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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/11278-0.txt b/11278-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..22be8ca --- /dev/null +++ b/11278-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1425 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11278 *** + +FOLK-TALES OF NAPOLEON + +NAPOLEONDER + From the Russian + +THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE + From the French of Honoré de Balzac + + +Translated With Introduction By +GEORGE KENNAN + + +1902 + + +CONTENTS + +NAPOLEONDER +THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +Most of the literature that has its origin in the life and career of a +great man may be grouped and classified under two heads: history and +biography. The part that relates to the man's actions, and to the +influence that such actions have had in shaping the destinies of peoples +and states, belongs in the one class; while the part that derives its +interest mainly from the man's personality, and deals chiefly with the +mental and moral characteristics of which his actions were the outcome, +goes properly into the other. The value of the literature included in +these two classes depends almost wholly upon truth; that is, upon the +precise correspondence of the statements made with the real facts of the +man's life and career. History is worse than useless if it does not +accurately chronicle and describe events; and biography is valueless and +misleading if it does not truly set forth individual character. + +There is, however, a kind of great-man literature in which truth is +comparatively unimportant, and that is the literature of popular legend +and tradition. Whether it purports to be historical or biographical, or +both, it derives its interest and value from the light that it throws +upon the temperament and character of the people who originate it, +rather than from the amount of truth contained in the statements that +it makes about the man. + +The folk-tales of Napoleon Bonaparte herewith presented, if judged from +the viewpoint of the historian or the biographer, are absurdly and +grotesquely untrue; but to the anthropologist and the student of human +nature they are extremely valuable as self-revelations of national +character; and even to the historian and the biographer they have some +interest as evidences of the profoundly deep impression made by +Napoleon's personality upon two great peoples--the Russians and the +French. + +The first story, which is entitled "Napoleonder," is of Russian origin, +and was put into literary form, or edited, by Alexander Amphiteatrof of +St. Petersburg. It originally appeared as a feuilleton in the St. +Petersburg "Gazette" of December 13, 1901. As a characteristic specimen +of Russian peasant folk-lore, it seems to me to have more than ordinary +interest and value. The treatment of the supernatural may seem, to +Occidental readers, rather daring and irreverent, but it is perfectly in +harmony with the Russian peasant's anthropomorphic conception of Deity, +and should be taken with due allowance for the educational limitations +of the story-teller and his auditors. The Russian muzhik often brings +God and the angels into his folk-tales, and does so without the least +idea of treating them disrespectfully. He makes them talk in his own +language because he has no other language; and if the talk seems a +little grotesque and irreverent, it is due to the low level of the +narrator's literary culture, and not to any intention, on his part, of +treating God and the angels with levity. The whole aim of the story is a +moral and religious one. The narrator is trying to show that sympathy +and mercy are better than selfish ambition, and that war is not only +immoral but irrational. The conversation between God, the angels, and +the Devil is a mere prologue, intended to bring Napoleon and Ivan-angel +on the stage and lay the foundation of the plot. The story-teller's keen +sense of fun and humor is shown in many little touches, but he never +means to be irreverent. The whole legend is set forth in the racy, +idiomatic, highly elliptical language of the common Russian muzhik, and +is therefore extremely difficult of translation; but I have tried to +preserve, as far as possible, the spirit and flavor of the original. + +The French story was first reduced to writing--or at least put into +literary form--by Honoré de Balzac, and appeared under the title of "The +Napoleon of the People" in the third chapter of Balzac's "Country +Doctor." It purports to be the story of Napoleon's life and career as +related to a group of French peasants by one of his old soldiers--a man +named Goguelat. It covers more time chronologically than the Russian +story does, and deals much more fully and circumstantially with +historical incidents and events: but it seems to me to be distinctly +inferior to the Russian tale in power of creative imagination, unity of +conception, skill of artistic treatment, and depth of human interest. +The French peasant regards Napoleon merely as a great leader and +conqueror, "created to be the father of soldiers," and aided, if not +directly sent, by God, to show forth the power and the glory of France. +The Russian peasant, more thoughtful by nature as well as less excitable +and combative in temperament, admits that Napoleon was sent on earth by +God, but connects him with one of the deep problems of life by using him +to show the divine nature of sympathy and pity, and the cruelty, +immorality, and unreasonableness of aggressive war. The only feature +that the two tales have in common is the recognition of the supernatural +as a controlling factor in Napoleon's life. The French peasant believes +that he had a guiding star; that he was advised and directed by a +familiar spirit in the shape of a "Red Man"; and that he was saved from +dangers and death by virtue of a secret compact with the Supreme Being. +The Russian peasant asserts that he was created by the Devil, and that +God, after having given him a soul by accident, first used him as a +means of punishing the Russian people for their sins, and then made him +really a man by inspiring him with the human feelings of sympathy and +compassion. In the French story Napoleon appears as a great military +leader, whose life and career reflect honor and glory upon France. In +the Russian story he is merely the leading actor in a sort of moral +drama, or historical mystery-play, intended to show the divine nature of +sympathy and compassion, the immorality of war, and the essential +solidarity and brotherhood of all mankind. + +GEORGE KENNAN. + + * * * * * + + + + +NAPOLEONDER[1] + +[Footnote 1: The Russian peasant's name for Napoleon Bonaparte. The +final syllable "der" has perhaps been added because to the ear of the +peasant "Napoleon" sounds clipped and incomplete, as "Alexan" would +sound to us without the "der."] + +Long ago--but not so very long ago; our grandfathers remember it--the +Lord God wanted to punish the people of the world for their wickedness. +So he began to think how and by what means he could punish them, and he +called a council of his angels and archangels to talk about it. Says the +archangel Michael to the Lord God: "Shake them up, the recreants, with +an earthquake." + +"We've tried that," says the Lord God. "Once upon a time we jolted to +pieces Sodom and Gomorrah, but it didn't teach them anything. Since then +pretty much all the towns have become Sodoms and Gomorrahs." + +"How about famine?" says the archangel Gabriel. + +"It would be too bad for the babies," replies the Lord God. "Famine +would kill the babies. And, besides that, the cattle must have +food--they're not to blame." + +"Drown them with a flood," suggests Raphael. + +"Clean impossible!" says the Lord God. "Because, in the first place, I +took an oath once that there should be no more floods, and I set the +rainbow in the sky for an assurance. In the second place, the rascally +sinners have become cunning; they'll get on steamboats and sail all over +the flood." + +Then all the archangels were perplexed, and began to screw about in +their seats, trying to invent or think of some calamity that would bring +the wicked human race to its senses and stir up its conscience. But they +had been accustomed, time out of mind, to do good rather than evil; they +had forgotten all about the wickedness of the world; and they couldn't +think of a single thing that would be of any use. + +Then suddenly up comes Ivan-angel, a simple-minded soul whom the Lord God +had appointed to look after the Russian muzhiks. He comes up and +reports: "Lord, Satan is outside there, asking for you. He doesn't dare +to come in, because he smells bad [Footnote 2: That is, he brings with +him the sulphurous odor of hell.]; so he's waiting in the entry." + +Then the Lord God was rejoiced. "Call Satan in!" he ordered. "I know +that rogue perfectly well, and he has come in the very nick of time. A +scamp like that will be sure to think of something." + +Satan came in. His face was as black as tanned calfskin, his voice was +hoarse, and a long tail hung down from under his overcoat. + +"If you so order," he says, "I'll distribute your calamities for you +with my own hands." + +"Go ahead with your distribution," says the Lord God; "nobody shall +hinder you." + +"Will you permit me," Satan says, "to bring about an invasion of +foreigners?" + +The Lord God shook his finger at Satan and cried: "Is that all you can +think of? And you so wise!" + +"Excuse me," Satan says. "Why doesn't my plan show wisdom?" + +"Because," replies the Lord God, "you propose to afflict the people with +war, and war is just what they want. They're all the time fighting among +themselves, one people with another, and that's the very thing I want to +punish them for." + +"Yes," says Satan, "they re greedy for war, but that's only because they +have never yet seen a real warrior. Send them a regular conqueror, and +they'll soon drop their tails between their legs and cry, 'Have mercy, +Lord! Save us from the man of blood!'" + +The Lord God was surprised. "Why do you say, my little brother, that the +people have never seen a real warrior? The Tsar Herod was a conqueror; +the Tsar Alexander subdued a wonderful lot of people; Ivan-Tsar +destroyed Kazan; Mamai-Tsar the furious came with all his hordes; and +the Tsar Peter, and the great fighter Anika--how many more conquerors do +you want?" + +"I want Napoleonder," says Satan. + +"Napoleonder!" cries the Lord God. "Who's he? Where did he come from?" + +"He's a certain little man," Satan says, "who may not be wise enough to +hurt, but he's terribly fierce in his habits." + +The Lord God says to the archangel Gabriel: "Look in the Book of Life, +Gabriel, and see if we've got Napoleonder written down." + +The archangel looked and looked, but he couldn't look up any such +person. + +"There isn't any kind of Napoleonder in the Book," he says. "Satan is a +liar. We haven't got Napoleonder written down anywhere." + +Then Satan replies: "It isn't strange that you can't find Napoleonder in +the Book of Life, because you write in that Book only the names of those +who were born of human fathers and mothers, and who have navels. +Napoleonder never had a father or a mother, and, moreover, he hasn't any +navel--and that's so surprising that you might exhibit him for money." + +The Lord God was greatly astonished. "How did your Napoleonder ever get +into the world?" he says. + +"In this way," Satan replies. "I made him, as a doll, just for +amusement, out of sand. At that very time, you, Lord, happened to be +washing your holy face; and, not being careful, you let a few drops of +the water of life splash over. They fell from heaven right exactly on +Napoleonder's head, and he immediately took breath and became a man. He +is living now, not very near nor very far away, on the island of Buan, +in the middle of the ocean-sea. There is a little less than a verst of +land in the island, and Napoleonder lives there and watches geese. Night +and day he looks after the geese, without eating, or drinking, or +sleeping, or smoking; and his only thought is--how to conquer the whole +world." + +The Lord God thought and thought, and then he ordered: "Bring him to +me." + +Satan at once brought Napoleonder into the bright heaven. The Lord God +looked at him, and saw that he was a military man with shining buttons. + +"I have heard, Napoleonder," says the Lord God, "that you want to +conquer the whole world." + +"Exactly so," replies Napoleonder; "that's what I want very much to +do." + +"And have you thought," says the Lord God, "that when you go forth to +conquer you will crush many peoples and shed rivers of blood?" + +"That's all the same to me," says Napoleonder; "the important thing for +me is--how can I subdue the whole world." + +"And will you not feel pity for the killed, the wounded, the burned, the +ruined, and the dead?" + +"Not in the least," says Napoleonder. "Why should I feel pity? I don't +like pity. So far as I can remember, I was never sorry for anybody or +anything in my life, and I never shall be." + +Then the Lord God turns to the angels and says: "Messrs. Angels, this +seems to be the very fellow for our business." Then to Napoleonder he +says: "Satan was perfectly right. You are worthy to be the instrument of +my wrath, because a pitiless conqueror is worse than earthquake, famine, +or deluge. Go back to the earth, Napoleonder; I turn over to you the +whole world, and through you the whole world shall be punished." + +Napoleonder says: "Give me armies and luck, and I'll do my best." + +Then the Lord God says: "Armies you shall have, and luck you shall have; +and so long as you are merciless you shall never be defeated in battle; +but remember that the moment you begin to feel sorry for the shedding of +blood--of your own people or of others--that moment your power will +end. From that moment your enemies will defeat you, and you shall +finally be made a prisoner, be put into chains, and be sent back to Buan +Island to watch geese. Do you understand?" + +"Exactly so," says Napoleonder. "I understand, and I will obey. I shall +never feel pity." + +Then the angels and the archangels began to say to God: "Lord, why have +you laid upon him such a frightful command? If he goes forth so, without +mercy, he will kill every living soul on earth--he will leave none for +seed!" + +"Be silent!" replied the Lord God. "He will not conquer long. He is +altogether too brave; because he fears neither others nor himself. He +thinks he will keep from pity, and does not know that pity, in the +human heart, is stronger than all else, and that not a man living is +wholly without it." + +"But," the archangels say, "he is not a man; he is made of sand." + +The Lord God replies: "Then you think he didn't receive a soul when my +water of life fell on his head?" + +Napoleonder at once gathered together a great army speaking twelve +languages, and went forth to war. He conquered the Germans, he conquered +the Turks, he subdued the Swedes and the Poles. He reaped as he marched, +and left bare the country through which he passed. And all the time he +remembers the condition of success--pity for none. He cuts off heads, +burns villages, outrages women, and tramples children under his horses' +hoofs. He desolates the whole Mohammedan kingdom--and still he is not +sated. Finally he marches on a Christian country--on Holy Russia. + +In Russia then the Tsar was Alexander the Blessed--the same Tsar who +stands now on the top of the column in Petersburg-town and blesses the +people with a cross, and that's why he is called "the Blessed." + +When he saw Napoleonder marching against him with twelve languages, +Alexander the Blessed felt that the end of Russia was near. He called +together his generals and field-marshals, and said to them: "Messrs. +Generals and Field-marshals, how can I check this Napoleonder? He is +pressing us terribly hard." + +The generals and field-marshals reply: "We can't do anything, your +Majesty, to stop Napoleonder, because God has given him a word." + +"What kind of a word?" + +"This kind: 'Bonaparty.'" + +"But what does 'Bonaparty' mean, and why is a single word so terrible?" + +"It means, your Majesty, six hundred and sixty-six--the number of the +Beast [Footnote 3: A reference to the Beast of the Apocalypse. "The +number of the beast is the number of a man: and his number is Six +hundred threescore and six" (Rev. xiii. 18).]; and it is terrible +because when Napoleonder sees, in a battle, that the enemy is very +brave, that his own strength is not enough, and that his own men are +falling fast [Footnote 4: Literally, "lying down with their bones."], he +immediately conjures with this same word, 'Bonaparty,' and at that +instant--as soon as the word is pronounced--all the soldiers that have +ever served under him and have died for him on the field of battle come +back from beyond the grave. He leads them afresh against the enemy, as +if they were alive, and nothing can stand against them, because they are +a ghostly force, not an army of this world." + +Alexander the Blessed grew sad; but, after thinking a moment, he said: +"Messrs. Generals and Field-marshals, we Russians are a people of more +than ordinary courage. We have fought with all nations, and never yet +before any of them have we laid our faces in the dust. If God has +brought us, at last, to fight with corpses--his holy will be done! We +will go against the dead!" + +So he led his army to the field of Kulikova, and there waited for the +miscreant Napoleonder. And soon afterward, Napoleonder, the evil one, +sends him an envoy with a paper saying, "Submit, Alexander +Blagoslovenni, and I will show you favor above all others." + +But Alexander the Blessed was a proud man, who held fast his +self-respect. He would not speak to the envoy, but he took the paper +that the envoy had brought, and drew on it an insulting picture, with +the words, "Is this what you want?" and sent it back to Napoleonder. + +Then they fought and slashed one another on the field of Kulikova, and +in a short time or a long time our men began to overcome the forces of +the enemy. One by one they shot or cut down all of Napoleonder's +field-marshals, and finally drew near to Napoleonder himself. + +"Your time has come!" they cry to him. "Surrender!" + +But the villain sits there on his horse, rolling his goggle-eyes like an +owl, and grinning. + +"Wait a minute," he says coolly. "Don't be in too big a hurry. A tale is +short in telling, but the deed is long a-doing." + +Then he pronounces his conjuring-word, "Bonaparty"--six hundred and +sixty-six, the number of the Beast. + +Instantly there is a great rushing sound, and the earth is shaken as if +by an earthquake. Our soldiers look--and drop their hands. In all parts +of the field appear threatening battalions, with bayonets shining in the +sun, torn flags waving over terrible hats of fur, and tramp! tramp! +tramp! on come the thousands of phantom men, with faces yellow as +camomile, and empty holes under their bushy eyebrows. + +Alexander, the Blessed Tsar, was stricken with terror. Terror-stricken +were all his generals and field-marshals. Terror-stricken also was the +whole Russian army. Shaking with fear, they wavered at the advance of +the dead, gave way suddenly in a panic, and finally fled in whatever +direction their eyes happened to look. + +The brigand Napoleonder sat on his horse, holding his sides with +laughter, and shouted: "Aha! My old men are not to your taste! I +thought so! This isn't like playing knuckle-bones with children and old +women! Well, then, my honorable Messrs. Dead Men, I have never yet felt +pity for any one, and you needn't show mercy to my enemies. Deal with +them after your own fashion." + +"As long as it is so," replied the corpse-soldiers, "we are your +faithful servants always." + +Our men fled from Kulikova-field to Pultava-field; from Pultava-field to +the famous still-water Don; and from the peaceful Don to the field of +Borodino, under the very walls of Mother Moscow. And as our men came to +these fields, one after another, they turned their faces again and +again toward Napoleonder, and fought him with such fierceness that the +brigand himself was delighted with them "God save us!" he exclaimed, +"what soldiers these Russians are! I have not seen such men in any other +country." + +But, in spite of the bravery of our troops, we were unable to stop +Napoleonder's march; because we had no word with which to meet his word. +In every battle we pound him, and drive him back, and get him in a +slip-noose; but just as we are going to draw it tight and catch him, the +filthy, idolatrous thief bethinks himself and shouts "Bonaparty!" Then +the dead men crawl out of their graves in full uniform, set their teeth, +fix their eyes upon their officers, and charge! And where they pass the +grass withers and the stones crack. And our men are so terrified by +these unclean bodies that they can't fight against them at all. As soon +as they hear that accursed word "Bonaparty," and see the big fur hats +and the yellow faces of the dead men, they throw down their guns and +rush into the woods to hide. + +"Say what you will, Alexander Blagoslovenni," they cry, "for corpses we +are not prepared." + +Alexander the Blessed reproached his men, and said: "Wait a little, +brothers, before you run away. Let's exert ourselves a little more. Dog +that he is, he can't beat us always. God has set a limit for him +somewhere. To-day is his, to-morrow may be his, but after a while the +luck perhaps will turn." + +Then he went to the old hermit-monks in the caves of Kiev and on the +island of Valaam, and bowed himself at the feet of all the +archimandrites and metropolitans, saying: "Pray for us, holy fathers, +and beseech the Lord God to turn away his wrath; because we haven't +strength enough to defend you from this Napoleonder." + +Then the old hermit-monks and the archimandrites and the metropolitans +all prayed, with tears in their eyes, to the Lord God, and prostrated +themselves until their knees were all black and blue and there were big +bumps on their foreheads. With tearful eyes, the whole Russian people, +too, from the Tsar to the last beggar, prayed God for mercy and help. +And they took the sacred ikon of the Holy Mother of God of Smolensk, +the pleader for the grief-stricken, and carried it to the famous field +of Borodino, and, bowing down before it, with tearful eyes, they cried: +"O Most Holy Mother of God, thou art our life and our hope! Have mercy +on us, and intercede for us soon." + +And down the dark face of the ikon, from under the setting of pearls in +the silver frame, trickled big tears. And all the army and all God's +people saw the sacred ikon crying. It was a terrible thing to see, but +it was comforting. + +Then the Lord God heard the wail of the Russian people and the prayers +of the Holy Virgin the Mother of God of Smolensk, and he cried out to +the angels and the archangels: "The hour of my wrath has passed. The +people have suffered enough for their sins and have repented of their +wickedness. Napoleonder has destroyed nations enough. It's time for him +to learn mercy. Who of you, my servants, will go down to the earth--who +will undertake the great work of softening the conqueror's heart?" + +The older angels and the archangels didn't want to go. "Soften his +heart!" they cried. "He is made of sand--he hasn't any navel--he is +pitiless--we're afraid of him!" + +Then Ivan-angel stepped forward and said: "I'll go." + +At that very time Napoleonder had just gained a great victory and was +riding over the field of battle on a greyhound of a horse. He trampled +with his horse's hoofs on the bodies of the dead, without pity or +regret, and the only thought in his mind was, "As soon as I have done +with Russia, I'll march against the Chinese and the white Arabs; and +then I shall have conquered exactly the whole world." + +But just at that moment he heard some one calling, "Napoleonder! O +Napoleonder!" He looked around, and not far away, under a bush on a +little mound, he saw a wounded Russian soldier, who was beckoning to him +with his hand. Napoleonder was surprised. What could a wounded Russian +soldier want of him? He turned his horse and rode to the spot. "What do +you want?" he asked the soldier. + +"I don't want anything of you," the wounded soldier replied, "except an +answer to one question. Tell me, please, what have you killed me for?" + +Napoleonder was still more surprised. In the many years of his +conquering he had wounded and killed a multitude of men; but he had +never been asked that question before. And yet this Russian soldier +didn't look as if he had anything more than ordinary intelligence. He +was just a young, boyish fellow, with light flaxen hair and blue +eyes--evidently a new recruit from some country village. + +"What do you mean--'killed you for'?" said Napoleonder. "I had to kill +you. When you went into the army, didn't you take an oath that you +would die?" + +"I know what oath I took, Napoleonder, and I'm not making a fuss about +dying. But you--why did you kill me?" + +"Why shouldn't I kill you," said Napoleonder, "when you were the +enemy,--that is, my foe,--come out to fight me on the field of +Borodino?" + +"Cross yourself, Napoleonder!" said the young soldier. "How could I be +your foe, when there has never been any sort of quarrel between us? +Until you came into our country, and I was drafted into the army, I had +never even heard of you. And here you have killed me--and how many more +like me!" + +"I killed," said Napoleonder, "because it was necessary for me to +conquer the world." + +"But what have I got to do with your conquering the world?" replied the +soldier. "Conquer it, if you want to--I don't hinder. But why did you +kill me? Has killing me given you the world? The world doesn't belong to +me. You're not reasonable, brother Napoleonder. And is it possible that +you really think you can conquer the whole world?" + +"I'm very much of that opinion," replied Napoleonder. + +The little soldier smiled. "You're really stupid, Napoleonder," he said. +"I'm sorry for you. As if it were possible to conquer the whole world!" + +"I'll subdue all the kingdoms," replied Napoleonder, "and put all +peoples in chains, and then I'll reign as Tsar of all the earth." + +The soldier shook his head. "And God?" he inquired. "Will you conquer +him?" + +Napoleonder was confused. "No," he finally said. "God's will is over us +all; and in the hollow of his hand we live." + +"Then what's the use of your conquering the world?" said the soldier. +"God is all; therefore the world won't belong to you, but to him. And +you'll live just so long as he has patience with you, and no longer." + +"I know that as well as you do," said Napoleonder. + +"Well, then," replied the soldier, "if you know it, why don't you reckon +with God?" + +Napoleonder scowled. "Don't say such things to me!" he cried. "I've +heard that sanctimonious stuff before. It's of no use. You can't fool +me! I don't know any such thing as pity." + +"Indeed," said the soldier, "is it so? Have a care, Napoleonder! You are +swaggering too much. You lie when you say a man can live without pity. +To have a soul, and to feel compassion, are one and the same thing. You +have a soul, haven't you?" + +"Of course I have," replied Napoleonder; "a man can't live without a +soul." + +"There! you see!" said the soldier. "You have a soul, and you believe in +God. How, then, can you say you don't know any such thing as pity? You +do know! And I believe that at this very moment, deep down in your +heart, you are mortally sorry for me; only you don't want to show it. +Why, then, did you kill me?" + +Napoleonder suddenly became furious. "May the pip seize your tongue, you +miscreant! I'll show you how much pity I have for you!" And, drawing a +pistol, Napoleonder shot the wounded soldier through the head. Then, +turning to his dead men, he said: "Did you see that?" + +"We saw it," they replied; "and as long as it is so, we are your +faithful servants always." + +Napoleonder rode on. + +At last night comes; and Napoleonder is sitting alone in his golden +tent. His mind is troubled, and he can't understand what it is that +seems to be gnawing at his heart. For years he has been at war, and this +is the first time such a thing has happened. Never before has his soul +been so filled with unrest. And to-morrow morning he must begin another +battle--the last terrible fight with the Tsar Alexander the Blessed, on +the field of Borodino. + +"Akh!" he thinks, "I'll show them to-morrow what a leader I am! I'll +lift the soldiers of the Tsar into the air on my lances and trample +their bodies under the feet of my horses. I'll make the Tsar himself a +prisoner, and I'll kill or scatter the whole Russian people." + +But a voice seemed to whisper in his ear: "And why? Why?" + +"I know that trick," he thought. "It's that same wounded soldier again. +All right. I won't give in to him. 