Books: NAPOLEON AND BLUCHER

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"Simply by the door, your excellency," said Gneisenau, smiling.
"Your pipe-master kept the door closed all day, and turned me away
by informing me the field-marshal had ordered him to admit no one,
because he wished to sleep; but my desire to see you brought me back
again and again, and so I have come, fortunately at the opportune
hour, when the Cerberus is no longer at the door, but is standing
below at the carriage, waiting for the field-marshal, who intends to
take an airing."

"Yes, I do," said Blucher, casting an anxious glance on the two
letters lying on the table. "I do intend to take an airing; good-by,
then, Gneisenau!" He turned toward the door, but Gneisenau kept him
back. "Your excellency must not ride out to-night," he said; "I
implore you not to do so. There is a cold wind, and you must not
expose your inflamed eyes to it. You are not careful enough of your
health; Surgeon-General Voelzke complains of the little attention
you pay to his proscriptions, and that your eyes, instead of getting
better, are growing worse and worse."

"Yes, that is true," grumbled Blucher, "they are burning like fire.
I will go out, therefore; the night-wind will cool them."

He turned again toward the door, but at this moment it was thrust
open, and Surgeon-General Voelzke entered the room. "I am told your
excellency intends to take an airing," said the physician, almost
indignantly. "But I declare that I cannot permit it. You have
intrusted yourself to my treatment; I am responsible to God, to the
king, to the whole world--nay, to history, if I allow you to rush so
recklessly to destruction; I will not suffer it; your excellency
must not ride out!"

"I should like to see who is to prevent me!" cried Blucher, striding
toward the door.

"The physician will prevent you," said Voelzke, standing in the
doorway with his large, tall form. "The physician has the right of
giving orders to kings and emperors, and Marshal Forward has to
submit to his commands, too."

"I do not think of it," said Blucher; "I do not permit any one to
give me orders."

"Not even your disease--your inflamed eyes?" asked Voelzke,
solemnly. "Did you not obey when your fever and inflamed eyes
commanded you to remain idle at Laon for ten days, although you were
in a towering passion, and were bent on advancing with the army?
Well, your excellency, I tell you, if you do not now obey me. and
consent to desist from taking an airing--if you are determined to
ride out in the cold night-air, one more powerful than I am will
compel you to obey; and that one is your disease. You may ride out
today, but to-morrow it will command you to keep your bed, the
inflammation of your eyes will make you a prisoner, and you will be
unable to flee from it, notwithstanding your imperious will, or your
four-horsed carriage."

"Well, well," said Blucher, "you put on such solemn airs as almost
to frighten me. It is true, my disease is very powerful, and this
soreness of my eyes has already rendered me so desperate that--"

"That your excellency has written letters," interposed Gneisenau,
pointing to the table. "But, what do I see? There is one addressed
to me!"

"No, give it to me," cried Blucher, embarrassed; "now that you are
here, I can tell you every thing verbally, and it is unnecessary for
you to read what I have written."

He was about to seize the letter, but Gneisenau drew hack a step,
and, bowing deeply said, "Your excellency has done me the honor of
writing to me. Permit me, therefore, to read." He stepped quickly
into the window-niche, and opened the letter.

"Well, stand back there, doctor," cried Blucher, "let me out! Do not
make me angry; leave the door!"

"I do not care if you are angry, your excellency," said the surgeon-
general, folding his arms, "but in order to get me out of this
doorway you will have to kill me."

At this moment, Gneisenau uttered a cry of terror, and hastened
toward Blucher. "What! your excellency," he exclaimed, "you intend
to leave us? To set out secretly?"

"What do you say?" thundered the physician. "What did my patient
intend to do?"

"He intends to forsake us--his army that worships him, his friends
who idolize him, his king who hopes in him--he intends to leave us
all!" said Gneisenau, mournfully. "It is written here, doctor; I may
mention it to you, for you are one of our most devoted friends."

"And he intends also to leave his physician; he will go, and get
blind!" exclaimed Voelzke, reproachfully.

"Well, it is precisely because I do not wish to get blind that I
must move from here," said Blucher, who had now recovered his
firmness, and felt relieved, since his secret had been disclosed.
"What am I, a poor blind old man, to do longer in the field? I am
fit for nothing. In the end I shall perhaps fare like old Kutusoff,
whom they dragged along with the army. Thus would they drag me when
I am no longer myself." [Footnote: Blucher's words.--Vide Varnhagun,
"Prince Blucher of Wahlstatt," p. 373]

"But," said the physician, "your excellency is not blind; you will
be well in two weeks if you only resolve to comply with my
prescriptions, use the remedies I give you, and punctually obey my
instructions. You intend to go to Brussels, where you will certainly
find celebrated physicians; but they do not know you; they will only
doctor your eyes, not suspecting that the seat of your disease is in
your nerves, and that your eyes are unhealthy because your mind is
suffering. And it will suffer still more when you have deserted your
army, your friends--nay, I may say, your duty. The strange
surroundings, the want of care, the unknown physicians, your anxiety
at being ignorant of what the army is doing--all this will torture
your soul, and aggravate the disease of your eyes."

