The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-06-01

that was a year for Russia to be proud of, and
our chidren's children will talk of it hundreds
of years after dead and gone. He came
against us in all his power, and pride, and fury
like an enemy of God as he was; but he melted
like snow in the sunshine, and SUNK away az a
wolf sinks into the forest at dawn. felt when
Isaw him that he couldn't last"
''Have you really seen Napoleon face to face
then9" asked /, beginning to be Interested
Aye, that have, upon the grea test of all mis-
battlefields. 1 was Only boy then, but wasn't
going to hang back when the Russian FLAG was
flying against an invader, and begged my
father to let me serve with his battery in the
grand redonbt which was the center of our
line at Borodno. When the morning broke IL was
all one great sea OF gray mist on every side of us
but through the gloom in our front we could
hear the voices of the enemy and the neiphinp al
their horses and the rumble or their artillery
wheels. Then suddenly, the cannon on both
sides began to roar, making the very earth trem-
BILE under our feet. Even when the fog rose
the smoke was so thick that / couldn't ses
anything except fash of fire now and then like
| lightning in cloud, but from the sound of the
| firing it seemed to me as 1t the battle were hos
| all along the line except just where we were.
| thought our turn would never come, but when il
| 9hat l ever fought land the old warriors eyes
| flashed fire as he spoke) were as nothing to the
battle of that day, Three times all our gunners
were killed to the last man, and three times
others came forward to take their places All
| the air seemed shaking with the whoop of can
non balls and the howl of shells, the crash oil
bursting bombs. and the whiz of bull
let's flying thick as hail Men dropped
dead or mangled every moment and nc
one minded them Our blood was on fire. and
all looked red before our eyes, Every one was
mad. At last we heard strange sound far in
the distance like rain pattering on withered
leaves, which grew louder and louder till it filled
the air like the roar of stormy sea, and all aa
n0aa onfh riyo DO o,2h ali ate
and horses heads came surging ND over the
breastwork in front of US. The cavalry of the
Imperial Guard were upon us, and in a mo-
unent / felt a shock like falling mountain
and down went to the.earth and lost conscious
ness. 6sfS
''When came to myself again all was still. ex-
ceDt a few dropping shots in the distance. Tho
battle seemed to be over, although there was
red glare low down in the sky, showing where
Borodlno village was on fire. My father lay
within three PAGES of me, crushed and dead,
and beside him. shot through the heart, was
Colonel Cauiaincourt, the Frenehinan who had
LED the charge. Suddenly heard tramping OF
hoofs and several voices talking loudly in
French, and had just time to creep under a
gun-carrage when o group of gsilv dressed
horsemen came past, whom guessed at once to
be Napoieons staff riding over the battlefield,
tor there were several of them whom knew by
sight already. There We're the hard faces OF
Rapp and Daru and broadachested Sebastian
and Nansouty, with the sabre scar across his
cheek, and !, the low. broad forehead and
s bulldog dog Jaw ., Of grim old Nsy, tn.
Murat, with his white plumes and his
braided jacket, his long, dark curls hanging
down his neck and his riding whip in his hand,
just like a circus rider. And then the grouI
in the midst of them, with his face hard and
inmovable as marble amid all that blood and
agony and a far away" kind of look in those
cold gray eyesof his, as il he saw Moscow some
where up in the sky and could see nothing be-
tween.
GA glorious victoryn cried Nfurat, waving
his hand. What stir there'll be among the
good folks in Paris when the bulletin arrives!r
We've lost half our army in doing it
though, growled Ney. Hadn't we better fall
back little and wait for reirfforcementsp
Then Napoleon turned his head slowly, just
as statue mightd do, ane looked him full in the
face Thou advising a retreat, Michel That
is something new, indeed Mono falling back
now; must date my bulletin from Moscow AS
for the army, you can't make an to1nelette with
out breakinga few eggs
when 4 heard him say that I knew that
God had forsaken him; for no man save one
doomed to destruction could have spoken SO
lightly of the slaughter of thousands of brave
men. And sure enough, within three months
from that day he was flying for his life across
the border with the CossacEs at his heels like
hungry wolves"
Here the old man paused and seemed to let
his thoughts stray back into the stirring scenes
that he had been describing. But his silence did
not endure long. The allusion to Napoleon's
flight naturally recalled his own experience OF
the dreadful retreat from Moscow, and in anoth-
er moment he was relating with all the graphic
intensity of an eyewitness the terrific details Of
that mighty march Of death:
People have written deal about the suffer
ings of the French in that campaign but nobody
ever seems to think about what we Russians had
to bear; and yet we suffered quite as sorely as
they did, aye, and worse, too. The fingers Of
some of our men dropped off as they held their
muskets, while others had their eyes
frozen out, ana wandered about blind and
helpless. not knowing where they were. Many
a time have l seen a ring of corpses sitting
frozen stark and stiff round f-extinguished
fire; and plenty more died Of hunger, for
were quite as badly off for food as the French
themselves were toward the end. Once saw
an artillery horse drop dead in the snow, and
within five minutes every morsel of flesh was
gnawed off it's bones by the starving soldiers,
as it was
But of all the terrible sights I saw then land
God knows how many of them there were) there
was one that will stay with me forever When
were hunting the French toward Smoensk,
after the battle of krasnoe, we came upon
French grenadier sitting with his back against
fIozen tree, stone dead, with splendidly carved
gold plate in his lap, and on it a wretched
scrap Of half gnawed horsefesh. which he had
not had strength to finish before death overlook
him. Little did his rich plumber profit him tlienl
1t was the grimmest ard dreariest sight I ever
say that frozen corpse crouching over its useless
booty, with the red sunset making kind OF
glory upon its dead face, ard the great waste of
snow stretching away dim and endless all
around it,"
Justat this point, as ill-luck would have it. the
Minister of War came up to speak to the Gen.
eral, and broke the thread of his story; which
was destined to remain forever unfinished My
first meeting with him was also my last, for
within three months of that day learned that
the old warrior had gone to rejoin his comrades