The rapidity of the Russian pursuit had as disintegrating an effect on le Russian army as the flight of the French had on their army. The only ifference was that the Russian army moved at its own will, free from the lenace of annihilation that hung over the French, and that the sick and :ragglers of the French were left in the hands of their enemy, while Rus- an stragglers were at home among their own people. The chief cause of re wasting of Napoleon’s army was the rapidity of its movements, and an ldubitable’proof of that is to be seen in the corresponding dwindling of le Russian army.
Just as at Tarutino and at Vyazma, all Kutuzov’s energies were directed i preventing—so far as it lay in his power—any arrest of the fatal flight f the French from being checked (as the Russian generals in Petersburg, nd also in the army, wished it to be). He did all he could to urge on the ight of the French, and to slacken the speed of his own army.
In addition to the exhaustion of the men, and the immense losses due i the rapidity of their movements, Kutuzov saw another reason for slacking the pace, and not being in a hurry. The object of the Russian army 'as the pursuit of the French. The route of the French was uncertain, and herefore the more closely our soldiers followed on the heels of the French, he greater the distances they had to traverse. It was only by following at considerable distance that they could take advantage of short cuts cross the zig-zags made by the French in their course. All the skilful lancetvres suggested by the generals were based on forced marches at
accelerated speed, while the only rational object to be aimed at was tj diminution of the strain put on the men. And this was the object which all Kutuzov’s efforts were directed during the whole campaif from Moscow to Vilna,-—not casually, not fitfully, but so consistent that he never once lost sight of it.
Not through reason, not by science, but with all his Russian heart ai soul, Kutuzov felt and knew, as every Russian soldier felt it, that tl French were vanquished, that their foes were in flight, and that they mu see them off. But at the same time he felt with his soldiers, as one ma all the sufferings of that march, unheard of at such speed and in sue weather.
But the generals, especially those not Russian, burning to distinguk themselves, to dazzle people, to take some duke or king prisoner for son incomprehensible reason—those generals thought that then, when ar battle was sickening and meaningless, was the very time for fightir battles and conquering somebody. Kutuzov simply shrugged his short ders when they came to him one after another with projects of manceuvr with the ill-shod, half-clothed, and half-starved soldiers, whose numbe had in one month dwindled to one-half without a battle, and who wou even, under the most favourable circumstances, have a longer distance ; traverse before they reached the frontier than they had come already.
This desire on the part of the generals to distinguish themselves, I execute manoeuvres, to attack, and to cut off the enemy, was particular conspicuous whenever the Russian army did come into contact with tl French.
So it was at Krasnoe, where they had expected to find one of the thrt columns of the French, and stumbled upon Napoleon himself with sixtee : thousand troops. In spite of all Kutuzov’s efforts to avoid this disastror engagement, and to keep his men safe for three days at Krasnoe, the: was a slaughter of the disordered bands of the French by the exhauste soldiers of the Russian army.
Toll wrote out a disposition: first column to advance to this spot, ar so on. And as always, what was done was not at all in accordance wit' that disposition. Prince Eugene of Wurtemberg kept up a fire from tl hills on the mob of French as they raced by, and asked for reinforcement which did not come. In the nights the French dispersed to get round tl Russians, hid themselves in the woods, and all that could struggled c again.
Miloradovitch, who declared that he had no wish to know anythir about the commissariat arrangements of his detachment, who could neve be found when he was wanted, that chevalier sans penr et sans reproche, «j he called himself, always eager for parleys with the French; sent me sengers to demand their surrender, wasted time, and did not carry out tl orders given him.
‘I make you a present of that column, lads,’ he said to his men, poin ing out the French to his cavalry. And the cavalry, with spur and sabr urged their broken-down horses into a trot, and with immense effo
WAR AND PEACE •ached the column he had bestowed on them, that is to say, a mob of ozen, numb, and starving Frenchmen. And the column laid down their eapons and surrendered, which was what they had been longing to do >r weeks past.
