Newark evening star and Newark advertiser., 1912-12-31
Acress's Impressions Of
Napoleonic Happenings
Louise Fusil Travelled with Vanguard of
French Leaders Army in Perilous Times.

I'm October 10, 1872, Napoleon had
to evacuate Moscow and to
begin the retreat, in the course
of which his troops were decimated.
With the vanguard of the grand army
Travelled a woman, an opera, singer,
with the appropriate name of Louise
F'usll, or Gun. After returning to
France she published her impressions
in various newspapers. Now pub
Usher has exhumed them from the
files and published them in book form
en- the hundredth anniversary of the
tragic retreat.
Fusil was the singers actual fam
lily name. A niece of Nine. de Saint
Hubert. one of the most famous oper-
attic stars of the eighteenth century,
she studied under Piccini, made her
debut at Is, then became a tragedien;
changed her mind once more and went
back to music, and finally acquired
same fame in comic opera,
Curiously enough, her fate led her
to more than one city on the eve of
some insurrection or some massacre.
She reached Lille a few days before
the city was attacked by the Austrian
army. When the siege was over
Louise Fusil, quite penniless. found
an engagement at Boulogne. She went
to board with an English family. The
next day she was packed off to the
city Jail with her hosts. Joseph
Lebon, the revolutionary pro-consul,
had descended upon the city and or
dered the arrest of every English
subject. She soon proved her ma
tionality and was released, and the
pro-consul, in order to make further
amends. gave a reception and dance
IN her honor.
Smoked French Out.
In 1907 she was engaged at the
Moscow opera. There she became ac-
quainted with Count Rostopchine, the
man who devised the plan of smoking
the French out of Moscow. An ex-
tract from a letter she wrote at the
time has a curious bearing upon that
episode of the Russian war:
Yesterday Count Rasomosky was
telling Count Rostopchine of his
troubles. He had invited some friends
of his to stay for while in an un-
occupied wing of his Petrosky palace;
only, those indiscreet visitors out
stayed the invitation and their host
didn't know how to get rid of them.
Il have tried every possible strata
gen." said Rasomosky. 'T have ac-
tually told them that I needed their
apartment. I have exhausted every
honest means of putting them out
"Well," Rostopchine answer, there
is only one thing to do"
What is it?''
ITO set fire to that part of your
palace"
For five years Louise Fusil appeared
successfully at the Moscow opera. In
the summer of 1872 she decided, in or
der to save money, to stay in Russia
until the beginning of the following
season. The result of her decision
was rather disappointing In Septem-
Der, 1912. news came that Napoleon
had captured Smolensk. All the no
bility left Moscow. The Kremlin
treasures were removed. si
To-day" Louise Fusil wrote, 81
heard in the distance a sort of dismal
chant, and then I witnessed the most
extraordinary and pathetic sight. An
immense crowd, preceded by priests
in sacerdotal garments, was carrying
holy images; men, women, children,
all in tears, singing sacred anthems;
the spectacle of a whole population
abandoning it's homes"
From her windows Louise Fusil
could, with the help of field glasses,
descry in the distance the fires Of the
French encampments. Then the po-
lice visited every house, warning the
inmates that the city was to be set
on fire. Hardly had the French troops
entered Moscow than blazes started
simultaneously in several parts of the
city.
"For four nights" Louise Fusil