OF
"Yes, Monsieur, they are slow at becoming
accustomed to military service, but as soon as they
arc . . ."
" They arc very good, I know it, your regiment
has shown its capacity." (All the regiments have
shown their capacity.)
" Under Napoleon the Great, that is not a.
merit."
" You are fortunate, Messieurs, to serve him on
the field of battle; if I were younger, I should
march with you." (And the prefet, raising his
head, immediately laid his hand on his sword.)
" If the Emperor needs good soldiers, en-
lightened and conscientious administrators are
equally necessary to him." (And the prefet
bowed.)
" Let us work together for the glory of the hero
who governs us; Messieurs , we shall strive to imi-
tate you."
The colonel bowed, the prefet bowed, everybody
bowed, it was a moving sight. We then called on
the other authorities, where the conversation was
subject to a few variations of details. With the
general we spoke of the profession; with the bishop
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 193
we talked of his cathedral which could be seen from
afar and which appeared to be a superb edifice,
a fact of which the colonel rarely sought to assure
himself by close inspection; but everywhere the
companies of grenadiers, of footsoldicrs and the
fine species of men came up again. All this some-
rimes ended by an invitation to dinner which made
an agreeable change.
Speaking of dinners, I must not forget to say a
word with regard to those given by Marechal
Davout. That brave marshal, among high mili-
tary qualities, had an awful fault which made him
many enemies among the gastronomists of the
army. When he invited us to dinner, it was a
piece of perfidy on his part, not that his meals
were without ceremony, but they were of despair-
ing briefness.
We sat down at table, ten minutes after we had
to rise, because the host set the example. The
first time I had the honour of sitting at the mar-
shal's table, I was caught; hardly had I broken
my bread and begun to eat of the first relishes
to prepare the way than the signal of retreat was
given.
I 94 AN OFFICER OF
"Where are we going?" I asked my neigh-
bours.
" We have finished"
"Dining?"
"Yes."
" But I have not begun."
" So much the worse for you."
" It's an abominable trick, a wilful injury."
"Agreed! but the marshal imitates the Em-
peror."
" One should not always follow the examples
of the great,
" ' Quand sur tme personae on pretend se r^gler,
Cest par les beaux cotes qu' il f aut lui ressembler.' "
But on the second invitation, things were dif-
ferent; I manoeuvred rapidly, my attacks were
lively; everything within my reach was carried by
storm. I had finished long before the others, and
I told the same neighbours that the meal appeared
to me much too long.
In the Grand Army, almost all the generals had
a soldier-cook. As conscription applied to all
classes of society, cooks were not more exempt than
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 195
others. But as soon as their talents were recog-
nised, the greatest care was taken that the lives
of these gentlemen should not be exposed to the
hazards of war, nor their precious healths endan-
gered by the inclemencies of sentry duty. They
did nothing else but occupy themselves with the
art of tickling the palate.
But these artists worked much and well only
during a campaign, at the bivouac, in certain can-
tonments taken in times of war. Then from all
sides, receiving the necessary materials, they had
nothing else to do than to make them undergo the
preparations inspired by the genius often hidden
under a linen cap. In those lucky circumstances,
the generals, the colonels invited the officers; from
all sides you heard the clicking of forks; open table
was kept everywhere; the peasant supplied, we felt
perfectly at home. But as soon as order was
re-established, and we returned to the garrison,
with many of these higher officers, the cook became
a useless personage. Reduced to preparing the
modest pot-au-feu, his science served no one; he
spoiled his hand.
The Emperor gave his generals endowments,
ig6 AN OFFICER OF
presents, so that they might spend much; some of
them overdid it, but the majority sinned the other
way. One evening, at the Tuileries, General
L arrives. Napoleon shakes his hand and
notices that drops of water glisten on the gilt em-
broideries. He turns and orders the first chamber-
lain he sees to find out in what carriage the general
came. Soon he is informed that he came in a cab ;
numbered conveyances not being admitted in the
court of the Tuileries, the general had gone a short
distance on foot, which explains the presence of the
raindrops.
TEe next day a chamberlain comes to the house
of the man with the wet coat
" The Emperor requests me, Monsieur, to offer
you this carriage, these horses ; the finest to be found
in Paris. The coachmen and laquais have been
paid for a year. Here is the bill of cost; the
amount will be deducted from your pay."
General Friant was not only a very brave man,
but besides a very good man whom everybody liked.
When the officers of the corps made him a visit,
he made us no speech; he was not a phraseologist
by nature, he spoke but little, but what he said
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 197
always made an impression, because it came from
the heart. His face, bronzed by the sun of Egypt,
his lively bright eyes, his natural warrior-like pose,
all that gave to his every word keenness which many
orators would like to add to their figures of rheto-
ric.
" Good morning, comrades, when one sees you,
one pines for battle; just think of making peace
when one has such regiments !" He meant it;
even when he simply said to us : " Come in, M cs-
sieurs, I am very glad to sec you," one could see
that he spoke the truth. General Friant was a
brave and worthy man; never did officer call on
him in fear, never did he leave him displeased.
What I have said of the officers may be applied
to the sergeants, the corporals, the privates. That
man had the talent of making himself liked by all.
That talent is rare.
Other generals had acquired aristocratic habits,
savouring of the age of Louis XIV at a league's
distance; on the visits paid to them, we were re-
ceived with pomp; you would have thought it a
presentation at Versailles in the days of the old
monarchy. Some disdained the title of general to
1 9 8 AN OFFICER OF
have themselves called Monseigneur or Excellence.
Turenne thought more of his title of vicomte which
he owed to chance than he did of that of Marshal
of France.
It is surprising that in that Imperial army, off-
spring of the armies of 1792, the transition should
have been so short between Republican ruggedness
and servility. The patriots of levy quickly fash-
ioned themselves to the manners of the old Court,
and this without opposition. Leaving their huts
for chateaux, they were not sorry to try their hand
at the tyrants part The first among them became
princes, dukes, counts ; the second barons and cheva-
liers. The idea that one could derogate in aban-
doning the glorious title of citizen never struck
anyone. Those who remained plain Monsieur
dared say nothing, because they feared to retard
the epoch when the entail in Westphalia would
cause them to enter in the privileged caste. Be-
sides, these entails were dearly earned; conquered
sword in hand, they became the reward of the blood
shed in all Europe. Friant had three horses killed
under him at the battle of Austerlitz; he put three
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 199
horse's heads in his arms; I know of no nobler
blazon.
The French officer, with his pride, his brilliant
bravery, is something of a courtier. The habit he
has of hierarchical obedience, combined with his
greed for advancement, gives him that flattering
tone in his intercourse with some, with which he
at times indemnifies himself with others. At that
time, a line written by the general-in-chief became
a new rank, gave an entail; a name slipped in the
bulletin created a military reputation and contained
a whole future.
When we travelled in Spain, the officer com-
manding the advance guard sent for the alcalde in
every village he went through and ordered him to
have the bells rung on the arrival of the general-
in-chief. He had learned his speech in Spanish
by heart, but he knew no more than that. Some-
times the alcalde replied:
" Pues, senor, que no ai campanas" (Monsieur,
there are no bells.) The officer, who did not un-
derstand the answerless objection, continued on his
way repeating: " Toca> toca las campanas. 9 '
200 AN OFFICER OF
While we were at Posen, there arrived the King,
the Queen of Saxony and the Princess Augusta,
their daughter. They were going to Warsaw to
visit their new subjects in the grand-duchy. The
garrison rendered them military honours; there
filed before us the most numerous collection of old
carriages ever seen anywhere. I do not know
where that good prince had found all the old boxes
that carried him and his suite. They certainly
dated from 1515, the time when the first coaches
were made in Germany. You should have seen
all those officers of the Court, all that composed
the bootless of the King, the appearance of those
fellows, their clothes and especially their wigs end-
ing in a tail an ell in length. The most exag-
gerated affair of this sort that one could see in the
theatres of the boulevard would still be very far
from reality.
The next day, January ist, 1808, all the French
and Polish officers had the honour of being pre-
sented to Their Majesties. General Dombrowski
gave us during this visit a rather comic little scene.
He was near the King and Queen, presented to
them in turn the Polish officers, bestirred himself
NAPOLEON'S ARMY aoi
immensely, spoke, bowed, and made his spurs ring
in the Polish manner. On his turning, one of the
rowels caught in the Queen's dress; the floor was
slippery, he lost his equilibrium and fell. The
dress of Her Majesty was torn from bottom to
top, she herself would have been dragged down
in the fall if someone had not caught her. All
those present were dying with suppressed laughter;
never was there anything so funny as the swarthy
and moustachiod face of the old general; he lost
himself in excuses, he could find no expressions
strong enough, and I am quite certain that never
in his campaigns was he in so awkward a position.
What did the King do ? The King began to laugh,
the Queen imitated him; example is contagious,
everyone did the same, even the old general.
Never perhaps has a Sovereign's audience been so
inerry; each was in a paroxysm of convulsive, inex-
tinguishable laughter, which still continued when
we found ourselves in the street.
One day when I was absolutely without a cent,
a thing, in fact, which happened to me sometimes,
I had recourse to the purse of some friends.