'Why? Why?' As if I knew why! +Perhaps if I knew why I shouldn't make war." + +He lay down on his bed; but hardly had he closed his eyes when he saw by +his bedside the wounded soldier--young, fair-faced, blond-haired, with +just the first faint shadow of a mustache. His forehead was pale, his +lips were livid, his blue eyes were dim, and in his left temple there +was a round black hole made by the bullet from his--Napoleonder's--pistol. +And the ghastly figure seemed to ask again, "Why did you kill me?" + +Napoleonder turns over and over, from side to side, in his bed. He sees +that it's a bad business. He can't get rid of that soldier. And, more +than all, he wonders at himself. "What an extraordinary occurrence!" he +thinks. "I've killed millions of people, of all countries and nations, +without the least misgiving; and now, suddenly, one miserable soldier +comes and throws all my ideas into a tangle!" + +Finally Napoleonder got up; but the confinement of his golden tent +seemed oppressive. He went out into the open air, mounted his horse, and +rode away to the place where he had shot to death the vexatious soldier. + +"I've heard," he said to himself, "that when a dead man appears in a +vision, it is necessary to sprinkle earth on the eyes of the corpse; +then he'll lie quiet." + +Napoleonder rides on. The moon is shining brightly, and the bodies of +the dead are lying on the battle-field in heaps. Everywhere he sees +corruption and smells corruption. + +"And all these," he thought, "I have killed." + +And, wonderful to say, it seems to him as if all the dead men have the +same face,--a young face with blue eyes, and blond hair, and the faint +shadow of a mustache,--and they all seem to be looking at him with +kindly, pitying eyes, and their bloodless lips move just a little as +they ask, without anger or reproach, "Why? Why?" + +Napoleonder felt a dull, heavy pressure at his heart. He had not spirit +enough left to go to the little mound where the body of the dead soldier +lay, so he turned his horse and rode back to his tent; and every corpse +that he passed seemed to say, "Why? Why?" + +He no longer felt the desire to ride at a gallop over the dead bodies of +the Russian soldiers. On the contrary, he picked his way among them +carefully, riding respectfully around the remains of every man who had +died with honor on that field of blood; and now and then he even crossed +himself and said: "Akh, that one ought to have lived! What a fine fellow +that one was! He must have fought with splendid courage. And I killed +him--why?" + +The great conqueror never noticed that his heart was growing softer and +warmer, but so it was. He pitied his dead enemies at last, and then the +evil spirit went away from him, and left him in all respects like other +people. + +The next day came the battle. Napoleonder led his forces, cloud upon +cloud, to the field of Borodino; but he was shaking as if in a chill. +His generals and field-marshals looked at him and were filled with +dismay. + +"You ought to take a drink of vodka, Napoleonder," they say; "you don't +look like yourself." + +When the Russian troops attacked the hordes of Napoleonder, on the field +of Borodino, the soldiers of the great conqueror at once gave way. + +"It's a bad business, Napoleonder," the generals and field-marshals say. +"For some reason the Russians are fighting harder to-day than ever. +You'd better call out your dead men." + +Napoleonder shouted at the top of his voice, "Bonaparty!"--six hundred +and sixty-six,--the number of the Beast. But, cry as he would, he only +frightened the jackdaws. The dead men didn't come out of their graves, +nor answer his call. And Napoleonder was left on the field of Borodino +alone. All his generals and field-marshals had fled, and he sat there +alone on his horse, shouting, "Bonaparty! Bonaparty!" + +Then suddenly there appeared beside him the smooth-faced, blue-eyed, +fair-haired Russian recruit whom he had killed the day before. And the +young soldier said: "It's useless to shout, Napoleonder. Nobody will +come. Yesterday you felt sorry for me and for my dead brothers, and +because of your pity your corpse-soldiers no longer come at your call. +Your power over them is gone." + +Then Napoleonder began to weep and sob, and cried out, "You have ruined +me, you wretched, miserable soldier!" + +But the soldier (who was Ivan-angel, and not a soldier at all) replied: +"I have not ruined you, Napoleonder; I have saved you. If you had gone +on in your merciless, pitiless course, there would have been no +forgiveness for you, either in this life or in the life to come. Now God +has given you time for repentance. In this world you shall be punished; +but there, beyond, if you repent of your sins, you shall be forgiven." + +And the angel vanished. + +Then our Don Cossacks fell on Napoleonder, dragged him from his horse, +and took him to Alexander the Blessed. Some said, "Napoleonder ought to +be shot!" Others cried, "Send him to Siberia to!" But the Lord God +softened the heart of Alexander the Blessed, and the merciful Tsar would +not allow Napoleonder to be shot or sent to Siberia. He ordered that the +great conqueror be put into an iron cage, and be carried around and +exhibited to the people at country fairs. So Napoleonder was carried +from one fair to another for a period of thirty summers and three +years--until he had grown quite old. Then, when he was an old man, they +sent him to the island of Buan to watch geese. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE[1] + +[Footnote 1: A story told to a group of French peasants one evening, in +a barn, by Goguelat, the village postman, who had served under Napoleon +in a regiment of infantry.] + +Napoleon, my friends, was born, you know, in Corsica. That's a French +island, but it's warmed by the sun of Italy, and everything's as hot +there as if it were a furnace. It's a place, too, where the people kill +one another, from father to son, generation after generation, for +nothing at all; that is, for no reason in particular except that it's +their way. + +Well, to begin with the most wonderful part of the story, it so +happened that on the very day when Napoleon was born, his mother dreamed +that the world was on fire. She was a shrewd, clever woman, as well as +the prettiest woman of her time; and when she had this dream, she +thought she'd save her son from the dangers of life by dedicating him to +God. And, indeed, that was a prophetic dream of hers! So she asked God +to protect the boy, and promised that when he grew up he should +reestablish God's holy religion, which had then been overthrown. That +was the agreement they made; and although it seems strange, such things +have happened. It's sure and certain, anyhow, that only a man who had an +agreement with God could pass through the enemy's lines, and move about +in showers of bullets and grape-shot, as Napoleon did. They swept us +away like flies, but his head they never touched at all. I had a proof +of that--I myself, in particular--at Eylau, where the Emperor went up on +a little hill to see how things were going. I can remember, to this day, +exactly how he looked as he took out his field-glass, watched the battle +for a minute, and finally said: "It's all right! Everything is going +well." Then, just as he was coming back, an ambitious chap in a plumed +hat, who was always following him around, and who bothered him, they +said, even at his meals, thought he'd play smart by going up on the very +same hill; but he had hardly taken the Emperor's place when--batz!--away +he went, plume and all! + +Now follow me closely, and tell me whether what you are going to hear +was natural. + +Napoleon, you know, had promised that he'd keep his agreement with God +to himself. That's the reason why his companions and even his particular +friends--men like Duroc, Bessières, and Lannes, who were strong as bars +of steel, but whom he molded to suit his purposes--all fell, like nuts +from a shaken tree, while he himself was never even hurt. + +But that's not the only proof that he was the child of God and was +expressly created to be the father of soldiers. Did anybody ever see him +a lieutenant? Or a captain? Never! He was commander-in-chief from the +start. When he didn't look more than twenty-four years of age he was +already an old general--ever since the taking of Toulon, where he first +began to show the rest of them that they didn't know anything about the +handling of cannon. + +Well, soon after that, down comes this stripling to us as +general-in-chief of the Army of Italy--an army that hadn't any +ammunition, or bread, or shoes, or coats; a wretched army--naked as a +worm. "Now, boys!" he said, "here we are, all together. I want you to +get it fixed in your heads that in fifteen days more you 're going to be +conquerors. You're going to have new clothes, good leggings, the best of +shoes, and a warm overcoat for every man; but in order to get these +things you'll have to march to Milan, where they are." So we marched. We +were only thirty thousand bare-footed tramps, and we were going against +eighty thousand crack German soldiers--fine, well equipped men; but +Napoleon, who was only Bonaparte then, breathed a spirit of--I don't +know what--into us, and on we marched, night and day. We hit the enemy +at Montenotte, thrashed 'em at Rivoli, Lodi, Arcola, and Millesimo, and +stuck to 'em wherever they went. A soldier soon gets to like being a +conqueror; and Napoleon wheeled around those German generals, and pelted +away at 'em, until they didn't know where to hide long enough to get a +little rest. With fifteen hundred Frenchmen, whom he made to appear a +great host (that's a way he had), he'd sometimes surround ten thousand +men and gather 'em all in at a single scoop. Then we'd take their +cannon, their money, their ammunition, and everything they had that was +worth carrying away. As for the others, we chucked 'em into the water, +walloped 'em on the mountains, snapped 'em up in the air, devoured 'em +on the ground, and beat 'em everywhere. So at last our troops were in +fine feather--especially as Napoleon, who had a clever wit, made friends +with the inhabitants of the country by telling them that we had come to +set them free; and then, of course, they gave us quarters and took the +best of care of us. And it was not only the men: the women took care of +us too, which showed their good judgment! + +Well, it finally ended in this way: in Ventose, 1796,--which was the +same time of year that our March is now,--we were penned up in one +corner of the marmot country: but at the end of the first campaign, lo +and behold! we were masters of Italy, just as Napoleon had predicted. +And in the month of March following--that is, in two campaigns, which we +fought in a single year--he brought us in sight of Vienna. It was just a +clean sweep. We had eaten up three different armies in succession, and +had wiped out four Austrian generals; one of them--a white-haired old +chap--was burned alive at Mantua like a rat in a straw mattress. We had +conquered peace, and kings were begging, on their knees, for mercy. +Could a man have done all that alone? Never! He had the help of God; +that's certain! He divided himself up like the five loaves of bread in +the Gospel; he planned battles at night and directed them in the +daytime: he was seen by the sentries going here and there at all hours, +and he never ate or slept. When the soldiers saw all these wonderful +things, they adopted him as their father. + +But the people at the head of the government over there in Paris, who +were looking on, said to themselves: "This schemer, who seems to have +the watchword of Heaven, is quite capable of laying his hands on France. +We'd better turn him loose in Asia or America. Then maybe he'll be +satisfied for a while." So it was written that he should do just what +Jesus Christ did--go to Egypt. You see how in this he resembled the Son +of God. But there's more to come. + +He gathered together all his old fire-eaters--the fellows that he had +put the spirit of the Devil into--and said to them: "Boys! They've given +us Egypt to chew on--to keep us quiet for a while; but we'll swallow +Egypt in one time and two movements--just as we did Italy; All you +private soldiers shall be princes, with lands of your own. Forward!" + +"Forward, boys!" shouted the sergeants. + +So we marched to Toulon, on our way to Egypt. As soon as the English +heard of it, they sent out all their ships of war to catch us; but when +we embarked, Napoleon said to us: "The English will never see us; and +it is only proper for you to know now that your general has a star in +the sky which will henceforth guide and protect us." + +As 't was said, so 't was done. On our way across the sea we took Malta +(just as one would pick an orange in passing) to quench Napoleon's +thirst for victory; because he was a man who wanted to be doing +something all the time. + +And so at last we came to Egypt; and then the orders were different. The +Egyptians, you know, are people who, from the beginning of the world, +have had giants to rule over them, and armies like innumerable ants. +Their country is a land of genii and crocodiles, and of pyramids as big +as our mountains, where they put the bodies of their dead kings to keep +them fresh--a thing that seems to please them all around. Of course you +can't deal with such people as you would with others. So when we landed, +the Little Corporal said to us: "Boys! The country that you are going to +conquer worships a lot of gods that must be respected. Frenchmen should +keep on good terms with everybody, and fight people without hurting +their feelings. So let everything alone at first, and by and by we'll +get all there is." + +Now there was a prediction among the Egyptians down there that Napoleon +would come; and the name they had for him was Kebir Bonaberdis, which +means, in their lingo, "The Sultan strikes fire." They were as much +afraid of him as they were of the Devil; so the Grand Turk, Asia, and +Africa resorted to magic, and sent against us a demon named Mody [the +Mahdi], who was supposed to have come down from heaven on a white horse. +This horse was incombustible to bullets, and so was the Mody, and the +two of 'em lived on weather and air. There are people who have seen 'em; +but I haven't any reason, myself, to say positively that the things told +about 'em were true. Anyhow, they were the great powers in Arabia; and +the Mamelukes wanted to make the Egyptian soldiers think that the Mody +could keep them from being killed in battle, and that he was an angel +sent down from heaven to fight Napoleon and get back Solomon's seal--a +part of their equipment which they pretended to believe our general had +stolen. But we made 'em laugh on the wrong side of their mouths, in +spite of their Mody! + +They thought Napoleon could command the genii, and that he had power to +go from one place to another in an instant, like a bird; and, indeed, +it's a fact that he was everywhere. But how did they know that he had an +agreement with God? Was it natural that they should get such an idea as +that? + +It so happened, finally, that he carried off one of their queens--a +woman beautiful as the sunshine. He tried, at first, to buy her, and +offered to give for her all his treasure, and a lot of diamonds as big +as pigeons' eggs; but although the Mameluke to whom she particularly +belonged had several others, he wouldn't agree to the bargain; so +Napoleon had to carry her off. Of course, when things came to such a +pass as that, they couldn't be settled without a lot of fighting; and if +there weren't blows enough to satisfy all, it wasn't anybody's fault. We +formed in battle line at Alexandria, at Gizeh, and in front of the +Pyramids. We marched in hot sunshine and through deep sand, where some +got so bedazzled that they saw water which they couldn't drink, and +shade that made them sweat; but we generally chewed up the Mamelukes, +and all the rest gave in when they heard Napoleon's voice. + +He took possession of Upper and Lower Egypt, Arabia, and the capitals of +kingdoms that perished long ago, where there were thousands of statues +of all the evil things in creation, especially lizards--a thundering big +country, where one could get acres of land for as little as he pleased. + +Well, while Napoleon was attending to his business inland, where he +intended to do some splendid things, the English, who were always trying +to make us trouble, burned his fleet at Aboukir. But our general, who +had the respect of the East and the West, who had been called "my son" +by the Pope, and "my dear father" by the cousin of Mahomet, resolved to +punish England, and to capture the Indies, in payment for his lost +fleet. He was just going to take us across the Red Sea into Asia--a +country where there were lots of diamonds, plenty of gold with which to +pay his soldiers, and palaces that could be used for etapes--when the +Mody made an arrangement with the Plague, and sent it down to put an end +to our victories. Then it was, Halt, all! And everybody marched off to +that parade from which you don't come back on your feet. Dying soldiers +couldn't take Saint Jean d'Acre, although they forced an entrance three +times with noble and stubborn courage. The Plague was too strong for us; +and it wasn't any use to say "Please don't!" to the Plague. Everybody +was sick except Napoleon. He looked fresh as a rose, and the whole army +saw him drinking in pestilence without being hurt a bit. How was that? +Do you call that natural? + +Well, the Mamelukes, who knew that we were all in ambulances, thought +they'd bar our way; but they couldn't play that sort of game with +Napoleon. He turned to his old fire-eaters--the fellows with the +toughest hides--and said: "Go clear the road for me." Junot, who was his +devoted friend and a number one soldier, took not more than a thousand +men, and slashed right through the army of the pasha which had had the +impudence to get in our way. Then we went back to Cairo, where we had +our headquarters. + +And now for another part of the story. While Napoleon was away France +was letting herself be ruined by those government scalawags in Paris, +who were keeping back the soldiers' pay, withholding their linen and +their clothes, and even letting them starve. They wanted the soldiers to +lay down the law to the universe, and that's all they cared for. They +were just a lot of idiots jabbering for amusement instead of putting +their own hands into the dough. So our armies were beaten and we +couldn't defend, our frontiers. THE MAN was no longer there. I say "the +man" because that's what they called him; but it was absurd to say that +he was merely a man, when he had a star of his own with all its +belongings. It was the rest of us who were merely men. At the battle of +Aboukir, with a single division and with a loss of only three hundred +men, he whipped the great army of the Turks, and hustled more than half +of them into the sea--r-r-rah--like that! But it was his last +thunderclap in Egypt; because when he heard, soon afterward, what was +happening in France, he made up his mind to go back there. "I am the +savior of France," he said, "and I must go to her aid." The army didn't +know what he intended to do. If they had known, they would have kept him +in Egypt by force and made him Emperor of the East. + +When he had gone, we all felt very blue; because he had been the joy of +our lives. He left the command to Kléber--a great lout of a fellow who +soon afterward lost the number of his mess. An Egyptian assassinated +him. They put the murderer to death by making him sit on a bayonet; +that's their way, down there, of guillotining a man. But he suffered so +much that one of our soldiers felt sorry for him and offered him his +water-gourd. The criminal took a drink, and then gave up the ghost with +the greatest pleasure. + +But we didn't waste much time over trifles like that. + +Napoleon sailed from Egypt in a cockle-shell of a boat called _Fortune_. +He passed right under the noses of the English, who were blockading the +coast with ships of the line, frigates, and every sort of craft that +could carry sail, and in the twinkling of an eye he was in France; +because he had the ability to cross the sea as if with a single stride. +Was that natural? Bah! The very minute he reached Fréjus, he had his +foot, so to speak, in Paris. There, of course, everybody worships him. +But the first thing he does is to summon the government. "What have you +been doing with my children the soldiers?" he said to the lawyers. "You +are nothing but a lot of poll-parrots, who fool the people with your +gabble, and feather your own nests at the expense of France. It is not +right; and I speak in the name of all who are dissatisfied." + +They thought, at first, that they could get rid of him by talking him +to death; but it didn't work. He shut 'em up in the very barrack where +they did their talking, and those who didn't jump out of the windows he +enrolled in his suite, where they soon became mute as fish and pliable +as a tobacco-pouch. This coup made him consul; and as he wasn't one to +doubt the Supreme Being who had kept good faith with him, he hastened to +fulfil his own promise by restoring the churches and reestablishing +religion; whereupon the bells all rang out in his honor and in honor of +the good God. + +Everybody then was satisfied: first, the priests, because they were +protected from persecution; second, the merchants, because they could do +business without fearing the "we-grab-it-all" of the law; and finally +the nobles, because the people were forbidden to put them to death, as +they had formerly had the unfortunate habit of doing. + +But Napoleon still had his enemies to clear away, and he was not a man +to drop asleep over his porringer. His eye took in the whole world--as +if it were no bigger than a soldier's head. The first thing he did was +to turn up in Italy--as suddenly as if he had poked his head through a +window; and one look from him was enough. The Austrians were swallowed +up at Marengo as gudgeons are swallowed by a whale. Then the French +VICTORY sang a song of triumph that all the world could hear, and it was +enough. "We won't play any more!" declared the Germans. + +"Nor we either," said the others. + +Sum total: Europe is cowed; England knuckles down; and there is +universal peace, with all the kings and people pretending to embrace one +another. + +It was then that Napoleon established the Legion of Honor; and a fine +thing it was, too. In a speech that he made before the whole army at +Boulogne he said: "In France everybody is brave; so the civilian who +does a noble deed shall be the brother of the soldier, and they shall +stand together under the flag of honor." Then we who had been down in +Egypt came home and found everything changed. When Napoleon left us he +was only a general; but in no time at all he had become Emperor. France +had given herself to him as a pretty girl gives herself to a lancer. + +Well, when everything had been settled to everybody's satisfaction, +there was a religious ceremony such as had never before been seen under +the canopy of heaven. The Pope and all his cardinals, in their robes of +scarlet and gold, came across the Alps to anoint him with holy oil, and +he was crowned Emperor, in the presence of the army and the people, with +great applause and clapping of hands. + +But there is one thing that it would not be fair not to tell you; and +that is about the RED MAN. While Napoleon was still in Egypt, in a +desert not far from Syria, the Red Man appeared to him on the mountain +of Moses (Sinai), and said to him, "It's all right!" Then again, at +Marengo, on the evening of the victory, the same Red Man appeared to him +a second time, and said: "You shall see the world at your feet: you +shall be Emperor of France; King of Italy; master of Holland; sovereign +of Spain, Portugal, and the Illyrian provinces; protector of Germany; +savior of Poland; first eagle of the Legion of Honor--everything!" + +This Red Man, you see, was his own idea; and was a sort of messenger +whom he used, many people said, as a means of communication with his +star. I've never believed that, myself, but that there was a Red Man is +a real fact. Napoleon himself spoke of him, and said that he lived up +under the roof in the palace of the Tuileries, and that he often used to +make his appearance in times of trouble. On the evening of his +coronation Napoleon saw him for the third time, and they consulted +together about a lot of things. + +After that the Emperor went to Milan, where he was crowned King of +Italy; and then began a regular triumph for us soldiers. Every man who +knew how to read and write became an officer; it rained dukedoms; +pensions were distributed with both hands; there were fortunes for the +general staff which didn't cost France a penny; and even common soldiers +received annuities with their crosses of the Legion of Honor--I get +mine to this day. In short, the armies of France were taken care of in +a way that had never before been seen. + +But the Emperor, who knew that he was the emperor not only of the +soldiers but of all, remembered the bourgeois, and built wonderful +monuments for them, to suit their own taste, in places that had been as +bare before as the palm of your hand. Suppose you were coming from +Spain, for example, and going through France to Berlin. You would pass +under sculptured triumphal arches on which you'd see the common soldiers +carved just as beautifully as the generals. + +In two or three years, and without taxing you people at all, Napoleon +filled his vaults with gold; created bridges, palaces, roads, schools, +festivals, laws, harbors, ships; and spent millions and millions of +money--so much, in fact, that if he'd taken the notion, they say, he +might have paved all France with five-franc pieces. + +Finally, when he was comfortably seated on his throne, he was so +thoroughly the master of everything that Europe waited for his +permission before it even dared to sneeze. Then, as he had four brothers +and three sisters, he said to us in familiar talk, as if in the order of +the day: "Boys! Is it right that the relatives of your Emperor should +have to beg their bread? No! I want them to shine, just as I do. A +kingdom must be conquered, therefore, for every one of them; so that +France may be master of all; so that the soldiers of the Guard may make +the world tremble; so that France may spit wherever she likes; and so +that all nations may say to her,--as it is written on my coins,--'God +protects you.'" + +"All right!" says the army. "We'll fish up kingdoms for you with the +bayonet." + +We couldn't back out, you know; and if he had taken it into his head to +conquer the moon, we should have had to get ready, pack our knapsacks, +and climb up. Fortunately, he didn't have any such intention. + +The kings, who were very comfortable on their thrones, naturally didn't +want to get off to make room for his relatives; so they had to be +dragged off by the ears. Forward! We marched and marched, and +everything began to shake again. Ah, how he did wear out men and shoes +in those days! He struck such tremendous blows with us that if we had +been other than Frenchmen we should all have been used up. But Frenchmen +are born philosophers, and they know that a little sooner or a little +later they must die. So we used to die without a word, because we had +the pleasure of seeing the Emperor do this with the geographies. [Here +the old soldier nimbly drew a circle with his foot on the floor of the +barn.] + +"There!" he would say, "that shall be a kingdom!" And it was a kingdom. +Ah, that was a great time! Colonels became generals while you were +looking at them; generals became marshals, and marshals became kings. +There's one of those kings still left, to remind Europe of that time; +but he is a Gascon, and has betrayed France in order to keep his crown. +He doesn't blush for the shame of it, either; because crowns, you +understand, are made of gold! Finally, even sappers, if they knew how to +read, became nobles all the same. I myself have seen in Paris eleven +kings and a crowd of princes, surrounding Napoleon like rays of the sun. +Every soldier had a chance to see how a throne fitted him, if he was +worthy of it, and when a corporal of the Guard passed by he was an +object of curiosity; because all had a share in the glory of the +victories, which were perfectly well known to everybody through the +bulletins. + +And what a lot of battles there were! Austerlitz, where the army +maneuvered as if on parade; Eylau, where the Russians were drowned in a +lake as if Napoleon had blown them in with a single puff; Wagram, where +we fought three days without flinching. In short, there were as many +battles as there are saints in the calendar. And it was proved then that +Napoleon had in his scabbard the real sword of God. He felt regard for +his soldiers, too, and treated