The Story of a Conscript, Part IV [pp. 732-750]

The Story of a Conscrip5t.
zen and Wurtzen; the forced
marches to overtake the retreating
enemy; the march on Berlin; then
the armistice, the arrival of the ve terans of Spain-men accustomed to
pillaging and living on the peasan try.
Unfortunately, at the close of the
armistice, all were against us. The
country people looked on us with
horror; they cut the bridges down,
and kept the Russians and Prussians
informed of all our movements. It
rained almost constantly, and the
day of the battle of Dresden, it fell
so heavily that the emperor's hat
hung down upon his shoulders. But
when victorious, we only laughed at
these things. Z6bed6 told me all
this in detail; how after the victory
at Dresden, General Vandamme, who
was to cut off the retreat of the Austrians, had penetrated to Kulm in
his ardor; and how those whom we
had beaten the day before fell upon
him on all sides, front, flank, and
rear, and captured him and several
other generals, utterly destroying his
corps taarmie. Two days before,
owing to a false movement of Marshal Macdonald, the enemy had surprised our division, and the fifth,
sixth, and eleventh corps on the
Iheights of Luwenberg, and in the
.nmle Z6be'd received two blows
from the butt of a grenadier's musket,
and was thrown into the river Katzbach. Luckily he seized the overhangingbranch of a tree, and managed to regain the bank. He told me
how all that night, despite the blood
that flowed from his nose and ears,
he had marched to the village of
*Goldberg, almost dead with hunger,
fatigue, and his wounds, and how a
joiner had taken pity upon him and
given him bread, onions, and water.
.He told me how, on the day following,
they had marched across the fields,
each one taking his own course,
without orders, because the marshals,
generals, and all mounted officers
had fled as far as possible, in the fear
of being captured. He assured me
that fifty hussars could have captur ed them, one after another; but that
by good fortune, Bliicher could not
cross the river, so that they finally
rallied at Wolda, and further on at
Buntzlau their officers met them, surprised at yet having troops to lead.
He told me how Marshal Oudinot
and Marshal Ney had been beaten;
the first at Gross-Beeren, and the
other at Dennewitz.
We were between three armies,
who were uniting to crush us; that
of the north, commanded by Bernadotte; that of Silesia, commanded
by Bliicher; and the army of Bohemia, commanded by Schiwartzenberg.
We marched in turn against each of
them; they feared the emperor and
retreated before us; but we could
not be at once in Silesi4 and Bohemia, so march followed march,
and countermarch, countermarch.
All the men asked was to fight;
they wanted their misery to end.
A sort of guerrilla, named Thielmann, raised the peasantry against
us, and the Bavarians and Wurtemburgers declared against us. We
had all Europe on our hands.
On the fourteenth of October, our
battalion was detached to reconnoitr~e the village of Aken. The enemy were in force there and received
us with a scattering artillery fire, and
we remained all night without being
able to light a fire, on account of the
pouring rain. The next day we set
out to rejoin our division by forced
marches. Every one said, I know
not why:
'-The battle is approaching! the
fight is coming on!"
Sergeant Pinto declared that he
felt the emperor in the air. I felt
nothing, but I knew that we were
744