Montro . . . one of these, or so called, re-
202 AN OFFICER OF
sembled the ant of the fable; he was not a lender
by nature, and refused me on the pretext that he
was like myself without money; I believed it, or at
least I pretended to believe it.
A few days after, we were at the table, and con-
trary to his habit Montro . . . came in last
He was pale, choking with anger, trying to speak,
but unable to do so. He had so many things to
say that the words, pressing each other to come out
at once, obstructed the passage. We heard here
and there some interjection very expressive, no
doubt, but which told us nothing.
"What's the matter with you?" "Are you
ill?" "Have you a fever?" "Are you in-
sane? " These questions, or twenty others analo-
gous to the circumstance, are hurled at him from
all sides of the table. Finally, our man, putting
order in his ideas, tells us that he has been robbed
during the night, that a purse containing twenty-
five beautiful louis, saved piece by piece, in depriv-
ing himself of all, had disappeared; that he sus-
pects a Jew, his host, of being guilty of the theft,
and that if he can secure proof, he will try to
have him hanged.
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 203
Montro . * . was not beloved by his com-
rades; he lived aloof, and like a miser, to use a
barrack expression. I saw at a glance that his
misadventure amused everyone ; that far from pity-
ing him, each of those present whispered: " Good,
the Jew did well." I thought that I would take
advantage of the circumstance and avenge myself
a little for the refusal I had experienced. With
tragic-comic seriousness, I addressed the merry com-
pany: "Gentlemen," said I, "our comrade cer-
tainly has a fever, the mania by which he is
possessed to pile ecu on ecu occupies him to such
an extent when he is in good health, his mind is
so busy incessantly working on the words silver,
pay, gold louis, that to-day, when he is ill, it con-
tinues the same work through habit. The desire
he had, when in good health, to possess fifty louts,
causes him to believe to-day that he had that
amount; the fear he would have had to lose them
finds itself changed, by an attack of fever, to the
certainty of having been robbed.
" God forbid, Messieurs, that I should dare to
state something of which I am not certain! I am
incapable of it, and you all know it. Recently
AN OFFICER OF
I needed some hundred francs which one of you
very obligingly lent me. Our comrade to whom
I had first applied, replied that he was like myself,
penniless ; I believed him, for he gave me his word.
Now, Messieurs, the word of an officer is a sacred
thing, we must all believe in it, we do believe in
it, and everything that may later be said in a
moment of delirium caused by fever should not
awaken the slightest suspicion in our minds. I
therefore conclude that this word of honour be
accepted at its full worth; that what our poor sick
comrade has said be considered void, and that,
in view of the condition in which he is, we induce
him to go to bed at once, and without dinner."
Mirabeau thundering on the speaker's platform,
never made a greater impression on his hearers;
applause broke out from all sides; loud bravos
shook the rafters. Montro . . . furious,
attempted to retort AH said to him : " Go to bed,
Bazile, go to bed." Then Dr. Margaillan, who
was present, arose, saying that matter was within
his province, and approached to feel his pulse.
Our man protested, struggled on his chair; four
powerful fellows held him down. When he had
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 205
counted the pulsations with comical gravity, the
physician declared that the ailment was a gastro-
cephalalgy, that he must be abundantly phlebot-
omised; that an absolute diet was indispensable;
that he should be well purged so as to clear his
brain, and that in the meantime he had to go to
bed.
Montro . . .'s eyes bulged out of their sockets;
he was beside himself with rage, because every
time he attempted to speak, his voice was drowned
by thirty other voices which prevented him from
being heard. " You are sick 1 " was shouted from
every side. " You have a fever ! " " You have
gastro-cephalalgy, the doctor said so." "Were
you not sick, you should be compelled to become
so."
" You will answer for this," he said, leaving the
hall in a paroxysm of fury hard to describe. He
was answered that the provocations of a feverish
person were not to be considered, and that he
would do well to go to bed.
The funny thing about this affair, is that
Montro . . . was ill, that he really had a
fever, and that the doctor's prescription was car-
206 AN OFFICER OF
ried out in its entirety. When cured, our man
attempted to be ugly; but he was made to under-
stand that it was not an equal match, and time
mended everything.
I have never seen anyone love money as
Montro . . . did. This passion was rare
among the young men of the army; their chief
occupation was to lead a merry life and not to
hoard. When Montro . . . received his pay,
he rushed to a Jew, purchased gold, and put it
away in a leather belt which he kept about him
at all times, since the adventure just mentioned.
After having converted everything he could into
gold, if he had a fraction of twelve or fifteen
francs left over, he borrowed enough to complete
the value of a gold napoleon, so that he could
place it with the others.
Montro ... did not profit by his hoard-
ing. The Cossacks, after having killed the miser,
put his gold into circulation.
But let us return to our corps visits; it is espe-
cially on January ist that we have our fill; during
that blessed day, the amateurs may have as much
as they like of them. It begins in the morning
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 207
very early and lasts until evening. If one hap-
pens to be in Paris, one begins again the next day,
which does not make it more agreeable.
All these visits are made hierarchically from
rank to rank; the sub-lieutenant, after having re-
ceived the compliments of the sergeants and cor-
porals, takes them to the lieutenant, who in turn
takes them to the captain. The three then betake
themselves to the chief of battalion who, followed
by his subordinates, calls on the colonel. The
latter takes them all to the brigadier-general.
There they find another corps of officers ; and they
take advantage of the opportunity to wish them
a happy new year, then they go to the lieutenant-
general, where they meet another brigade and the
ceremony is repeated. You can imagine that the
snow ball continuing to increase and never decreas-
ing, must finally be quite large, and that is why
the Parisians are all amazed, when on the first
of January a swarm of officers impedes the traffic
of the omnibuses. At each visit one talks shop
a bit, so as not to lose the habit. On that day
little faults are pardoned; the doors of the guard-
room are opened, but as a frightful quantity of
2o8 AN OFFICER OF
glasses of spirits are drunk, it is again full to its
utmost capacity the next day, which compen-
sates.
At the high officials' on whom we called, the
corps visits almost always ended by an invitation
to dinner for the next day, when the regiment
was to remain in the town.
At Fulde, one-half of the officers were invited
at the prince primate's. He was a man of remark-
able intelligence and very well educated; small,
thin, his face had some analogy with that of the
monkey. He received us in a purple cossack; he
was a bishop. Monseigneur had a very pretty
sapajou, dressed like a Versailles courtier, spangled
breeches, hat with feathers, embroidered coat,
sword, nothing was missing. The animal was
gambolling around his master, imitating the salu-
tations which he saw made, and returning them
to everybody.
Soon the dinner is announced, the bishop invites
us to step into the dining-room; each one hastens
to obey the pleasant call.
Everyone had crossed the threshold of the hall,
the bishop remained alone with his monkey and
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 209
an officer who was making objections to going in
first.
" I beg you, Monseigneur."
" But, Monsieur, I am in my own house."
" I wish at least to allow your son to pass
ahead/*
At these words, a burst of laughter, not unlike
the explosion of a magazine, broke out from all
parts of the dining-room; the bishop laughed so
that we were anxious for his life ; the officer alone
remained serious. . . , He did not under-
stand.
THE REVIEWS
CHAPTER XII
THE REVIEWS
A review is sometimes a very amusing sight
for the public, seated or standing, in the pit; but
for the actors, it is another matter. The former
may withdraw whenever it wishes, the latter must
remain until the end of the play.
When the Emperor ordered a review for noon,
the generals passed the inspection at eleven o'clock,
the colonels had their regiments take up arms at
ten. Before that the chiefs of battalions wanted
to make sure that all was well, and began at nine
o'clock; and so on in decreasing proportion, to
the corporal who had his squad up at five in the
morning. All these successive taking up of arms
tire the French soldier more than a day of combat.
He knows that the battle is necessary, he goes
to it willingly; as to the other, he readily sees that
it would be possible to dispense with him for it.
213
214 AN OFFICER OF
When the troops are on the ground, how many
marches, counter-marches before each corps is
definitely placed! How many lines formed and
formed again before the Emperor comes! At
last the drums beat a salute on all lines : here he is !
His small hat, his mounted chasseur's green coat,
distinguish him in the midst of that crowd of
princes and generals loaded down with embroid-
eries.
People to-day speak only of the soldiers' love
for Napoleon, of the shouts a thousand times re-
peated ringing out as he passed; it is perhaps
wrong in me to contradict a thing affirmed by so
many illustrious persons, but I must say and I do
say that these shouts were very rare.
There was good fighting in the Grand Army,
but there was but little shouting, and much grum-
bling.
We were in camp, under the walls of Tilsit;
there was a talk of peace, of an interview between
the two Emperors, and we marched down to the
banks of the Niemen to see what was taking place.
On our arrival the conference was ended, the two
boats bearing the sovereigns were each going
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 215
towards the opposite shore. Emperor Alexander
landed first; and was saluted by a general cheer
from his troops. Napoleon appeared on our
shore, Talleyrand offered him his arm to help him
land. Not a shout was heard among the soldiers.
Several officers, however, took the initiative. We
each told our neighbour that Napoleon should not
be less warmly received by us than Alexander by
the Russians; and we heard here and there scat-
tered cries of "Five I'Empereur!"
