‘Some months. If all goes to plan the Tsar will be defeated and we will have peace before winter arrives. Then the army returns to winter quarters in Poland, and I return to you.’
‘Make sure that you do,’ she replied, twisting her little finger into the curls of the small patch of hair on Napoleon’s chest. ‘I was thinking. Could I accompany you on campaign?’
‘No.’
‘Why? I know that many of your officers are accompanied by their wives.’
‘They are not in command of the army. I am. And I cannot afford to be distracted in any way until victory is mine.’ Napoleon reached his hand down over her shoulder, beneath the gown and on to the warm smoothness of her breast. ‘And you, my dear, are a terrible distraction.’
As she laughed lightly at the comment, Napoleon was already thinking that he might arrange for Marie Walewska to accompany the army, for the first part of the campaign at least. It was some time since he had enjoyed her charms and he felt his lust stirring. The Empress sensed his arousal and raised her head to kiss him on the cheek. ‘Not so exhausted by the work, then?’
Napoleon looked at her and smiled. ‘It seems not.’
‘Then let’s create another heir for the Emperor,’ she said mischievously.
Napoleon rolled over, on top of her, and began to nuzzle her neck. ‘You know, for a finely bred young woman, you have certain earthy tendencies.’ He pulled her gown open and continued to trace his lips down her shoulder and on to her breast, taking her nipple into his mouth and giving it a tweak.
‘Yes!’ she gasped. ‘Do that again.’
Napoleon obliged, and the corners of his mouth lifted in a smile at the thought of returning to the arms of his Polish mistress. Fantasies of her would add a certain spice to his present experience, he decided, as he eased himself forward and entered Marie-Louise.
Two weeks later the planning room was filled with marshals and generals, dressed in their blue frock coats adorned with gold epaulettes and lace, and the ribbons, stars and medals they had been awarded. Some of the officers had already been in Paris, but many had been called from their commands to attend the meeting. Napoleon wore his favoured uniform of a colonel of the chasseurs of the Guard, without any decorations. Several tables had been pushed together to accommodate the large numbers in the room, and a map depicting the vast sprawl of territory between Warsaw and Moscow lay across them.
Napoleon regarded the officers carefully. These were the finest men in his army, seasoned by many years of hard campaigning. They had proved their courage, and their ability to inspire the men who served under them. He had little doubt of their personal loyalty to him: after all, in most cases they owed rank, title and fortune directly to their Emperor. Only two issues concerned him: the rivalry between some of his commanders and then the more worrying fact that they would be required to act independently due to the scale of the coming campaign. In the past he had led smaller armies directly, and over lesser expanses of land.
When the last of the officers had arrived, Napoleon nodded at the guardsmen on the door and they pulled the door closed behind them, standing guard to ensure that there would be no interruption or eavesdropping.
Napoleon rose to his feet and his officers fell silent. He waited a moment longer to end a greater sense of gravity to the occasion, and then began.
‘For some months now you will have been aware of the build-up of our forces in the east of Europe. It is well known that there are tensions between the empires of France and Russia and that both the Tsar and I have been engaged in spats of sabre-rattling. Well, the time has come to unsheathe the sword and thrust it into the heart of our enemy. Despite every effort that I have made to avoid war, the Tsar has been determined to force one upon me. I am sure you have all read the list of his demands, and I am certain that you share my sense of outrage that Alexander thinks he can humiliate me, you, and all of France. It is with reluctance that I am obliged to answer his demands with force, but nothing more can be gained from diplomacy, and the time has come to settle the question of which power commands Europe.’ Napoleon paused to let his senior officers take stock of his opening words, then continued, ‘You have all served me before, so you will know that I believe in seizing the initiative. Therefore we are obliged to invade Russia. As ever, our aim is to find, fix and destroy the enemy’s field armies and thereby compel Alexander to sue for peace. Then we will make him eat his demands,’ Napoleon added with relish. ‘By the time the invasion begins we shall be able to field over six hundred thousand men, half of whom will be French.’