them just as if they were his children, +always taking pains to find out if they were well supplied with shoes, +linen, overcoats, bread, and cartridges. But he kept up his dignity as +sovereign all the same; because to reign was his business. However, +that didn't make any difference. A sergeant, or even a common soldier, +could say to him "Emperor," just as you sometimes say "my dear fellow" +to me. He was one that you could argue with, if necessary; he slept on +the snow with the rest of us; and, in short, he appeared almost like any +other man. But when the grape-shot were kicking up the dust at his very +feet, I have seen him going about coolly,--no more disturbed by them +than you are at this minute,--looking through his field-glass now and +then, and attending all the time to his business. Of course that made +the rest of us as calm and serene as John the Baptist. I don't know how +he managed it, but when he spoke to us, his words put fire into our +hearts; and in order to show him that we really were his children, and +not the kind of men to shrink from danger, we used to march right up to +great blackguards of cannon which bellowed and vomited balls without so +much as saying "Look out!" Even dying men had the nerve to raise their +heads and salute him with the cry of "Long live the Emperor!" Was that +natural? Would they have done that for a mere man? + +Well, when he had settled all his folks comfortably, the Empress +Josephine--who was a good woman all the same--was so fixed that she +couldn't give him any family, and he had to leave her. He loved her +quite a little, too; but for reasons of state he had to have children. +When the kings of Europe heard of this trouble, they came to blows over +the question who should give him a wife. He finally married, they told +us, an Austrian woman. She was a daughter of Caesar's--a man of ancient +times who is much talked about, not only in our country, where they say +he made everything, but in Europe. It's true, anyhow, that I have myself +been on the Danube, and have seen there the remains of a bridge that +this man Caesar built. It appears that he was a relative of Napoleon's +in Rome, and that's why the Emperor had a right to take the inheritance +there for his son. + +Well, after his marriage, when there was a holiday for the whole world, +and when he let the people off ten years' taxes (which were collected +all the same, because the tax-gatherers didn't pay any attention to what +he said), his wife had a little boy who was King of Rome. That was a +thing which had never been seen on earth before--a child born king while +his father was still living. A balloon was sent up in Paris to carry the +news to Rome, and it made the whole distance in a single day. Now will +any of you tell me that that was natural? Never! It had been so written +on high. + +Well, next comes the Emperor of Russia. He had once been Napoleon's +friend; but he got angry because our Emperor didn't marry a Russian +woman. So he backs up our enemies the English. Napoleon had long +intended to pay his respects to those English ducks in their own nests, +but something had always happened to prevent, and it was now high time +to make an end of them. So he finally got angry himself, and said to us: +"Soldiers! You have been masters of all the capitals of Europe except +Moscow, which is the ally of England. In order to conquer London, as +well as the Indies, which belong to London, I find it necessary to go to +Moscow." + +Well, there assembled then the greatest army that ever tramped in +gaiters over the world; and the Emperor had them so curiously well lined +up that he reviewed a million men in a single day. + +"Hourra!" shout the Russians. And there they were--those animals of +Cossacks who are forever running away, and the whole Russian nation, +all complete! It was country against country--a general mix-up, where +everybody had to look out for himself. As the Red Man had said to +Napoleon, "It's Asia against Europe." + +"All right!" replied the Emperor, "I'll take care." And then came +fawning on Napoleon all the kings of Europe,--Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, +Saxony, Poland, Italy,--all flattering us and going along with us. It +was splendid! The French eagles never cooed as they did on parade then, +when they were held high above all the flags of Europe. The Poles +couldn't contain themselves for joy, because the Emperor intended to set +them up again as a nation--and for that reason the French and the Poles +have been like brothers ever since. + +"Russia shall be ours!" cried the army. + +We crossed the frontier,--the whole lot of us,--and marched, and +marched, and marched. No Russians! At last we found the rascals, camping +on the bank of the Moscow River. That's where I got my cross; and I take +leave to say that it was the damnedest of battles! Napoleon himself was +worried, because the Red Man had appeared again and had said to him, "My +son, you are going too fast; you will run short of men, and your friends +will betray you." Thereupon the Emperor proposed peace; but before the +treaty was signed he said to us, "Let's give those Russians a +drubbing!" + +"All right!" said the army. + +"Forward!" shout the sergeants. + +My clothes were going to pieces and my shoes were all worn out from +tramping over the bad roads out there, but I said to myself, "Never +mind; since this is the last of the rumpus, I'll make 'em give me a +bellyful!" + +We were drawn up near the edge of the great ravine--in the front seats! +The signal was given, and seven hundred pieces of artillery began a +conversation that was enough to bring the blood from your ears. Well, to +do justice to one's enemies, I must admit that the Russians let +themselves be killed like Frenchmen. They wouldn't give way, and we +couldn't advance. + +"Forward!" shouted our officers. "Here comes the Emperor!" And there he +was, passing at a gallop, and motioning to us that it was very important +to capture the redoubt. He put new life into us, and on we ran. I was +the first to reach the ravine. Ah! Mon Dieu! How the colonels are +falling, and the lieutenants, and the soldiers! But never mind! There'll +be all the more shoes for those who haven't any, and epaulets for the +ambitious fellows who know how to read. + +At last the cry of "Victory!" rang all along the line; but--would you +believe it?--there were twenty-five thousand Frenchmen lying on the +ground! A trifle, eh? Well, such a thing had never been seen before. It +was a regular harvest field after the reaping; only instead of stalks of +grain there were bodies of men. That sobered the rest of us. But the +Emperor soon came along, and when we formed a circle around him, he +praised us and cheered us up (he could be very amiable when he liked), +and made us feel quite contented, even although we were as hungry as +wolves. Then he distributed crosses of honor among us, saluted the dead, +and said, "On to Moscow!" + +"All right! To Moscow!" replied the army. + +And then what did the Russians do but burn their city! It made a +six-mile bonfire which blazed for two days. The buildings fell like +slates, and there was a rain of melted iron and lead which was simply +horrible! Indeed, that fire was the lightning from the dark cloud of our +misfortunes. The Emperor said: "There's enough of this. If we stay here, +none of my soldiers will ever get out." But we waited a little to cool +off and to refresh our carcasses; because we were really played out. We +carried away a golden cross that was on the Kremlin, and every soldier +had a small fortune. + +On our way back, winter came upon us, a month earlier than usual,--a +thing that those stupid scientific men have never properly +explained,--and the cold caught us. Then there was no more army; do you +understand? No army, no generals, no sergeants even! After that it was +a reign of misery and hunger--a reign where we were all equal. We +thought of nothing except of seeing France again. Nobody stooped to pick +up his gun, or his money, if he happened to drop them; and every one +went straight on, arms at will, caring nothing for glory. The weather +was so bad that Napoleon could no longer see his star--the sky was +hidden. Poor man! It made him sick at heart to see his eagles flying +away from victory. It was a crushing blow to him. + +Well, then came the Beresina. And now, my friends, I may say to you, on +my honor and by everything sacred, that never--no, never since man lived +on earth--has there been such a mixed up hodgepodge of army, wagons, +and artillery, in the midst of such snows, and under such a pitiless +sky! It was so cold that if you touched the barrel of your gun you +burned your hand. + +It was there that Gondrin--who is now present with us--behaved so well. +He is the only one now living of the pontooners who went down into the +water that day and built the bridge on which we crossed the river. The +Russians still had some respect for the Grand Army, on account of its +past victories; but it was Gondrin and the pontooners who saved us, and +[pointing at Gondrin, who was looking at him with the fixed attention +peculiar to the deaf] Gondrin is a finished soldier and a soldier of +honor, who is worthy of your highest esteem. + +I saw the Emperor that day, standing motionless near the bridge, and +never feeling the cold at all. Was that natural, do you think? He was +watching the destruction of his treasure, his friends, his old Egyptian +soldiers. It was the end of everything. Women, wagons, cannon--all were +being destroyed, demolished, ruined, wrecked! A few of the bravest +guarded the eagles; because the eagles, you understand, stood for +France, for you, for the civil and military honor that had to be kept +unstained and that was not to be humbled by the cold. + +We hardly ever got warm except near the Emperor. When he was in danger, +we all ran to him--although we were so nearly frozen that we would not +have held out a hand to our dearest friend. They say that he used to +weep at night over his poor family of soldiers. Nobody but he and +Frenchmen could ever have pulled out of there. We did pull out, but it +was with loss--terrible loss. Our allies ate up all of our provisions, +and then began the treachery which the Red Man had foretold. + +The blatherskites in Paris, who had kept quiet since the formation of +the Imperial Guard, thought that the Guard had finally perished. So they +got up a conspiracy and hoodwinked the Prefect of Police into an attempt +to overthrow the Emperor. He heard of this and it worried him. When he +left us he said: "Good-by, boys. Guard the posts. I will come back to +you." + +After he had gone, things went from bad to worse. The generals lost +their heads; and the marshals quarreled with one another and did all +sorts of foolish things, as was natural. Napoleon, who was good to +everybody, had fed them on gold until they had become as fat as pigs, +and they didn't want to do any more marching. This led to trouble, +because many of them remained idle in forts behind the army that was +driving us back to France, and didn't even try to relieve us by +attacking the enemy in the rear. + +The Emperor finally returned, bringing with him a lot of splendid +recruits whom he had drilled into regular war-dogs, ready to set their +teeth into anything. He brought also a bourgeois guard of honor, a fine +troop, which melted away in battle like butter on a hot gridiron. In +spite of the bold front that we put on, everything went against us; +although the army performed feats of wonderful courage. Then came +regular battles of mountains--nations against nations--at Dresden, +Lutzen, and Bautzen. Don't you ever forget that time, because it was +then that Frenchmen showed how wonderfully heroic they could be. A good +grenadier, in those days, seldom lasted more than six months. We always +won, of course; but there in our rear were the English, stirring up the +nations to take sides against us. But we fought our way through this +pack of nations at last. Wherever Napoleon showed himself, we rushed; +and whenever, on land or sea, he said, "I wish to pass," we passed. + +We finally got back to France; and many a poor foot-soldier was braced +up by the air of his native country, notwithstanding the hard times we +had. As for myself, in particular, I may say that it renewed my life. + +It then became a question of defending the fatherland--our fair +France--against all Europe. They didn't like our laying down the law to +the Russians, and our driving them back across their borders, so that +they couldn't devour us, as is the custom of the North. Those Northern +peoples are very greedy for the South, or at least that's what I've +heard many generals say. Then Napoleon saw arrayed against him his own +father-in-law, his friends whom he had made kings, and all the +scoundrels whom he had put on thrones. Finally, in pursuance of orders +from high quarters, even Frenchmen, and allies in our own ranks, turned +against us; as at the battle of Leipsic. Common soldiers wouldn't have +been mean enough to do that! Men who called themselves princes broke +their word three times a day. + +Well, then came the invasion. Wherever Napoleon showed his lion face +the enemy retreated; and he worked more miracles in defending France +than he had shown in conquering Italy, the East, Spain, Europe, and +Russia. He wanted to bury all the invaders in France, and thus teach +them to respect the country; so he let them come close to Paris, in +order to swallow 'em all at a gulp and rise to the height of his genius +in a battle greater than all the others--a regular mother of battles! +But those cowardly Parisians were so afraid for their wretched skins and +their miserable shops that they opened the gates of the city. Then the +good times ended and the "ragusades" began. They fooled the Empress and +hung white flags out of the palace windows. Finally the very generals +whom Napoleon had taken for his best friends deserted him and went over +to the Bourbons--of whom nobody had ever before heard. Then he bade us +good-by at Fontainebleau. "Soldiers!" + +I can hear him, even now. We were all crying like regular babies, and +the eagles and flags were lowered as if at a funeral. And it was a +funeral--the funeral of the Empire. His old soldiers, once so hale and +spruce, were little more than skeletons. Standing on the portico of his +palace, he said to us: + +"Comrades! We have been beaten through treachery; but we shall all see +one another again in heaven, the country of the brave. Protect my child, +whom I intrust to you. Long live Napoleon II!" + +Like Jesus Christ before his last agony, he believed himself deserted by +God and his star; and in order that no one should see him conquered, it +was his intention to die; but, although he took poison enough to kill a +whole regiment, it never hurt him at all--another proof, you see, that +he was more than man: he found himself immortal. As he felt sure of his +business after that, and knew that he was to be Emperor always, he went +to a certain island for a while, to study the natures of those people in +Paris, who did not fail, of course, to do stupid things without end. + +While he was standing guard down there, the Chinese and those animals on +the coast of Africa--Moors and others, who are not at all easy to get +along with--were so sure that he was something more than man that they +respected his tent, and said that to touch it would be to offend God. So +he reigned over the whole world, although those other fellows had sent +him out of France. + +Well, then, after a while he embarked again in the very same nut-shell +of a boat that he had left Egypt in, passed right under the bows of the +English vessels, and set foot once more in France. France acknowledged +him; the sacred cuckoo flew from spire to spire; and all the people +cried, "Long live the Emperor!" + +In this vicinity the enthusiasm for the Wonder of the Ages was most +hearty. Dauphiny behaved well; and it pleased me particularly to know +that our own people here wept for joy when they saw again his gray coat. + +On the 1st of March Napoleon landed, with two hundred men, to conquer +the kingdom of France and Navarre; and on the 20th of the same month +that kingdom became the French Empire. On that day THE MAN was in Paris. +He had made a clean sweep--had reconquered his dear France, and had +brought all his old soldiers together again by saying only three words: +"Here I am." 'Twas the greatest miracle God had ever worked. Did ever a +man, before him, take an empire by merely showing his hat? They thought +that France was crushed, did they? Not a bit of it! At sight of the +Eagle a national army sprang up, and we all marched to Waterloo. There +the Guard perished, as if stricken down at a single blow. Napoleon, in +despair, threw himself three times, at the head of his troops, on the +enemy's cannon, without being able to find death. The battle was lost. + +That evening the Emperor called his old soldiers together, and, on the +field wet with our blood, burned his eagles and his flags. The poor +eagles, who had always been victorious, who had cried "Forward!" in all +our battles, and who had flown over all Europe, were saved from the +disgrace of falling into the hands of their enemies. All the treasure of +England couldn't buy the tail of one of them. They were no more! + +The rest of the story is well known to everybody. The Red Man went over +to the Bourbons, like the scoundrel that he is; France was crushed; and +the old soldiers, who were no longer of any account, were deprived of +their dues and sent back to their homes, in order that their places +might be given to a lot of nobles who couldn't even march--it was +pitiful to see them try! Then Napoleon was seized, through treachery, +and the English nailed him to a rock, ten thousand feet above the earth, +on a desert island in the great ocean. There he must stay until the Red +Man, for the good of France, gives him back his power. It is said by +some that he is dead. Oh, yes! Dead! That shows how little they know +him! They only tell that lie to cheat the people and keep peace in their +shanty of a government. The truth of the matter is that his friends have +left him there in the desert to fulfil a prophecy that was made about +him--for I have forgotten to tell you that the name Napoleon really +means "Lion of the Desert." + +This that I have told you is gospel truth; and all the other things that +you hear about the Emperor are foolish stories with no human likeliness. +Because, you see, God never gave to any other man born of woman the +power to write his name in red across the whole world--and the world +will remember him forever. Long live Napoleon, the father of the +soldiers and the people! + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Folk-Tales of Napoleon +by Honoré de Balzac and Alexander Amphiteatrof + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11278 *** diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f8d5c5f --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #11278 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/11278) diff --git a/old/11278-8.txt b/old/11278-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..243e1af --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11278-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1845 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Folk-Tales of Napoleon +by Honoré de Balzac and Alexander Amphiteatrof + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Folk-Tales of Napoleon + The Napoleon of the People; Napoleonder + +Author: Honoré de Balzac and Alexander Amphiteatrof + +Release Date: February 25, 2004 [EBook #11278] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOLK-TALES OF NAPOLEON *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner, Bill Walker and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +FOLK-TALES OF NAPOLEON + +NAPOLEONDER + From the Russian + +THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE + From the French of Honoré de Balzac + + +Translated With Introduction By +GEORGE KENNAN + + +1902 + + +CONTENTS + +NAPOLEONDER +THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +Most of the literature that has its origin in the life and career of a +great man may be grouped and classified under two heads: history and +biography. The part that relates to the man's actions, and to the +influence that such actions have had in shaping the destinies of peoples +and states, belongs in the one class; while the part that derives its +interest mainly from the man's personality, and deals chiefly with the +mental and moral characteristics of which his actions were the outcome, +goes properly into the other. The value of the literature included in +these two classes depends almost wholly upon truth; that is, upon the +precise correspondence of the statements made with the real facts of the +man's life and career. History is worse than useless if it does not +accurately chronicle and describe events; and biography is valueless and +misleading if it does not truly set forth individual character. + +There is, however, a kind of great-man literature in which truth is +comparatively unimportant, and that is the literature of popular legend +and tradition. Whether it purports to be historical or biographical, or +both, it derives its interest and value from the light that it throws +upon the temperament and character of the people who originate it, +rather than from the amount of truth contained in the statements that +it makes about the man. + +The folk-tales of Napoleon Bonaparte herewith presented, if judged from +the viewpoint of the historian or the biographer, are absurdly and +grotesquely untrue; but to the anthropologist and the student of human +nature they are extremely valuable as self-revelations of national +character; and even to the historian and the biographer they have some +interest as evidences of the profoundly deep impression made by +Napoleon's personality upon two great peoples--the Russians and the +French. + +The first story, which is entitled "Napoleonder," is of Russian origin, +and was put into literary form, or edited, by Alexander Amphiteatrof of +St. Petersburg. It originally appeared as a feuilleton in the St. +Petersburg "Gazette" of December 13, 1901. As a characteristic specimen +of Russian peasant folk-lore, it seems to me to have more than ordinary +interest and value. The treatment of the supernatural may seem, to +Occidental readers, rather daring and irreverent, but it is perfectly in +harmony with the Russian peasant's anthropomorphic conception of Deity, +and should be taken with due allowance for the educational limitations +of the story-teller and his auditors. The Russian muzhik often brings +God and the angels into his folk-tales, and does so without the least +idea of treating them disrespectfully. He makes them talk in his own +language because he has no other language; and if the talk seems a +little grotesque and irreverent, it is due to the low level of the +narrator's literary culture, and not to any intention, on his part, of +treating God and the angels with levity. The whole aim of the story is a +moral and religious one. The narrator is trying to show that sympathy +and mercy are better than selfish ambition, and that war is not only +immoral but irrational. The conversation between God, the angels, and +the Devil is a mere prologue, intended to bring Napoleon and Ivan-angel +on the stage and lay the foundation of the plot. The story-teller's keen +sense of fun and humor is shown in many little touches, but he never +means to be irreverent. The whole legend is set forth in the racy, +idiomatic, highly elliptical language of the common Russian muzhik, and +is therefore extremely difficult of translation; but I have tried to +preserve, as far as possible, the spirit and flavor of the original. + +The French story was first reduced to writing--or at least put into +literary form--by Honoré de Balzac, and appeared under the title of "The +Napoleon of the People" in the third chapter of Balzac's "Country +Doctor." It purports to be the story of Napoleon's life and career as +related to a group of French peasants by one of his old soldiers--a man +named Goguelat. It covers more time chronologically than the Russian +story does, and deals much more fully and circumstantially with +historical incidents and events: but it seems to me to be distinctly +inferior to the Russian tale in power of creative imagination, unity of +conception, skill of artistic treatment, and depth of human interest. +The French peasant regards Napoleon merely as a great leader and +conqueror, "created to be the father of soldiers," and aided, if not +directly sent, by God, to show forth the power and the glory of France. +The Russian peasant, more thoughtful by nature as well as less excitable +and combative in temperament, admits that Napoleon was sent on earth by +God, but connects him with one of the deep problems of life by using him +to show the divine nature of sympathy and pity, and the cruelty, +immorality, and unreasonableness of aggressive war. The only feature +that the two tales have in common is the recognition of the supernatural +as a controlling factor in Napoleon's life. The French peasant believes +that he had a guiding star; that he was advised and directed by a +familiar spirit in the shape of a "Red Man"; and that he was saved from +dangers and death by virtue of a secret compact with the Supreme Being. +The Russian peasant asserts that he was created by the Devil, and that +God, after having given him a soul by accident, first used him as a +means of punishing the Russian people for their sins, and then made him +really a man by inspiring him with the human feelings of sympathy and +compassion. In the French story Napoleon appears as a great military +leader, whose life and career reflect honor and glory upon France. In +the Russian story he is merely the leading actor in a sort of moral +drama, or historical mystery-play, intended to show the divine nature of +sympathy and compassion, the immorality of war, and the essential +solidarity and brotherhood of all mankind. + +GEORGE KENNAN. + + * * * * * + + + + +NAPOLEONDER[1] + +[Footnote 1: The Russian peasant's name for Napoleon Bonaparte. The +final syllable "der" has perhaps been added because to the ear of the +peasant "Napoleon" sounds clipped and incomplete, as "Alexan" would +sound to us without the "der."] + +Long ago--but not so very long ago; our grandfathers remember it--the +Lord God wanted to punish the people of the world for their wickedness. +So he began to think how and by what means he could punish them, and he +called a council of his angels and archangels to talk about it. Says the +archangel Michael to the Lord God: "Shake them up, the recreants, with +an earthquake." + +"We've tried that," says the Lord God. "Once upon a time we jolted to +pieces Sodom and Gomorrah, but it didn't teach them anything. Since then +pretty much all the towns have become Sodoms and Gomorrahs." + +"How about famine?" says the archangel Gabriel. + +"It would be too bad for the babies," replies the Lord God. "Famine +would kill the babies. And, besides that, the cattle must have +food--they're not to blame." + +"Drown them with a flood," suggests Raphael. + +"Clean impossible!" says the Lord God. "Because, in the first place, I +took an oath once that there should be no more floods, and I set the +rainbow in the sky for an assurance. In the second place, the rascally +sinners have become cunning; they'll get on steamboats and sail all over +the flood." + +Then all the archangels were perplexed, and began to screw about in +their seats, trying to invent or think of some calamity that would bring +the wicked human race to its senses and stir up its conscience. But they +had been accustomed, time out of mind, to do good rather than evil; they +had forgotten all about the wickedness of the world; and they couldn't +think of a single thing that would be of any use. + +Then suddenly up comes Ivan-angel, a simple-minded soul whom the Lord God +had appointed to look after the Russian muzhiks. He comes up and +reports: "Lord, Satan is outside there, asking for you. He doesn't dare +to come in, because he smells bad [Footnote 2: That is, he brings with +him the sulphurous odor of hell.]; so he's waiting in the entry." + +Then the Lord God was rejoiced. "Call Satan in!" he ordered. "I know +that rogue perfectly well, and he has come in the very nick of time. A +scamp like that will be sure to think of something." + +Satan came in. His face was as black as tanned calfskin, his voice was +hoarse, and a long tail hung down from under his overcoat. + +"If you so order," he says, "I'll distribute your calamities for you +with my own hands." + +"Go ahead with your distribution," says the Lord God; "nobody shall +hinder you." + +"Will you permit me," Satan says, "to bring about an invasion of +foreigners?" + +The Lord God shook his finger at