" His Majesty is coming," our colonel used to
say at the time of a review; I trust that the same
will not be done as the last time, and that your
soldiers will shout: 'Five FEmpereurf I shall
hold you responsible, Messieurs, if every soldier
does not shout loudly."
tWe returned to our companies paraphrasing
the colonel's speech, and this is what we heard
murmured in the ranks :
11 Let him give me my discharge, and I'll cheer
as much as they please 1 "
" We have no bread ; when my stomach is empty,
I can not cheer."
" I had enlisted for six months, and here I've
216 AN OFFICER OF
been twenty years in the army; I shall cheer when
I'm sent away."
" There is six months' pay due us, why does
he not give it to us?"
" Don't you know why? I'll tell you: it is be-
cause, in the meantime, all those who are killed
are as good as paid, etc., etc."
The Emperor came ; the colonel and a few offi-
cers shouted at the top of their voices, and the
rest remained silent. I have never heard French
soldiers frankly cry: "Five PEmpereur!" except
in 1814 and 1815, when they were told to shout:
" Five le Roil " I must say that then they shouted
themselves hoarse: why? Because the soldier is
essentially a frondeur, be it that he wishes from
time to time to indemnify himself for his sheep-
like obedience, or that he is secretly envious of
those who command him, as a servant is of his
master, and the pupil of his instructor.
In 1815, a regiment was going through one of
the southern cities; the soldiers exhorted one an-
other to shout: " Five PEmpereur/ " together and
with all their might; the noise was great enough
to burst the drum of the ears, to break the win-
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 317
dow-panes. After each chorus, they laughed in
their sleeves, saying:
" Goodl that irritates the bourgeois."
How often has it been published that the sol-
diers fought for the Emperor I this again is a nec-
essary protocol that many people have said and
repeated without knowing why. The soldiers
fought for their own account, to defend them-
selves, because in France one never hesitates when
one sees danger on one side and infamy on the
other. They fought because it was impossible to
do otherwise, because they had to fight, because
on entering the army they had found that fashion
established, and that everything tended to pre-
serve that good habit. They fought under the
old monarchy with Turenne, Villars and Marshal
de Saxe ; under the Republic, with Hoche, Moreau,
Kleber, and so many others ; they will fight when-
ever their country will call them. Show them
Prussians, Russians, or Austrians, and, whether
it be Napoleon, Charles X or Louis Philippe com-
manding them, be certain that the French soldiers
will do their duty.
Nevertheless, I know very well that the Em-
2i8 AN OFFICER OF
peror's presence in the army produced a great
effect. Everyone had the blindest confidence in
him; it was known by experience that his plans
would bring victory; so that, when he arrived, our
forces were morally doubled. But this perpetuity
of combats tired the old soldiers, the old officers,
and the old generals very much; they did not hesi-
tate to say so, which prevented no one from doing
his duty when the occasion offered
During the Empire, the soldiers dreamed only
of leave, peace, return to France; just as to-day
they only dream of war, campaigns, bivouacs, com-
bats and battles. They returned to France, and
had peace and their leave: what did they do?
They began to regret old times. Why? Because
the heart of man always rushes forward towards
a future which, having become the present, dis-
pleases just because it is no longer surrounded by
clouds. " What luck! " they said, " if we should
have peace! " They say to-day: " What luck, if
we should have war ! " And then, I repeat it, sol-
diers are frondeurs; several among them, while
enjoying the repose of civil life, were not sorry
to appear to regret the tumult of the camps; each
NAPOLEON'S ARMY aig
one knew very well that all their murmurs would
not prevent things from going their own way, and
they gave themselves a little touch of the hero in
their neighbourhoods. However, the lithogra-
phers decorated the boulevards of Paris with por-
traits of old soldiers with large moustaches who
were weeping at the sight of the word discharge
on a card. The innumerable loungers of the cap-
ital deplored in elegiac prose the fate of our brave
warriors who were pitilessly sent away, as if at all
times in France there did not always exist places
for private soldiers at the disposal of amateurs.
The French have performed prodigies of valour,
and to use an expression of Napoleon: "Have
squandered glory " ; but there would be no harm
in letting other people say it, we should not daily
break our own noses with blows of a censer.
Napoleon was no doubt a great general; his
campaigns in Italy are well nigh marvellous, for
at that time he did not have at his disposal the
immense resources of which he later made use.
The battles of the Empire have made much more
noise, but they will never efface the glory of the
first. " Everywhere victory was the result," some
220 AN OFFICER OF
will say. Very well, but merit is usually measured
by the obstacles overthrown, and the glory of
Bonaparte will never be eclipsed by that of Napo-
leon ; for the means of the Emperor were the most
vast any general ever disposed of. When from
a country like France one draws the last man and
the last ecu, when one is accountable to no person,
it is not astonishing that with a well-balanced head
one should do great deeds, the contrary would be
more surprising. Imagine Napoleon with a rep-
resentative government such as exists in France
to-day ; he would probably have been soon stopped
in his victorious march. For there are 80,000 men
levied yearly, but the reports for each department
are published in the newspapers, and the total is
exactly in accordance with the figure demanded
by law. In each department they publish the dis-
tribution by canton, and the whole carefully added
represents the total by department. During the
Empire, when 100,000 men were ostensibly de-
manded, 300,000 in reality were sent away; and
with the prefets, this was a perpetual subject of
emulation to reach the Council of State whose seats
were in competition.
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 221
Now, what would Napoleon have done with a
poor little conscription of 100,000 men, from
France ? Eighty thousand would have joined their
flags, half, as is usual, would have been in the
hospitals one week after; 40,000 only could be
put in line, and 40,000 men were a very small
matter in a time of such great expenses. They
would have sufficed to defray the cost of one
day; some might even be mentioned that cost
more.
At each review, the Emperor made appointments
to vacancies, he distributed crosses of the Legion
of Honour, baronies, earldoms, entails. It was
for the regiments a piece of good luck to be re-
viewed by the Emperor. But this was supremely
unjust; I might mention regiments who during a
campaign have seen the Emperor five or six times;
their officers changed ranks every month, while
other regiments, detached two leagues farther,
have obtained nothing from the Imperial munifi-
cence.
Sometimes Napoleon liked to question the offi-
cers; when they answered promptly, without hesi-
tation, he appeared well pleased. After the battle
232 AN OFFICER OF
of Ratisbon, he stopped before an officer of the
regiment
" How many men present under arms? "
" Sire, eighty-four."
" How many recruits of this year? "
" Twenty-two."
" How many soldiers with four years' service? f>
" Seventy-five."
" How many wounded yesterday? "
"Eighteen."
"How many killed?"
"Ten."
" By the bayonet?
"Yes, Sire."
"Good."
To be killed regularly, one had to be killed by
the bayonet, a coward may die afar, struck by a
bullet or a cannon ball; he who dies of a bayonet
thrust is necessarily a hero. The Emperor had
an extreme fondness for those who perished in this
manner. The questions continued a long time on
all sorts of details; he did not listen to the replies,
which frequently did not agree with the preceding
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 223
figures ; the essential was to make them quickly and
without hesitation.
The Emperor has often been seen detaching his
own cross of the Legion of Honour to place it him-
self on the breast of a hero. Louis XIV would
first have asked if the brave man was a noble;
Napoleon asked if the noble was brave. A ser-
geant who in a battle had performed prodigies
of valour, was brought before Louis XIV: "I
grant you a pension of 1,200 livres" said the King.
" Sire, I should prefer the cross of Saint Louis. 11
" I should think so, but you will not get it"
Napoleon would have embraced the sergeant,
Louis XIV turned his back on him. It is the de-
cided distinction which separates the two epochs.
Napoleon had a superb head, eyes that flashed
lightning; his bearing was noble and severe.
However, I one day saw the great man in the
throes of irrepressible laughter; an emperor
may laugh just as any other man ; sovereigns would
be greatly to be pitied if at times they did not have
those good opportunities to laugh which do one
so much good
324 AN OFFICER OF
Here is the occurrence : We were at Courbevoie;
the Emperor was reviewing a regiment of the
young Guard, recently increased by numerous
recruits. His Majesty was questioning these
young men.
" And you, where do you come from? "
" Sire," replied the recruit, " I am from Peze-
nas; and my father had the honour of shaving
Your Eminence when you went through our town."
At these words, the Emperor became man,
decorum was forgotten; I do not believe that Napo-
leon ever laughed so heartily, even when he was
at school at Brienne. The review ended gaily;
laughter is contagious, the answer was repeated
from rank to rank, from right to left; everyone
burst into laughter; the native of Pezenas was
proud to have made the review so merry.
In Berlin I lodged at Major Hansing's, an old
soldier who, from his campaigns in Silesia with
Frederick, had brought back only a meagre pen-
sion and the gout. As an admirer of the hero of
Prussia, the major was a Prussian and a half; we
discussed without being able to agree; the subject
of our ordinary conversations was an hypothesis:
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 225
What would have happened had Frederick lived
at the same time as Napoleon ? Never was so vast
a theme offered in controversy. Each one of us
preached for his own saint, and our prattling ended
as end political or religious discussions; each re-
tained his opinion, for no one is any longer con-
verted.
In Berlin, in all Prussia, the name of Frederick
II is held in great veneration; his portrait is to be
found everywhere, in the fine residences as well as
in the cottages. You see him standing, or riding,
on the walls of the salons, of the antechambers and
of the kitchens; painted or engraved, carved, cast,
struck. This portrait ornaments the jewels, snuff-
boxes and pipes. I do not believe that the image
of any man has ever so often been reproduced.