"It is true, I shall be very lonely in a foreign city," said
Blucher, thoughtfully; "but it is, after all, better than to stay
here as a useless, blind old man. I can never again command an army
or direct a battle."

"If you cannot command an army in person, you can by your words,"
exclaimed Gneisenau; "and if you cannot direct the battle with your
arms, you can do so with your spirit; for that fires our hearts as
long as you are with us, and bids defiance to the adversaries and
hesitating diplomatists. If your person leaves us, your spirit does
also, and with Marshal Forward we lose all prospect of marching
forward. Consider this, your excellency; consider that you endanger
not only the welfare of your army, but the success of the war; for
when you are not present, all will go wrong."

"Well, you will be here, Gneisenau," said Blucher; "you are half
myself; you know my thoughts just as well as I do--nay, you often
know them much better! You will, therefore, carry on all just as
though I were still here."

"But shall I have the power to do so?" asked Gneisenau. "Your
excellency did not take into the account that when you leave the
army, and give up your position as commander-in-chief, another
general must be appointed in your stead. Who will receive this
nomination? The senior general is Langeron, and do you consider him
qualified to replace you?"

"Well, that would be a pretty thing, if HE should become commander-
in-chief!" cried Blucher. "The confusion and wrangling that would
ensue would baffle description; for York and Bulow would be even
more disobedient to him than they are to me."

"But he would have to take command of the army until orders from
headquarters arrived appointing another general-in-chief. We might
have to wait a long time; for we are distant from the allied
monarchs now, and they, moreover, will not hasten to make that
appointment. Until this is done, Langeron will command the army, and
thereby I, the quartermaster-general, as well as Colonels Muffling
and Grolman, will be completely paralyzed in the discharge of our
duties, or even lose our positions, which your excellency has always
said we filled to your satisfaction, and in a manner conducive to
the welfare of the army. If you go now, you thereby deprive three
men of their places, although they feel strong enough yet to serve
their country."

"It is true, I have not thought of that," said Blucher, embarrassed.
"It did not occur to me that I should have a successor here, and
that he might be so stupid as to be unable to appreciate my
Gneisenau, and the brave Colonels Muffling and Grolman. No, no, that
will not do; Langeron must not become commander-in-chief."

"If you leave us, he will surely have that position, and our brave
Silesian army will then be headed by a Russian. No, field-marshal,
you must not go. You have no right to quit the army so arbitrarily,
and without the king's permission!"

"Well, I should like to see who would prevent me!" cried Blucher,
defiantly.

"Your noble soul, your devotion to duty, and your love of country,
will prevent you," said Gneisenau. "You will refuse to abandon your
work before it is completed. You will not incur the disgrace of
confessing to all the world that you are unable to fulfil your word-
-not to rest before having overthrown Napoleon, and made your
entrance into Paris. Nor will you tarnish your glory on account of
your eyes. You will not become a faithless father and friend to your
soldiers, whom you have so often greeted as your children, and who
have always confided in you; nor will you break our courage and
paralyze our souls by deserting us in this manner."

"It is true, I did not think sufficiently on this matter," murmured
Blucher to himself--"Voelzke," he then cried aloud, "you pledge me
your word of honor that you can cure me?"

"I swear it to your excellency by all that is sacred that, if you
take care of yourself, and comply with my prescriptions, you will be
cured in the course of two weeks."

"Well," said Blucher, after a short reflection, "in that case I will
yield, and stay."

"Heaven be praised, your excellency!" cried Gneisenau, tenderly
embracing Blucher, "you are still my noble field-marshal, who will
not desert his army, his fatherland, and his friends, for the sake
of his individual comfort."

"Yes, I will stay," said Blucher; "but as I have to obey the grim
doctor there, and submit to his treatment thoroughly, as a matter of
course I cannot work and make the necessary dispositions, but leave
this to my head--to Gneisenau alone. I lend you my name for two
weeks, and know that you will make good use of it. But if at the end
of that time, doctor, I am not yet well, then, beware! May the Lord
have mercy on your soul! for you will certainly get yourself into
trouble."

