Beadle's New York Dime Library, No. 193 — page 13: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

nee — ne ——— —— The Man in Red. ° ———— 43 ’ Ah, then you have been married recently, princess. 1 wish I could tell where I saw you.” ‘* You need not . You will never know; but 1 have seen you before, and even spoken to you, though at the time | was wearing a dis- uise,” A disguise? Was it at the masked ball, by chance?” ‘It was not, [ do not need a mask to dis- guise me. But never mind, count. You say your officers are with you here. lam sorry for that, for I wished to invite you to dinner, and I don’t care to welcome any but those of the old blood. Iam, as yousee,a good rank Legitimist, so far as | ama Frenchwoman.” ‘I believe there are a few ladies left of that persuasion,” laughed Gabriel, ‘‘but they are all emigrants. In France we no longer cry for the moon,” ‘‘And yet,” answered the princess, quietly, “if | were to tell you that, this day two years, Louis XVILI. would reign in the Tuileries, you would say I was mad.” “2 decidedly should. The emperor is the first man in Europe, and when be has taken Moscow he will have no enemies left.” The princess shrugged her shoulders, ‘* You will see when it is too late that I have told you the truth, and then, if you wisha place at court, you can remember that I have prom- ised you my inflaence with the king. You know I have the gift of prophecy in me, and never make mistakes.” Gabriel could not help smiling. ‘‘I never knew but one person like you, who pretended to the gift.” She started slightly. ‘Who was that?’ ‘‘ A madman, who obtained access to the em- peror’s tent at Wagram and told him that he should die a prisoner on a rock in the ocean,” ‘‘A madman, you say! Why mad?” ‘‘ Because his prophecy was absurd.” “But when it is fulfilled, what then?” — “« 7f it is fulfilled you mean—not when.” “* Well, if—” m “‘ Then I should say he was a wonderful man. CHAPTER XVI. BORODINO. GABRIEL did not find out to his own satisfac- tion who the princess was and where he had seen her; but he was not poisoned at her house and departed next mornin for Wilna, towar which the m reh tended, where the serious work of the campaign opened. Everywhere the Grand Army met. the Rus- sians, and everywhere the Russians fought them hard, falling back from one strong placa to another. The heavy cavalry found no enemy to meet ‘them in a charge, but the Cossacks hovered round them all the while, and, everywhere they went, clouds of smoke ahead showed where the Russians were burning haystacks and wheat ricks. The young count obeyed his orders in the strictest way, mnakiu men walk and lead their horses, and ng the animals all the op- portunity to graze that he could, but in spite of all his efforts he had the mortification to see the big chargers that used to tramp so proudly along, growing thin and eg stolidly on the road to Moscow, with their heads down. The campaign that had opened with such hizh hopes seemed to be doomed to be one which would destroy the heavy cavalry withb- out a fight. But the army reached Wilna and advanced on Witepsk, oars they found large maguzines of grain, and all seemed to smile on them ain, "he had taken a month to get to Witepsk, and that city was only half-way to Moscow, And another ominous fact was that the em- peror halted to reorganize there, sent back dis- mounted men, and found that his cavalry had shrunk from eighty to sixty thousand already, ef which remainder nearly a third were not fit to charge. This too, without a serious battle, and they heard that the three separate armies of the Rus- sians had united at Smolensko to oppose them, under General Barclay de Tolly. Gabriel's division at this place won a rare distinction from the emperor. His ma esty praised them in orders for the fine condition of their horses, and the praise made every cayalry general in the army jealous of the boy Count of Friedland. : in all this time the old Death’s Head Cuiras- siers, of which Gabriel was so proud, had re- mained quietly on the march, as the personal escort of their general; and their horses were the fattest in the command. From Witepsk, after a few days, they moved | The Russians were actually advancing | them and the vete- | out. from ‘smolensko to attack rans of the Grand Army began to erack jokes. ‘* Now we shall havea chance, As ong as but now they’ll have to starve as well as we.” And they did have a chance to see the enemy and fight bim at last, from which ensued a whole weary month in which the sound of musketry and cannonading was never out of their ears, till the excitement of contest died away and one could see the