The officers looked at each other in astonishment. They had known about the build-up of forces, but this was the first time that they had been given the number of soldiers involved. Three times the size of any army that Napoleon had ever commanded before.
Marshal Davout raised a hand.
Napoleon nodded at him. ‘Speak, Davout.’
‘Have we accurate intelligence on the size of the Tsar’s armies, sire?’
‘Our agents report that Russia has somewhere in the order of four hundred thousand men under arms. However, many are deployed in garrisons spread across his lands. Only two hundred thousand will be standing between us and Moscow. At present they are divided into two armies. The main army, a hundred and fifty thousand men, under the command of General Barclay de Tolly, is presently dispersed between Riga and the Niemen river. The second army, under General Bagration, is to the south of the Pripet marshes.’ Napoleon lifted the long cane that lay on the table and indicated the vast sprawl of wetlands, small lakes and swampy forests that stretched across the middle of the western expanse of Russia. ‘Our primary target is the northern army. We will need to force them to fight before Bagration can march his men to join them. Once the northern army is crushed, we will deal with Bagration. When that is done, the Tsar will have no choice but to admit defeat.’
Prince Jйrфme spoke up. ‘Surely if we have six hundred thousand to their two hundred thousand, then we could face their combined army and still win easily. Why not encourage them to link up? It would surely shorten the campaign and make our task easier, sire.’
Napoleon looked at his younger brother and forced himself to respond patiently.‘Look at the map again. It is seven hundred miles from Warsaw to Moscow. The reason why I need so vast an army is because we will need to leave tens of thousands of men in our wake just to protect our lines of communication back to Warsaw. We can also count on losing more men along the route, due to injury and sickness. By the time we force the Russians to fight the chances are that we will only have a small advantage in numbers. That is why we must do all that we can to defeat them in detail. Is that clear, Jйrфme?’
‘Perfectly, sire.’ Jйrфme smiled. ‘Though I am certain that we can defeat those Russian peasants, even if they outnumber us.’
‘Oho!’ Marshal Ney snorted, sitting opposite Jйrфme. ‘And do tell us why that is.’
‘Certainly. I have heard that the Russian soldiers are little more than dumb brutes, conscripted from their farms. Their officers are drunkards and imbeciles. How can such a rabble stand before the might of France?’
‘You were not at Eylau, were you, boy?’
‘As you well know.’
‘Then you have never faced the Russian soldiers. I have, like many others in this room who were also at Eylau. Yes, some of them were roaring drunk, but drunk or not, they feared nothing and fought like bears and died like men I would have been proud to command.’ Ney leaned back and regarded Jйrфme with a hard smile. ‘So before you come over all cocksure, it would be as well to know of what you speak.’
Jйrфme flushed angrily and leaned forward to reply, but Napoleon cut him short. ‘That’s enough!’ He glared at both men for a moment, then took a deep breath and continued the briefing. ‘My intention is to destroy each army in turn. We will make every effort to keep Barclay de Tolly and Bagration apart. That means that we will need to manoeuvre as swiftly as possible. However, due to the sparse population of the steppes, it is doubtful that we can resort to our usual practice of living off the land. That is why I have ordered the build-up of rations at our forward supply depots, and gathered the wagons necessary to carry the rations with us from there. Once we are over the Niemen, we can feed our army for twenty-four days on the march. With such resources we shall devour all distances. Within that time I aim to have defeated both armies.’ Napoleon rested the stick against his shoulder. ‘Any questions? Davout, you look as if you have something else to say.’
The marshal nodded. ‘Sire, what if the enemy decide to trade space for time? Look at the map. They could fall back for months before they risked exposing Moscow, or even St Petersburg. Our rations would have expired long before then, and if there isn’t much to be had by foraging, then the army might well starve before it ever reached the battlefield. And there’s something else that concerns me. We both know the appalling conditions of the