Satan and cried: "Is that all you can +think of? And you so wise!" + +"Excuse me," Satan says. "Why doesn't my plan show wisdom?" + +"Because," replies the Lord God, "you propose to afflict the people with +war, and war is just what they want. They're all the time fighting among +themselves, one people with another, and that's the very thing I want to +punish them for." + +"Yes," says Satan, "they re greedy for war, but that's only because they +have never yet seen a real warrior. Send them a regular conqueror, and +they'll soon drop their tails between their legs and cry, 'Have mercy, +Lord! Save us from the man of blood!'" + +The Lord God was surprised. "Why do you say, my little brother, that the +people have never seen a real warrior? The Tsar Herod was a conqueror; +the Tsar Alexander subdued a wonderful lot of people; Ivan-Tsar +destroyed Kazan; Mamai-Tsar the furious came with all his hordes; and +the Tsar Peter, and the great fighter Anika--how many more conquerors do +you want?" + +"I want Napoleonder," says Satan. + +"Napoleonder!" cries the Lord God. "Who's he? Where did he come from?" + +"He's a certain little man," Satan says, "who may not be wise enough to +hurt, but he's terribly fierce in his habits." + +The Lord God says to the archangel Gabriel: "Look in the Book of Life, +Gabriel, and see if we've got Napoleonder written down." + +The archangel looked and looked, but he couldn't look up any such +person. + +"There isn't any kind of Napoleonder in the Book," he says. "Satan is a +liar. We haven't got Napoleonder written down anywhere." + +Then Satan replies: "It isn't strange that you can't find Napoleonder in +the Book of Life, because you write in that Book only the names of those +who were born of human fathers and mothers, and who have navels. +Napoleonder never had a father or a mother, and, moreover, he hasn't any +navel--and that's so surprising that you might exhibit him for money." + +The Lord God was greatly astonished. "How did your Napoleonder ever get +into the world?" he says. + +"In this way," Satan replies. "I made him, as a doll, just for +amusement, out of sand. At that very time, you, Lord, happened to be +washing your holy face; and, not being careful, you let a few drops of +the water of life splash over. They fell from heaven right exactly on +Napoleonder's head, and he immediately took breath and became a man. He +is living now, not very near nor very far away, on the island of Buan, +in the middle of the ocean-sea. There is a little less than a verst of +land in the island, and Napoleonder lives there and watches geese. Night +and day he looks after the geese, without eating, or drinking, or +sleeping, or smoking; and his only thought is--how to conquer the whole +world." + +The Lord God thought and thought, and then he ordered: "Bring him to +me." + +Satan at once brought Napoleonder into the bright heaven. The Lord God +looked at him, and saw that he was a military man with shining buttons. + +"I have heard, Napoleonder," says the Lord God, "that you want to +conquer the whole world." + +"Exactly so," replies Napoleonder; "that's what I want very much to +do." + +"And have you thought," says the Lord God, "that when you go forth to +conquer you will crush many peoples and shed rivers of blood?" + +"That's all the same to me," says Napoleonder; "the important thing for +me is--how can I subdue the whole world." + +"And will you not feel pity for the killed, the wounded, the burned, the +ruined, and the dead?" + +"Not in the least," says Napoleonder. "Why should I feel pity? I don't +like pity. So far as I can remember, I was never sorry for anybody or +anything in my life, and I never shall be." + +Then the Lord God turns to the angels and says: "Messrs. Angels, this +seems to be the very fellow for our business." Then to Napoleonder he +says: "Satan was perfectly right. You are worthy to be the instrument of +my wrath, because a pitiless conqueror is worse than earthquake, famine, +or deluge. Go back to the earth, Napoleonder; I turn over to you the +whole world, and through you the whole world shall be punished." + +Napoleonder says: "Give me armies and luck, and I'll do my best." + +Then the Lord God says: "Armies you shall have, and luck you shall have; +and so long as you are merciless you shall never be defeated in battle; +but remember that the moment you begin to feel sorry for the shedding of +blood--of your own people or of others--that moment your power will +end. From that moment your enemies will defeat you, and you shall +finally be made a prisoner, be put into chains, and be sent back to Buan +Island to watch geese. Do you understand?" + +"Exactly so," says Napoleonder. "I understand, and I will obey. I shall +never feel pity." + +Then the angels and the archangels began to say to God: "Lord, why have +you laid upon him such a frightful command? If he goes forth so, without +mercy, he will kill every living soul on earth--he will leave none for +seed!" + +"Be silent!" replied the Lord God. "He will not conquer long. He is +altogether too brave; because he fears neither others nor himself. He +thinks he will keep from pity, and does not know that pity, in the +human heart, is stronger than all else, and that not a man living is +wholly without it." + +"But," the archangels say, "he is not a man; he is made of sand." + +The Lord God replies: "Then you think he didn't receive a soul when my +water of life fell on his head?" + +Napoleonder at once gathered together a great army speaking twelve +languages, and went forth to war. He conquered the Germans, he conquered +the Turks, he subdued the Swedes and the Poles. He reaped as he marched, +and left bare the country through which he passed. And all the time he +remembers the condition of success--pity for none. He cuts off heads, +burns villages, outrages women, and tramples children under his horses' +hoofs. He desolates the whole Mohammedan kingdom--and still he is not +sated. Finally he marches on a Christian country--on Holy Russia. + +In Russia then the Tsar was Alexander the Blessed--the same Tsar who +stands now on the top of the column in Petersburg-town and blesses the +people with a cross, and that's why he is called "the Blessed." + +When he saw Napoleonder marching against him with twelve languages, +Alexander the Blessed felt that the end of Russia was near. He called +together his generals and field-marshals, and said to them: "Messrs. +Generals and Field-marshals, how can I check this Napoleonder? He is +pressing us terribly hard." + +The generals and field-marshals reply: "We can't do anything, your +Majesty, to stop Napoleonder, because God has given him a word." + +"What kind of a word?" + +"This kind: 'Bonaparty.'" + +"But what does 'Bonaparty' mean, and why is a single word so terrible?" + +"It means, your Majesty, six hundred and sixty-six--the number of the +Beast [Footnote 3: A reference to the Beast of the Apocalypse. "The +number of the beast is the number of a man: and his number is Six +hundred threescore and six" (Rev. xiii. 18).]; and it is terrible +because when Napoleonder sees, in a battle, that the enemy is very +brave, that his own strength is not enough, and that his own men are +falling fast [Footnote 4: Literally, "lying down with their bones."], he +immediately conjures with this same word, 'Bonaparty,' and at that +instant--as soon as the word is pronounced--all the soldiers that have +ever served under him and have died for him on the field of battle come +back from beyond the grave. He leads them afresh against the enemy, as +if they were alive, and nothing can stand against them, because they are +a ghostly force, not an army of this world." + +Alexander the Blessed grew sad; but, after thinking a moment, he said: +"Messrs. Generals and Field-marshals, we Russians are a people of more +than ordinary courage. We have fought with all nations, and never yet +before any of them have we laid our faces in the dust. If God has +brought us, at last, to fight with corpses--his holy will be done! We +will go against the dead!" + +So he led his army to the field of Kulikova, and there waited for the +miscreant Napoleonder. And soon afterward, Napoleonder, the evil one, +sends him an envoy with a paper saying, "Submit, Alexander +Blagoslovenni, and I will show you favor above all others." + +But Alexander the Blessed was a proud man, who held fast his +self-respect. He would not speak to the envoy, but he took the paper +that the envoy had brought, and drew on it an insulting picture, with +the words, "Is this what you want?" and sent it back to Napoleonder. + +Then they fought and slashed one another on the field of Kulikova, and +in a short time or a long time our men began to overcome the forces of +the enemy. One by one they shot or cut down all of Napoleonder's +field-marshals, and finally drew near to Napoleonder himself. + +"Your time has come!" they cry to him. "Surrender!" + +But the villain sits there on his horse, rolling his goggle-eyes like an +owl, and grinning. + +"Wait a minute," he says coolly. "Don't be in too big a hurry. A tale is +short in telling, but the deed is long a-doing." + +Then he pronounces his conjuring-word, "Bonaparty"--six hundred and +sixty-six, the number of the Beast. + +Instantly there is a great rushing sound, and the earth is shaken as if +by an earthquake. Our soldiers look--and drop their hands. In all parts +of the field appear threatening battalions, with bayonets shining in the +sun, torn flags waving over terrible hats of fur, and tramp! tramp! +tramp! on come the thousands of phantom men, with faces yellow as +camomile, and empty holes under their bushy eyebrows. + +Alexander, the Blessed Tsar, was stricken with terror. Terror-stricken +were all his generals and field-marshals. Terror-stricken also was the +whole Russian army. Shaking with fear, they wavered at the advance of +the dead, gave way suddenly in a panic, and finally fled in whatever +direction their eyes happened to look. + +The brigand Napoleonder sat on his horse, holding his sides with +laughter, and shouted: "Aha! My old men are not to your taste! I +thought so! This isn't like playing knuckle-bones with children and old +women! Well, then, my honorable Messrs. Dead Men, I have never yet felt +pity for any one, and you needn't show mercy to my enemies. Deal with +them after your own fashion." + +"As long as it is so," replied the corpse-soldiers, "we are your +faithful servants always." + +Our men fled from Kulikova-field to Pultava-field; from Pultava-field to +the famous still-water Don; and from the peaceful Don to the field of +Borodino, under the very walls of Mother Moscow. And as our men came to +these fields, one after another, they turned their faces again and +again toward Napoleonder, and fought him with such fierceness that the +brigand himself was delighted with them "God save us!" he exclaimed, +"what soldiers these Russians are! I have not seen such men in any other +country." + +But, in spite of the bravery of our troops, we were unable to stop +Napoleonder's march; because we had no word with which to meet his word. +In every battle we pound him, and drive him back, and get him in a +slip-noose; but just as we are going to draw it tight and catch him, the +filthy, idolatrous thief bethinks himself and shouts "Bonaparty!" Then +the dead men crawl out of their graves in full uniform, set their teeth, +fix their eyes upon their officers, and charge! And where they pass the +grass withers and the stones crack. And our men are so terrified by +these unclean bodies that they can't fight against them at all. As soon +as they hear that accursed word "Bonaparty," and see the big fur hats +and the yellow faces of the dead men, they throw down their guns and +rush into the woods to hide. + +"Say what you will, Alexander Blagoslovenni," they cry, "for corpses we +are not prepared." + +Alexander the Blessed reproached his men, and said: "Wait a little, +brothers, before you run away. Let's exert ourselves a little more. Dog +that he is, he can't beat us always. God has set a limit for him +somewhere. To-day is his, to-morrow may be his, but after a while the +luck perhaps will turn." + +Then he went to the old hermit-monks in the caves of Kiev and on the +island of Valaam, and bowed himself at the feet of all the +archimandrites and metropolitans, saying: "Pray for us, holy fathers, +and beseech the Lord God to turn away his wrath; because we haven't +strength enough to defend you from this Napoleonder." + +Then the old hermit-monks and the archimandrites and the metropolitans +all prayed, with tears in their eyes, to the Lord God, and prostrated +themselves until their knees were all black and blue and there were big +bumps on their foreheads. With tearful eyes, the whole Russian people, +too, from the Tsar to the last beggar, prayed God for mercy and help. +And they took the sacred ikon of the Holy Mother of God of Smolensk, +the pleader for the grief-stricken, and carried it to the famous field +of Borodino, and, bowing down before it, with tearful eyes, they cried: +"O Most Holy Mother of God, thou art our life and our hope! Have mercy +on us, and intercede for us soon." + +And down the dark face of the ikon, from under the setting of pearls in +the silver frame, trickled big tears. And all the army and all God's +people saw the sacred ikon crying. It was a terrible thing to see, but +it was comforting. + +Then the Lord God heard the wail of the Russian people and the prayers +of the Holy Virgin the Mother of God of Smolensk, and he cried out to +the angels and the archangels: "The hour of my wrath has passed. The +people have suffered enough for their sins and have repented of their +wickedness. Napoleonder has destroyed nations enough. It's time for him +to learn mercy. Who of you, my servants, will go down to the earth--who +will undertake the great work of softening the conqueror's heart?" + +The older angels and the archangels didn't want to go. "Soften his +heart!" they cried. "He is made of sand--he hasn't any navel--he is +pitiless--we're afraid of him!" + +Then Ivan-angel stepped forward and said: "I'll go." + +At that very time Napoleonder had just gained a great victory and was +riding over the field of battle on a greyhound of a horse. He trampled +with his horse's hoofs on the bodies of the dead, without pity or +regret, and the only thought in his mind was, "As soon as I have done +with Russia, I'll march against the Chinese and the white Arabs; and +then I shall have conquered exactly the whole world." + +But just at that moment he heard some one calling, "Napoleonder! O +Napoleonder!" He looked around, and not far away, under a bush on a +little mound, he saw a wounded Russian soldier, who was beckoning to him +with his hand. Napoleonder was surprised. What could a wounded Russian +soldier want of him? He turned his horse and rode to the spot. "What do +you want?" he asked the soldier. + +"I don't want anything of you," the wounded soldier replied, "except an +answer to one question. Tell me, please, what have you killed me for?" + +Napoleonder was still more surprised. In the many years of his +conquering he had wounded and killed a multitude of men; but he had +never been asked that question before. And yet this Russian soldier +didn't look as if he had anything more than ordinary intelligence. He +was just a young, boyish fellow, with light flaxen hair and blue +eyes--evidently a new recruit from some country village. + +"What do you mean--'killed you for'?" said Napoleonder. "I had to kill +you. When you went into the army, didn't you take an oath that you +would die?" + +"I know what oath I took, Napoleonder, and I'm not making a fuss about +dying. But you--why did you kill me?" + +"Why shouldn't I kill you," said Napoleonder, "when you were the +enemy,--that is, my foe,--come out to fight me on the field of +Borodino?" + +"Cross yourself, Napoleonder!" said the young soldier. "How could I be +your foe, when there has never been any sort of quarrel between us? +Until you came into our country, and I was drafted into the army, I had +never even heard of you. And here you have killed me--and how many more +like me!" + +"I killed," said Napoleonder, "because it was necessary for me to +conquer the world." + +"But what have I got to do with your conquering the world?" replied the +soldier. "Conquer it, if you want to--I don't hinder. But why did you +kill me? Has killing me given you the world? The world doesn't belong to +me. You're not reasonable, brother Napoleonder. And is it possible that +you really think you can conquer the whole world?" + +"I'm very much of that opinion," replied Napoleonder. + +The little soldier smiled. "You're really stupid, Napoleonder," he said. +"I'm sorry for you. As if it were possible to conquer the whole world!" + +"I'll subdue all the kingdoms," replied Napoleonder, "and put all +peoples in chains, and then I'll reign as Tsar of all the earth." + +The soldier shook his head. "And God?" he inquired. "Will you conquer +him?" + +Napoleonder was confused. "No," he finally said. "God's will is over us +all; and in the hollow of his hand we live." + +"Then what's the use of your conquering the world?" said the soldier. +"God is all; therefore the world won't belong to you, but to him. And +you'll live just so long as he has patience with you, and no longer." + +"I know that as well as you do," said Napoleonder. + +"Well, then," replied the soldier, "if you know it, why don't you reckon +with God?" + +Napoleonder scowled. "Don't say such things to me!" he cried. "I've +heard that sanctimonious stuff before. It's of no use. You can't fool +me! I don't know any such thing as pity." + +"Indeed," said the soldier, "is it so? Have a care, Napoleonder! You are +swaggering too much. You lie when you say a man can live without pity. +To have a soul, and to feel compassion, are one and the same thing. You +have a soul, haven't you?" + +"Of course I have," replied Napoleonder; "a man can't live without a +soul." + +"There! you see!" said the soldier. "You have a soul, and you believe in +God. How, then, can you say you don't know any such thing as pity? You +do know! And I believe that at this very moment, deep down in your +heart, you are mortally sorry for me; only you don't want to show it. +Why, then, did you kill me?" + +Napoleonder suddenly became furious. "May the pip seize your tongue, you +miscreant! I'll show you how much pity I have for you!" And, drawing a +pistol, Napoleonder shot the wounded soldier through the head. Then, +turning to his dead men, he said: "Did you see that?" + +"We saw it," they replied; "and as long as it is so, we are your +faithful servants always." + +Napoleonder rode on. + +At last night comes; and Napoleonder is sitting alone in his golden +tent. His mind is troubled, and he can't understand what it is that +seems to be gnawing at his heart. For years he has been at war, and this +is the first time such a thing has happened. Never before has his soul +been so filled with unrest. And to-morrow morning he must begin another +battle--the last terrible fight with the Tsar Alexander the Blessed, on +the field of Borodino. + +"Akh!" he thinks, "I'll show them to-morrow what a leader I am! I'll +lift the soldiers of the Tsar into the air on my lances and trample +their bodies under the feet of my horses. I'll make the Tsar himself a +prisoner, and I'll kill or scatter the whole Russian people." + +But a voice seemed to whisper in his ear: "And why? Why?" + +"I know that trick," he thought. "It's that same wounded soldier again. +All right. I won't give in to him. 'Why? Why?' As if I knew why! +Perhaps if I knew why I shouldn't make war." + +He lay down on his bed; but hardly had he closed his eyes when he saw by +his bedside the wounded soldier--young, fair-faced, blond-haired, with +just the first faint shadow of a mustache. His forehead was pale, his +lips were livid, his blue eyes were dim, and in his left temple there +was a round black hole made by the bullet from his--Napoleonder's--pistol. +And the ghastly figure seemed to ask again, "Why did you kill me?" + +Napoleonder turns over and over, from side to side, in his bed. He sees +that it's a bad business. He can't get rid of that soldier. And, more +than all, he wonders at himself. "What an extraordinary occurrence!" he +thinks. "I've killed millions of people, of all countries and nations, +without the least misgiving; and now, suddenly, one miserable soldier +comes and throws all my ideas into a tangle!" + +Finally Napoleonder got up; but the confinement of his golden tent +seemed oppressive. He went out into the open air, mounted his horse, and +rode away to the place where he had shot to death the vexatious soldier. + +"I've heard," he said to himself, "that when a dead man appears in a +vision, it is necessary to sprinkle earth on the eyes of the corpse; +then he'll lie quiet." + +Napoleonder rides on. The moon is shining brightly, and the bodies of +the dead are lying on the battle-field in heaps. Everywhere he sees +corruption and smells corruption. + +"And all these," he thought, "I have killed." + +And, wonderful to say, it seems to him as if all the dead men have the +same face,--a young face with blue eyes, and blond hair, and the faint +shadow of a mustache,--and they all seem to be looking at him with +kindly, pitying eyes, and their bloodless lips move just a little as +they ask, without anger or reproach, "Why? Why?" + +Napoleonder felt a dull, heavy pressure at his heart. He had not spirit +enough left to go to the little mound where the body of the dead soldier +lay, so he turned his horse and rode back to his tent; and every corpse +that he passed seemed to say, "Why? Why?" + +He no longer felt the desire to ride at a gallop over the dead bodies of +the Russian soldiers. On the contrary, he picked his way among them +carefully, riding respectfully around the remains of every man who had +died with honor on that field of blood; and now and then he even crossed +himself and said: "Akh, that one ought to have lived! What a fine fellow +that one was! He must have fought with splendid courage. And I killed +him--why?" + +The great conqueror never noticed that his heart was growing softer and +warmer, but so it was. He pitied his dead enemies at last, and then the +evil spirit went away from him, and left him in all respects like other +people. + +The next day came the battle. Napoleonder led his forces, cloud upon +cloud, to the field of Borodino; but he was shaking as if in a chill. +His generals and field-marshals looked at him and were filled with +dismay. + +"You ought to take a drink of vodka, Napoleonder," they say; "you don't +look like yourself." + +When the Russian troops attacked the hordes of Napoleonder, on the field +of Borodino, the soldiers of the great conqueror at once gave way. + +"It's a bad business, Napoleonder," the generals and field-marshals say. +"For some reason the Russians are fighting harder to-day than ever. +You'd better call out your dead men." + +Napoleonder shouted at the top of his voice, "Bonaparty!"--six hundred +and sixty-six,--the number of the Beast. But, cry as he would, he only +frightened the jackdaws. The dead men didn't come out of their graves, +nor answer his call. And Napoleonder was left on the field of Borodino +alone. All his generals and field-marshals had fled, and he sat there +alone on his horse, shouting, "Bonaparty! Bonaparty!" + +Then suddenly there appeared beside him the smooth-faced, blue-eyed, +fair-haired Russian recruit whom he had killed the day before. And the +young soldier said: "It's useless to shout, Napoleonder. Nobody will +come. Yesterday you felt sorry for me and for my dead brothers, and +because of your pity your corpse-soldiers no longer come at your call. +Your power over them is gone." + +Then Napoleonder began to weep and sob, and cried out, "You have ruined +me, you wretched, miserable soldier!" + +But the soldier (who was Ivan-angel, and not a soldier at all) replied: +"I have not ruined you, Napoleonder; I have saved you. If you had gone +on in your merciless, pitiless course, there would have been no +forgiveness for you, either in this life or in the life to come. Now God +has given you time for repentance. In this world you shall be punished; +but there, beyond, if you repent of your sins, you shall be forgiven." + +And the angel vanished. + +Then our Don Cossacks fell on Napoleonder, dragged him from his horse, +and took him to Alexander the Blessed. Some said, "Napoleonder ought to +be shot!" Others cried, "Send him to Siberia to!" But the Lord God +softened the heart of Alexander the Blessed, and the merciful Tsar would +not allow Napoleonder to be shot or sent to Siberia. He ordered that the +great conqueror be put into an iron cage, and be carried around and +exhibited to the people at country fairs. So Napoleonder was carried +from one fair to another for a period of thirty summers and three +years--until he had grown quite old. Then, when he was an old man, they +sent him to the island of Buan to watch geese. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE[1] + +[Footnote 1: A story told to a group of French peasants one evening, in +a barn, by Goguelat, the village postman, who had served under Napoleon +in a regiment of infantry.] + +Napoleon, my friends, was born, you know, in Corsica. That's a French +island, but it's warmed by the sun of Italy, and everything's as hot +there as if it were a furnace. It's a place, too, where the people kill +one another, from father to son, generation after generation, for +nothing at all; that is, for no reason in particular except that it's +their way. + +Well, to begin with the most wonderful part of the story, it so +happened that on the very day when Napoleon was born, his mother dreamed +that the world was on fire. She was a shrewd, clever woman, as well as +the prettiest woman of her time; and when she had this dream, she +thought she'd save her son from the dangers of life by dedicating him to +God. And, indeed, that was a prophetic dream of hers! So she asked God +to protect the boy, and promised that when he grew up he should +reestablish God's holy religion, which had then been overthrown. That +was the agreement they made; and although it seems strange, such things +have happened. It's sure and certain, anyhow, that only a man who had an +agreement with God could pass through the enemy's lines, and move about +in showers of bullets and grape-shot, as Napoleon did. They swept us +away like flies, but his head they never touched at all. I had a proof +of that--I myself, in particular--at Eylau, where the Emperor went up on +a little hill to see how things were going. I can remember, to this day, +exactly how he looked as he took out his field-glass, watched the battle +for a minute, and finally said: "It's all right! Everything is going +well." Then, just as he was coming back, an ambitious chap in a plumed +hat, who was always following him around, and who bothered him, they +said, even at his meals, thought he'd play smart by going up on the very +same hill; but he had hardly taken the Emperor's place when--batz!