Whenever we looked at it, the eyes of our host
brightened; he always exclaimed with satisfaction:
"Es ist mein alter guter Fritz.' 9 (That is my
good old Frederick.) And then he added between
his teeth: "Ah! if he were living, you would not
be here."
" That's not quite so certain," we replied some-
times.
226 AN OFFICER OF
Good Major Hansing often told me anecdotes
about the Prussian hero ; I very much regret having
forgotten them. Here is one, however, which I
find in a corner of my memory.
The immense popularity which Frederick had
acquired in his army, he owed more to his charla-
tanism than to his military genius. When he was
passing a review, and he frequently did, he was
given a dozen notes relating to divers officers and
soldiers. On a little slip of paper which he held
in his hand, were the name and biography of an
individual of his army, the number of the regi-
ment, of the battalion, of the company; the King
knew in what line the man stood, what place he
occupied in the line. Frederick, passing before
his troops at the amble of his white horse,
counted the rows; came before his soldier, and
stopped:
" Good morning, so and so, well ! you know the
news, your sister is married."
" Yesterday, I received word about it from Bres-
lau. That marriage pleases me very much. You
will so inform your father at the first opportunity."
"Yes, Sire."
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 227
" He was a brave fellow, your father, one of my
old soldiers of Molwitz; tell him in your letter that
I have appointed him doorkeeper at Potsdam; I
never forget old soldiers."
The King continued on his way and stopped
further off in front of an officer : he spoke to him
of a lawsuit which his family had just won; of the
death of a relative who left a rich inheritance, etc.
Frederick went into the smallest details. A little
further, he reproached someone for a slight prank,
others received praise; to all he spoke of small
matters, of things of special interest to each. All
the soldiers thought themselves known by the King,
each tried to attract the attention of Frederick, and
all shouted on his passage : " Es lebe unser guter
Fritz/" (Long live our good Frederick!) As
he went along, the great man said to those in his
confidence : " That is the oil with which I oil the
wheels of my machine."
Paul I, whom I am far from comparing to
Frederick, had a rather queer habit. When he
held a review, he addressed to the officers the most
singular, the most ridiculous questions, to which it
was impossible to reply seriously; several officers
228 AN OFFICER OF
of one regiment, much embarrassed by sucH queries,
had been unable to answer, and since that time, the
Emperor said that these gentlemen served in his
regiment of / d? not know.
On a certain day, while passing on horseback on
the Saint Petersburg bridge, Paul I sees an officer
who stands aside and salutes him with respect. The
Emperor recognises the uniform and says to his
courtiers : " He belongs to my regiment of / do
not know"
"Sire, I know everything, I do," replied the
officer.
"Ah I ah! you know everything, that is what
we shall see. How many nails were there required
to put together the boards on this bridge? "
" Fifty-three millions nine hundred and seventy-
seven thousand one hundred and twelve."
" That's not so bad I and how many fish are there
in the Neva from this bridge to Cronstadt? "
" Six hundred and forty-two milliards eight hun-
dred and one millions four hundred and thirty-two
thousand three hundred and seventy."
"You are sure of it?"
11 Were I not, should I tell Your Majesty! "
FREDERICK WILLIAM THIRD
King of Prussia.
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 229
"That's what I thought: I like to have people
answer questions, an officer should know every-
thing."
" Certainly: and the Emperor? "
" He is never embarrassed."
" Will Your Majesty permit me to ask a ques-
tion?"
" Speak."
" What is my name? "
" Comte de Balonski."
" My rank? "
" Captain in my guard."
" I thank you."
I have this anecdote from a French emigre, an
eye-witness, who knew Sub-lieutenant Krasanow,
who owing to a moment of effrontery and the whim
of a sovereign, became a count and a captain in
the Russian Imperial Guard.
All sovereigns like to hold reviews ; Frederick II
sent out letters of invitation, and each guest was
placed well or ill, but at the exact place designated
by the King. Napoleon was not so particular:
those who wished could come, and they placed
themselves wherever they could. One of the finest
AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY
reviews ever held in this world, is certainly the one
held by the Emperor at Tilsit. Alexander and
Frederick William were at the side of Napoleon.
THE BARRACKS
CHAPTER XIII
THE BARRACKS
The recruit which fate tears from the paternal
hearth departs weeping; when he is at the barracks
he has forgotten everything. Fearing the jests of
his comrades, his tears are soon dry ; ridicule, with
us, Frenchmen, frightens more than a sword blow.
When the raw soldier is measured, numbered,
dressed from head to foot, he might be taken from
a distance for a hero of Austerlitz. But near, it
is another matter: his figure is stiff, he knows not
what to do with his arms, his legs are in the way,
and the raw recruit while out for a stroll always
has a stick in his hand to keep up his countenance.
However, the instructor arrives : he is a corporal
with prominent moustachios, a good speaker; in
the interval of rest separating the hours of drill,
he never fails to relate to the newcomer all the
wonderful deeds which formerly have made his
name illustrious. The recruit listens, opcn-
334 AN OFFICER OF
mouthed, and does not understand how the cor-
poral has not yet become a colonel. The slight
advancement of a man so illustrious discourages
him.
The soldier is a man who possesses his twelve
hundred francs income, wholly clear, without bank-
ruptcy, without indemnity, without assessments,
without bad debts. I have calculated the value
of his lodgings, his food, his clothes, his heating,
his furniture, which he constantly uses and never
renews; from all my figures I have deduced that
many rentiers do not live as comfortably, and espe-
cially without care, as the soldier does. Should he
be ill? his doctors in ordinary, his surgeons in em-
broidered clothes, are delighted to treat him free
of charge; the apothecary supplies him gratis with
emetic and quinquina; leeches, brought at great
expense from Hungary, lavish on him their benefi-
cent punctures, under the watchful eye of the nurse,
who places them on the parts indicated by the pre-
scription.
And then, besides all these advantages, think
also of the pocket-sou. The pocket-sou, ever com-
ing, always disappearing: a fertile, inexhaustible
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 235
mine, which provides for all pleasures, from the
" drop " of brandy to the pipe of tobacco.
The soldier always dwells in the finest house in
the town. Go to Saint Denis, ask for the finest
mansion : it is the barracks ; at Vincennes, the sol-
diers inhabit the apartments of our Kings ; at Avig-
non, they are installed in the palace of the Popes.
Well dressed, kept warm, with a good bed, well
fed, what does the soldier lack? This is what he
lacks: freedom from the collar.
That collar which is riveted around the soldier's
neck is broken only by the discharge, he is freed
from it only on the last day of service, or by a
cannon ball. All the time that the soldier spends
at the regiment is divided in a hundred different
manners, of which hardly one belongs to him. If
he sleeps, the drum awakens him; if he is awake,
the drum calls him to sleep. The drum makes him
march, stops him, takes him to the drill, to the
combat, to mass, to the walk. " I am hungry."
" You are mistaken, my friend, the drum has not
beaten the roll, which alone should stir the fibres
of your stomach. The soup can not be ready for
the drum has not said so."
2 3 6 AN OFFICER OF
All these orders of the drum, of the corporal or
of the officers must be carried out at once, without
remarks, without answers. When the clock-maker
winds the clock, it goes without asking why. Sol-
dier! you are a clock; march, turn, halt, and above
all not a word.
" But, captain . . ."
" To the guard-house for two days."
" If you would only listen to me . . ."
" Four days."
"Yet . . ."
" Eight days."
" It is injust."
" In prison for two weeks. If you say another
word, look out of the dungeon and court-mar-
tial."
It is the summary justice of the regiment, one
becomes accustomed to it as to everything else;
as soon as a soldier has experienced the guard-
house, he strikes a difference and later profits by
the lesson. I, however, except the scamps, incor-
rigible fellows, habitual guests of the prison, who
finally end in the galleys or by being shot.
This great severity was necessarily required to
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 237
permit of a single man becoming master of one
hundred thousand armed ones. Passive obedience
from rank to rank is the condition sine qua non
of the existence of an army. The most foolish, the
most stupid order must be carried out without a
murmur. What could be done if everyone took
upon himself the right of giving his opinion? We
all think ourselves quite intelligent; within our-
selves we often call fools our neighbour who on
his side returns the compliment with interest A
military chief who should consult his officers, who
should even listen to their remonstrances, would
never be certain of the carrying out of an order.
One would modify it; another would think he was
saving the army by doing the exact opposite.
In a discussion between a superior and an in-
ferior, the greatest mistake of the latter is to be
right In the army, I have known officers of much
intelligence, who denied themselves, bowed to every
whim, established themselves advisers of high per-
sonages, and never allowed it to be thought that
they had suggested good advice. This is the quin-
tessence of the courtier's act, everybody can not
reach that point
238 AN OFFICER OF
Many generals wanted to play the part of
princes.
The uniform of aides-de-camp were a blue dress
jacket with sky-blue cuffs and collar. Almost all
the servants of the generals were thus dressed; all
they lacked was the epaulet. In this manner one
had a finely organised corps of servants of all
ranks: captain, lieutenant, valet, grooms, etc.
