Book: History of the Expedition to Russia

C >> Count Philip de Segur >> History of the Expedition to Russia




Hitherto it was hardly possible for the King of Naples to regulate our
flight any better; but at the moment he passed through Marienwerder on
his way to Posen, a letter from Naples again unsettled all his
resolutions. The impression which it made upon him was so violent, that
by degrees as he read it, the bile mixed itself with his blood so
rapidly, that he was found a few minutes after with a complete jaundice.

It appeared that an act of government which the queen had taken upon
herself had wounded him in one of his strongest passions. He was not at
all jealous of that princess, notwithstanding her charms, but furiously
so of his royal authority; and it was particularly of the queen, as
sister of the Emperor, that he was suspicious.

Persons were astonished at seeing this prince, who had hitherto appeared
to sacrifice every thing to glory in arms, suffering himself to be
mastered all at once by a less noble passion; but they forgot that, with
certain characters, there must be always a ruling passion.

Besides, it was still the same ambition under different forms, and
always entering completely into each of them; for such are passionate
characters. At that moment his jealousy of his authority triumphed over
his love of glory; it made him proceed rapidly to Posen, where, shortly
after his arrival, he disappeared, and abandoned us.

This defection took place on the 16th of January, twenty-three days
before Schwartzenberg detached himself from the French army, of which
Prince Eugene took the command.

Alexander arrested the march of his troops at Kalisch. There, the
violent and continued war, which had followed us all the way from
Moscow, slackened: it became only, until the spring, a war of fits, slow
and intermittent. The strength of the evil appeared to be exhausted; but
it was merely that of the combatants; a still greater struggle was
preparing, and this halt was not a time allowed to make peace, but
merely given to the premeditation of slaughter.




CHAP. XII.


Thus did the star of the North triumph over that of Napoleon. Is it then
the fate of the South to be vanquished by the North? Cannot that subdue
it in its turn? Is it against nature that that aggression should be
successful? and is the frightful result of our invasion a fresh proof of
it?

Certainly the human race does not march in that direction; its
inclination is towards the south, it turns its back to the north; the
sun attracts its regards, its wishes, and its steps. We cannot with
impunity turn back this great current of men; the attempt to make them
return, to repel them, and confine them within their frozen regions, is
a gigantic enterprise. The Romans exhausted themselves by it.
Charlemagne, although he rose when one of these great invasions was
drawing to a termination, could only check it for a short time; the rest
of the torrent, driven back to the east of the empire, penetrated it
through the north, and completed the inundation.

A thousand years have since elapsed; the nations of the north have
required that time to recover from that great migration, and to acquire
the knowledge which is now indispensable to a conquering nation. During
that interval, it was not without reason that the Hanse Towns opposed
the introduction of the warlike arts into the immense camp of the
Scandinavians. The event has justified their fears. Scarcely had the
science of modern war penetrated among them, when Russian armies were
seen on the Elbe, and shortly after in Italy; they came to reconnoitre
these countries, some day they will come and settle there.

During the last century, either from philanthropy or vanity, Europe was
eager in contributing to civilize these men of the north, of whom Peter
had already made formidable warriors. She acted wisely, in so far as she
diminished for herself the danger of falling back into fresh barbarism;
if we allow that a second relapse into the darkness of the middle ages
is possible, war having become so scientific, that mind predominates in
it, so that to succeed in it, a degree of instruction is required, which
nations that still remain barbarous can only acquire by civilization.

But, in hastening the civilization of these Normans, Europe has probably
hastened the epoch of their next invasion. For let no one believe that
their pompous cities, their exotic and forced luxury, will be able to
retain them; that by softening them, they will be kept stationary, or
rendered less formidable. The luxury and effeminacy which are enjoyed in
spite of a barbarous climate, can only be the privilege of a few. The
masses, which are incessantly increasing by an administration which is
gradually becoming more enlightened, will continue sufferers by their
climate, barbarous like that, and always more and more envious; and the
invasion of the south by the north, recommenced by Catherine II. will
continue.