--away +he went, plume and all! + +Now follow me closely, and tell me whether what you are going to hear +was natural. + +Napoleon, you know, had promised that he'd keep his agreement with God +to himself. That's the reason why his companions and even his particular +friends--men like Duroc, Bessières, and Lannes, who were strong as bars +of steel, but whom he molded to suit his purposes--all fell, like nuts +from a shaken tree, while he himself was never even hurt. + +But that's not the only proof that he was the child of God and was +expressly created to be the father of soldiers. Did anybody ever see him +a lieutenant? Or a captain? Never! He was commander-in-chief from the +start. When he didn't look more than twenty-four years of age he was +already an old general--ever since the taking of Toulon, where he first +began to show the rest of them that they didn't know anything about the +handling of cannon. + +Well, soon after that, down comes this stripling to us as +general-in-chief of the Army of Italy--an army that hadn't any +ammunition, or bread, or shoes, or coats; a wretched army--naked as a +worm. "Now, boys!" he said, "here we are, all together. I want you to +get it fixed in your heads that in fifteen days more you 're going to be +conquerors. You're going to have new clothes, good leggings, the best of +shoes, and a warm overcoat for every man; but in order to get these +things you'll have to march to Milan, where they are." So we marched. We +were only thirty thousand bare-footed tramps, and we were going against +eighty thousand crack German soldiers--fine, well equipped men; but +Napoleon, who was only Bonaparte then, breathed a spirit of--I don't +know what--into us, and on we marched, night and day. We hit the enemy +at Montenotte, thrashed 'em at Rivoli, Lodi, Arcola, and Millesimo, and +stuck to 'em wherever they went. A soldier soon gets to like being a +conqueror; and Napoleon wheeled around those German generals, and pelted +away at 'em, until they didn't know where to hide long enough to get a +little rest. With fifteen hundred Frenchmen, whom he made to appear a +great host (that's a way he had), he'd sometimes surround ten thousand +men and gather 'em all in at a single scoop. Then we'd take their +cannon, their money, their ammunition, and everything they had that was +worth carrying away. As for the others, we chucked 'em into the water, +walloped 'em on the mountains, snapped 'em up in the air, devoured 'em +on the ground, and beat 'em everywhere. So at last our troops were in +fine feather--especially as Napoleon, who had a clever wit, made friends +with the inhabitants of the country by telling them that we had come to +set them free; and then, of course, they gave us quarters and took the +best of care of us. And it was not only the men: the women took care of +us too, which showed their good judgment! + +Well, it finally ended in this way: in Ventose, 1796,--which was the +same time of year that our March is now,--we were penned up in one +corner of the marmot country: but at the end of the first campaign, lo +and behold! we were masters of Italy, just as Napoleon had predicted. +And in the month of March following--that is, in two campaigns, which we +fought in a single year--he brought us in sight of Vienna. It was just a +clean sweep. We had eaten up three different armies in succession, and +had wiped out four Austrian generals; one of them--a white-haired old +chap--was burned alive at Mantua like a rat in a straw mattress. We had +conquered peace, and kings were begging, on their knees, for mercy. +Could a man have done all that alone? Never! He had the help of God; +that's certain! He divided himself up like the five loaves of bread in +the Gospel; he planned battles at night and directed them in the +daytime: he was seen by the sentries going here and there at all hours, +and he never ate or slept. When the soldiers saw all these wonderful +things, they adopted him as their father. + +But the people at the head of the government over there in Paris, who +were looking on, said to themselves: "This schemer, who seems to have +the watchword of Heaven, is quite capable of laying his hands on France. +We'd better turn him loose in Asia or America. Then maybe he'll be +satisfied for a while." So it was written that he should do just what +Jesus Christ did--go to Egypt. You see how in this he resembled the Son +of God. But there's more to come. + +He gathered together all his old fire-eaters--the fellows that he had +put the spirit of the Devil into--and said to them: "Boys! They've given +us Egypt to chew on--to keep us quiet for a while; but we'll swallow +Egypt in one time and two movements--just as we did Italy; All you +private soldiers shall be princes, with lands of your own. Forward!" + +"Forward, boys!" shouted the sergeants. + +So we marched to Toulon, on our way to Egypt. As soon as the English +heard of it, they sent out all their ships of war to catch us; but when +we embarked, Napoleon said to us: "The English will never see us; and +it is only proper for you to know now that your general has a star in +the sky which will henceforth guide and protect us." + +As 't was said, so 't was done. On our way across the sea we took Malta +(just as one would pick an orange in passing) to quench Napoleon's +thirst for victory; because he was a man who wanted to be doing +something all the time. + +And so at last we came to Egypt; and then the orders were different. The +Egyptians, you know, are people who, from the beginning of the world, +have had giants to rule over them, and armies like innumerable ants. +Their country is a land of genii and crocodiles, and of pyramids as big +as our mountains, where they put the bodies of their dead kings to keep +them fresh--a thing that seems to please them all around. Of course you +can't deal with such people as you would with others. So when we landed, +the Little Corporal said to us: "Boys! The country that you are going to +conquer worships a lot of gods that must be respected. Frenchmen should +keep on good terms with everybody, and fight people without hurting +their feelings. So let everything alone at first, and by and by we'll +get all there is." + +Now there was a prediction among the Egyptians down there that Napoleon +would come; and the name they had for him was Kebir Bonaberdis, which +means, in their lingo, "The Sultan strikes fire." They were as much +afraid of him as they were of the Devil; so the Grand Turk, Asia, and +Africa resorted to magic, and sent against us a demon named Mody [the +Mahdi], who was supposed to have come down from heaven on a white horse. +This horse was incombustible to bullets, and so was the Mody, and the +two of 'em lived on weather and air. There are people who have seen 'em; +but I haven't any reason, myself, to say positively that the things told +about 'em were true. Anyhow, they were the great powers in Arabia; and +the Mamelukes wanted to make the Egyptian soldiers think that the Mody +could keep them from being killed in battle, and that he was an angel +sent down from heaven to fight Napoleon and get back Solomon's seal--a +part of their equipment which they pretended to believe our general had +stolen. But we made 'em laugh on the wrong side of their mouths, in +spite of their Mody! + +They thought Napoleon could command the genii, and that he had power to +go from one place to another in an instant, like a bird; and, indeed, +it's a fact that he was everywhere. But how did they know that he had an +agreement with God? Was it natural that they should get such an idea as +that? + +It so happened, finally, that he carried off one of their queens--a +woman beautiful as the sunshine. He tried, at first, to buy her, and +offered to give for her all his treasure, and a lot of diamonds as big +as pigeons' eggs; but although the Mameluke to whom she particularly +belonged had several others, he wouldn't agree to the bargain; so +Napoleon had to carry her off. Of course, when things came to such a +pass as that, they couldn't be settled without a lot of fighting; and if +there weren't blows enough to satisfy all, it wasn't anybody's fault. We +formed in battle line at Alexandria, at Gizeh, and in front of the +Pyramids. We marched in hot sunshine and through deep sand, where some +got so bedazzled that they saw water which they couldn't drink, and +shade that made them sweat; but we generally chewed up the Mamelukes, +and all the rest gave in when they heard Napoleon's voice. + +He took possession of Upper and Lower Egypt, Arabia, and the capitals of +kingdoms that perished long ago, where there were thousands of statues +of all the evil things in creation, especially lizards--a thundering big +country, where one could get acres of land for as little as he pleased. + +Well, while Napoleon was attending to his business inland, where he +intended to do some splendid things, the English, who were always trying +to make us trouble, burned his fleet at Aboukir. But our general, who +had the respect of the East and the West, who had been called "my son" +by the Pope, and "my dear father" by the cousin of Mahomet, resolved to +punish England, and to capture the Indies, in payment for his lost +fleet. He was just going to take us across the Red Sea into Asia--a +country where there were lots of diamonds, plenty of gold with which to +pay his soldiers, and palaces that could be used for etapes--when the +Mody made an arrangement with the Plague, and sent it down to put an end +to our victories. Then it was, Halt, all! And everybody marched off to +that parade from which you don't come back on your feet. Dying soldiers +couldn't take Saint Jean d'Acre, although they forced an entrance three +times with noble and stubborn courage. The Plague was too strong for us; +and it wasn't any use to say "Please don't!" to the Plague. Everybody +was sick except Napoleon. He looked fresh as a rose, and the whole army +saw him drinking in pestilence without being hurt a bit. How was that? +Do you call that natural? + +Well, the Mamelukes, who knew that we were all in ambulances, thought +they'd bar our way; but they couldn't play that sort of game with +Napoleon. He turned to his old fire-eaters--the fellows with the +toughest hides--and said: "Go clear the road for me." Junot, who was his +devoted friend and a number one soldier, took not more than a thousand +men, and slashed right through the army of the pasha which had had the +impudence to get in our way. Then we went back to Cairo, where we had +our headquarters. + +And now for another part of the story. While Napoleon was away France +was letting herself be ruined by those government scalawags in Paris, +who were keeping back the soldiers' pay, withholding their linen and +their clothes, and even letting them starve. They wanted the soldiers to +lay down the law to the universe, and that's all they cared for. They +were just a lot of idiots jabbering for amusement instead of putting +their own hands into the dough. So our armies were beaten and we +couldn't defend, our frontiers. THE MAN was no longer there. I say "the +man" because that's what they called him; but it was absurd to say that +he was merely a man, when he had a star of his own with all its +belongings. It was the rest of us who were merely men. At the battle of +Aboukir, with a single division and with a loss of only three hundred +men, he whipped the great army of the Turks, and hustled more than half +of them into the sea--r-r-rah--like that! But it was his last +thunderclap in Egypt; because when he heard, soon afterward, what was +happening in France, he made up his mind to go back there. "I am the +savior of France," he said, "and I must go to her aid." The army didn't +know what he intended to do. If they had known, they would have kept him +in Egypt by force and made him Emperor of the East. + +When he had gone, we all felt very blue; because he had been the joy of +our lives. He left the command to Kléber--a great lout of a fellow who +soon afterward lost the number of his mess. An Egyptian assassinated +him. They put the murderer to death by making him sit on a bayonet; +that's their way, down there, of guillotining a man. But he suffered so +much that one of our soldiers felt sorry for him and offered him his +water-gourd. The criminal took a drink, and then gave up the ghost with +the greatest pleasure. + +But we didn't waste much time over trifles like that. + +Napoleon sailed from Egypt in a cockle-shell of a boat called _Fortune_. +He passed right under the noses of the English, who were blockading the +coast with ships of the line, frigates, and every sort of craft that +could carry sail, and in the twinkling of an eye he was in France; +because he had the ability to cross the sea as if with a single stride. +Was that natural? Bah! The very minute he reached Fréjus, he had his +foot, so to speak, in Paris. There, of course, everybody worships him. +But the first thing he does is to summon the government. "What have you +been doing with my children the soldiers?" he said to the lawyers. "You +are nothing but a lot of poll-parrots, who fool the people with your +gabble, and feather your own nests at the expense of France. It is not +right; and I speak in the name of all who are dissatisfied." + +They thought, at first, that they could get rid of him by talking him +to death; but it didn't work. He shut 'em up in the very barrack where +they did their talking, and those who didn't jump out of the windows he +enrolled in his suite, where they soon became mute as fish and pliable +as a tobacco-pouch. This coup made him consul; and as he wasn't one to +doubt the Supreme Being who had kept good faith with him, he hastened to +fulfil his own promise by restoring the churches and reestablishing +religion; whereupon the bells all rang out in his honor and in honor of +the good God. + +Everybody then was satisfied: first, the priests, because they were +protected from persecution; second, the merchants, because they could do +business without fearing the "we-grab-it-all" of the law; and finally +the nobles, because the people were forbidden to put them to death, as +they had formerly had the unfortunate habit of doing. + +But Napoleon still had his enemies to clear away, and he was not a man +to drop asleep over his porringer. His eye took in the whole world--as +if it were no bigger than a soldier's head. The first thing he did was +to turn up in Italy--as suddenly as if he had poked his head through a +window; and one look from him was enough. The Austrians were swallowed +up at Marengo as gudgeons are swallowed by a whale. Then the French +VICTORY sang a song of triumph that all the world could hear, and it was +enough. "We won't play any more!" declared the Germans. + +"Nor we either," said the others. + +Sum total: Europe is cowed; England knuckles down; and there is +universal peace, with all the kings and people pretending to embrace one +another. + +It was then that Napoleon established the Legion of Honor; and a fine +thing it was, too. In a speech that he made before the whole army at +Boulogne he said: "In France everybody is brave; so the civilian who +does a noble deed shall be the brother of the soldier, and they shall +stand together under the flag of honor." Then we who had been down in +Egypt came home and found everything changed. When Napoleon left us he +was only a general; but in no time at all he had become Emperor. France +had given herself to him as a pretty girl gives herself to a lancer. + +Well, when everything had been settled to everybody's satisfaction, +there was a religious ceremony such as had never before been seen under +the canopy of heaven. The Pope and all his cardinals, in their robes of +scarlet and gold, came across the Alps to anoint him with holy oil, and +he was crowned Emperor, in the presence of the army and the people, with +great applause and clapping of hands. + +But there is one thing that it would not be fair not to tell you; and +that is about the RED MAN. While Napoleon was still in Egypt, in a +desert not far from Syria, the Red Man appeared to him on the mountain +of Moses (Sinai), and said to him, "It's all right!" Then again, at +Marengo, on the evening of the victory, the same Red Man appeared to him +a second time, and said: "You shall see the world at your feet: you +shall be Emperor of France; King of Italy; master of Holland; sovereign +of Spain, Portugal, and the Illyrian provinces; protector of Germany; +savior of Poland; first eagle of the Legion of Honor--everything!" + +This Red Man, you see, was his own idea; and was a sort of messenger +whom he used, many people said, as a means of communication with his +star. I've never believed that, myself, but that there was a Red Man is +a real fact. Napoleon himself spoke of him, and said that he lived up +under the roof in the palace of the Tuileries, and that he often used to +make his appearance in times of trouble. On the evening of his +coronation Napoleon saw him for the third time, and they consulted +together about a lot of things. + +After that the Emperor went to Milan, where he was crowned King of +Italy; and then began a regular triumph for us soldiers. Every man who +knew how to read and write became an officer; it rained dukedoms; +pensions were distributed with both hands; there were fortunes for the +general staff which didn't cost France a penny; and even common soldiers +received annuities with their crosses of the Legion of Honor--I get +mine to this day. In short, the armies of France were taken care of in +a way that had never before been seen. + +But the Emperor, who knew that he was the emperor not only of the +soldiers but of all, remembered the bourgeois, and built wonderful +monuments for them, to suit their own taste, in places that had been as +bare before as the palm of your hand. Suppose you were coming from +Spain, for example, and going through France to Berlin. You would pass +under sculptured triumphal arches on which you'd see the common soldiers +carved just as beautifully as the generals. + +In two or three years, and without taxing you people at all, Napoleon +filled his vaults with gold; created bridges, palaces, roads, schools, +festivals, laws, harbors, ships; and spent millions and millions of +money--so much, in fact, that if he'd taken the notion, they say, he +might have paved all France with five-franc pieces. + +Finally, when he was comfortably seated on his throne, he was so +thoroughly the master of everything that Europe waited for his +permission before it even dared to sneeze. Then, as he had four brothers +and three sisters, he said to us in familiar talk, as if in the order of +the day: "Boys! Is it right that the relatives of your Emperor should +have to beg their bread? No! I want them to shine, just as I do. A +kingdom must be conquered, therefore, for every one of them; so that +France may be master of all; so that the soldiers of the Guard may make +the world tremble; so that France may spit wherever she likes; and so +that all nations may say to her,--as it is written on my coins,--'God +protects you.'" + +"All right!" says the army. "We'll fish up kingdoms for you with the +bayonet." + +We couldn't back out, you know; and if he had taken it into his head to +conquer the moon, we should have had to get ready, pack our knapsacks, +and climb up. Fortunately, he didn't have any such intention. + +The kings, who were very comfortable on their thrones, naturally didn't +want to get off to make room for his relatives; so they had to be +dragged off by the ears. Forward! We marched and marched, and +everything began to shake again. Ah, how he did wear out men and shoes +in those days! He struck such tremendous blows with us that if we had +been other than Frenchmen we should all have been used up. But Frenchmen +are born philosophers, and they know that a little sooner or a little +later they must die. So we used to die without a word, because we had +the pleasure of seeing the Emperor do this with the geographies. [Here +the old soldier nimbly drew a circle with his foot on the floor of the +barn.] + +"There!" he would say, "that shall be a kingdom!" And it was a kingdom. +Ah, that was a great time! Colonels became generals while you were +looking at them; generals became marshals, and marshals became kings. +There's one of those kings still left, to remind Europe of that time; +but he is a Gascon, and has betrayed France in order to keep his crown. +He doesn't blush for the shame of it, either; because crowns, you +understand, are made of gold! Finally, even sappers, if they knew how to +read, became nobles all the same. I myself have seen in Paris eleven +kings and a crowd of princes, surrounding Napoleon like rays of the sun. +Every soldier had a chance to see how a throne fitted him, if he was +worthy of it, and when a corporal of the Guard passed by he was an +object of curiosity; because all had a share in the glory of the +victories, which were perfectly well known to everybody through the +bulletins. + +And what a lot of battles there were! Austerlitz, where the army +maneuvered as if on parade; Eylau, where the Russians were drowned in a +lake as if Napoleon had blown them in with a single puff; Wagram, where +we fought three days without flinching. In short, there were as many +battles as there are saints in the calendar. And it was proved then that +Napoleon had in his scabbard the real sword of God. He felt regard for +his soldiers, too, and treated them just as if they were his children, +always taking pains to find out if they were well supplied with shoes, +linen, overcoats, bread, and cartridges. But he kept up his dignity as +sovereign all the same; because to reign was his business. However, +that didn't make any difference. A sergeant, or even a common soldier, +could say to him "Emperor," just as you sometimes say "my dear fellow" +to me. He was one that you could argue with, if necessary; he slept on +the snow with the rest of us; and, in short, he appeared almost like any +other man. But when the grape-shot were kicking up the dust at his very +feet, I have seen him going about coolly,--no more disturbed by them +than you are at this minute,--looking through his field-glass now and +then, and attending all the time to his business. Of course that made +the rest of us as calm and serene as John the Baptist. I don't know how +he managed it, but when he spoke to us, his words put fire into our +hearts; and in order to show him that we really were his children, and +not the kind of men to shrink from danger, we used to march right up to +great blackguards of cannon which bellowed and vomited balls without so +much as saying "Look out!" Even dying men had the nerve to raise their +heads and salute him with the cry of "Long live the Emperor!" Was that +natural? Would they have done that for a mere man? + +Well, when he had settled all his folks comfortably, the Empress +Josephine--who was a good woman all the same--was so fixed that she +couldn't give him any family, and he had to leave her. He loved her +quite a little, too; but for reasons of state he had to have children. +When the kings of Europe heard of this trouble, they came to blows over +the question who should give him a wife. He finally married, they told +us, an Austrian woman. She was a daughter of Caesar's--a man of ancient +times who is much talked about, not only in our country, where they say +he made everything, but in Europe. It's true, anyhow, that I have myself +been on the Danube, and have seen there the remains of a bridge that +this man Caesar built. It appears that he was a relative of Napoleon's +in Rome, and that's why the Emperor had a right to take the inheritance +there for his son. + +Well, after his marriage, when there was a holiday for the whole world, +and when he let the people off ten years' taxes (which were collected +all the same, because the tax-gatherers didn't pay any attention to what +he said), his wife had a little boy who was King of Rome. That was a +thing which had never been seen on earth before--a child born king while +his father was still living. A balloon was sent up in Paris to carry the +news to Rome, and it made the whole distance in a single day. Now will +any of you tell me that that was natural? Never! It had been so written +on high. + +Well, next comes the Emperor of Russia. He had once been Napoleon's +friend; but he got angry because our Emperor didn't marry a Russian +woman. So he backs up our enemies the English. Napoleon had long +intended to pay his respects to those English ducks in their own nests, +but something had always happened to prevent, and it was now high time +to make an end of them. So he finally got angry himself, and said to us: +"Soldiers! You have been masters of all the capitals of Europe except +Moscow, which is the ally of England. In order to conquer London, as +well as the Indies, which belong to London, I find it necessary to go to +Moscow." + +Well, there assembled then the greatest army that ever tramped in +gaiters over the world; and the Emperor had them so curiously well lined +up that he reviewed a million men in a single day. + +"Hourra!" shout the Russians. And there they were--those animals of +Cossacks who are forever running away, and the whole Russian nation, +all complete! It was country against country--a general mix-up, where +everybody had to look out for himself. As the Red Man had said to +Napoleon, "It's Asia against Europe." + +"All right!" replied the Emperor, "I'll take care." And then came +fawning on Napoleon all the kings of Europe,--Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, +Saxony, Poland, Italy,--all flattering us and going along with us. It +was splendid! The French eagles never cooed as they did on parade then, +when they were held high above all the flags of Europe. The Poles +couldn't contain themselves for joy, because the Emperor intended to set +them up again as a nation--and for that reason the French and the Poles +have been like brothers ever since. + +"Russia shall be ours!" cried the army. + +We crossed the frontier,--the whole lot of us,--and marched, and +marched, and marched. No Russians! At last we found the rascals, camping +on the bank of the Moscow River. That's where I got my cross; and I take +leave to say that it was the damnedest of battles! Napoleon himself was +worried, because the Red Man had appeared again and had said to him, "My +son, you are going too fast; you will run short of men, and your friends +will betray you." Thereupon the Emperor proposed peace; but before the +treaty was signed he said to us, "Let's give those Russians a +drubbing!" + +"All right!" said the army. + +"Forward!" shout the sergeants. + +My clothes were going to pieces and my shoes were all worn out from +tramping over the bad roads out there, but I said to myself, "Never +mind; since this is the last of the rumpus, I'll make 'em give me a +bellyful!" + +We were drawn up near the edge of the great ravine--in the front seats! +The signal was given, and seven hundred pieces of artillery began a +conversation that was enough to bring the blood from your ears. Well, to +do justice to one's enemies, I must admit that the Russians let +themselves be killed like Frenchmen. They wouldn't give way, and we +couldn't advance. + +"Forward!" shouted our officers. "Here comes the Emperor!" And there he +was, passing at a gallop, and motioning to us that it was very important +to capture the redoubt. He put new life into us, and on we ran. I was +the first to reach the ravine. Ah! Mon Dieu! How the colonels are +falling, and the lieutenants, and the soldiers! But never mind! There'll +be all the more shoes for those who haven't any, and epaulets for the +ambitious fellows who know how to read. + +At last the cry of "Victory!" rang all along the line; but--would you +believe it?