These aristocratic fashions had replaced Repub-
lican plainness, with no shade of transition. I have
known aides-de-camp who admirably lent them-
selves to all these forms of hierarchical servitude;
they went before the valet de chambre, that was
sufficient for them. On the other hand, I have
known generals who carried reserve to the verge
of scruple. Never would they have demanded of
officers under them a service not within the sphere
of military duties*
I arrive one day with General P at an
uninhabited house; it was pouring, our clothes were
wet through, we light a fire, we warm ourselves.
" Sit down there," says the general to me.
"What for?"
" I want to pull off your boots.**
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 239
"You are jesting!"
" Not at all, give me your foot."
" General, I can not allow you."
" Your boots are wet, your feet are in water,
you will catch cold."
" But I'll take them off myself."
" I want to take them off for you."
Willing or no, the general drew off my boots;
my astonishment was extreme; when it was done:
" My turn now," said he; " one good turn de-
serves another; take off my boots."
" With pleasure."
" To have the right to ask you that favour, I
had to go about it that way."
It must not be believed that the soldier at the
barracks leads an idle life; his duties are linked
one with the other in such a manner that he only
rests by changing his work. The drudgery for
the general cleanliness of the buildings and courts,
the cleaning of his weapons and clothes, the drill,
guard duty ; one thing follows the other periodically
so that the soldier should not long be idle.
In the barracks one reads much in leisure mo-
ments; very blood-thirsty novels are in great
2 4 o AN OFFICER OF
favour. One always sees a reading room near
the place where the regiment is quartered. Enter,
and you will easily recognise the popular books
by the thick layer of black which serves as a cover.
I was one day standing near the lady in charge;
enters a young recruit, stick in hand.
" Have you Robert, chief of brigands? "
" No, Monsieur, it is out."
" Have you Rmaldo Rlnaldini? "
" No, Monsieur, your comrades are reading it."
" Have you . . . but I do not know the
titles ; let me have some other book of brigandage."
Five or six combine together for the same sub-
scription, sometimes the entire squad, and the ablest
does the reading aloud. It is a pleasure to see all
these worthy troopers listening, open-mouthed, to
the marvellous stories of Cartouche, Mandrin or
of La Ramee. Not that the soldiers feel any
special sympathy for robbers, but the adventurous
life of the latter has some resemblance with the
episodes, the dangers of the career of glory. They
prefer to read the story of robbers than that of
heroes, they know die latter by heart, they have
learned all our campaigns, all our sabre strokes
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 241
without loosening their purse strings. In each
barrack-room there is always to be found an old
soldier who has seen everything, and who never
allows the chance to slip to recount his feats of
valour. In each company there exists a man of
that kind whose moral influence over his comrades
is very wide. It is he who criticises the captain's
every operation. " In my former regiment," he
always says, " we did not do thus." His former
regiment is his charger, it is the example which
everyone must follow. When he changes corps,
the one he leaves will in turn become the model,
for he cannot cite two of them, and the last will
always be the best.
In the barracks, there is a wing to lodge a cer-
tain number of officers; a few shepherds are of
course needed for so large a flock. In the bar-
racks are to be found dealers in wine, brandy and
tobacco, sometimes billiard-rooms and restaurants.
The canteen-woman, after having carried her
keg slung over her shoulder on the highways, takes
her ease in a corner of the ground floor, pompously
called restaurant Further off, is the cafe; do not
seek the luxury of gildings, mirrors and crystal
242 AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY
chandeliers there; what does it matter? it offers
to the sub-lieutenants a great advantage which
acts as a sufficient compensation; credit is given
until the end of the month, and for certain purses,
this is an important matter.
I have been through that many times. Experto
crede Roberto. And it is there that the regiment
news are told. There also sometimes are weighed
the destinies of Europe.
PRISONERS OF WAR MILITARY
EXECUTIONS
CHAPTER XIV
PRISONERS OF WAR MILITARY EXECUTIONS
Among civilised nations, ours is the one which
treats prisoners of war best. In France, a dis-
armed enemy is no longer an enemy; not only does
the government take care of them, but besides
this, private individuals give them all the assistance
in their power. When columns of prisoners of
war crossed France, charitable people were seen
in every city to take up collections for their benefit.
All Europe is there to testify to the truth of this,
for we have had in France prisoners from all parts
of Europe.
Indeed, we were far from receiving the same
treatment In foreign lands. In Russia, our unfor-
tunate fellow-soldiers were sent to Siberia, and
God knows what they had to endure. In England,
not only did they have to suffer from the harshness
of the government, but individuals themselves
treated them as enemies ; the hatred between nation
245
246 AN OFFICER OF
and nation had become a hatred between man and
man. The people who carried barbarity the far-
thest, was without contradiction, the Spanish peo-
ple. When our unfortunate prisoners were not
hanged, they crossed Spain in the midst of all
possible outrages ; they suffered hunger, thirst; daily
attacked with stones, covered with mud, those who
objected to this infamous treatment were impris-
oned in the island of Cabrera, in the convict-ships
of Cadiz! These horrors have been made known
to me through report only; they prove that a man
can suffer many grievous things without dying,
and that a great resemblance exists between the
old Christians of Spam and the cannibals of the
South Sea.
During our sojourn at Polsen, there passed
through that city a column of Russian prisoners
which Napoleon was sending back to Emperor
Alexander, armed, dressed, newly equipped and
organised into regiments. Bonaparte, a few years
before, had done the same act of politeness to
Paul I, in returning in the same way the prisoners
made by Massena in the campaign of Switzerland.
Our soldiers were furious to see new clothes on
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 247
them, made of fine cloth, while they had only old
ones which no one thought of having changed*
The government was paying its court to the Em-
peror of Russia, and our own prisoners returning
from Siberia, in rags, stick in hand, passed these
superb columns armed with French guns.
Every officer, prisoner of war, was left on the
muster-roll, for reference ; his turn of advancement
passed, he was no longer thought of. The Em-
peror only thought of the men present; it may be
said of him that no sovereign ever treated the
prisoners of the enemy better and those of his
own army worse; he seemed to wish to punish
them for having allowed themselves to be taken,
as if a corps had ever been taken prisoner through
the fault of the soldier or that of the ordinary
officer.
The regiments always did their duty; whenever
they have been taken either in whole or part, it
is because they were not supported, or that a task
beyond the possible had been demanded of them.
The fault was always, either of circumstances, or
of the commander-in-chief, whoever he may have
been, emperor, marshal or general. As these gen-
248 AN OFFICER OF
tlemen take to themselves alone all the glory of a
campaign, it is but just that they should be held re-
sponsible for the blunders they make from time to
time: suum cuique. Besides, their share is large
enough, since the bravery of the soldier and of
the officer, when crowned by success, redounds to
the credit of the general-in-chief whose fame it
increases. Our soldiers are brave beyond expres-
sion; whenever one hundred ready men were called
for, a thousand came forth from the ranks. The
great trouble of the officers was to hold them back,
they always went too fast. I shall say no more,
Europe has seen them. All that may be written
will neither increase nor diminish their fame. The
story of so many great deeds, sculptured in stone,
cast in bronze, will last longer than the Colonne
Vendome and the Arc de Triomphe: monumentum
cere perennius.
Frederick II knew our army well; when Prince
Ferdinand of Brunswick took the place of the 1
Duke of Cumberland after the battle of Hastem-
beck, won by Marechal d'Estrees in 1757, he said
to him : " Cousin, you are going to fight the French ;
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 249
you will find it easy to defeat their generals, but
the soldiers, never."
While our compatriot prisoners endured in the
roads of Cadiz, in the island of Cabrera, all pos-
sible physical and moral suffering; while those who
were going through the villages on their way to
those horrible destinations were being pelted with
mud and all sorts of ignominies, the Spaniards
whom the fortune of war had caused to fall into
our hands were as well treated in France as were
the French soldiers; in certain localities they were
treated even better. Sometimes it happened that
individuals of the two armies rendered one another
assistance in adversity ; for after all soldiers when
fighting kill each other without hatred. During
an armistice, we often visited the enemy's canton-
ments, and although ready to kill one another at
the slightest signal, we were not the less disposed
to render each other services if the occasion pre-
sented itself.
After the campaign of Austria, in 1809, the
French army occupied the principality of Bayreuth;
the Austrian army was cantoned on the frontiers
250 AN OFFICER OF
of Bohemia. War was not yet declared, but every-
one knew that we were only waiting for the return
of Spring. We used to visit the Austrian officers
in the neighbourhood of Egra; these gentlemen
returned our calls ; we dined together, champagne
was not spared, everything went along pleasantly.
At the time when the army started on the march,
we met; we all took an oath over the bluish flame
of a bowl of punch to render each other all pos-
sible services, if anyone of us should become pris-
oners of war. Each wrote down in his note book
the name and address of all the friend-enemies, and
we separated. Two weeks after, the battle of
Ratisbon was fought; on both sides prisoners were
made among the members of the association ; they
were well recommended in the cities of Austria
and of France which they were to cross, in those
where they were to dwell, assistance in money was
supplied them, each forked out to fulfil that debt
of honour, and individuals thus softened the ills
caused by governments.
Military laws are very severe, they have to be ;
otherwise how could a general make himself obeyed
by a hundred thousand men who all, individually,
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 251
are as strong as he? A misdemeanour which in
private life is punishable by a few days' imprison-
ment, brings the penalty of death with the soldier.
