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That impulse was reasonable. The condition of fugitives and of pursuers was equally bad. As long as they remained with their own people each might hope for help from his fellows and the definite place he held among them. But those who surrendered, while remaining in the same pitiful plight, would be on a lower level to claim a share in the necessities of life. The French did not need to be informed of the fact that half the prisoners—with whom the Russians did not know what to do—perished of cold and hunger despite their captors’ desire to save them; they felt that it could not be otherwise. The most compassionate Russian commanders, those favorable to the French—and even the Frenchmen in the Russian service—could do nothing for the prisoners. The French perished from the conditions to which the Russian army was itself exposed. It was impossible to take bread and clothes from our hungry and indispensable soldiers to give to the French who, though not harmful, or hated, or guilty, were simply unnecessary. Some Russians even did that, but they were exceptions.

Certain destruction lay behind the French but in front there was hope. Their ships had been burned, there was no salvation save in collective flight, and on that the whole strength of the French was concentrated.

The farther they fled the more wretched became the plight of the remnant, especially after the Berzina, on which (in consequence of the Petersburg plan) special hopes had been placed by the Russians, and the keener grew the passions of the Russian commanders, who blamed one another and Kutzov most of all. Anticipation that the failure of the Petersburg Berzina plan would be attributed to Kutzov led to dissatisfaction, contempt, and ridicule, more and more strongly expressed. The ridicule and contempt were of course expressed in a respectful form, making it impossible for him to ask wherein he was to blame. They did not talk seriously to him; when reporting to him or asking for his sanction they appeared to be fulfilling a regrettable formality, but they winked behind his back and tried to mislead him at every turn.

Because they could not understand him all these people assumed that it was useless to talk to the old man; that he would never grasp the profundity of their plans, that he would answer with his phrases (which they thought were mere phrases) about a “golden bridge,” about the impossibility of crossing the frontier with a crowd of tatterdemalions, and so forth. They had heard all that before. And all he said—that it was necessary to await provisions, or that the men had no boots—was so simple, while what they proposed was so complicated and clever, that it was evident that he was old and stupid and that they, though not in power, were commanders of genius.

After the junction with the army of the brilliant admiral and Petersburg hero Wittgenstein, this mood and the gossip of the staff reached their maximum. Kutzov saw this and merely sighed and shrugged his shoulders. Only once, after the affair of the Berzina, did he get angry and write to Bennigsen (who reported separately to the Emperor) the following letter:

“On account of your spells of ill health, will your excellency please be so good as to set off for Kalga on receipt of this, and there await further commands and appointments from His Imperial Majesty.”

But after Bennigsen’s departure, the Grand Duke Tsarvich Constantine Pvlovich joined the army. He had taken part in the beginning of the campaign but had subsequently been removed from the army by Kutzov. Now having come to the army, he informed Kutzov of the Emperor’s displeasure at the poor success of our forces and the slowness of their advance. The Emperor intended to join the army personally in a few days’ time.

The old man, experienced in court as well as in military affairs—this same Kutzov who in August had been chosen commander in chief against the sovereign’s wishes and who had removed the Grand Duke and heir-apparent from the army—who on his own authority and contrary to the Emperor’s will had decided on the abandonment of Moscow, now realized at once that his day was over, that his part was played, and that the power he was supposed to hold was no longer his. And he understood this not merely from the attitude of the court. He saw on the one hand that the military business in which he had played his part was ended and felt that his mission was accomplished; and at the same time he began to be conscious of the physical weariness of his aged body and of the necessity of physical rest.

On the twenty-ninth of November Kutzov entered Vlna—his “dear Vlna” as he called it. Twice during his career Kutzov had been governor of Vlna. In that wealthy town, which had not been injured, he found old friends and associations, besides the comforts of life of which he had so long been deprived. And he suddenly turned from the cares of army and state and, as far as the passions that seethed around him allowed, immersed himself in the quiet life to which he had formerly been accustomed, as if all that was taking place and all that had still to be done in the realm of history did not concern him at all.

Chichagv, one of the most zealous “cutters-off” and “breakers-up,” who had first wanted to effect a diversion in Greece and then in Warsaw but never wished to go where he was sent: Chichagv, noted for the boldness with which he spoke to the Emperor, and who considered Kutzov to be under an obligation to him because when he was sent to make peace with Turkey in 1811 independently of Kutzov, and found that peace had already been concluded, he admitted to the Emperor that the merit of securing that peace was really Kutzov’s; this Chichagv was the first to meet Kutzov at the castle where the latter was to stay. In undress naval uniform, with a dirk, and holding his cap under his arm, he handed Kutzov a garrison report and the keys of the town. The contemptuously respectful attitude of the younger men to the old man in his dotage was expressed in the highest degree by the behavior of Chichagv, who knew of the accusations that were being directed against Kutzov.

When speaking to Chichagv, Kutzov incidentally mentioned that the vehicles packed with china that had been captured from him at Borsov had been recovered and would be restored to him.

“You mean to imply that I have nothing to eat out of.... On the contrary, I can supply you with everything even if you want to give dinner parties,” warmly replied Chichagv, who tried by every word he spoke to prove his own rectitude and therefore imagined Kutzov to be animated by the same desire.

Kutzov, shrugging his shoulders, replied with his subtle penetrating smile: “I meant merely to say what I said.”

Contrary to the Emperor’s wish Kutzov detained the greater part of the army at Vlna. Those about him said that he became extraordinarily slack and physically feeble during his stay in that town. He attended to army affairs reluctantly, left everything to his generals, and while awaiting the Emperor’s arrival led a dissipated life.