--there were twenty-five thousand Frenchmen lying on the +ground! A trifle, eh? Well, such a thing had never been seen before. It +was a regular harvest field after the reaping; only instead of stalks of +grain there were bodies of men. That sobered the rest of us. But the +Emperor soon came along, and when we formed a circle around him, he +praised us and cheered us up (he could be very amiable when he liked), +and made us feel quite contented, even although we were as hungry as +wolves. Then he distributed crosses of honor among us, saluted the dead, +and said, "On to Moscow!" + +"All right! To Moscow!" replied the army. + +And then what did the Russians do but burn their city! It made a +six-mile bonfire which blazed for two days. The buildings fell like +slates, and there was a rain of melted iron and lead which was simply +horrible! Indeed, that fire was the lightning from the dark cloud of our +misfortunes. The Emperor said: "There's enough of this. If we stay here, +none of my soldiers will ever get out." But we waited a little to cool +off and to refresh our carcasses; because we were really played out. We +carried away a golden cross that was on the Kremlin, and every soldier +had a small fortune. + +On our way back, winter came upon us, a month earlier than usual,--a +thing that those stupid scientific men have never properly +explained,--and the cold caught us. Then there was no more army; do you +understand? No army, no generals, no sergeants even! After that it was +a reign of misery and hunger--a reign where we were all equal. We +thought of nothing except of seeing France again. Nobody stooped to pick +up his gun, or his money, if he happened to drop them; and every one +went straight on, arms at will, caring nothing for glory. The weather +was so bad that Napoleon could no longer see his star--the sky was +hidden. Poor man! It made him sick at heart to see his eagles flying +away from victory. It was a crushing blow to him. + +Well, then came the Beresina. And now, my friends, I may say to you, on +my honor and by everything sacred, that never--no, never since man lived +on earth--has there been such a mixed up hodgepodge of army, wagons, +and artillery, in the midst of such snows, and under such a pitiless +sky! It was so cold that if you touched the barrel of your gun you +burned your hand. + +It was there that Gondrin--who is now present with us--behaved so well. +He is the only one now living of the pontooners who went down into the +water that day and built the bridge on which we crossed the river. The +Russians still had some respect for the Grand Army, on account of its +past victories; but it was Gondrin and the pontooners who saved us, and +[pointing at Gondrin, who was looking at him with the fixed attention +peculiar to the deaf] Gondrin is a finished soldier and a soldier of +honor, who is worthy of your highest esteem. + +I saw the Emperor that day, standing motionless near the bridge, and +never feeling the cold at all. Was that natural, do you think? He was +watching the destruction of his treasure, his friends, his old Egyptian +soldiers. It was the end of everything. Women, wagons, cannon--all were +being destroyed, demolished, ruined, wrecked! A few of the bravest +guarded the eagles; because the eagles, you understand, stood for +France, for you, for the civil and military honor that had to be kept +unstained and that was not to be humbled by the cold. + +We hardly ever got warm except near the Emperor. When he was in danger, +we all ran to him--although we were so nearly frozen that we would not +have held out a hand to our dearest friend. They say that he used to +weep at night over his poor family of soldiers. Nobody but he and +Frenchmen could ever have pulled out of there. We did pull out, but it +was with loss--terrible loss. Our allies ate up all of our provisions, +and then began the treachery which the Red Man had foretold. + +The blatherskites in Paris, who had kept quiet since the formation of +the Imperial Guard, thought that the Guard had finally perished. So they +got up a conspiracy and hoodwinked the Prefect of Police into an attempt +to overthrow the Emperor. He heard of this and it worried him. When he +left us he said: "Good-by, boys. Guard the posts. I will come back to +you." + +After he had gone, things went from bad to worse. The generals lost +their heads; and the marshals quarreled with one another and did all +sorts of foolish things, as was natural. Napoleon, who was good to +everybody, had fed them on gold until they had become as fat as pigs, +and they didn't want to do any more marching. This led to trouble, +because many of them remained idle in forts behind the army that was +driving us back to France, and didn't even try to relieve us by +attacking the enemy in the rear. + +The Emperor finally returned, bringing with him a lot of splendid +recruits whom he had drilled into regular war-dogs, ready to set their +teeth into anything. He brought also a bourgeois guard of honor, a fine +troop, which melted away in battle like butter on a hot gridiron. In +spite of the bold front that we put on, everything went against us; +although the army performed feats of wonderful courage. Then came +regular battles of mountains--nations against nations--at Dresden, +Lutzen, and Bautzen. Don't you ever forget that time, because it was +then that Frenchmen showed how wonderfully heroic they could be. A good +grenadier, in those days, seldom lasted more than six months. We always +won, of course; but there in our rear were the English, stirring up the +nations to take sides against us. But we fought our way through this +pack of nations at last. Wherever Napoleon showed himself, we rushed; +and whenever, on land or sea, he said, "I wish to pass," we passed. + +We finally got back to France; and many a poor foot-soldier was braced +up by the air of his native country, notwithstanding the hard times we +had. As for myself, in particular, I may say that it renewed my life. + +It then became a question of defending the fatherland--our fair +France--against all Europe. They didn't like our laying down the law to +the Russians, and our driving them back across their borders, so that +they couldn't devour us, as is the custom of the North. Those Northern +peoples are very greedy for the South, or at least that's what I've +heard many generals say. Then Napoleon saw arrayed against him his own +father-in-law, his friends whom he had made kings, and all the +scoundrels whom he had put on thrones. Finally, in pursuance of orders +from high quarters, even Frenchmen, and allies in our own ranks, turned +against us; as at the battle of Leipsic. Common soldiers wouldn't have +been mean enough to do that! Men who called themselves princes broke +their word three times a day. + +Well, then came the invasion. Wherever Napoleon showed his lion face +the enemy retreated; and he worked more miracles in defending France +than he had shown in conquering Italy, the East, Spain, Europe, and +Russia. He wanted to bury all the invaders in France, and thus teach +them to respect the country; so he let them come close to Paris, in +order to swallow 'em all at a gulp and rise to the height of his genius +in a battle greater than all the others--a regular mother of battles! +But those cowardly Parisians were so afraid for their wretched skins and +their miserable shops that they opened the gates of the city. Then the +good times ended and the "ragusades" began. They fooled the Empress and +hung white flags out of the palace windows. Finally the very generals +whom Napoleon had taken for his best friends deserted him and went over +to the Bourbons--of whom nobody had ever before heard. Then he bade us +good-by at Fontainebleau. "Soldiers!" + +I can hear him, even now. We were all crying like regular babies, and +the eagles and flags were lowered as if at a funeral. And it was a +funeral--the funeral of the Empire. His old soldiers, once so hale and +spruce, were little more than skeletons. Standing on the portico of his +palace, he said to us: + +"Comrades! We have been beaten through treachery; but we shall all see +one another again in heaven, the country of the brave. Protect my child, +whom I intrust to you. Long live Napoleon II!" + +Like Jesus Christ before his last agony, he believed himself deserted by +God and his star; and in order that no one should see him conquered, it +was his intention to die; but, although he took poison enough to kill a +whole regiment, it never hurt him at all--another proof, you see, that +he was more than man: he found himself immortal. As he felt sure of his +business after that, and knew that he was to be Emperor always, he went +to a certain island for a while, to study the natures of those people in +Paris, who did not fail, of course, to do stupid things without end. + +While he was standing guard down there, the Chinese and those animals on +the coast of Africa--Moors and others, who are not at all easy to get +along with--were so sure that he was something more than man that they +respected his tent, and said that to touch it would be to offend God. So +he reigned over the whole world, although those other fellows had sent +him out of France. + +Well, then, after a while he embarked again in the very same nut-shell +of a boat that he had left Egypt in, passed right under the bows of the +English vessels, and set foot once more in France. France acknowledged +him; the sacred cuckoo flew from spire to spire; and all the people +cried, "Long live the Emperor!" + +In this vicinity the enthusiasm for the Wonder of the Ages was most +hearty. Dauphiny behaved well; and it pleased me particularly to know +that our own people here wept for joy when they saw again his gray coat. + +On the 1st of March Napoleon landed, with two hundred men, to conquer +the kingdom of France and Navarre; and on the 20th of the same month +that kingdom became the French Empire. On that day THE MAN was in Paris. +He had made a clean sweep--had reconquered his dear France, and had +brought all his old soldiers together again by saying only three words: +"Here I am." 'Twas the greatest miracle God had ever worked. Did ever a +man, before him, take an empire by merely showing his hat? They thought +that France was crushed, did they? Not a bit of it! At sight of the +Eagle a national army sprang up, and we all marched to Waterloo. There +the Guard perished, as if stricken down at a single blow. Napoleon, in +despair, threw himself three times, at the head of his troops, on the +enemy's cannon, without being able to find death. The battle was lost. + +That evening the Emperor called his old soldiers together, and, on the +field wet with our blood, burned his eagles and his flags. The poor +eagles, who had always been victorious, who had cried "Forward!" in all +our battles, and who had flown over all Europe, were saved from the +disgrace of falling into the hands of their enemies. All the treasure of +England couldn't buy the tail of one of them. They were no more! + +The rest of the story is well known to everybody. The Red Man went over +to the Bourbons, like the scoundrel that he is; France was crushed; and +the old soldiers, who were no longer of any account, were deprived of +their dues and sent back to their homes, in order that their places +might be given to a lot of nobles who couldn't even march--it was +pitiful to see them try! Then Napoleon was seized, through treachery, +and the English nailed him to a rock, ten thousand feet above the earth, +on a desert island in the great ocean. There he must stay until the Red +Man, for the good of France, gives him back his power. It is said by +some that he is dead. Oh, yes! Dead! That shows how little they know +him! They only tell that lie to cheat the people and keep peace in their +shanty of a government. The truth of the matter is that his friends have +left him there in the desert to fulfil a prophecy that was made about +him--for I have forgotten to tell you that the name Napoleon really +means "Lion of the Desert." + +This that I have told you is gospel truth; and all the other things that +you hear about the Emperor are foolish stories with no human likeliness. +Because, you see, God never gave to any other man born of woman the +power to write his name in red across the whole world--and the world +will remember him forever. Long live Napoleon, the father of the +soldiers and the people! + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Folk-Tales of Napoleon +by Honoré de Balzac and Alexander Amphiteatrof + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOLK-TALES OF NAPOLEON *** + +***** This file should be named 11278-8.txt or 11278-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/2/7/11278/ + +Produced by David Starner, Bill Walker and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Folk-Tales of Napoleon + The Napoleon of the People; Napoleonder + +Author: Honore de Balzac and Alexander Amphiteatrof + +Release Date: February 25, 2004 [EBook #11278] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOLK-TALES OF NAPOLEON *** + + + + +Produced by David Starner, Bill Walker and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + +FOLK-TALES OF NAPOLEON + +NAPOLEONDER + From the Russian + +THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE + From the French of Honore de Balzac + + +Translated With Introduction By +GEORGE KENNAN + + +1902 + + +CONTENTS + +NAPOLEONDER +THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE + + + + +INTRODUCTION + +Most of the literature that has its origin in the life and career of a +great man may be grouped and classified under two heads: history and +biography. The part that relates to the man's actions, and to the +influence that such actions have had in shaping the destinies of peoples +and states, belongs in the one class; while the part that derives its +interest mainly from the man's personality, and deals chiefly with the +mental and moral characteristics of which his actions were the outcome, +goes properly into the other. The value of the literature included in +these two classes depends almost wholly upon truth; that is, upon the +precise correspondence of the statements made with the real facts of the +man's life and career. History is worse than useless if it does not +accurately chronicle and describe events; and biography is valueless and +misleading if it does not truly set forth individual character. + +There is, however, a kind of great-man literature in which truth is +comparatively unimportant, and that is the literature of popular legend +and tradition. Whether it purports to be historical or biographical, or +both, it derives its interest and value from the light that it throws +upon the temperament and character of the people who originate it, +rather than from the amount of truth contained in the statements that +it makes about the man. + +The folk-tales of Napoleon Bonaparte herewith presented, if judged from +the viewpoint of the historian or the biographer, are absurdly and +grotesquely untrue; but to the anthropologist and the student of human +nature they are extremely valuable as self-revelations of national +character; and even to the historian and the biographer they have some +interest as evidences of the profoundly deep impression made by +Napoleon's personality upon two great peoples--the Russians and the +French. + +The first story, which is entitled "Napoleonder," is of Russian origin, +and was put into literary form, or edited, by Alexander Amphiteatrof of +St. Petersburg. It originally appeared as a feuilleton in the St. +Petersburg "Gazette" of December 13, 1901. As a characteristic specimen +of Russian peasant folk-lore, it seems to me to have more than ordinary +interest and value. The treatment of the supernatural may seem, to +Occidental readers, rather daring and irreverent, but it is perfectly in +harmony with the Russian peasant's anthropomorphic conception of Deity, +and should be taken with due allowance for the educational limitations +of the story-teller and his auditors. The Russian muzhik often brings +God and the angels into his folk-tales, and does so without the least +idea of treating them disrespectfully. He makes them talk in his own +language because he has no other language; and if the talk seems a +little grotesque and irreverent, it is due to the low level of the +narrator's literary culture, and not to any intention, on his part, of +treating God and the angels with levity. The whole aim of the story is a +moral and religious one. The narrator is trying to show that sympathy +and mercy are better than selfish ambition, and that war is not only +immoral but irrational. The conversation between God, the angels, and +the Devil is a mere prologue, intended to bring Napoleon and Ivan-angel +on the stage and lay the foundation of the plot. The story-teller's keen +sense of fun and humor is shown in many little touches, but he never +means to be irreverent. The whole legend is set forth in the racy, +idiomatic, highly elliptical language of the common Russian muzhik, and +is therefore extremely difficult of translation; but I have tried to +preserve, as far as possible, the spirit and flavor of the original. + +The French story was first reduced to writing--or at least put into +literary form--by Honore de Balzac, and appeared under the title of "The +Napoleon of the People" in the third chapter of Balzac's "Country +Doctor." It purports to be the story of Napoleon's life and career as +related to a group of French peasants by one of his old soldiers--a man +named Goguelat. It covers more time chronologically than the Russian +story does, and deals much more fully and circumstantially with +historical incidents and events: but it seems to me to be distinctly +inferior to the Russian tale in power of creative imagination, unity of +conception, skill of artistic treatment, and depth of human interest. +The French peasant regards Napoleon merely as a great leader and +conqueror, "created to be the father of soldiers," and aided, if not +directly sent, by God, to show forth the power and the glory of France. +The Russian peasant, more thoughtful by nature as well as less excitable +and combative in temperament, admits that Napoleon was sent on earth by +God, but connects him with one of the deep problems of life by using him +to show the divine nature of sympathy and pity, and the cruelty, +immorality, and unreasonableness of aggressive war. The only feature +that the two tales have in common is the recognition of the supernatural +as a controlling factor in Napoleon's life. The French peasant believes +that he had a guiding star; that he was advised and directed by a +familiar spirit in the shape of a "Red Man"; and that he was saved from +dangers and death by virtue of a secret compact with the Supreme Being. +The Russian peasant asserts that he was created by the Devil, and that +God, after having given him a soul by accident, first used him as a +means of punishing the Russian people for their sins, and then made him +really a man by inspiring him with the human feelings of sympathy and +compassion. In the French story Napoleon appears as a great military +leader, whose life and career reflect honor and glory upon France. In +the Russian story he is merely the leading actor in a sort of moral +drama, or historical mystery-play, intended to show the divine nature of +sympathy and compassion, the immorality of war, and the essential +solidarity and brotherhood of all mankind. + +GEORGE KENNAN. + + * * * * * + + + + +NAPOLEONDER[1] + +[Footnote 1: The Russian peasant's name for Napoleon Bonaparte. The +final syllable "der" has perhaps been added because to the ear of the +peasant "Napoleon" sounds clipped and incomplete, as "Alexan" would +sound to us without the "der."] + +Long ago--but not so very long ago; our grandfathers remember it--the +Lord God wanted to punish the people of the world for their wickedness. +So he began to think how and by what means he could punish them, and he +called a council of his angels and archangels to talk about it. Says the +archangel Michael to the Lord God: "Shake them up, the recreants, with +an earthquake." + +"We've tried that," says the Lord God. "Once upon a time we jolted to +pieces Sodom and Gomorrah, but it didn't teach them anything. Since then +pretty much all the towns have become Sodoms and Gomorrahs." + +"How about famine?" says the archangel Gabriel. + +"It would be too bad for the babies," replies the Lord God. "Famine +would kill the babies. And, besides that, the cattle must have +food--they're not to blame." + +"Drown them with a flood," suggests Raphael. + +"Clean impossible!" says the Lord God. "Because, in the first place, I +took an oath once that there should be no more floods, and I set the +rainbow in the sky for an assurance. In the second place, the rascally +sinners have become cunning; they'll get on steamboats and sail all over +the flood." + +Then all the archangels were perplexed, and began to screw about in +their seats, trying to invent or think of some calamity that would bring +the wicked human race to its senses and stir up its conscience. But they +had been accustomed, time out of mind, to do good rather than evil; they +had forgotten all about the wickedness of the world; and they couldn't +think of a single thing that would be of any use. + +Then suddenly up comes Ivan-angel, a simple-minded soul whom the Lord God +had appointed to look after the Russian muzhiks. He comes up and +reports: "Lord, Satan is outside there, asking for you. He doesn't dare +to come in, because he smells bad [Footnote 2: That is, he brings with +him the sulphurous odor of hell.]; so he's waiting in the entry." + +Then the Lord God was rejoiced. "Call Satan in!" he ordered. "I know +that rogue perfectly well, and he has come in the very nick of time. A +scamp like that will be sure to think of something." + +Satan came in. His face was as black as tanned calfskin, his voice was +hoarse, and a long tail hung down from under his overcoat. + +"If you so order," he says, "I'll distribute your calamities for you +with my own hands." + +"Go ahead with your distribution," says the Lord God; "nobody shall +hinder you." + +"Will you permit me," Satan says, "to bring about an invasion of +foreigners?" + +The Lord God shook his finger at Satan and cried: "Is that all you can +think of? And you so wise!" + +"Excuse me," Satan says. "Why doesn't my plan show wisdom?" + +"Because," replies the Lord God, "you propose to afflict the people with +war, and war is just what they want. They're all the time fighting among +themselves, one people with another, and that's the very thing I want to +punish them for." + +"Yes," says Satan, "they re greedy for war, but that's only because they +have never yet seen a real warrior. Send them a regular conqueror, and +they'll soon drop their tails between their legs and cry, 'Have mercy, +Lord! Save us from the man of blood!'" + +The Lord God was surprised. "Why do you say, my little brother, that the +people have never seen a real warrior? The Tsar Herod was a conqueror; +the Tsar Alexander subdued a wonderful lot of people; Ivan-Tsar +destroyed Kazan; Mamai-Tsar the furious came with all his hordes; and +the Tsar Peter, and the great fighter Anika--how many more conquerors do +you want?" + +"I want Napoleonder," says Satan. + +"Napoleonder!" cries the Lord God. "Who's he? Where did he come from?" + +"He's a certain little man," Satan says, "who may not be wise enough to +hurt, but he's terribly fierce in his habits." + +The Lord God says to the archangel Gabriel: "Look in the Book of Life, +Gabriel, and see if we've got Napoleonder written down." + +The archangel looked and looked, but he couldn't look up any such +person. + +"There isn't any kind of Napoleonder in the Book," he says. "Satan is a +liar. We haven't got Napoleonder written down anywhere." + +Then Satan replies: "It isn't strange that you can't find Napoleonder in +the Book of Life, because you write in that Book only the names of those +who were born of human fathers and mothers, and who have navels. +Napoleonder never had a father or a mother, and, moreover, he hasn't any +navel--and that's so surprising that you might exhibit him for money." + +The Lord God was greatly astonished. "How did your Napoleonder ever get +into the world?" he says. + +"In this way," Satan replies. "I made him, as a doll, just for +amusement, out of sand. At that very time, you, Lord, happened to be +washing your holy face; and, not being careful, you let a few drops of +the water of life splash over. They fell from heaven right exactly on +Napoleonder's head, and he immediately took breath and became a man. He +is living now, not very near nor very far away, on the island of Buan, +in the middle of the ocean-sea. There is a little less than a verst of +land in the island, and Napoleonder lives there and watches geese. Night +and day he looks after the geese, without eating, or drinking, or +sleeping, or smoking; and his only thought is--how to conquer the whole +world." + +The Lord God thought and thought, and then he ordered: "Bring him to +me." + +Satan at once brought Napoleonder into the bright heaven. The Lord God +looked at him, and saw that he was a military man with shining buttons. + +"I have heard, Napoleonder," says the Lord God, "that you want to +conquer the whole world." + +"Exactly so," replies Napoleonder; "that's what I want very much to +do." + +"And have you thought," says the Lord God, "that when you go forth to +conquer you will crush many peoples and shed rivers of blood?" + +"That's all the same to me," says Napoleonder; "the important thing for +me is--how can I subdue the whole world." + +"And will you not feel pity for the killed, the wounded, the burned, the +ruined, and the dead?" + +"Not in the least," says Napoleonder. "Why should I feel pity? I don't +like pity. So far as I can remember, I was never sorry for anybody or +anything in my life, and I never shall be." + +Then the Lord God turns to the angels and says: "Messrs. Angels, this +seems to be the very fellow for our business." Then to Napoleonder he +says: "Satan was perfectly right. You are worthy to be the instrument of +my wrath, because a pitiless conqueror is worse than earthquake, famine, +or deluge. Go back to the earth, Napoleonder; I turn over to you the +whole world, and through you the whole world shall be punished." + +Napoleonder says: "Give me armies and luck, and I'll do my best." + +Then the Lord God says: "Armies you shall have, and luck you shall have; +and so long as you are merciless you shall never be defeated in battle; +but remember that the moment you begin to feel sorry for the shedding of +blood--of your own people or of others--that moment your power will +end. From that moment your enemies will defeat you, and you shall +finally be made a prisoner, be put into chains, and be sent back to Buan +Island to watch geese. Do you understand?" + +"Exactly so," says Napoleonder. "I understand, and I will obey. I shall +never feel pity." + +Then the angels and the archangels began to say to God: "Lord, why have +you laid upon him such a frightful command? If he goes forth so, without +mercy, he will kill every living soul on earth--he will leave none for +seed!" + +"Be silent!" replied the Lord God. "He will not conquer long. He is +altogether too brave; because he fears neither others nor himself. He +thinks he will keep from pity, and does not know that pity, in the +human heart, is stronger than all else, and that not a man living is +wholly without it." + +"But," the archangels say, "he is not a man; he is made of sand." + +The Lord God replies: "Then you think he didn't receive a soul when my +water of life fell on his head?" + +Napoleonder at once gathered together a great army speaking twelve +languages, and went forth to war. He conquered the Germans, he conquered +the Turks, he subdued the Swedes and the Poles. He reaped as he marched, +and left bare the country through which he passed. And all the time he +remembers the condition of success--pity for none. He cuts off heads, +burns villages, outrages women, and tramples children under his horses' +hoofs. He desolates the whole Mohammedan kingdom--and still he is not +sated. Finally he marches on a Christian country--on Holy Russia. + +In Russia then the Tsar was Alexander the Blessed--the same Tsar who +stands now on the top of the column in Petersburg-town and blesses the +people with a cross, and that's why he is called "the Blessed." + +When he saw Napoleonder marching against him with twelve languages, +Alexander the Blessed felt that the end of Russia was near. He called +together his generals and field-marshals, and said to them: "Messrs. +Generals and Field-marshals, how can I check this Napoleonder? He is +pressing us terribly hard." + +The generals and field-marshals reply: "We can't do anything, your +Majesty, to stop Napoleonder, because God has given him a word." + +"What kind of a word?" + +"This kind: 'Bonaparty.'" + +"But what does 'Bonaparty' mean, and why is a single word so terrible?" + +"It means, your Majesty, six hundred and sixty-six--the number of the +Beast [Footnote 3: A reference to the Beast of the Apocalypse. "The +number of the beast is the number of a man: and his number is Six +hundred threescore and six" (Rev. xiii. 18).]; and it is terrible +because when Napoleonder sees, in a battle, that the enemy is very +brave, that his own strength is not enough, and that his own men are +falling fast [Footnote 4: Literally, "lying down with their bones."], he +immediately conjures with this same word, 'Bonaparty,' and at that +instant--as soon as the word is pronounced--all the soldiers that have +ever served under him and have died for him on the field of battle come +back from beyond the grave. He leads them afresh against the enemy, as +if they were alive, and nothing can stand against them, because they are +a ghostly force, not an army of this world." + +Alexander the Blessed grew sad; but, after thinking a moment, he said: +"Messrs. Generals and Field-marshals, we Russians are a people of more +than ordinary courage. We have fought with all nations, and never yet +before any of them have we laid our faces in the dust. If God has +brought us, at last, to fight with corpses--his holy will be done! We +will go against the dead!" + +So he led his army to the field of Kulikova, and there waited for the +miscreant Napoleonder. And soon afterward, Napoleonder, the evil one, +sends him an envoy with a paper saying, "Submit, Alexander +Blagoslovenni, and I will show you favor above all others." + +But Alexander the Blessed was a proud man, who held fast his +self-respect. He would not speak to the envoy, but he took the paper +that the envoy had brought, and drew on it an insulting picture, with +the words, "Is this what you want?" and sent it back to Napoleonder. + +Then they fought and slashed one another on the field of Kulikova, and +in a short time or a long time our men began to overcome the forces of +the enemy. One by one they shot or cut down all of Napoleonder's +field-marshals, and finally drew near to Napoleonder himself. + +"Your time has come!" they cry to him. "Surrender!" + +But the villain sits there on his horse, rolling his goggle-eyes like an +owl, and grinning. + +"Wait a minute," he says coolly. "Don't be in too big a hurry. A tale is +short in telling, but the deed is long a-doing." + +Then he pronounces his conjuring-word, "Bonaparty"--six hundred and +sixty-six, the number of the Beast. + +Instantly there is a great rushing sound, and the earth is shaken as if +by an earthquake. Our soldiers look--and drop their hands. In all parts +of the field appear threatening battalions, with bayonets shining in the +sun, torn flags waving over terrible hats of fur, and tramp! tramp! +tramp! on come the thousands of phantom men, with faces yellow as +camomile, and empty holes under their bushy eyebrows. + +Alexander, the Blessed Tsar, was stricken with terror. Terror-stricken +were all his generals and field-marshals. Terror-stricken also was the +whole