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No one replied to his remarks.
This was quite correct on the twenty-fourth of July. But on the twenty-ninth of July Kutzov received the title of Prince. This might indicate a wish to get rid of him, and therefore Prince Vasli’s opinion continued to be correct though he was not now in any hurry to express it. But on the eighth of August a committee, consisting of Field Marshal Saltykv, Arakchev, Vyazmtinov, Lopukhn, and Kochuby met to consider the progress of the war. This committee came to the conclusion that our failures were due to a want of unity in the command and though the members of the committee were aware of the Emperor’s dislike of Kutzov, after a short deliberation they agreed to advise his appointment as commander in chief. That same day Kutzov was appointed commander in chief with full powers over the armies and over the whole region occupied by them.
On the ninth of August Prince Vasli at Anna Pvlovna’s again met the “man of great merit.” The latter was very attentive to Anna Pvlovna because he wanted to be appointed director of one of the educational establishments for young ladies. Prince Vasli entered the room with the air of a happy conqueror who has attained the object of his desires.
“Well, have you heard the great news? Prince Kutzov is field marshal! All dissensions are at an end! I am so glad, so delighted! At last we have a man!” said he, glancing sternly and significantly round at everyone in the drawing room.
The “man of great merit,” despite his desire to obtain the post of director, could not refrain from reminding Prince Vasli of his former opinion. Though this was impolite to Prince Vasli in Anna Pvlovna’s drawing room, and also to Anna Pvlovna herself who had received the news with delight, he could not resist the temptation.
“But, Prince, they say he is blind!” said he, reminding Prince Vasli of his own words.
“Eh? Nonsense! He sees well enough,” said Prince Vasli rapidly, in a deep voice and with a slight cough—the voice and cough with which he was wont to dispose of all difficulties.
“He sees well enough,” he added. “And what I am so pleased about,” he went on, “is that our sovereign has given him full powers over all the armies and the whole region—powers no commander in chief ever had before. He is a second autocrat,” he concluded with a victorious smile.
“God grant it! God grant it!” said Anna Pvlovna.
The “man of great merit,” who was still a novice in court circles, wishing to flatter Anna Pvlovna by defending her former position on this question, observed:
“It is said that the Emperor was reluctant to give Kutzov those powers. They say he blushed like a girl to whom Joconde is read, when he said to Kutzov: ‘Your Emperor and the Fatherland award you this honor.’”
“Perhaps the heart took no part in that speech,” said Anna Pvlovna.
“Oh, no, no!” warmly rejoined Prince Vasli, who would not now yield Kutzov to anyone; in his opinion Kutzov was not only admirable himself, but was adored by everybody. “No, that’s impossible,” said he, “for our sovereign appreciated him so highly before.”
“God grant only that Prince Kutzov assumes real power and does not allow anyone to put a spoke in his wheel,” observed Anna Pvlovna.
Understanding at once to whom she alluded, Prince Vasli said in a whisper:
“I know for a fact that Kutzov made it an absolute condition that the Tsarvich should not be with the army. Do you know what he said to the Emperor?”
And Prince Vasli repeated the words supposed to have been spoken by Kutzov to the Emperor. “I can neither punish him if he does wrong nor reward him if he does right.”
“Oh, a very wise man is Prince Kutzov! I have known him a long time!”
“They even say,” remarked the “man of great merit” who did not yet possess courtly tact, “that his excellency made it an express condition that the sovereign himself should not be with the army.”
As soon as he said this both Prince Vasli and Anna Pvlovna turned away from him and glanced sadly at one another with a sigh at his navet.
While this was taking place in Petersburg the French had already passed Smolnsk and were drawing nearer and nearer to Moscow. Napoleon’s historian Thiers, like other of his historians, trying to justify his hero says that he was drawn to the walls of Moscow against his will. He is as right as other historians who look for the explanation of historic events in the will of one man; he is as right as the Russian historians who maintain that Napoleon was drawn to Moscow by the skill of the Russian commanders. Here besides the law of retrospection, which regards all the past as a preparation for events that subsequently occur, the law of reciprocity comes in, confusing the whole matter. A good chessplayer having lost a game is sincerely convinced that his loss resulted from a mistake he made and looks for that mistake in the opening, but forgets that at each stage of the game there were similar mistakes and that none of his moves were perfect. He only notices the mistake to which he pays attention, because his opponent took advantage of it. How much more complex than this is the game of war, which occurs under certain limits of time, and where it is not one will that manipulates lifeless objects, but everything results from innumerable conflicts of various wills!
After Smolnsk Napoleon sought a battle beyond Dorogobzh at Vyzma, and then at Tsrevo-Zaymshche, but it happened that owing to a conjunction of innumerable circumstances the Russians could not give battle till they reached Borodin, seventy miles from Moscow. From Vyzma Napoleon ordered a direct advance on Moscow.
Moscou, la capitale asiatique de ce grand empire, la ville sacre des peuples d’Alexandre, Moscou avec ses innombrables glises en forme de pagodes chinoises, * this Moscow gave Napoleon’s imagination no rest. On the march from Vyzma to Tsrevo-Zaymshche he rode his light bay bobtailed ambler accompanied by his Guards, his bodyguard, his pages, and aides-de-camp. Berthier, his chief of staff, dropped behind to question a Russian prisoner captured by the cavalry. Followed by Lelorgne d’Ideville, an interpreter, he overtook Napoleon at a gallop and reined in his horse with an amused expression.
* “Moscow, the Asiatic capital of this great empire, the
sacred city of Alexander’s people, Moscow with its
innumerable churches shaped like Chinese pagodas.”
“Well?” asked Napoleon.
“One of Pltov’s Cossacks says that Pltov’s corps is joining up with the main army and that Kutzov has been appointed commander in chief. He is a very shrewd and garrulous fellow.”
