Democrat and sentinel. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1853-1866, 1858-09-15
A RUSSIAN REMINIsCFNCE


snow lay thick in the streets the aspect of
the Bouievards was slippery as glass; sledges |
secured the Champs Elysees and Bois de |!
Bouiogne. An icy wind whistled round the |
train as We quilted the shelter of the station,
and regretted as | buttoned my coat to the
chin and shrunk into my corner, that the
carriage was not full, instead of having but
one occupant beside myself
Opposite me sat hale man of about sixty
FIVE, with bright eye, an intelligent, good
humorcd ountcnance-somewhat weather
beaten--apd the red rosette of the Legion of
Honor in his button hole. During the first
half hour he porcd over letter, whose con-
tents, Judging from the animated expression
of his physlognomy, interested him strongly
He seemed scarcely aware of my presence
At last he put up the letter. and then, for
the first time, looked me in the face | had
been but few days out of sick bed, and
was sensitive to the cold, and doubtless my
! appearance was wretched and wo-begone
enough, for detected slight approach at
smile at the corners Of the strangers mouth.
/ To one two commonplace remarks he re-
! piled courteously, but laccuic llly, like man
| who is neither unsociable nor averse to con
versaton, but who prefers his own thoughts
! II that bald talk with which travellers some
times weary themselves rather than remain
silent. So our dialogue soon dropped The
cold increased, my feet were benumbed, and
! | stamped them on the floor of the carriage
| to revive the circulation. My companion
observed my proceedings with a comical look,
as if he thought very tender traveller.
! This car must be badly closed" |
/ remarked. 1T is bitter cold to the feet"
For that discomfort | have little pity"
replied the Frenchman. "A ride on the
railway is soon over, and a good fire, or a
brisk walk is quick and easy remedy Mine
is different case. For forty years have
not known what warm feet were"
For forty years !''-I repeated, thinking l
had misunderstood him.
Yes, sir, forty years; since the winter of
1S12-the winter ct the Russian campaign"
| You were in that terrible campaign ?"
| inquired in a tone of interest and curiosity
| Ny companion previously taciturn, suddenly
became communicative.
"-All through it, sir," he rcplied-from the
Niemen to the krcmlin and back again It
was my first campaign, and came bring
my last. 1 In others afterwards; in
Germany in 1913, when the combined Ger
mans and Russians drove Us before them, for
want of the brave fellows We had left in
Muscory's SHOWS; in France, in 1914, when
the Emperor made his gallant struggle
against overwhelming forces; aud at the
closing scene in Flauders; but not all those
three campaigns put together, nor, as | be-
! licyc, all that this century has witnessed, can
match the horrors of that dreadful war in
! Russia y
He paused, and leaning back in his corner,
seemed to revolve i'll bis mind events of pow
erful interest long gone by. waited awhile
il hopes he would resume the subject But
as he did not, | asked him to what arm he
bel nged when in Russia.
81 was sls;ant-surgeOn in a regiment of
hussars," he answered land in my medical
capacity had abundant opportunity to make
| acquaintance with the horrors of war. On
the th of September, for instance, at Mosl-
wa-Heavens what sha,nbie that was
Ah it was iue to see such v;-,or as that was,
on both siGes-for the Russians fought we'll
galantly, sir, where would have been the
glory of beating them? But Ney. Ney
Oh, he was splendid that day His whole
countenance CLEANED, as he, again and again
led the bloody charge. exposing himself a.
freely any corporal in the ranks. Anc
Eugene, the Fieeroy, with what rigor ht
hurled his masses against that terrible re
doubt. When at last it was his, what
sight there. The ground was not strewr
with dead it was heaped-piled with them
They had been shot down by whole ranks
aud there they lay, prostrtae in line as the,
had stood"
beautiful lines, beginuing:
'EVen as they fell, in files they lay;
but | said nothing, for [ saw that my com
panion was now fairly started and needed n
squirting.
Monsieur" he presently resumed, "al
these things have been brought strongly t
my mind by the letter you me just no,
reading. 1t is from an old friend, a captain
i'll lS12-a general now-who went throug
the campaign, and whom [ was SO fortunat
as to save from the grave on those inferna
s. plains where most of our comrades perishcd
le L will tell you now it happened. We wer
n talking of the battle of Borodine. Sevent
as thousand men, it is said, were killed an
}e wounded in that bloody fight. We surgeons
lg as you may well think, had our hands full
OF and still could not suffice for 1.-THE of tn
sufferers It was rough breaking in for
he young hand as / then was. Such frightfu
e. wounds as were there of every kind and dc
up scription, from shell, shot, and bullet, spik
ut aud sabre. Well, sir, all the misery the
IS saw, all the vast amount of human agony an
ne bloodshed, whose stream, ascending to Heay
of en-, might well have brought down Gods ma
er cdicton on his creatures who could thus deforl
- aud deface each other, was nothing compare
n with the horrible misery We witnessed on OF
e. retreat L have read everything that ha
lis appeared in France concerning that can
at paign -Segur, Lebaume, and other writer
ch Their narratives are shocking enough, bl
nothing to the reality They would has
sickened their readers had they told all the
re saw. If anybody who went through thi
ly campaign could remember and set down a
he yitncssed, he sould make the most hear