The slightest assault towards a superior, the theft
of the smallest article in the enemy's country, is
the cause of a man's death. This last case being
punished only by fits and starts, during two or
three weeks the soldiers were allowed to maraud
at pleasure, because there were no supplies to dis-
tribute to them. If a van of bread or of biscuit
arrived, immediately an order of the day forbade
any sort of plunder; the first poor devil caught in
the act suffered for everybody. I have seen some
of these petty thieves shot for a shirt, a pair of
boots, stolen from a peasant; but never was the
great thief in large financial combinations pun-
ished with the slightest penalty. Sometimes the
Emperor made them disgorge, but they were
never shot.
Military executions were for the small fry.
Laws resemble spiders' webs: the gnats are caught
in them, the drones go through. On the eve of
the battle of Wagram, twelve employes of the
supplies department were caught in the act of sell-
252 AN OFFICER OF
ing the rations of the Imperial Guard; a few hours
after they were shot.
" I trust that this example will not be lost on
you," I said to a certain supplies' man of my
acquaintance; "the lesson is a good one, be care-
ful."
" Bah! " he replied, " in the last battle, did you
not see several of your friends die? "
" Yes, what relation ... 1"
" Will that prevent you from fighting to-mor-
row?"
"What a difference!"
" I see none."
" So much the worse for you."
These worthy employes of the supplies depart-
ment were really the canons of the army. While
the military section was fighting or bivouacked
in the mud, these gentlemen stalked proudly
through the neighbouring towns, courting the
ladies, while storing away the flour supplied by
the requisitions. Probably some of it remained
in their hands, for in general they were loaded
down with gold with which they knew not what
to do. You know the proverb about the embar-
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 253
rassment of riches; I have often recognised its
truth in some of these gentlemen. To send their
money to France by the post, was only possible
in small quantities. Had the sum been too large,
people would have made conjectures; the minister
of war, in reckoning that with a pay of 100 louis
one can not save 10,000 francs a year, would have
cashiered the thief. They dared not leave the
hoard in their lodgings, because, after all, doors
may be opened or forced; to carry it always on
one is troublesome and inconvenient. Poor unfor-
tunates I they all resorted to the last course. I
have seen some whose belts were of enormous
weight, whose clothes were a cuirass of gold placed
between the cloth and the lining.
Differing in that respect from the Paris usurers,
who make young men sign notes for double the
sum they give them, the employes offered to the
officers whose parents were rich a premium of
from 30 to 40 per cent on a note; they did the
banking business at reduced rates. Officers of my
acquaintance have received 1,500 francs in gold
for a letter of credit of 1,000 francs, payable in
six months, in France. The essential for mes-
254 AN OFFICER OF
sieurs the employes was to conceal their fortune;
this premium had for them no real importance,
in three days they had recovered more than the
amount.
One day, it was at Kloster-Neuburg, an illus-
trious and celebrated abbey four leagues from
Vienna, the immense cellars of this convent had
been taken to make distributions of wine to the
army; an employe was delivering the casks at the
rate of one quart to a man. A quartermaster
tastes the wine, and finds it weak.
" I say, mister store-keeper, you are giving us
water! "
" How, water I Don't you see that it is wine ? "
" Wine mighty well baptised. We could have
taken charge of that operation; you should not
have spared us the trouble."
" The quartermasters are never satisfied."
" Just because you always are. Just consider
that we are camping on the banks of the Danube.
I refuse the distribution. I do not wish my men
to break their backs carrying water in the neigh-
bourhood of a river."
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 255
"Well, taste it all of you, and you will see
who is right; the quartermaster or I."
A cask is battered in, a canteen is dipped in
the inside, what do they find? ... a live
fish which was in as good health as its colleagues
in the Danube. Then there was a general shout
against the employe; the soldiers rushed on him;
the officer who presided at the distribution had
great difficulty in getting him out of their hands.
A regiment is on the march, the men talk, laugh
boisterously, sing some lively song, there is a run-
ning fire of jests. An aide-de-camp appears, he
speaks to the colonel who gives the order to halt
and load weapons. Soon we resume our march,
the jests have ceased, no one says anything; each
does his own thinking as to what is about to hap-
pen: that is the man alone with himself. The
enemy present themselves, everybody shouts " for-
ward "; everyone wishes to advance on the run:
that is man. You want to do that? so do I; you
want to run? welll I shall beat you, but if you
wanted to remain seated, I should ask no better
than to lie down.
2 5 6 AN OFFICER OF
I was saying that gnats arc caught in spiders'
webs. At the time of the retreat from Portugal,
General D had a poor devil shot for having
eaten a bunch of grapes ! " Horrible ! " some
will say; " It is impossible! " others will repeat;
to that I reply: It is true; I'll say more, it was
just Dysentery was making ravages in the army,
the soldiers died by the dozen. It was forbidden,
under pain of death, to eat grapes, this fruit being
the sole cause of that illness. The first soldier
caught in the act suffered for the others. The
council of war assembled on the road; a quarter
of an hour after, the poor devil was no more.
What happened? no more grapes were eaten,
and health returned to all; through the death of
one man, several thousands were saved; the gen-
eral-in-chief was right. The Romans said on
great occasions: Caveant consules. Whether
D had the right to give that order, or not,
no matter; that atrocious severity was approved
by all, for it perhaps saved one-half of the army.
If some fine gentlemen with long phrases had been
there, the subject was certainly broad enough to
display their eloquence; they would have obtained
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 257
the pardon of the poor devil, they would have
killed the body in sparing the member. The
death of the grape-eater was a necessity for us
all; it was imperative that everyone should see
that the order of the day was not a vain threat;
as soon as they were persuaded, the effect ceased
by the stoppage of the cause.
Had the same promptness been shown in hav-
ing the big thieves executed, the war in Spain would
not have lasted so long. How many gold and
silver statues of saints, how many sacred vases
and chalices were transformed into bullion, and
later exchanged for residences in Paris! How
many diamonds and rubies, after having orna-
mented for centuries the pompous and poetical
ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church have
been astounded and shocked to find themselves
about the neck of an Opera dancer!
The magnificent paintings which decorated the
churches of Spain have almost all taken their way
to France; they to-day grace the galleries of the
lucky of our capital In my time these were
hardly any more to be seen, we were shown the
empty spaces covered by filthy black serge; there
258 AN OFFICER OF
were left only some coarse paintings, done by the
daubers of the Inquisition.
Had a few of our amateurs of fine arts who
so carefully protected them in their vans by a
strong escort, been ordered shot, the war would
not have become national; but many would have
been obliged to order themselves shot
But that of which I have always disapproved,
the thing which was always an affliction for me,
was the severity exercised in punishing plunder
one day, after having tacitly authorised it during
a month. As soon as the order had been issued,
woe to the man who did not conform to it, the
next day he was no more. We arrive at Weimar,
some soldiers go out and maraud in the neigh-
bouring villages, a peasant is killed; suddenly the
marauders are surrounded, two hundred are
arrested and imprisoned in a church. General
L immediately appoints a council of war to
judge the assassin who is to.be shot the next morn-
ing before the departure of the division.
One of my friends, appointed reporter of the
council, goes to the church followed by all the
peasants ; none recognise the guilty one, who prob-
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 259
ably had not let himself be caught His mission
ended there, since no one was accused. Our re-
porter hastens to the general, he explains the case.
" No matter, Monsieur" said M. L , " do
as best you can, the crime must be punished."
" Certainly, but on whom? "
" That concerns you."
" The peasants all agree that the assassin wore
red epaulets, he is therefore a grenadier ; we have
forty in prison, I have had them placed separately,
but none has been recognised as the assassin."
" Put the name of all these grenadiers in a bag,
make them draw lots, the one whose name comes
out first will be shot to-morrow."
" General, I do not wish to have charge of such
a performance."
" I order you to do so."
" I refuse."
" Give me back your sword."
" Here it is."
" Take the captain to prison ! "
General L was at dinner; he rises, furious,
calls the corporal of the guard, and orders the
arrest of the captain-reporter. But the next day,
a6o AN OFFICER OF
being more sober, the general returned the sword,
and no one was shot
In the Bautzen campaign, a footsoldier of my
regiment was militarily executed for having stolen
a woman's black apron with which to make a neck-
tie.
A military execution is a terrible sight I have
never seen a civil execution, I know the guillotine
through the prints; but very often my duty has
placed me face to face with an unfortunate about
to be shot I do not know what the state of his
pulse may have been, but it certainly beat no faster
than mine.
The troops form a square that has but three
sides; the fourth is empty, it has to serve as a
passage for the bullets. Grand military pomp is
expressly displayed, and it is but right, for since
a terrible example is being made, it must at least
be rendered useful to those who remain. The
condemned man appears accompanied by a priest;
suddenly the drums beat a salute until the culprit
has reached the centre of the troops. Then comes
a roll of the drums. The captain-reporter reads
the sentence, the drums roll once more, the man
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 261
is made to kneel, he is blindfolded and a dozen
corporals commanded by an adjutant sub-lieuten-
ant fire on the unfortunate who is at ten paces in
front of them.
