New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1897-04-11


the two writer's The Duchesse de Reggie Tor
example. in her account of the CHASTITY passage
Of the Beresina Is disposed TO regard her Vaiiah'
husband as the most useful figure in the episode
at Is your father, my children she says, who
sayed what returned from there, as mas peen
universally Acknowledged We are not so sure
Of this The Duchesse de Reggio's confidence IN
the man she Enthusiastically adored Is touchlns.
but Lejeune, who Is not by any means nlesaro-
~ eulogtst Of the Marshal. conveys no such I'M
preston OF the pre- eminence OF the latter IN 'hae
disastrous time as the Duchesse would nave US
receive The truth is that individual EXPLOITS
no matter how important they were. sprang from
q situation 30 complicated that 1t was Impossible
to Judge even at the time. as to which man was
most to be praised. In the long run 1t would
seem as though honors were to be evenly as
tributed. II distributed at all. The crossing Of
the Beresina was a frghtful catastrophe al the
hest and the less said about the achievements
Of this general or that the better for the entire
company. AS body they failed their chief in
important particulars and he was himself
lamentably to blame. The Duchesse says moth
ing of the impedimenta Of her husbands corps
while Lejeune frankly points out that through
out the retreating column carriages and other
baggage had been preserved in defiance or Ma
poleon's orders that as many OF them De de-
stroyed as possible. When the troops attempted
to cross, and the deadly fire OF WittgenStelh
artillery began. the vehicles of the French troops
were a terrible handicap to them. Again, when
Marshal Oudinot wounded on the Russian
retreat and his cottage at Petchnitzy was at
tackled by Cossacks he seized his pistols. and.
still lying on his pallet, fired several SHOTS
through the window. His shots were lost In the
general din" says his Duchesse. to whom he was
sure to confide the full tale Of his successes Le-
1eune pictures the Marshal firing steadily upon
the enemy and bringing his man down unerring-
" at every discharge. All through these vol
umes there are differences in matters Of detail.
But broadly they are alive with the same spirit.
This spirit Is essentially one of personal ad-
venture. Lejeune shared in the belated political
pre,cience manifested by 80 many OF Napoeon's
officers as the tide of success turning, but
his reflections on the drift of his masters policy
are few and far between. When they are most
pointed they relate to some isolated incident, as
In the case of the disastrous treatment of Spain,
and even here the young officer is too full Of the
excitement of the moment 10 take much account
Of what its fruits are going TO be. This gives his
memoirs their weakness and their charm. GU
Ginot was shrewder. He knew. as Napoleon
knew the importance of keeping bad news quiet.
and he showed. in fact discretion rather sur
prising In view Of his swashbucklng character
as fighter. He made an excellent administra
tor. and his pacific course in Neuchate and Hol-
land forms delightful contrast TO the excessive
measures taken by many Of Napoeon's repre-
sentatives. Lejeune was an artist by tempera-
ment and an adventurer by choice He recalls
the heroes of fiction. and most Of all. the hero OF
Etendhals famous romance. He appears TO have
sprung from a bourgeois family but he had by
md ~ 10Th OH
class Possessed of five or six languages really
gifted as an artist, he rose rapidly in the army.
and Napoleon used him upon many important
missions. If he failed to grasp marshals baton
II was because he was in the nature of things,
untitled for quite that position. He was better
of as an aid. having initiative enough TO carry
him through perilous errands without the broad
er grasp necessary TO vast military operations.
His loss II so II may be regarded Is our gain.
Oudinot. for example could never have detached
his mind sufficiently from the business In hand to
grasp. as Lejeune grasped. the artistic effect OF
the famous night reception Of the Emperor on
the eve Of Austerlitz. Sixty thousand men turned
their bedding into torches In order to light their
commander on his way. In LejeuDes pages the
scene Is presented as on a canvas. This consti-
tutes the final attraction of his memoirs. They
arc full of vivid pictures. He wrote with kind
OF artletlC BuStO. forgetting the nOTTOTS III tH6
satisfaction Of his pictorial genius Thus at
Austerlitx he witnessed an extraordinary cpl
sode. one rivalng the passage Of the Beresina
In Its grisy character He paints the scene with
the care Of miniaturist thus:
The Austro- Russian CORPS driven back by
Marshal DavOut and unable TO retoin the main
body at Austeritz were endeayoring to escape
by way Of the Tellnitz dyke. and thus TO reach
the road TO Hungary; but the height was al
ready occupied by the artillery Of the Guard,
and the cavalry alone ventured to risk the pas
sage. galoping by under hail Of grapeshot,
while the infantry hesitatng what to do, finally
imagined that their only chance Of safety was TO
try and cross the ponds dividing them from the
other side on the Ice floating on their surfaces.
A few men, indeed, might have got over safely;
but when q number had reached the middle Of
the water, the ice began TO crack beneath their
weight. They paused. and the troops behind
them. pushing ON. there were soon some 5000
men collected in dense crowd on the swaying,
slippery Ice There was a pause. and then. in
the brief space OF couple OF minutes, the whole
mass, with arms and baggage, disappeared be-
meath the broken-up Ice, not one man escaping
or even appearing again at the top Of the water
We looked down upon the churning, ripping
waves produced by the struggles OF so many
human creatures swallowed up so suddenly and
q thrill of horror ran through US all. Very soon
the fractured ice broken up by the useless eff
forts Of those beneath IT. sank again irto repose
the clouds were once more reflected on Its gleam-
ing surface. and we knew that all was over.
. Just as the waters closed over the last
relics Of the army which In the morning had all
but surrounded US, the sun went down behind
q mass OF clouds on the horizon and snow be-
gan to fall very much a curtain does after
the last scene at theatre
Lejeune lived on spectacles like this. some
times sharing In their miseres In fact, mono
Of the Napoeonic memoirs can surpass his. II
they can equal them, in the vivid reproduction
Of the worst sides Of the Emperor's campaigns.
Fate threw him early into the Spanish imbroglio.
He watched with dismay the stratagem result
ing in the detention OF the Prince Of Asturias,
and. loyal Frenchman though he was his gorge
rose ct the game Napoleon played with the un-
happy peninsula Tho French were received as
hberators. The dethronement Of Charles " had
left the 6paniards In o moro OF less self-satiaaed
frame Of MIND and the Prince Of Astvrias felt
after the rsyolutten Of Aran3ues that his future
va toisrably secure. It took but short 6us