"Your excellency," cried a loud voice outside, at this moment--"your
excellency, are you not coming at all?" The door of the anteroom was
violently thrust open, and the pipe-master appeared on the
threshold. "It is past eight o'clock," he exclaimed, "and--" He
paused on perceiving the two gentlemen, and was about to retire very
quickly.

"Come here, pipe-master," exclaimed Blucher, "come here and look at
me. Now tell me, pipe-master, have you been a chatterbox, after all,
and told these two gentlemen what was the object of our airing?"

"No, your excellency; I have not uttered a word about it to any
one," replied the pipe-master, solemnly. "I have been as dumb as a
fish; only in secret have I complained of my distress; and, when
that did not relieve me, and I still felt as though my heart would
burst, I did what I have learned to do from the field-marshal: I
went to my room, closed the door, and swore in the most fearful
manner! That relieved my heart, and I proceeded to do all your
excellency charged me with."

"First, therefore, you had to swear?" asked Blucher, drawing his
long mustache through his fingers. "You were, then, greatly
dissatisfied with my departure?"

"I did not conceal it from your excellency. I told you honestly that
you would no longer be called Marshal Forward if you retreated."

"Yes, retreat--that is just what he said," exclaimed Blucher,
laughing, and turning again toward the two gentlemen; "and when I
told him I would leave the army and set out for Brussels he remarked
that it was a secret flight."

"The pipe-master is an honest man, who loves his master," said
Gneisenau, kindly smiling on him. "I have often and urgently begged
him to-day to announce me to the field-marshal; but he persisted in
replying that he was not allowed to do so, and that he was ordered
to admit no one."

"And I would have given my little-finger, if I could have admitted
General Gneisenau, and Dr. Voelzke, too; for I knew that, as soon as
they would be with the field-marshal, his departure would not be
very soon. As they are here now--though I do not know how they got
here so unexpectedly--I suppose, field-marshal, we shall not set
out, and I may send the horses back to the stable?"

"Yes, you may," said Blucher. "But wait, Christian, do not go yet; I
have first to say a few words to these gentlemen, and you may
listen. I will stay here, then, but on one condition. Will you
fulfil it?"

"Yes, your excellency," cried Gneisenau and Voelzke at the same
time.

"Well, tell me, then, how did you discover that I intended to start
to-day, the pipe-master having said nothing about it to you? For I
shall never believe that both of you could happen to come to me at
so unusual an hour, and without any reason. Reply--who told you that
I was about to leave?"

"You yourself, your excellency," said Surgeon-General Voelzke.

"What, I! What nonsense is this!" cried Blucher, laughing.

"Yes, I heard it from yourself. Do you not remember that you heard a
mouse rustle in your alcove?"

"To be sure, I did; I heard it twice."

"Well, then, the mouse was myself! I discovered a small secret side-
door in your room, and desired to know whither it led. I therefore
thrust it open, and was in your alcove; just as I entered I heard
your voice, saying, 'It is settled, then, Christian, I shall set out
for Brussels to-night, but no one must know a word about it!' Your
excellency, I confess my crime: I stood and listened; only when the
pipe-master left your room did I softly creep away, too, and hasten
to General Gneisenau to inform him of what I had heard."

"Let us examine the alcove more carefully, pipe-master," said
Blucher, "and see whether there is not somewhere else a secret door.
Well, you may go now, Hennemann, and send the horses back to the
stable."

"Heaven be praised!" exclaimed Christian, hastening out of the room.
But scarcely had he closed the door, when he thrust it open again.
"Field-marshal," he said, "General von Pietrowitch, adjutant of the
Emperor of Russia, wishes to see your excellency immediately."

"Come in, general," exclaimed Blucher; and offering his hand to the
officer, he asked hastily, "tell me, in the first place, general,
whether you bring good or bad news?"

"I believe I bring what Marshal Forward would call good news," said
the general, smiling. "I come as a messenger from the emperor my
master, and the king your master, and am commissioned to inform you
of the determination taken at headquarters, and to obtain your
consent and cooperation."

"Is it a secret mission?" asked Gneisenau.

"On the contrary, the whole army will have to hear it tonight," said
the general. "My first news, then, is, that the congress of
Chatillou was dissolved on the 19th of March."

"Without leading to any results?" asked Blucher, breathlessly.
"Without agreeing on a treaty of peace, or an armistice?"

"Nothing of the kind, your excellency. The congress has had an
entirely opposite result--the speedy and energetic prosecution of
the war. All the diplomatists, and the Emperor Francis with them,
after the dissolution of the congress, retired southward to Dijon."