To decrease, if possible, the agony of the con-
demned man, the commands are not spoken, the
adjutant gives them with his cane which acts as
a signal. In case the man should not be dead
after the volley, which sometimes happens, a
reserve platoon is ready to finish him, by firing
at close quarters.
It is with an oppressed heart that I describe
these horrors; sad memories come to haunt me;
the poor unfortunates whom I have seen on their
knees at that fatal moment all appear to me as
phantoms; and yet at all these executions, when-
ever they took place near a city, some beautiful
ladies of the locality never failed to be present.
With their sensitive nerves they solicited a good
place from which they could see everything, and
then the next day they fainted if someone killed
a chicken in their presence.
When the judgment has been carried out, all
the troops file past before die body; each returns
262 AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY
to his barrack-room, it is the topic of conversation
for three days, and soon it is forgotten.
I have seen several of these unfortunates die
with admirable composure.
I have seen some who addressed the regiment,
commanded the fire, not a single syllable denoting
in them the slightest emotion. But the man who,
in such a circumstance, showed the most astonish-
ing courage was General Malet. 18 Conducted to
the plain of Grenelle with thirteen of his accom-
plices, he asked, as chief of the conspirators, for
permission to give the command to fire.
" Shoulder . . . arms ! " he exclaimed in
a thundering voice. " That's no good, we'll begin
all over. Stand at ease, everybody! Shoulder
. . . arms I Good, well done. Platoon . . .
readyl Aim! Fire!" . . . All fell, ex-
cept Malet who alone remained standing.
" How about me, sacre nom de D , you have
forgotten me, my friends ! The reserve platoon,
forward! Good. Shoulder . . . arms!
Ready . , . Aim . . . Fire!" . . .
RETIREMENT
CHAPTER XV
RETIREMENT
" Did you never have the desire of becoming
a soldier? " said I one day to Abbe Barberi, who
was the first to initiate me into the mysteries of
the declension and the conjugation, in the glad-
some science of the participle, and the merry com-
binations of the gerund and of the supine.
" Oh 1 certainly, I've had it, and although old,
I would still have it, could I choose my occupa-
tion."
" And which would you prefer? "
" Frankly speaking, I have always desired the
rank of general of division, retired."
During the thirty years that an officer spends
in the service, he daily thinks of the time when,
retired, he will be able, free from all duty, to act
according to his fancy, plant his cabbage or have
them planted. When the time comes, when he
is settled in his little town, he is usually lonesome.
265
266 AN OFFICER OF
His life used to be daily cut up by events, episodes;
it is now going to pass with frightful monotony.
Fortunate is he if he has selected a garrison
town as a place of residence.
In that case, the parade hour, the arrival of a
regiment, a grand manoeuvre are for him pieces
of good luck which he never misses.
The retired officer is easy to recognise. First
his face does not resemble that of the notary or
of the doctor; it is sun-burnt, severe; his features
are very prominent; his speech is brief and accen-
tuated. If the officer returned to private life still
gives orders, his tone is without rejoinder; he car-
ries out the orders; he sees that they are carried
out, because he must obey and be obeyed; it is
one of the conditions of his existence. He is good,
but his children tremble in his presence : if he speaks
they must be silent He is old, but his figure is
straight; he walks with a strut; if he is lame, if
he has but one leg, if the one he lacks is replaced
by a piece of wood, never mind, you will still
hear the symmetrical and cadenced sound of the
military step.
The retired officer, in his civilian clothes, always
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 267
retains something which savours of the regiment
His black cravat allows a white piping to be
seen; his waistcoat has numbered buttons, he often
wears uniform trousers, and at home he is always
to be found wearing a foraging-cap; his dressing-
gown is an old dress-coat cut short six inches.
If he takes his wife to see the manoeuvre, for a
retired officer is essentially married, his attention
is absorbed by the commands ; he sees the mistakes
and points them out to his neighbours. If a
change of front is about to occur, he does not fail
to say:
" Let us get away from here, my dear, they are
going to come this way."
Make an appointment with a retired officer, he
will always be there first; military punctuality is
never forgotten. He will not say: " I'll call on
you in the afternoon,' 5 but "after the parade."
The words parade, drill, manoeuvre, are incrusted
in his brain. In his estimation, his regiment was
the foremost in the army. Start him on that sub-
ject and you'll hear some fine things. That
brotherhood which brings together two thousand
men around the same flag, proceeds from the
268 AN OFFICER OF
noblest sentiments; there is in it, perhaps, a slight
dose of conceit; besides, without conceit what
would one do?
The officer often counts his years of service, his
campaigns, his wounds; he knows by heart the
law relating to retirements and the list which goes
with them. He always calculates at what time
will come the new rank so long awaited, a rank
which must of necessity increase the rate with
regard to him.
" When I get my retirement, I shall go to Brit-
tany; one can live cheaply there, and game is
plentiful," said one.
" I shall go to Burgundy, people drink good
wine there," said another.
"And I," said a third, "to Provence, the
weather is always fine, in spite of the mistral, or
perhaps because of the mistral"
Cannon balls often disturbed all these fine
projects, which did not hinder the remaining
officers from building new castles in Spain, the
very next day.
In the career of glory one gets many things:
the gout and ribbons, a pension and rheumatism.
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 269
Oh I my leg, the weather is going to change. Oh,
dear ! my arm, the barometer is going down. And
then frozen feet, the loss of a member, a bullet
which has lodged between two bones and which
the surgeon has not been able to extract What
do I say, one, two, ten bullets; I have known brave
soldiers whose skins looked like a skimmer and
who carried in their body lead in quantity sufficient
to go to the hunt on the opening day. How
many chances there are in this world! . . .
some were wounded every time they went on
the firing line, others always returned safe and
sound.
All those bivouacs in rain and snow, all those
privations, all those fatigues experienced in youth,
you suffer for them on becoming old, when you
have retired.
Because one has suffered in the past, one must
suffer more, a condition seemingly not very just.
The pay is less high, but as a compensation the
needs are doubled.
Sometimes the retired officer utilises his leisure
by honourable employment; others withdraw to
the country, they take care of their garden and
270 AN OFFICER OF
hunt as much as they can; they are right, I am
not the one to find fault with them.
I have known some who would have accepted
employment from no one and at no price. After
an obedience of thirty years, they delight in that
sweet thought that they are their own masters;
that to go, come, eat, sleep, they no longer have
to ask permission and that they are free to act in
all respects according to their own will.
A captain of cavalry, about to retire, made a
singular proposition to the oldest trumpeter of
his regiment
" My friend," said he to him, " I am going to
retire to the country; I own a small house, a few
acres of land and my pension; with all these things
I expect to live at my ease. If you wish to come
with me, we shall plant cabbage and eat them
together. 5 '
" Do I wish to ! I should say I did ! "
" Well! I'm going to secure your discharge, but
I have one condition to make."
"Which?"
" You will perform in the country, at my home,
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 271
the same service as in the regiment. You will
sound the reveille and the various bugle calls."
" Captain, I'll sound anything you wish."
Our two men depart, arrive and instal them-
selves in a modest house where the captain was
delighted to be his own master and to be able to
dispose of his time according to his fancy. At
certain hours, the trumpeter, after having sounded
his martial instrument, came all out of breath to
the officer's chamber.
"Well! what is it?"
" Captain, the regiment is mounting horse."
" The regiment is quite right, were I in its place,
I should do the same thing, in my place, it would
do as I do, what do I care for the regiment"
The good captain did not exactly say: "What
do I care " ; he made use of a more emphatic ex-
pression, but I dare not repeat it here. Those
worthy cavalry officers . . they always
swear. We footsoldiers are infinitely more re-
served. The captain arose late, sometimes he
did not rise at all. He smoked his pipe, watched
his cabbages growing, and laughed in his sleeve
272 AN OFFICER OF
on hearing the trumpeter periodically sound his
harmonious solos.
"Well I what is it now?"
" Captain, there are grand manoeuvres to-day."
"What do I care!"
" The weather is beautiful . . ."
" So much the better, my friend, but what do
I carel"
" Parade."
" Goodl "
" Groomingl "
"Excellent I"
"Inspection I"
" Better and better."
" Drill on foot."
"What else?"
" Mounted drill."
" I expected that"
" And then to-morrow a review by the marshal."
" Bravo 1 I was sure of it" And he broke
forth into loud laughter.
" Well, what do I carel ... I am going
to bed."
As for me, dear reader, to thank you for the
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 273
patience you have had in following me through
all my prattling, I shall whisper to you that I
resemble that worthy captain a little. I have no
trumpeter subject to my orders, at which I am
very often angry; but as a fortunate compensation,
the cabbages I plant grow at Chenevieres-sur-
Marne. From the heights of this village, I have
the satisfaction of hearing the drums, the trumpets
and even the cannon of Vincennes. " Come, cour-
age I my friends,'* I sometimes say to them, " beat,
blow, fire, thunder, what do I care ! " and I go to
bed.
NOTES
V Elites were light infantry volunteers. Two corps
of v&lites composed of 800 men had been organised by a
decree of the Year XII. They were in turn garrisoned at
Saint-Germain, Ecouen and Fontainebleau. These corps con-
stituted a sort of regimental schools. The greater number
of ulites, as soon as their education was completed, were
appointed sub-lieutenants and assigned to regiments.