Russian army. Shaking with fear, they wavered at the advance of +the dead, gave way suddenly in a panic, and finally fled in whatever +direction their eyes happened to look. + +The brigand Napoleonder sat on his horse, holding his sides with +laughter, and shouted: "Aha! My old men are not to your taste! I +thought so! This isn't like playing knuckle-bones with children and old +women! Well, then, my honorable Messrs. Dead Men, I have never yet felt +pity for any one, and you needn't show mercy to my enemies. Deal with +them after your own fashion." + +"As long as it is so," replied the corpse-soldiers, "we are your +faithful servants always." + +Our men fled from Kulikova-field to Pultava-field; from Pultava-field to +the famous still-water Don; and from the peaceful Don to the field of +Borodino, under the very walls of Mother Moscow. And as our men came to +these fields, one after another, they turned their faces again and +again toward Napoleonder, and fought him with such fierceness that the +brigand himself was delighted with them "God save us!" he exclaimed, +"what soldiers these Russians are! I have not seen such men in any other +country." + +But, in spite of the bravery of our troops, we were unable to stop +Napoleonder's march; because we had no word with which to meet his word. +In every battle we pound him, and drive him back, and get him in a +slip-noose; but just as we are going to draw it tight and catch him, the +filthy, idolatrous thief bethinks himself and shouts "Bonaparty!" Then +the dead men crawl out of their graves in full uniform, set their teeth, +fix their eyes upon their officers, and charge! And where they pass the +grass withers and the stones crack. And our men are so terrified by +these unclean bodies that they can't fight against them at all. As soon +as they hear that accursed word "Bonaparty," and see the big fur hats +and the yellow faces of the dead men, they throw down their guns and +rush into the woods to hide. + +"Say what you will, Alexander Blagoslovenni," they cry, "for corpses we +are not prepared." + +Alexander the Blessed reproached his men, and said: "Wait a little, +brothers, before you run away. Let's exert ourselves a little more. Dog +that he is, he can't beat us always. God has set a limit for him +somewhere. To-day is his, to-morrow may be his, but after a while the +luck perhaps will turn." + +Then he went to the old hermit-monks in the caves of Kiev and on the +island of Valaam, and bowed himself at the feet of all the +archimandrites and metropolitans, saying: "Pray for us, holy fathers, +and beseech the Lord God to turn away his wrath; because we haven't +strength enough to defend you from this Napoleonder." + +Then the old hermit-monks and the archimandrites and the metropolitans +all prayed, with tears in their eyes, to the Lord God, and prostrated +themselves until their knees were all black and blue and there were big +bumps on their foreheads. With tearful eyes, the whole Russian people, +too, from the Tsar to the last beggar, prayed God for mercy and help. +And they took the sacred ikon of the Holy Mother of God of Smolensk, +the pleader for the grief-stricken, and carried it to the famous field +of Borodino, and, bowing down before it, with tearful eyes, they cried: +"O Most Holy Mother of God, thou art our life and our hope! Have mercy +on us, and intercede for us soon." + +And down the dark face of the ikon, from under the setting of pearls in +the silver frame, trickled big tears. And all the army and all God's +people saw the sacred ikon crying. It was a terrible thing to see, but +it was comforting. + +Then the Lord God heard the wail of the Russian people and the prayers +of the Holy Virgin the Mother of God of Smolensk, and he cried out to +the angels and the archangels: "The hour of my wrath has passed. The +people have suffered enough for their sins and have repented of their +wickedness. Napoleonder has destroyed nations enough. It's time for him +to learn mercy. Who of you, my servants, will go down to the earth--who +will undertake the great work of softening the conqueror's heart?" + +The older angels and the archangels didn't want to go. "Soften his +heart!" they cried. "He is made of sand--he hasn't any navel--he is +pitiless--we're afraid of him!" + +Then Ivan-angel stepped forward and said: "I'll go." + +At that very time Napoleonder had just gained a great victory and was +riding over the field of battle on a greyhound of a horse. He trampled +with his horse's hoofs on the bodies of the dead, without pity or +regret, and the only thought in his mind was, "As soon as I have done +with Russia, I'll march against the Chinese and the white Arabs; and +then I shall have conquered exactly the whole world." + +But just at that moment he heard some one calling, "Napoleonder! O +Napoleonder!" He looked around, and not far away, under a bush on a +little mound, he saw a wounded Russian soldier, who was beckoning to him +with his hand. Napoleonder was surprised. What could a wounded Russian +soldier want of him? He turned his horse and rode to the spot. "What do +you want?" he asked the soldier. + +"I don't want anything of you," the wounded soldier replied, "except an +answer to one question. Tell me, please, what have you killed me for?" + +Napoleonder was still more surprised. In the many years of his +conquering he had wounded and killed a multitude of men; but he had +never been asked that question before. And yet this Russian soldier +didn't look as if he had anything more than ordinary intelligence. He +was just a young, boyish fellow, with light flaxen hair and blue +eyes--evidently a new recruit from some country village. + +"What do you mean--'killed you for'?" said Napoleonder. "I had to kill +you. When you went into the army, didn't you take an oath that you +would die?" + +"I know what oath I took, Napoleonder, and I'm not making a fuss about +dying. But you--why did you kill me?" + +"Why shouldn't I kill you," said Napoleonder, "when you were the +enemy,--that is, my foe,--come out to fight me on the field of +Borodino?" + +"Cross yourself, Napoleonder!" said the young soldier. "How could I be +your foe, when there has never been any sort of quarrel between us? +Until you came into our country, and I was drafted into the army, I had +never even heard of you. And here you have killed me--and how many more +like me!" + +"I killed," said Napoleonder, "because it was necessary for me to +conquer the world." + +"But what have I got to do with your conquering the world?" replied the +soldier. "Conquer it, if you want to--I don't hinder. But why did you +kill me? Has killing me given you the world? The world doesn't belong to +me. You're not reasonable, brother Napoleonder. And is it possible that +you really think you can conquer the whole world?" + +"I'm very much of that opinion," replied Napoleonder. + +The little soldier smiled. "You're really stupid, Napoleonder," he said. +"I'm sorry for you. As if it were possible to conquer the whole world!" + +"I'll subdue all the kingdoms," replied Napoleonder, "and put all +peoples in chains, and then I'll reign as Tsar of all the earth." + +The soldier shook his head. "And God?" he inquired. "Will you conquer +him?" + +Napoleonder was confused. "No," he finally said. "God's will is over us +all; and in the hollow of his hand we live." + +"Then what's the use of your conquering the world?" said the soldier. +"God is all; therefore the world won't belong to you, but to him. And +you'll live just so long as he has patience with you, and no longer." + +"I know that as well as you do," said Napoleonder. + +"Well, then," replied the soldier, "if you know it, why don't you reckon +with God?" + +Napoleonder scowled. "Don't say such things to me!" he cried. "I've +heard that sanctimonious stuff before. It's of no use. You can't fool +me! I don't know any such thing as pity." + +"Indeed," said the soldier, "is it so? Have a care, Napoleonder! You are +swaggering too much. You lie when you say a man can live without pity. +To have a soul, and to feel compassion, are one and the same thing. You +have a soul, haven't you?" + +"Of course I have," replied Napoleonder; "a man can't live without a +soul." + +"There! you see!" said the soldier. "You have a soul, and you believe in +God. How, then, can you say you don't know any such thing as pity? You +do know! And I believe that at this very moment, deep down in your +heart, you are mortally sorry for me; only you don't want to show it. +Why, then, did you kill me?" + +Napoleonder suddenly became furious. "May the pip seize your tongue, you +miscreant! I'll show you how much pity I have for you!" And, drawing a +pistol, Napoleonder shot the wounded soldier through the head. Then, +turning to his dead men, he said: "Did you see that?" + +"We saw it," they replied; "and as long as it is so, we are your +faithful servants always." + +Napoleonder rode on. + +At last night comes; and Napoleonder is sitting alone in his golden +tent. His mind is troubled, and he can't understand what it is that +seems to be gnawing at his heart. For years he has been at war, and this +is the first time such a thing has happened. Never before has his soul +been so filled with unrest. And to-morrow morning he must begin another +battle--the last terrible fight with the Tsar Alexander the Blessed, on +the field of Borodino. + +"Akh!" he thinks, "I'll show them to-morrow what a leader I am! I'll +lift the soldiers of the Tsar into the air on my lances and trample +their bodies under the feet of my horses. I'll make the Tsar himself a +prisoner, and I'll kill or scatter the whole Russian people." + +But a voice seemed to whisper in his ear: "And why? Why?" + +"I know that trick," he thought. "It's that same wounded soldier again. +All right. I won't give in to him. 'Why? Why?' As if I knew why! +Perhaps if I knew why I shouldn't make war." + +He lay down on his bed; but hardly had he closed his eyes when he saw by +his bedside the wounded soldier--young, fair-faced, blond-haired, with +just the first faint shadow of a mustache. His forehead was pale, his +lips were livid, his blue eyes were dim, and in his left temple there +was a round black hole made by the bullet from his--Napoleonder's--pistol. +And the ghastly figure seemed to ask again, "Why did you kill me?" + +Napoleonder turns over and over, from side to side, in his bed. He sees +that it's a bad business. He can't get rid of that soldier. And, more +than all, he wonders at himself. "What an extraordinary occurrence!" he +thinks. "I've killed millions of people, of all countries and nations, +without the least misgiving; and now, suddenly, one miserable soldier +comes and throws all my ideas into a tangle!" + +Finally Napoleonder got up; but the confinement of his golden tent +seemed oppressive. He went out into the open air, mounted his horse, and +rode away to the place where he had shot to death the vexatious soldier. + +"I've heard," he said to himself, "that when a dead man appears in a +vision, it is necessary to sprinkle earth on the eyes of the corpse; +then he'll lie quiet." + +Napoleonder rides on. The moon is shining brightly, and the bodies of +the dead are lying on the battle-field in heaps. Everywhere he sees +corruption and smells corruption. + +"And all these," he thought, "I have killed." + +And, wonderful to say, it seems to him as if all the dead men have the +same face,--a young face with blue eyes, and blond hair, and the faint +shadow of a mustache,--and they all seem to be looking at him with +kindly, pitying eyes, and their bloodless lips move just a little as +they ask, without anger or reproach, "Why? Why?" + +Napoleonder felt a dull, heavy pressure at his heart. He had not spirit +enough left to go to the little mound where the body of the dead soldier +lay, so he turned his horse and rode back to his tent; and every corpse +that he passed seemed to say, "Why? Why?" + +He no longer felt the desire to ride at a gallop over the dead bodies of +the Russian soldiers. On the contrary, he picked his way among them +carefully, riding respectfully around the remains of every man who had +died with honor on that field of blood; and now and then he even crossed +himself and said: "Akh, that one ought to have lived! What a fine fellow +that one was! He must have fought with splendid courage. And I killed +him--why?" + +The great conqueror never noticed that his heart was growing softer and +warmer, but so it was. He pitied his dead enemies at last, and then the +evil spirit went away from him, and left him in all respects like other +people. + +The next day came the battle. Napoleonder led his forces, cloud upon +cloud, to the field of Borodino; but he was shaking as if in a chill. +His generals and field-marshals looked at him and were filled with +dismay. + +"You ought to take a drink of vodka, Napoleonder," they say; "you don't +look like yourself." + +When the Russian troops attacked the hordes of Napoleonder, on the field +of Borodino, the soldiers of the great conqueror at once gave way. + +"It's a bad business, Napoleonder," the generals and field-marshals say. +"For some reason the Russians are fighting harder to-day than ever. +You'd better call out your dead men." + +Napoleonder shouted at the top of his voice, "Bonaparty!"--six hundred +and sixty-six,--the number of the Beast. But, cry as he would, he only +frightened the jackdaws. The dead men didn't come out of their graves, +nor answer his call. And Napoleonder was left on the field of Borodino +alone. All his generals and field-marshals had fled, and he sat there +alone on his horse, shouting, "Bonaparty! Bonaparty!" + +Then suddenly there appeared beside him the smooth-faced, blue-eyed, +fair-haired Russian recruit whom he had killed the day before. And the +young soldier said: "It's useless to shout, Napoleonder. Nobody will +come. Yesterday you felt sorry for me and for my dead brothers, and +because of your pity your corpse-soldiers no longer come at your call. +Your power over them is gone." + +Then Napoleonder began to weep and sob, and cried out, "You have ruined +me, you wretched, miserable soldier!" + +But the soldier (who was Ivan-angel, and not a soldier at all) replied: +"I have not ruined you, Napoleonder; I have saved you. If you had gone +on in your merciless, pitiless course, there would have been no +forgiveness for you, either in this life or in the life to come. Now God +has given you time for repentance. In this world you shall be punished; +but there, beyond, if you repent of your sins, you shall be forgiven." + +And the angel vanished. + +Then our Don Cossacks fell on Napoleonder, dragged him from his horse, +and took him to Alexander the Blessed. Some said, "Napoleonder ought to +be shot!" Others cried, "Send him to Siberia to!" But the Lord God +softened the heart of Alexander the Blessed, and the merciful Tsar would +not allow Napoleonder to be shot or sent to Siberia. He ordered that the +great conqueror be put into an iron cage, and be carried around and +exhibited to the people at country fairs. So Napoleonder was carried +from one fair to another for a period of thirty summers and three +years--until he had grown quite old. Then, when he was an old man, they +sent him to the island of Buan to watch geese. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE NAPOLEON OF THE PEOPLE[1] + +[Footnote 1: A story told to a group of French peasants one evening, in +a barn, by Goguelat, the village postman, who had served under Napoleon +in a regiment of infantry.] + +Napoleon, my friends, was born, you know, in Corsica. That's a French +island, but it's warmed by the sun of Italy, and everything's as hot +there as if it were a furnace. It's a place, too, where the people kill +one another, from father to son, generation after generation, for +nothing at all; that is, for no reason in particular except that it's +their way. + +Well, to begin with the most wonderful part of the story, it so +happened that on the very day when Napoleon was born, his mother dreamed +that the world was on fire. She was a shrewd, clever woman, as well as +the prettiest woman of her time; and when she had this dream, she +thought she'd save her son from the dangers of life by dedicating him to +God. And, indeed, that was a prophetic dream of hers! So she asked God +to protect the boy, and promised that when he grew up he should +reestablish God's holy religion, which had then been overthrown. That +was the agreement they made; and although it seems strange, such things +have happened. It's sure and certain, anyhow, that only a man who had an +agreement with God could pass through the enemy's lines, and move about +in showers of bullets and grape-shot, as Napoleon did. They swept us +away like flies, but his head they never touched at all. I had a proof +of that--I myself, in particular--at Eylau, where the Emperor went up on +a little hill to see how things were going. I can remember, to this day, +exactly how he looked as he took out his field-glass, watched the battle +for a minute, and finally said: "It's all right! Everything is going +well." Then, just as he was coming back, an ambitious chap in a plumed +hat, who was always following him around, and who bothered him, they +said, even at his meals, thought he'd play smart by going up on the very +same hill; but he had hardly taken the Emperor's place when--batz!--away +he went, plume and all! + +Now follow me closely, and tell me whether what you are going to hear +was natural. + +Napoleon, you know, had promised that he'd keep his agreement with God +to himself. That's the reason why his companions and even his particular +friends--men like Duroc, Bessieres, and Lannes, who were strong as bars +of steel, but whom he molded to suit his purposes--all fell, like nuts +from a shaken tree, while he himself was never even hurt. + +But that's not the only proof that he was the child of God and was +expressly created to be the father of soldiers. Did anybody ever see him +a lieutenant? Or a captain? Never! He was commander-in-chief from the +start. When he didn't look more than twenty-four years of age he was +already an old general--ever since the taking of Toulon, where he first +began to show the rest of them that they didn't know anything about the +handling of cannon. + +Well, soon after that, down comes this stripling to us as +general-in-chief of the Army of Italy--an army that hadn't any +ammunition, or bread, or shoes, or coats; a wretched army--naked as a +worm. "Now, boys!" he said, "here we are, all together. I want you to +get it fixed in your heads that in fifteen days more you 're going to be +conquerors. You're going to have new clothes, good leggings, the best of +shoes, and a warm overcoat for every man; but in order to get these +things you'll have to march to Milan, where they are." So we marched. We +were only thirty thousand bare-footed tramps, and we were going against +eighty thousand crack German soldiers--fine, well equipped men; but +Napoleon, who was only Bonaparte then, breathed a spirit of--I don't +know what--into us, and on we marched, night and day. We hit the enemy +at Montenotte, thrashed 'em at Rivoli, Lodi, Arcola, and Millesimo, and +stuck to 'em wherever they went. A soldier soon gets to like being a +conqueror; and Napoleon wheeled around those German generals, and pelted +away at 'em, until they didn't know where to hide long enough to get a +little rest. With fifteen hundred Frenchmen, whom he made to appear a +great host (that's a way he had), he'd sometimes surround ten thousand +men and gather 'em all in at a single scoop. Then we'd take their +cannon, their money, their ammunition, and everything they had that was +worth carrying away. As for the others, we chucked 'em into the water, +walloped 'em on the mountains, snapped 'em up in the air, devoured 'em +on the ground, and beat 'em everywhere. So at last our troops were in +fine feather--especially as Napoleon, who had a clever wit, made friends +with the inhabitants of the country by telling them that we had come to +set them free; and then, of course, they gave us quarters and took the +best of care of us. And it was not only the men: the women took care of +us too, which showed their good judgment! + +Well, it finally ended in this way: in Ventose, 1796,--which was the +same time of year that our March is now,--we were penned up in one +corner of the marmot country: but at the end of the first campaign, lo +and behold! we were masters of Italy, just as Napoleon had predicted. +And in the month of March following--that is, in two campaigns, which we +fought in a single year--he brought us in sight of Vienna. It was just a +clean sweep. We had eaten up three different armies in succession, and +had wiped out four Austrian generals; one of them--a white-haired old +chap--was burned alive at Mantua like a rat in a straw mattress. We had +conquered peace, and kings were begging, on their knees, for mercy. +Could a man have done all that alone? Never! He had the help of God; +that's certain! He divided himself up like the five loaves of bread in +the Gospel; he planned battles at night and directed them in the +daytime: he was seen by the sentries going here and there at all hours, +and he never ate or slept. When the soldiers saw all these wonderful +things, they adopted him as their father. + +But the people at the head of the government over there in Paris, who +were looking on, said to themselves: "This schemer, who seems to have +the watchword of Heaven, is quite capable of laying his hands on France. +We'd better turn him loose in Asia or America. Then maybe he'll be +satisfied for a while." So it was written that he should do just what +Jesus Christ did--go to Egypt. You see how in this he resembled the Son +of God. But there's more to come. + +He gathered together all his old fire-eaters--the fellows that he had +put the spirit of the Devil into--and said to them: "Boys! They've given +us Egypt to chew on--to keep us quiet for a while; but we'll swallow +Egypt in one time and two movements--just as we did Italy; All you +private soldiers shall be princes, with lands of your own. Forward!" + +"Forward, boys!" shouted the sergeants. + +So we marched to Toulon, on our way to Egypt. As soon as the English +heard of it, they sent out all their ships of war to catch us; but when +we embarked, Napoleon said to us: "The English will never see us; and +it is only proper for you to know now that your general has a star in +the sky which will henceforth guide and protect us." + +As 't was said, so 't was done. On our way across the sea we took Malta +(just as one would pick an orange in passing) to quench Napoleon's +thirst for victory; because he was a man who wanted to be doing +something all the time. + +And so at last we came to Egypt; and then the orders were different. The +Egyptians, you know, are people who, from the beginning of the world, +have had giants to rule over them, and armies like innumerable ants. +Their country is a land of genii and crocodiles, and of pyramids as big +as our mountains, where they put the bodies of their dead kings to keep +them fresh--a thing that seems to please them all around. Of course you +can't deal with such people as you would with others. So when we landed, +the Little Corporal said to us: "Boys! The country that you are going to +conquer worships a lot of gods that must be respected. Frenchmen should +keep on good terms with everybody, and fight people without hurting +their feelings. So let everything alone at first, and by and by we'll +get all there is." + +Now there was a prediction among the Egyptians down there that Napoleon +would come; and the name they had for him was Kebir Bonaberdis, which +means, in their lingo, "The Sultan strikes fire." They were as much +afraid of him as they were of the Devil; so the Grand Turk, Asia, and +Africa resorted to magic, and sent against us a demon named Mody [the +Mahdi], who was supposed to have come down from heaven on a white horse. +This horse was incombustible to bullets, and so was the Mody, and the +two of 'em lived on weather and air. There are people who have seen 'em; +but I haven't any reason, myself, to say positively that the things told +about 'em were true. Anyhow, they were the great powers in Arabia; and +the Mamelukes wanted to make the Egyptian soldiers think that the Mody +could keep them from being killed in battle, and that he was an angel +sent down from heaven to fight Napoleon and get back Solomon's seal--a +part of their equipment which they pretended to believe our general had +stolen. But we made 'em laugh on the wrong side of their mouths, in +spite of their Mody! + +They thought Napoleon could command the genii, and that he had power to +go from one place to another in an instant, like a bird; and, indeed, +it's a fact that he was everywhere. But how did they know that he had an +agreement with God? Was it natural that they should get such an idea as +that? + +It so happened, finally, that he carried off one of their queens--a +woman beautiful as the sunshine. He tried, at first, to buy her, and +offered to give for her all his treasure, and a lot of diamonds as big +as pigeons' eggs; but although the Mameluke to whom she particularly +belonged had several others, he wouldn't agree to the bargain; so +Napoleon had to carry her off. Of course, when things came to such a +pass as that, they couldn't be settled without a lot of fighting; and if +there weren't blows enough to satisfy all, it wasn't anybody's fault. We +formed in battle line at Alexandria, at Gizeh, and in front of the +Pyramids. We marched in hot sunshine and through deep sand, where some +got so bedazzled that they saw water which they couldn't drink, and +shade that made them sweat; but we generally chewed up the Mamelukes, +and all the rest gave in when they heard Napoleon's voice. + +He took possession of Upper and Lower Egypt, Arabia, and the capitals of +kingdoms that perished long ago, where there were thousands of statues +of all the evil things in creation, especially lizards--a thundering big +country, where one could get acres of land for as little as he pleased. + +Well, while Napoleon was attending to his business inland, where he +intended to do some splendid things, the English, who were always trying +to make us trouble, burned his fleet at Aboukir. But our general, who +had the respect of the East and the West, who had been called "my son" +by the Pope, and "my dear father" by the cousin of Mahomet, resolved to +punish England, and to capture the Indies, in payment for his lost +fleet. He was just going to take us across the Red Sea into Asia--a +country where there were lots of diamonds, plenty of gold with which to +pay his soldiers, and palaces that could be used for etapes--when the +Mody made an arrangement with the Plague, and sent it down to put an end +to our victories. Then it was, Halt, all! And everybody marched off to +that parade from which you don't come back on your feet. Dying soldiers +couldn't take Saint Jean d'Acre, although they forced an entrance three +times with noble and stubborn courage. The Plague was too strong for us; +and it wasn't any use to say "Please don't!" to the Plague. Everybody +was sick except Napoleon. He looked fresh as a rose, and the whole army +saw him drinking in pestilence without being hurt a bit. How was that? +Do you call that natural? + +Well, the Mamelukes, who knew that we were all in ambulances, thought +they'd bar our way; but they couldn't play that sort of game with +Napoleon. He turned to his old fire-eaters--the fellows with the +toughest hides--and said: "Go clear the road for me." Junot, who was his +devoted friend and a number one soldier, took not more than a thousand +men, and slashed right through the army of the pasha which had had the +impudence to get in our way. Then we went back to Cairo, where we had +our headquarters. + +And now for another part of the story. While Napoleon was away France +was letting herself be ruined by those government scalawags in Paris, +who were keeping back the soldiers' pay, withholding their linen and +their clothes, and even letting them starve. They wanted the soldiers to +lay down the law to the universe, and that's all they cared for. They +were just a lot of idiots jabbering for amusement instead of putting +their own hands into the dough. So our armies were beaten and we +couldn't defend, our frontiers. THE MAN was no longer there. I say "the +man" because that's what they called him; but it was absurd to say that +he was merely a man, when he had a star of his own with all its +belongings. It was the rest of us who were merely men. At the battle of +Aboukir, with a single division and with a loss of only three hundred +men, he whipped the great army of the Turks, and hustled more than half +of them into the sea--r-r-rah--like that! But it was his last +thunderclap in Egypt; because when he heard, soon afterward, what was +happening in France, he made up his mind to go back there. "I am the +savior of France," he