"And Schwartzenberg?" cried Blucher.

"Prince Schwartzenberg remained, and held a council of war with the
monarchs yesterday near Vitry. The result of this I am commissioned
to communicate to you. The resumption of the offensive against Paris
has been decided upon. Prince Schwartzenberg agrees with the
sovereigns that Paris is the decisive point, and that it is all-
important for us to cut off Napoleon from the capital, and take the
city before he is able to reach it. Prince Schwartzenberg,
therefore, sends word to your excellency that from this day all his
standards are turned toward Paris, and that the army of Bohemia is
marching in three columns. To-night they encamp at Fere Champeuoise,
where the headquarters of the allies are to be. Now, Prince
Schwartzenberg invites you to participate with the Silesian army in
this advance, starting at once, and advancing by the road of
Montmirail and La Ferte-sous-Jonarre, and then form a connection
with the army of Bohemia." [Footnote: Beitzke, vol. iii., p. 431.]

"Yes, I shall certainly do so," joyfully cried Blucher. "Hurrah!
This is good news; now the word is not only with us, but everywhere,
'Forward!' Tell their majesties, and, above all, Prince
Schwartzenberg, that they have made me very happy, and have
performed a truly miraculous cure. I was sick and desponding; now,
since you have come, I am again well and in good spirits. I feel no
longer any pain, and my eyes will be all right again, now that they
know that they are to see the city of Paris. I thought that it would
come to this--that my brave brother Schwartzenberg would at length
agree with me. We shall soon now put an end to the war. Bonaparte
must be dethroned, and that speedily." [Footnote: Blucher's own
words.--Vide Varnhagen von Ense, "Blucher," p. 375.]

CHAPTER XLIX.

ON TO PARIS!

Napoleon's courage was not yet paralyzed; he had not yet given up
the struggle. His indomitable heart was still wrestling with
adversity, and hoping that he would be able to overcome it. It is
true, the disastrous battle of Bar-sur-Aube, where the army of
Bohemia had gained a victory on the 20th of March, had greatly
weighed him down; but a few days sufficed to restore his
determination and energy. On the 26th, when he arrived with his army
at St. Dizier, he had already devised new plans, and was again
resolved to give battle to the allies. "We are still strong," he
said to Caulaincourt, who had just joined him at St. Dizier. "We
have upward of fifty thousand men here. I have issued orders to
Marshals Marmont and Victor, as well as to all reinforcements that
are on the road from Paris, to join our army. When they arrive, my
forces will be eighty thousand, and the allies will not dare march
on Paris, where they will find me. If I can now induce them to
hesitate, and retard their operations a short time, by drawing
reinforcements from the neighboring fortresses of the Meuse and the
Moselle, I shall increase my army to upward of one hundred thousand,
and it will then be easy for me to delay the progress of the enemy
by constantly renewed attacks, and thus prolong the war."

"But I am afraid, sire, you labor under a delusion as to one point:
that it is still possible for you to delay the progress of the
allies by any means whatever," sighed Caulaincourt. "I have examined
every thing on my trip to your majesty's headquarters; I have
conversed with every prisoner fallen into the hands of our troops,
and I do not believe that the army of Bohemia is in the rear of your
majesty, but that it has outstripped you, and is already on the road
to Paris."

Napoleon shrugged his shoulders and stepped to the door, which he
opened, shouting, "The mayor of St. Dizier!" The corpulent form of
the mayor, who greeted the emperor with awkward obeisances, appeared
immediately. "Pray repeat your statements," said the emperor, "The
enemy's troops were here yesterday, were they not?"

"They were, sire; all St. Dizier was occupied by them. It was
General Winzingerode, with the soldiers of the allies. They stated
that they were the vanguard of the principal army. General
Winzingerode inspected all the large houses in the city, and
reserved the best, adding that the Emperor of Russia and the King of
Prussia would arrive here tomorrow, and take up their quarters at
those houses; [Footnote: This was a stratagem, resorted to by
Winzingerode, in order to mislead Napoleon as to the march of the
allies.] but when the approach of your majesty was reported, the
enemy quickly left the city."

"Very well; you may go," said Napoleon, motioning to the mayor to
leave the room.--"Well, Caulaincourt, have you satisfied yourself
now? Do you see now that the allies are not in our front, but still
in our rear?"

