war, will make an end of the soldiers whom the real event spared : it is a cruel pleasure, worthy of one of the successors of the czar who caused living bears to be introdiiced in the masquerade that he gave on the nuptials of his buffoon : that czar was Peter the Great. All these diversions have their source in the same feeling — contempt for human life.
The emperor had permitted me — which means to say that he commanded me — to be present at Borodino. It is a favour of which I feci myself to have become unworthy. I did not at the time reflect upon the extreme difficulty of the part a Frenchman would have to perform in this historical comedy; and I also had not seen the monstrous work of the Kremlin, which he wTould expect me to praise; above all, I was then ignorant of the history of the Princess Troubctzkoi, which I have the greater difficulty in
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banishing from my mind, because I may not speak of it. These reasons united have induced me to decide upon remaining in oblivion. It is an easy resolve; for the contrary would give me trouble, if I may judge by the useless efforts of a crowd of Frenchmen and foreigners of all countries, who in vain solicit permission to be present at Borodino.
All at once the police of the camp has assumed extreme severity: these new precautions are attributed to unpleasant revelations that have been recently made. The sparks of revolt are every where feeding under the ashes of liberty. I do not know even whether, under actual circumstances, it would be possible for me to avail myself of the invitation the emperor gave me, both at Petersburg and, afterwards when I took leave of him, at Peterhoff. ' I shall be very glad if you will attend the ceremony at Borodino, where we lay the first stone of a monument in honour of General Bagration.' These were his last words. *
I see here persons who were invited, yet are not able to approach the camp. Permissions are refused to every body, except a few privileged Englishmen and some members of the diplomatic corps. All the rest, young and old, military men and diplomatists, foreigners and Russians, have returned to Moscow, mortified by their unavailing efforts. I have written to a person connected with the emperor's household, regretting my inability to avail myself of the favour his Majesty had accorded in permitting me to witness
* I learnt afterwards, at Petersburg, that orders had been
given to permit my reaching Borodino, where I was expected.
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the man?uvres, and pleading as an excuse the state of my eyes, which are not yet cured.
The dust of the camp is, I am told, insupportable to every body; it might cost me the loss of my sight. The Duke of Leuchtenberg must be endowed with an unusual quantum of indifference to be able coolly to witness the spectacle prepared for him. They assure me that in the representation of the battle, the emperor will command the corps of Prince Eugene, father of the young duke.
I should regret not seeing a spectacle so curious in its moral aspect, if I could be present as a disinterested spectator; but, without having the renown of a father to maintain, I am a son of France, and I feel it is not for me to find any pleasure in witnessing a representation of war, made at great cost, solely with the view of exalting the national pride of the Russians, on the occasion of our disasters. As to the sight itself, I can picture it very easily ; I have seen plenty of straight lines in Russia. Besides, in reviews and moek fights, the eye never gets beyond a great cloud of dust.
The Russians have reason to pride themselves on the issue of the campaign of 1812 ; but the general who laid its plan, he who first advised the gradual retreat of the Russian army towards the centre of the empire, with the view of enticing the exhausted French after it, — the man, in fact, to whose genius Russia owed her deliverance—Prince Witgenstein, is not represented in this grand repetition ; because, unfortunately for him, he is living, half disgraced: he resides on his estates; his name will not be pronounced at Borodino, though an eternal monument is
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to be raised 'to the glory of General Bagration, who fell on the field of battle.
Under despotic governments, dead warriors are great favourites: here, behold one decreed to be the hero of a campaign in which he bravely fell, but which he never directed.
This absence of historical probity, this abuse of the will of one man, who imposes his views upon all, who dictates to the people Mdiatever they are to think on events of national interest, appears to me the most revolting of all the impieties of arbitrary government. Strike, torture bodies, but do not crush minds : let man judge of things according to the intimations of Providence, according to his conscience and his reason. The people must be called impious who devoutly submit to this continual violation of the respect due to all that is most holy in the sight of God and man, — the sanctity of truth.
I have received an account of the manoeuvres at Borodino, which is not calculated to cahn my wrath.
Every body has read a description of the battle of Moskowa, and history has viewed it as one of those that we have won; for it was hazarded by the Emperor Alexander against the advice of his generals, as a last effort to save his capital, which capital was taken four days later; though a heroic conflagration, combined with a deadly frost, and with the improvidence of our chieftain, blinded on this occasion by an excess of confidence in his lucky star, decided our disaster. Thus favoured by the issue of the campaign, here is N 2
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the Emperor of Russia flattering himself with treating as a victory, a battle lost by his army within four days' journey of his capital: he has distorted a military scene which he professes to reproduce with scrupulous exactitude. The following is the lie which he has given to history in the eyes of all Europe.
AVhen they came to the moment in which the French, who had been dreadfully galled by the Russian artillery, charged and carried the batteries that decimated them with the daring that is so well known, the Emperor Nicholas, instead of suffering, as both his justice and dignity demanded, that the celebrated manoeuvre should be executed, became the flatterer of the lowest of his people, and caused the corps which represented the division of our army to which we owed the defeat of the Russians and the capture of Moscow, to fall back a distance of three leagues, Imagine my gratitude to God for having given me grace to refuse being present at this lying pantomime !
The military comedy is followed by an order of the day, which will be considered outrageous in Europe, if it be published there in the shape that it is here. According to this singular expose of the ideas of an individual — not the events of a campaign —