said, "and I must go to her aid." The army didn't +know what he intended to do. If they had known, they would have kept him +in Egypt by force and made him Emperor of the East. + +When he had gone, we all felt very blue; because he had been the joy of +our lives. He left the command to Kleber--a great lout of a fellow who +soon afterward lost the number of his mess. An Egyptian assassinated +him. They put the murderer to death by making him sit on a bayonet; +that's their way, down there, of guillotining a man. But he suffered so +much that one of our soldiers felt sorry for him and offered him his +water-gourd. The criminal took a drink, and then gave up the ghost with +the greatest pleasure. + +But we didn't waste much time over trifles like that. + +Napoleon sailed from Egypt in a cockle-shell of a boat called _Fortune_. +He passed right under the noses of the English, who were blockading the +coast with ships of the line, frigates, and every sort of craft that +could carry sail, and in the twinkling of an eye he was in France; +because he had the ability to cross the sea as if with a single stride. +Was that natural? Bah! The very minute he reached Frejus, he had his +foot, so to speak, in Paris. There, of course, everybody worships him. +But the first thing he does is to summon the government. "What have you +been doing with my children the soldiers?" he said to the lawyers. "You +are nothing but a lot of poll-parrots, who fool the people with your +gabble, and feather your own nests at the expense of France. It is not +right; and I speak in the name of all who are dissatisfied." + +They thought, at first, that they could get rid of him by talking him +to death; but it didn't work. He shut 'em up in the very barrack where +they did their talking, and those who didn't jump out of the windows he +enrolled in his suite, where they soon became mute as fish and pliable +as a tobacco-pouch. This coup made him consul; and as he wasn't one to +doubt the Supreme Being who had kept good faith with him, he hastened to +fulfil his own promise by restoring the churches and reestablishing +religion; whereupon the bells all rang out in his honor and in honor of +the good God. + +Everybody then was satisfied: first, the priests, because they were +protected from persecution; second, the merchants, because they could do +business without fearing the "we-grab-it-all" of the law; and finally +the nobles, because the people were forbidden to put them to death, as +they had formerly had the unfortunate habit of doing. + +But Napoleon still had his enemies to clear away, and he was not a man +to drop asleep over his porringer. His eye took in the whole world--as +if it were no bigger than a soldier's head. The first thing he did was +to turn up in Italy--as suddenly as if he had poked his head through a +window; and one look from him was enough. The Austrians were swallowed +up at Marengo as gudgeons are swallowed by a whale. Then the French +VICTORY sang a song of triumph that all the world could hear, and it was +enough. "We won't play any more!" declared the Germans. + +"Nor we either," said the others. + +Sum total: Europe is cowed; England knuckles down; and there is +universal peace, with all the kings and people pretending to embrace one +another. + +It was then that Napoleon established the Legion of Honor; and a fine +thing it was, too. In a speech that he made before the whole army at +Boulogne he said: "In France everybody is brave; so the civilian who +does a noble deed shall be the brother of the soldier, and they shall +stand together under the flag of honor." Then we who had been down in +Egypt came home and found everything changed. When Napoleon left us he +was only a general; but in no time at all he had become Emperor. France +had given herself to him as a pretty girl gives herself to a lancer. + +Well, when everything had been settled to everybody's satisfaction, +there was a religious ceremony such as had never before been seen under +the canopy of heaven. The Pope and all his cardinals, in their robes of +scarlet and gold, came across the Alps to anoint him with holy oil, and +he was crowned Emperor, in the presence of the army and the people, with +great applause and clapping of hands. + +But there is one thing that it would not be fair not to tell you; and +that is about the RED MAN. While Napoleon was still in Egypt, in a +desert not far from Syria, the Red Man appeared to him on the mountain +of Moses (Sinai), and said to him, "It's all right!" Then again, at +Marengo, on the evening of the victory, the same Red Man appeared to him +a second time, and said: "You shall see the world at your feet: you +shall be Emperor of France; King of Italy; master of Holland; sovereign +of Spain, Portugal, and the Illyrian provinces; protector of Germany; +savior of Poland; first eagle of the Legion of Honor--everything!" + +This Red Man, you see, was his own idea; and was a sort of messenger +whom he used, many people said, as a means of communication with his +star. I've never believed that, myself, but that there was a Red Man is +a real fact. Napoleon himself spoke of him, and said that he lived up +under the roof in the palace of the Tuileries, and that he often used to +make his appearance in times of trouble. On the evening of his +coronation Napoleon saw him for the third time, and they consulted +together about a lot of things. + +After that the Emperor went to Milan, where he was crowned King of +Italy; and then began a regular triumph for us soldiers. Every man who +knew how to read and write became an officer; it rained dukedoms; +pensions were distributed with both hands; there were fortunes for the +general staff which didn't cost France a penny; and even common soldiers +received annuities with their crosses of the Legion of Honor--I get +mine to this day. In short, the armies of France were taken care of in +a way that had never before been seen. + +But the Emperor, who knew that he was the emperor not only of the +soldiers but of all, remembered the bourgeois, and built wonderful +monuments for them, to suit their own taste, in places that had been as +bare before as the palm of your hand. Suppose you were coming from +Spain, for example, and going through France to Berlin. You would pass +under sculptured triumphal arches on which you'd see the common soldiers +carved just as beautifully as the generals. + +In two or three years, and without taxing you people at all, Napoleon +filled his vaults with gold; created bridges, palaces, roads, schools, +festivals, laws, harbors, ships; and spent millions and millions of +money--so much, in fact, that if he'd taken the notion, they say, he +might have paved all France with five-franc pieces. + +Finally, when he was comfortably seated on his throne, he was so +thoroughly the master of everything that Europe waited for his +permission before it even dared to sneeze. Then, as he had four brothers +and three sisters, he said to us in familiar talk, as if in the order of +the day: "Boys! Is it right that the relatives of your Emperor should +have to beg their bread? No! I want them to shine, just as I do. A +kingdom must be conquered, therefore, for every one of them; so that +France may be master of all; so that the soldiers of the Guard may make +the world tremble; so that France may spit wherever she likes; and so +that all nations may say to her,--as it is written on my coins,--'God +protects you.'" + +"All right!" says the army. "We'll fish up kingdoms for you with the +bayonet." + +We couldn't back out, you know; and if he had taken it into his head to +conquer the moon, we should have had to get ready, pack our knapsacks, +and climb up. Fortunately, he didn't have any such intention. + +The kings, who were very comfortable on their thrones, naturally didn't +want to get off to make room for his relatives; so they had to be +dragged off by the ears. Forward! We marched and marched, and +everything began to shake again. Ah, how he did wear out men and shoes +in those days! He struck such tremendous blows with us that if we had +been other than Frenchmen we should all have been used up. But Frenchmen +are born philosophers, and they know that a little sooner or a little +later they must die. So we used to die without a word, because we had +the pleasure of seeing the Emperor do this with the geographies. [Here +the old soldier nimbly drew a circle with his foot on the floor of the +barn.] + +"There!" he would say, "that shall be a kingdom!" And it was a kingdom. +Ah, that was a great time! Colonels became generals while you were +looking at them; generals became marshals, and marshals became kings. +There's one of those kings still left, to remind Europe of that time; +but he is a Gascon, and has betrayed France in order to keep his crown. +He doesn't blush for the shame of it, either; because crowns, you +understand, are made of gold! Finally, even sappers, if they knew how to +read, became nobles all the same. I myself have seen in Paris eleven +kings and a crowd of princes, surrounding Napoleon like rays of the sun. +Every soldier had a chance to see how a throne fitted him, if he was +worthy of it, and when a corporal of the Guard passed by he was an +object of curiosity; because all had a share in the glory of the +victories, which were perfectly well known to everybody through the +bulletins. + +And what a lot of battles there were! Austerlitz, where the army +maneuvered as if on parade; Eylau, where the Russians were drowned in a +lake as if Napoleon had blown them in with a single puff; Wagram, where +we fought three days without flinching. In short, there were as many +battles as there are saints in the calendar. And it was proved then that +Napoleon had in his scabbard the real sword of God. He felt regard for +his soldiers, too, and treated them just as if they were his children, +always taking pains to find out if they were well supplied with shoes, +linen, overcoats, bread, and cartridges. But he kept up his dignity as +sovereign all the same; because to reign was his business. However, +that didn't make any difference. A sergeant, or even a common soldier, +could say to him "Emperor," just as you sometimes say "my dear fellow" +to me. He was one that you could argue with, if necessary; he slept on +the snow with the rest of us; and, in short, he appeared almost like any +other man. But when the grape-shot were kicking up the dust at his very +feet, I have seen him going about coolly,--no more disturbed by them +than you are at this minute,--looking through his field-glass now and +then, and attending all the time to his business. Of course that made +the rest of us as calm and serene as John the Baptist. I don't know how +he managed it, but when he spoke to us, his words put fire into our +hearts; and in order to show him that we really were his children, and +not the kind of men to shrink from danger, we used to march right up to +great blackguards of cannon which bellowed and vomited balls without so +much as saying "Look out!" Even dying men had the nerve to raise their +heads and salute him with the cry of "Long live the Emperor!" Was that +natural? Would they have done that for a mere man? + +Well, when he had settled all his folks comfortably, the Empress +Josephine--who was a good woman all the same--was so fixed that she +couldn't give him any family, and he had to leave her. He loved her +quite a little, too; but for reasons of state he had to have children. +When the kings of Europe heard of this trouble, they came to blows over +the question who should give him a wife. He finally married, they told +us, an Austrian woman. She was a daughter of Caesar's--a man of ancient +times who is much talked about, not only in our country, where they say +he made everything, but in Europe. It's true, anyhow, that I have myself +been on the Danube, and have seen there the remains of a bridge that +this man Caesar built. It appears that he was a relative of Napoleon's +in Rome, and that's why the Emperor had a right to take the inheritance +there for his son. + +Well, after his marriage, when there was a holiday for the whole world, +and when he let the people off ten years' taxes (which were collected +all the same, because the tax-gatherers didn't pay any attention to what +he said), his wife had a little boy who was King of Rome. That was a +thing which had never been seen on earth before--a child born king while +his father was still living. A balloon was sent up in Paris to carry the +news to Rome, and it made the whole distance in a single day. Now will +any of you tell me that that was natural? Never! It had been so written +on high. + +Well, next comes the Emperor of Russia. He had once been Napoleon's +friend; but he got angry because our Emperor didn't marry a Russian +woman. So he backs up our enemies the English. Napoleon had long +intended to pay his respects to those English ducks in their own nests, +but something had always happened to prevent, and it was now high time +to make an end of them. So he finally got angry himself, and said to us: +"Soldiers! You have been masters of all the capitals of Europe except +Moscow, which is the ally of England. In order to conquer London, as +well as the Indies, which belong to London, I find it necessary to go to +Moscow." + +Well, there assembled then the greatest army that ever tramped in +gaiters over the world; and the Emperor had them so curiously well lined +up that he reviewed a million men in a single day. + +"Hourra!" shout the Russians. And there they were--those animals of +Cossacks who are forever running away, and the whole Russian nation, +all complete! It was country against country--a general mix-up, where +everybody had to look out for himself. As the Red Man had said to +Napoleon, "It's Asia against Europe." + +"All right!" replied the Emperor, "I'll take care." And then came +fawning on Napoleon all the kings of Europe,--Austria, Prussia, Bavaria, +Saxony, Poland, Italy,--all flattering us and going along with us. It +was splendid! The French eagles never cooed as they did on parade then, +when they were held high above all the flags of Europe. The Poles +couldn't contain themselves for joy, because the Emperor intended to set +them up again as a nation--and for that reason the French and the Poles +have been like brothers ever since. + +"Russia shall be ours!" cried the army. + +We crossed the frontier,--the whole lot of us,--and marched, and +marched, and marched. No Russians! At last we found the rascals, camping +on the bank of the Moscow River. That's where I got my cross; and I take +leave to say that it was the damnedest of battles! Napoleon himself was +worried, because the Red Man had appeared again and had said to him, "My +son, you are going too fast; you will run short of men, and your friends +will betray you." Thereupon the Emperor proposed peace; but before the +treaty was signed he said to us, "Let's give those Russians a +drubbing!" + +"All right!" said the army. + +"Forward!" shout the sergeants. + +My clothes were going to pieces and my shoes were all worn out from +tramping over the bad roads out there, but I said to myself, "Never +mind; since this is the last of the rumpus, I'll make 'em give me a +bellyful!" + +We were drawn up near the edge of the great ravine--in the front seats! +The signal was given, and seven hundred pieces of artillery began a +conversation that was enough to bring the blood from your ears. Well, to +do justice to one's enemies, I must admit that the Russians let +themselves be killed like Frenchmen. They wouldn't give way, and we +couldn't advance. + +"Forward!" shouted our officers. "Here comes the Emperor!" And there he +was, passing at a gallop, and motioning to us that it was very important +to capture the redoubt. He put new life into us, and on we ran. I was +the first to reach the ravine. Ah! Mon Dieu! How the colonels are +falling, and the lieutenants, and the soldiers! But never mind! There'll +be all the more shoes for those who haven't any, and epaulets for the +ambitious fellows who know how to read. + +At last the cry of "Victory!" rang all along the line; but--would you +believe it?--there were twenty-five thousand Frenchmen lying on the +ground! A trifle, eh? Well, such a thing had never been seen before. It +was a regular harvest field after the reaping; only instead of stalks of +grain there were bodies of men. That sobered the rest of us. But the +Emperor soon came along, and when we formed a circle around him, he +praised us and cheered us up (he could be very amiable when he liked), +and made us feel quite contented, even although we were as hungry as +wolves. Then he distributed crosses of honor among us, saluted the dead, +and said, "On to Moscow!" + +"All right! To Moscow!" replied the army. + +And then what did the Russians do but burn their city! It made a +six-mile bonfire which blazed for two days. The buildings fell like +slates, and there was a rain of melted iron and lead which was simply +horrible! Indeed, that fire was the lightning from the dark cloud of our +misfortunes. The Emperor said: "There's enough of this. If we stay here, +none of my soldiers will ever get out." But we waited a little to cool +off and to refresh our carcasses; because we were really played out. We +carried away a golden cross that was on the Kremlin, and every soldier +had a small fortune. + +On our way back, winter came upon us, a month earlier than usual,--a +thing that those stupid scientific men have never properly +explained,--and the cold caught us. Then there was no more army; do you +understand? No army, no generals, no sergeants even! After that it was +a reign of misery and hunger--a reign where we were all equal. We +thought of nothing except of seeing France again. Nobody stooped to pick +up his gun, or his money, if he happened to drop them; and every one +went straight on, arms at will, caring nothing for glory. The weather +was so bad that Napoleon could no longer see his star--the sky was +hidden. Poor man! It made him sick at heart to see his eagles flying +away from victory. It was a crushing blow to him. + +Well, then came the Beresina. And now, my friends, I may say to you, on +my honor and by everything sacred, that never--no, never since man lived +on earth--has there been such a mixed up hodgepodge of army, wagons, +and artillery, in the midst of such snows, and under such a pitiless +sky! It was so cold that if you touched the barrel of your gun you +burned your hand. + +It was there that Gondrin--who is now present with us--behaved so well. +He is the only one now living of the pontooners who went down into the +water that day and built the bridge on which we crossed the river. The +Russians still had some respect for the Grand Army, on account of its +past victories; but it was Gondrin and the pontooners who saved us, and +[pointing at Gondrin, who was looking at him with the fixed attention +peculiar to the deaf] Gondrin is a finished soldier and a soldier of +honor, who is worthy of your highest esteem. + +I saw the Emperor that day, standing motionless near the bridge, and +never feeling the cold at all. Was that natural, do you think? He was +watching the destruction of his treasure, his friends, his old Egyptian +soldiers. It was the end of everything. Women, wagons, cannon--all were +being destroyed, demolished, ruined, wrecked! A few of the bravest +guarded the eagles; because the eagles, you understand, stood for +France, for you, for the civil and military honor that had to be kept +unstained and that was not to be humbled by the cold. + +We hardly ever got warm except near the Emperor. When he was in danger, +we all ran to him--although we were so nearly frozen that we would not +have held out a hand to our dearest friend. They say that he used to +weep at night over his poor family of soldiers. Nobody but he and +Frenchmen could ever have pulled out of there. We did pull out, but it +was with loss--terrible loss. Our allies ate up all of our provisions, +and then began the treachery which the Red Man had foretold. + +The blatherskites in Paris, who had kept quiet since the formation of +the Imperial Guard, thought that the Guard had finally perished. So they +got up a conspiracy and hoodwinked the Prefect of Police into an attempt +to overthrow the Emperor. He heard of this and it worried him. When he +left us he said: "Good-by, boys. Guard the posts. I will come back to +you." + +After he had gone, things went from bad to worse. The generals lost +their heads; and the marshals quarreled with one another and did all +sorts of foolish things, as was natural. Napoleon, who was good to +everybody, had fed them on gold until they had become as fat as pigs, +and they didn't want to do any more marching. This led to trouble, +because many of them remained idle in forts behind the army that was +driving us back to France, and didn't even try to relieve us by +attacking the enemy in the rear. + +The Emperor finally returned, bringing with him a lot of splendid +recruits whom he had drilled into regular war-dogs, ready to set their +teeth into anything. He brought also a bourgeois guard of honor, a fine +troop, which melted away in battle like butter on a hot gridiron. In +spite of the bold front that we put on, everything went against us; +although the army performed feats of wonderful courage. Then came +regular battles of mountains--nations against nations--at Dresden, +Lutzen, and Bautzen. Don't you ever forget that time, because it was +then that Frenchmen showed how wonderfully heroic they could be. A good +grenadier, in those days, seldom lasted more than six months. We always +won, of course; but there in our rear were the English, stirring up the +nations to take sides against us. But we fought our way through this +pack of nations at last. Wherever Napoleon showed himself, we rushed; +and whenever, on land or sea, he said, "I wish to pass," we passed. + +We finally got back to France; and many a poor foot-soldier was braced +up by the air of his native country, notwithstanding the hard times we +had. As for myself, in particular, I may say that it renewed my life. + +It then became a question of defending the fatherland--our fair +France--against all Europe. They didn't like our laying down the law to +the Russians, and our driving them back across their borders, so that +they couldn't devour us, as is the custom of the North. Those Northern +peoples are very greedy for the South, or at least that's what I've +heard many generals say. Then Napoleon saw arrayed against him his own +father-in-law, his friends whom he had made kings, and all the +scoundrels whom he had put on thrones. Finally, in pursuance of orders +from high quarters, even Frenchmen, and allies in our own ranks, turned +against us; as at the battle of Leipsic. Common soldiers wouldn't have +been mean enough to do that! Men who called themselves princes broke +their word three times a day. + +Well, then came the invasion. Wherever Napoleon showed his lion face +the enemy retreated; and he worked more miracles in defending France +than he had shown in conquering Italy, the East, Spain, Europe, and +Russia. He wanted to bury all the invaders in France, and thus teach +them to respect the country; so he let them come close to Paris, in +order to swallow 'em all at a gulp and rise to the height of his genius +in a battle greater than all the others--a regular mother of battles! +But those cowardly Parisians were so afraid for their wretched skins and +their miserable shops that they opened the gates of the city. Then the +good times ended and the "ragusades" began. They fooled the Empress and +hung white flags out of the palace windows. Finally the very generals +whom Napoleon had taken for his best friends deserted him and went over +to the Bourbons--of whom nobody had ever before heard. Then he bade us +good-by at Fontainebleau. "Soldiers!" + +I can hear him, even now. We were all crying like regular babies, and +the eagles and flags were lowered as if at a funeral. And it was a +funeral--the funeral of the Empire. His old soldiers, once so hale and +spruce, were little more than skeletons. Standing on the portico of his +palace, he said to us: + +"Comrades! We have been beaten through treachery; but we shall all see +one another again in heaven, the country of the brave. Protect my child, +whom I intrust to you. Long live Napoleon II!" + +Like Jesus Christ before his last agony, he believed himself deserted by +God and his star; and in order that no one should see him conquered, it +was his intention to die; but, although he took poison enough to kill a +whole regiment, it never hurt him at all--another proof, you see, that +he was more than man: he found himself immortal. As he felt sure of his +business after that, and knew that he was to be Emperor always, he went +to a certain island for a while, to study the natures of those people in +Paris, who did not fail, of course, to do stupid things without end. + +While he was standing guard down there, the Chinese and those animals on +the coast of Africa--Moors and others, who are not at all easy to get +along with--were so sure that he was something more than man that they +respected his tent, and said that to touch it would be to offend God. So +he reigned over the whole world, although those other fellows had sent +him out of France. + +Well, then, after a while he embarked again in the very same nut-shell +of a boat that he had left Egypt in, passed right under the bows of the +English vessels, and set foot once more in France. France acknowledged +him; the sacred cuckoo flew from spire to spire; and all the people +cried, "Long live the Emperor!" + +In this vicinity the enthusiasm for the Wonder of the Ages was most +hearty. Dauphiny behaved well; and it pleased me particularly to know +that our own people here wept for joy when they saw again his gray coat. + +On the 1st of March Napoleon landed, with two hundred men, to conquer +the kingdom of France and Navarre; and on the 20th of the same month +that kingdom became the French Empire. On that day THE MAN was in Paris. +He had made a clean sweep--had reconquered his dear France, and had +brought all his old soldiers together again by saying only three words: +"Here I am." 'Twas the greatest miracle God had ever worked. Did ever a +man, before him, take an empire by merely showing his hat? They thought +that France was crushed, did they? Not a bit of it! At sight of the +Eagle a national army sprang up, and we all marched to Waterloo. There +the Guard perished, as if stricken down at a single blow. Napoleon, in +despair, threw himself three times, at the head of his troops, on the +enemy's cannon, without being able to find death. The battle was lost. + +That evening the Emperor called his old soldiers together, and, on the +field wet with our blood, burned his eagles and his flags. The poor +eagles, who had always been victorious, who had cried "Forward!" in all +our battles, and who had flown over all Europe, were saved from the +disgrace of falling into the hands of their enemies. All the treasure of +England couldn't buy the tail of one of them. They were no more! + +The rest of the story is well known to everybody. The Red Man went over +to the Bourbons, like the scoundrel that he is; France was crushed; and +the old soldiers, who were no longer of any account, were deprived of +their dues and sent back to their homes, in order that their places +might be given to a lot of nobles who couldn't even march--it was +pitiful to see them try! Then Napoleon was seized, through treachery, +and the English nailed him to a rock, ten thousand feet above the earth, +on a desert island in the great ocean. There he must stay until the Red +Man, for the good of France, gives him back his power. It is said by +some that he is dead. Oh, yes! Dead! That shows how little they know +him! They only tell that lie to cheat the people and keep peace in their +shanty of a government. The truth of the matter is that his friends have +left him there in the desert to fulfil a prophecy that was made about +him--for I have forgotten to tell you that the name Napoleon really +means "Lion of the Desert." + +This that I have told you is gospel truth; and all the other things that +you hear about the Emperor are foolish stories with no human likeliness. +Because, you see, God never gave to any other man born of woman the +power to write his name in red across the whole world--and the world +will remember him forever. Long live Napoleon, the father of the +soldiers and the people! + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Folk-Tales of Napoleon +by Honore de Balzac and Alexander Amphiteatrof + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FOLK-TALES OF NAPOLEON *** + +***** This file should be named 11278.txt or 11278.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/2/7/11278/ + +Produced by David Starner, Bill Walker and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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