"Sire, suppose it were a delusion, after all?" sighed Caulaincourt:
"Suppose the allies had devised this stratagem, to mislead your
majesty?--if none but Winzingerode's corps follow us, while the
principal army is hastening toward Paris by different routes? Oh, I
implore your majesty, do not suffer your keen eyes to be blinded by
false hopes! Look around and examine the evidences that confirm my
views, All the prisoners report that the armies of Bohemia and
Silesia have united, and are now marching on Paris. Besides, on our
way from Bar-sur-Aube to this place, we have nowhere met with large
columns of troops, and nothing whatever indicates the approach of
the enemy in force."

"Well," cried Napoleon, vehemently, "if we have not met with the
enemy's forces, it may be because they are in full retreat toward
Lorraine, and that they are at last tired of carrying on a fruitless
struggle with me." [Footnote: Fain, "Manuscrit de 18l4," p. 142.]

"Ah, your majesty still thinks that you are opposed only by the
timid and desponding enemies of former times!" said Caulaincourt,
sighing; "but this is a mistake, which will prove disastrous."

"Ah!" cried Napoleon, vehemently, "you dare tell me that?"

"Sire," said Caulaincourt, calmly, "it is my duty to tell you the
truth, and you are in duty bound to listen to it. [Footnote:
Caulaincourt's words,--"Memoires d'un Homme d'Etat," vol. xii., p.
292] Now, the truth is, that the allies are firmly determined to
carry on the war to the last extremity, and that, at the best, they
will leave to your majesty the frontiers of France as they were
under the Bourbons. I venture, therefore, once more to implore your
majesty to make peace; sire, peace at any cost! Perhaps it may be
time yet. Send me once more to the allied monarchs! Tell them that
you will now accept the ultimatum offered us at the congress of
Chatillon, and that you will content yourself with the frontiers of
France, as they were previous to the rise of the empire. Send me
with this declaration to the Emperor Alexander of Russia, who, at
the bottom of his heart, is still your friend!"

"And whose devoted friend you are!" cried Napoleon. "Yes, you are
Alexander's servant, and not mine! You are a thorough Russian!"

"No, sire, I am a Frenchman!" said Caulaincourt, proudly, looking
the emperor full in the face, "and I believe I prove it by imploring
your majesty to give peace to France and save your crown."

"Ah, save my crown!" exclaimed Napoleon. "Who dares, then, threaten
my crown?"

"Sire, the allies and the Bourbons. The former have issued a
proclamation, stating that they come to this country to make war on
the Emperor Napoleon, and not on France; and the Bourbons, who are
now in France, at the headquarters of the allies, have issued
another proclamation, calling upon the nation to return to its duty
and to the allegiance due to its legitimate king."

"I am neither afraid of the allies nor of the Bourbons," said
Napoleon. "The French nation knows no Bourbons; it knows none but
ME, its emperor, and we two shall not break the faith we have
plighted to each other. We shall conquer together. Dare no longer
ask me to accept the ignominious terms of the congress of Chatillon.
It is better to die beneath the ruins of my throne than be at the
mercy of my enemies. The allies are in my rear, and the arrival of
reinforcements will soon enable me to give them battle; I shall win,
and it will be for me to dictate terms. Under the walls of Paris the
grave of the Russians will be dug. My dispositions have been made,
and I shall not fail." [Footnote: Napoleon's words.--Vide Constant,
"Memoires," vol. vi., p. 48.]

Caulaincourt sighed, and gazed with an air of painful astonishment
on the serene face of the emperor. "Sire," he said, solemnly, "I
call Heaven to witness that I have tried my best to incline your
majesty to my prayers! You have refused to listen to me."

"Because I am not at liberty to do so, Caulaincourt; and, besides, I
do not believe in your apprehensions. Suppose that Alexander and
Frederick William should determine to continue the war, there is a
third sovereign who will decide the matter--the Emperor Francis, my
father-in-law, and grand-father of the King of Rome. You see,
therefore, that, though the present prospects were unfavorable to
me, I should at least have nothing to fear from the Bourbons; for
the emperor will not permit his daughter to be robbed of her crown,
nor his grandson of his rightful inheritance."

"Sire," said Caulaincourt, in a low voice, "do not rely too much on
the attachment of the Emperor Francis. I know that, though he is
your father-in-law, he has never forgotten the day when, after the
battle of Austerlitz, he met you as an humble supplicant at your
camp-fire, and begged you to spare him and make peace with him. I
know that that recollection has greater power over him than any
bonds of relationship. I know that Metternich, who is still devoted
to your majesty, vainly tried a few days ago to prevail upon the
Emperor Francis to intercede energetically with the other monarchs
for his son-in-law and daughter, and that he unsuccessfully urged
him to take into consideration the future of his grandson, the King
of Rome."