Who is there that can fancy that the great struggle between the North
and the South is at an end? Is it not, in its full grandeur, the war of
privation against enjoyment, the eternal war of the poor against the
rich, that which devours the interior of every empire?

Comrades, whatever was the motive of our expedition, this was the point
which made it of importance to Europe. Its object was to wrest Poland
from Russia, its result would have been to throw the danger of a fresh
invasion of the men of the north, at a greater distance, to weaken the
torrent, and oppose a new barrier to it; and was there ever a man, or a
combination of circumstances, so well calculated to ensure the success
of so great an enterprise?

After fifteen hundred years of victories, the revolution of the fourth
century, that of the kings and nobles against the people, was, in its
turn, vanquished by the revolution of the nineteenth century, that of
the people against the nobles and kings. Napoleon was born of this
conflagration; he obtained such complete power over it, that it seemed
as if that great convulsion had only been that of the bringing into the
world one man. He commanded the Revolution as if he had been the genius
of that terrible element. At his voice she became tranquil. Ashamed of
her excesses, she admired herself in him, and precipitating herself into
his glory, she had united Europe under his sceptre, and obedient Europe
rose at his call to drive back Russia within her ancient limits. It
seemed as if the North was in his turn about to be vanquished, even
among his own ices.

And yet this great man, with these great circumstances in his favour,
could not subdue nature! In this powerful effort to re-ascend that rapid
declivity, so many forces failed him! After reaching these icy regions
of Europe, he was precipitated from their very summit. The North,
victorious over the South in her defensive war, as she had been in the
middle ages in her offensive one, now believes herself invulnerable and
irresistible.

Comrades, believe it not! Ye might have triumphed over that soil and
these spaces, that climate, and that rough and gigantic nature, as ye
had conquered its soldiers.

But some errors were punished by great calamities! I have related both
the one and the other. On that ocean of evils I have erected a
melancholy beacon of gloomy and blood-red light; and if my feeble hand
has been insufficient for the painful task, at least I have exhibited
the floating wrecks, in order that those who come after us may see the
peril and avoid it.

Comrades, my task is finished; it is now for you to bear your testimony
to the truth of the picture. Its colours will no doubt appear pale to
your eyes and to your hearts, which are still full of these great
recollections. But which of you is ignorant that an action is always
more eloquent than its description; and that if great historians are
produced by great men, the first are still more rare than the last?


Volume I

London: Printed by Thomas Davison,
Whitefriars.

Volume II

London: Printed by C. Roworth.
Bell yard, Temple Bar.


Transcriber's Notes:

This was a book of two volumes, written by a Frenchman and printed in
English by different printers. As a result there was a wide variation in
spelling.

Original spelling was retained except where noted.

Thus corses for corpses, tressels for trestles, Dantzic for Danzig.

Table of Contents, Volume II, Book IX, Chapter II, Jaroslavetz changed
to Yaroslawetz to conform to text. Also for Chapters IV and V of same.

Table of Contents, Winkowo changed to Vinkowo to conform to much of
text.

Table of Contents, Doubrowna changed to Dombrowna.

The use of Chap. and Chapter was retained reflecting the original work.

Book II. Chap. II., Arriere changed to Arriere.

Book V. Chap. I, Duenaburg changed to Duenabourg to match rest of Volume.

Book VIII. Chapter XI, Francaise changed to Francaise.

Book X. Chapter III, Karsnoe changed to Krasnoe.

One instance each of Yuknow, Yuknof and Yucknow appears in the text
as does Vilkomir/Wilkomer and Doukhowtchina/Dukhowtchina.

Differences that were retained between Volumes I and II:
Volume I Volume II
Saint-Cyr Saint Cyr(also in Table of Contents for Vol. II)
Oudinot Oudinot
journeys journies
Dubrowna Dombrowna
Duenabourg Duenaburg

Copyright (c) 2007. knowncrafts.net. All rights reserved.