2 After the Battle of Eylau (7-8 February, 1807), the losses
of the army and the weakening of the soldiers compelled
Napoleon, in spite of victory, not to pursue the Russians.
Besides, after a plentiful fall of snow, a thaw had begun.
Napoleon then drew back on the Passarge, and placed his
troops in cantonments to cover the siege of Dantzig and
the march of Jerome on Silesia. The Third Army Corps
to the right and the First to the left encircle the Fourth,
the Sixth is in the East around Guttstadt, the Guard is in
the rear around Osterode, the Fifth corps at Warsaw; and
it was towards Thorn that the line of operation was main-
tained.
8 The camp of Finkenstein, was established at the end of
February, 1807. The Guard, after having marched from
Thorn on Marienbourg and Osterode and cantoned in the
snow, established itself before Finkenstein. For the Eni-
peror who, a few days before had, in the midst of his
Guard, only a barn for shelter, a palace of brick was erected.
* It was the month of December, 1808, that the retreat of
General John Moore on Corunna took place. This retreat
275
376 AN OFFICER OF
cost England 10,000 men and General Moore who was mor-
tally wounded.
5 This determination on the part of the Emperor was a
corollary of the decree of Berlin. As we could receive
indigo only from England, by using white cloth for the
army, Napoleon deprived English commerce of a branch of
its industry.
6 The Imperial Guard was generally detested by the other
corps, furious at its egoism and its haughty pretensions.
The private in the Guard, following the example of his
officers, considered himself much above his superiors in the
line,
* The entire army feared the contact of this corps spoiled
by the favours, the extreme indulgence and the partiality
of its monarch coinmander-in-chief." (General Hulot)
7 Friant's Division, to which belonged the loSth, Blaze's
Regiment, was one of those assigned to meet Marie-Louise
of Austria at the frontiers of the Empire.
It was on March 16, 1810, at Braunau, that the future
Empress was delivered into the hands of Marshal Berthier,
Prince of Neufchitel, representing the Emperor. Having
left Vienna on the 13th, Marie-Louise had crossed Austria
amidst the ringing of the bells of all the villages and the
enthusiasm of the peasantry cheering her passage. She
reached Althein, on the Bavarian frontier on the i6th.
Between Braunau and Althein three pavilions, one Aus-
trian, the other neutral, the last French, had been erected,
for pleasure had been taken in reviving the protocolary
forms which, forty years before had marked the marriage
of Marie-Antoinette. It was at half past one, in the neutral
pavilion, that Prince Trautmannsdorf exchanged with the
Prince of Neufchitel the documents certifying to the de-
livery, then Marie-Louise came to embrace Caroline Bona-
parte who was awaiting her in the French pavilion. Re-
joicings brought together at Braunau the members of the
two missions, French and Austrian, but the very next day
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 277
Marie-Louise had to bid good-bye to the ladies who had ac-
companied her.
8 Tour-d'Auvergne (Theophile-Malo Corret de la), bora
at Carhaix (Finistere), Nov. 23, 1743, killed at Oberhausen
(Bavaria), June 27, 1800. He was descended from a bastard
branch of the House of Bouillon. A captain at the time
of the Revolution, he refused all advancement, went to
serve (1792) in the Army of the Alps, then (1793) in the
Army of the Pyrenees-Orientales where placed at the head
of all the companies of grenadiers of the army, he dis-
tinguished himself by a thousand deeds of bravery and dar-
ing. His disinterestedness equalled his fearlessness. Taken
prisoner by the English (1795) and exchanged in 1797, he
re-entered the army as substitute for the son of his friend
Le Brigant, and went through the campaign of Zurich (1799).
Appointed premier grenadier de la republique by Bonaparte
(1800), he declined that distinction, went to rejoin Moreau's
army in Germany and perished six days after his arrival at
the camp.
9 The complete laxness of discipline had slowly brought
about the invasion of the camps by a crowd of women.
Mistresses of Marshals of the Empire and of the generals,
actresses, danseuses, Spanish women by the thousand, young
girls, formed a love escort following the army in barouches,
in cabriolets, on mules, on asses, and on foot according to
the fortune of their protectors or circumstances.
10 One is surprised to-day to find in all the soldiers who
occupied Germany from 1806 to 1809 the same sympathy for
the inhabitants. That is easily explained; the populations
at that time gave tiie French troops the kindest of recep-
tion and, far from fleeing at their approach, they offered
them the most liberal hospitality. The Poles, on the con-
trary, as soon as the coming of a detachment was announced,
deserted the villages and devoted their whole energy in con-
cealing their provisions. But practise in marauding enabled
the troopers sounding the ground with their ram-rods to
278 AN OFFICER OF
find, even in the depths of the woods the Poles' best hiding-
places.
It was only later and as the continued presence of the
French troops became too burdensome to the Germans, and
their patience and good nature disappeared.
11 "In the environs of Pultusk, the roads have disappeared
beneath the waters and mud, one sees only wrecked car-
riages and horses buried to the belly; the six-horse coaches'
of the Emperor, in spite of all precautions, upset in frightful
bogs, and it is necessary to lead a horse to one of the coach
doors to enable the Emperor to extricate himself from this
dangerous predicament" (Coignet)
As to the army, it was never so wretched; "the soldier,
always on the march, bivouacking every night, spending en-
tire days in mud up to the knees/' without bread, without
brandy, falls with fatigue and exhaustion. Many die in the
ditches. Those who still march are frightful to behold,
"the fire and smoke of the bivouacs have rendered them
yellow, wan, unrecognisable, their eyes are inflamed, their
clothes covered with filth and smoky . . . they are gloomy
and dreamy or mumbling curses and insults." (Baron
Percy.)
12 It was an aide-de-camp to General Rottembourg that
Blaze left for Spain,
ia When a soldier had proved himself a coward, or else
committed a grave offence against his comrades, the latter
condemned him to receive fifty blows of a savate (old shoe).
The judges themselves carrying out the sentence.
14 Coup de manchette was the name given to the blow of a
sword that struck the wrist; the duel code expressly forbade
this blow.
15 General Dorsenne, "handsome Dorsenne," as he was
nicknamed as a just homage, rendered both to his care in
dress and his physical advantages, had been made a colonel
of grenadiers of the Guard on his return from Egypt, from
where he had come back covered with wounds, He was a
NAPOLEON'S ARMY 279
superb soldier in whom one could forgive this eccentricity
of being as scrupulously thoughtful of his attire on the day
of a battle as on the night of a reception at the Tuileries,
so much did he exhibit in turn of fearlessness in action and
stoical courage. There are words of his that are of heroic
simplicity; at Essling, after having had two horses killed
under him, a shell in exploding covered him with earth and
threw him down, he arose and, dusting his clothes with fillips
he uttered but one word: "Bunglers!"
16 It was on the 27th of June, 1807, that the Guard ma-
noeuvred before the two Emperors ; the King of Prussia, who,
the evening before, had been present at the interview of the
Emperors, was ill and excused himself. The days which fol-
low were taken up by fraternal banquets between the sol-
diers and officers of the two armies, reviews, visits to the
camps. Blaze refers to one of these visits.
17 Here is this curious document:
" The governor of the town caused a parley to be sounded
and a white flag to be planted on one of the angles of the
bastion. An officer immediately came forward and asked
what was wanted. The answer came that they wanted to
capitulate, then hostages were proposed, and the exchange
took place. The town gave two officers, the besiegers sent
them an equal number."
Here are the terms of the capitulation:
"We, the governor, having considered the state of our
town, the advantage of the besiegers, having no hope of
being assisted, have assembled a council of war, in which,
after having considered our position, it has been decided to
surrender the place on the following conditions, to wit:
* i. That the citizens of the town will on no account
be molested, that they will be free in the exercise of their
religion, and that they will not be deprived of any of the
privileges which they have always enjoyed, and which our
Kings have always authorised;
"2. That several privileged buildings, such as hospitals,
28o AN OFFICER OF NAPOLEON'S ARMY
churches, town-houses, which have been destroyed by the
besiegers shall be rebuilt at their expense;
"3. That the deserters shall not be sought;
"4. That all prisoners taken by either side during the
sorties shall be returned regardless of number;
"5. That the sick, no matter what the nature of their
ailments may be, shall be cared for by the besiegers;
"6. That four covered vans shall be granted to take away
the furniture and other effects of the besieged without it
being permitted to look in them;
"7. That four coaches shall be supplied for several ladies
of quality who found themselves confined in our town during
the investment; and who were not permitted to leave although
we asked it;
"8. That we shall come out accompanied by our garrison,
with all the honours of war, that is, with beating drums,
flags unfurled, with all our guns, eight pieces of cannon,
eight mortars, arms and baggage;
" We promise on our word of honour that there shall be
supplied to the commander of the detachment which is to
escort us a safe-conduct duly signed to withdraw in all safety
to the territory in the dominion of the victors.
"Signed: LE CHEVAT-TER D'ALUEMANT, Governor,
and CHARLES DE BOURBON, Comte d'Eu."
18 Malet (Claude Francois de), a French general, born at
Dole in 1754. Having hatched against Napoleon I a plot
which was almost successful, he was arrested, tried by a
military commission and sentenced to death. The very day
of his condemnation, October 29, 1812, he (and thirteen ac-
complices) was taken to the plain of Crenelle and shot.