soldiers shrugging their shoulders with an air of d ir eve time they hal an order to move forward, while one said to the other: ‘‘No rest for us nowadays, and what does it allamount to? We kill them, and more come on. It is disgusting.” Still, to the general officers, who had maps, and knew what was going on, it was plain that the army was advancing—slowly perhaps but still advancing. In the first month they got from Grodno to Witepsk—two hundred and forty miles; the second took them from Witepsk to Smolensko, only eighty; the third was one continuous series of small battles, on a line two hundred miles long. till the Grand Army found itself at last, within a day’s ride of Moscow, on the little river Moskwa, with the whole Russian army barring the way at the village of Borodsk, which the French called Borodino. And here at last Gabriel, Count of Friedland, on the 7th September, 1811. found himself in a itched battle, for the first time since he gained is title in 1807 at the head of his old regiment. The tide of battle had been ebbing and flow. ing all day with varying success, and still the Russians held their own, by dint of a huge re- doubt in the center of their line, from which wave after wave of French infantry had re- coed, shattered and bleeding. Gabriel had been standing by his men on the summit of a little hillock, watching the contest, which seemed to be trembling in the balance all day; and, for the first time since he had crossed the Niemen, began to think to himself that the Grand Army might have to retreat and never see Moscow, after all. The streams of wounded men and the strag- glers going to the rear were getting heavier every moment, and things began to look bad for the French as far as could be seen, for the smoke that covered the field; when a staff officer came galloping up, and called out: ** You’re going to have a chance, count,” ‘‘Glad of it,” said Gabriel, and he really meant it; for he and all his men had been chaf- ing at their enforced idleness, while the infant- ry and the hussars had been in action every day. Bat the staff officer went on his way, and still no order came. Gabriel could see, through his glass, the em- peror on a hill, sitting down in a camp-chair contrary to bis usual custom, and he heard from another officer, whom he stopped as he passed by, that his majesty was very ill that day, and suffered much pain. No one then knew or suspected that it was the first attack of that terrible cancer in the stomach of which his father had died before him, and which was ulti- mately to carry him off at fifty years of age, in the torments of hell. Only the wavering line of battle, to the dis- cerning eye of the young general showed the waning force of genius. ‘‘ His majesty is not fighting in bis usual way to-day,” he thought to h mself. Then he saw a general officer ride up to the are sah and salute as if he were ng to im. Through the glass Gabriel saw the great man nod his head, and then the officer dashed away, coming straight toward Gabriel’s division. The young count knew him by sight as Auguste de Caulaincourt, who had been married at Paris only twenty days before he started for the Rus- sian one He knew that the count was coming for him, and mounted his whole division to ready. They were going to move, but where. Before them lay a field full of infantry, with a line of fortifications lined with fire and smoke. That was the place for infantry, for no one ever heard of cavalry storming fortifications, But very soon young Caulaincourt came dashing up and said to the astonished cuiras- sier: ‘‘General, his majesty directs that you storm that redoubt with your division. i) Young Guard will follow you; but it must be taken at any cost.” For one moment Gabriel felt his heart stand still. He had seen five assaults on that redoubt hurled. back already, and he knew that it mounted twenty pieces of artillery, besides be- ing ined with infantry. ; he walls were mounds of earth, with a broad ditch, barely practicable for a horseman in cold blood, and it was into that ditch and up that mound that his cuirassiers had to climb to reach the enemy. Then he set his teeth firmly, and said to Cau- laincourt: “Very good, general. along with us?’ ‘“Of course,” was the instant reply. “I should not bring an order of this kind if I did Do you wish to go ‘ not expect to see it carried out under my own these devils burn the food we have to go slow; | ' eye. fc You shall see it, monsieur.” Then he gave the orders, and in a few min- utes more twelve thousand gallant horsemen, headed by the old Death’s Heads, were moving at a slashing trot over the plain of Borodino, till they were swallowed up in the smoke. The infantry shouted to see them come, and they heard the drums beating behind them while from the front the fire redoubled and the patter of bullets on the cuirasses and helmets sounded like hailstones in a forest. Every now and then came the horrible ‘* swish-sh-sh” of a volley of t, fol- lowed by the thud of the strikin and the cries of men knocked from their Gerson maimed and dying. The ranks of the Death’s Head Cuirassiers looked dark and ragged, and the officers ke shouting to the men to ‘‘close up,” but still the gaps continued and broke out in fresh places, as fast as cl up. The first squadron was nearly gone, and the regiment was reduced to half the breadth with which it had ridden out. The other regiments bebind it were broken up into parties that rode on as best they could. But still on they went, Gabriel ahead of his whole division, young Caulaincourt abreast of bim, a squadron away, and before them opened the broad ditch, while on the further side rose the tal! green mound, fringed with fire. The Russians fired faster than ever, but their bullets went overhead now, and with a wild shout of fury the mailed borsemen rode into the ditch, climbed the green mound, and burst into the redoubt like a t: rrent. And then came a great hush over the field of battle. The Russian guns ceased to fire, the in- fantry in the redoubt threw down their arms, and the battle of Borodino was won. Cut in half and pon, fae) their baggage and uns, the Russians fell back, and the road to oscow was open. CHAPTER XVII. MOSCOW. Tue Cuirassiers of the Guard rode into Mos- cow on the 15th of September and the first thing they saw was a cloud of smoke from a burning block of houses, while there seemed to be bardly any people in the streets. Captain Latouche had a dozen men with him, who were the first to enter the city; and as they passed on they were fired at from a cross street ahead, by a few Cossacks, who galloped away on their fleet ponies, defying pursuit by the heavy charges of the cuirassiers. But the Grand Army had reached the long expected city of Moscow, and the great Em- eror of the French took up his quarters in the remlin, while the sappers put out the burning houses, or pulled them down, That night Count Gabriel of Friedland, who slept in the Kremlin as commander of the cay- alry of the body-guard, was roused from his sleep by Casse Tete, who said to him hurriedly: ‘*Get up. my general, there is a fire in the next room.” In fact the place was full of smoke, and they had hardly time to get out before three rooms were full of flames, which it took them some hours to quel). Then all was quiet till the morning, when the trains began to rumble into the town, a regular garrison was set,the army was put into cam round the city, and the French settled down enjoy the fruits of their eprigt £ oscow was theirs—at a dear cost—but it was theirs; and they had the satisfaction of knowing that the Russians must have suffered no less heavily. The hospitals were established, the roads patrolled, convoys brought in and order re- stored, and then came word to the Count of Friedland that the emperor wanted to see him. He found the captor of Moscow in a grand, picturesque old saloon, where the Czars of Rus- sia had been crowned from the fourteenth cen- tury. The Man of Destiny looked gloomy and worried, as Gabriel had never seen him befere. ‘**Count,” be said, abruptly, as soon as the young general entered the room, “ will yo volunteer to take a flag to the Emperor ander for me?” ‘** Certainly. sire, but I thought—” He stopped, for he felt that he was too A and the emperor’s cold stare showed be had marked it. “I don’t want my officers to think, except when they have no orders, count. You thought, I suppose, that it was their place to send to us since we have beaten them. Very well,. it seems they are obstinate. The Turks used to be the same in Egypt. We must make allowances ad savages. Yor going to send a flag to the zar.” Then be paused and drummed on the table, Evidently the emperor was embarrassed. For the first time in his life he found a foe he could- n’t frighten, but who would fight after the hope of victory was gone. The conqueror of Borodino had not taken a gun that was not disabled. Presently he began again: ‘I shall bave to trust to your discretion not to expose our weakness.” ‘‘Our weakness, sire?’ “Yes. How many men do have left, fit for duty, count?” ‘* Two buncred thousand, at leas$, sire.” ex- you think we a ee eee —$____—_—__—. * mmm eee we - a a — he et ~ - ~ —— — A TT ee ; Sa er ee te + —— 2 ee 2 5 —— ee - JOO <com “Ss (E Eom)