‘I beg your Most High Excellency on the receipt of this letter to retire to Kaluga, on account of your attacks of ill-health, and there to await the further commands of His Majesty the Emperor.’
But this dismissal of Bennigsen was followed by the arrival on the scene of the Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovitch, who had received a command at the beginning of the campaign and had been removed from the army by Kutuzov. Now the Grand Duke on rejoining the army informed Kutuzov of the Tsar’s dissatisfaction at the poor successes oi our troops, and the slowness of their progress. The Tsar himself intended to be with the army in a few days.
The old man, as experienced in court methods as in warfare—who in the August of that year had been chosen commander-in-chief against the Tsar’s will, who had dismissed the Grand Duke and heir-apparent from the army, and acting on his own authority, in opposition to the Tsar’s will, had decreed the abandonment of Moscow—understood at once now that his day was over, that his part was played out, and that his supposed power was no more. And not only from the attitude of the court did he see this. On one side he saw the war—that war in which he had played his part—was over, and he felt that his work was done. On the other hand, at this very time, he began to be sensible of the physical weariness of his aged frame, and the necessity of physical rest.
On the 29th of November, Kutuzov reached Vilna—his dear Vilna, as
WAR AND PEACE 1035
e used to call it. Twice during his military career he had been governor f Vilna.
In that wealthy town, which had escaped injury, Kutuzov found old I riends and old associations, as well as the comforts of which he had been D long deprived. And at once turning his back on all military and political ares, he plunged into the quiet routine of his accustomed life, so far as ae passions raging all round him would permit. It was as though all that 'as being done, and had still to be done, in the world of history, was no oncern of his now.
Tchitchagov was one of the generals most zealous in advocating at- ack and cutting off the enemy’s retreat; he had at first suggested making
diversion in Greece and then in Warsaw, but was never willing to go /here he was commanded to go. Tchitchagov, who was notorious for the loldness of his remarks to the Tsar, considered Kutuzov was under an bligation to him, because when he had been sent in 1811 to conclude eace with Turkey over Kutuzov’s head, and found on arriving that peace ad already been concluded, he had frankly admitted to the Tsar that he credit of having concluded peace belonged to Kutuzov.
This Tchitchagov was the first to meet Kutuzov at Vilna, at the castle vhere the latter was to stay. Wearing a naval uniform with a dirk, and lolding his forage cap under his arm, he handed the commander-in-chief he military report and the keys of the town. The contemptuously respect- ul attitude of youth to old age in its dotage was expressed in the most narked manner in all the behaviour of Tchitchagov, who was aware of he disfavour into which Kutuzov had fallen.
In conversation with Tchitchagov, Kutuzov happened to say that his :arriages, packed with china, that had been carried off by the enemy at 3 orisovo, had been recovered unhurt, and would be restored to him.
! ‘You mean to say I have nothing to eat out of? On the contrary, I can >rovide everything for you, even if you want to give dinner-parties,’ Fchitchagov protested, getting hot. Every word he had uttered had been vith the motive of proving his own rectitude, and so he imagined that vutuzov too was preoccupied with the same desire. Shrugging his shoul- lers and smiling his subtle, penetrating smile, Kutuzov answered:
‘I mean to say to you what I do say to you. Nothing more.’
In opposition to the Tsar’s wishes, Kutuzov kept the greater part of he troops in Vilna. He was said by all the persons about him to be getting much weaker, and breaking down physically during his stay in Vilna. He took no interest in the business of the army, left everything to fis generals, and spent the time of waiting for the Tsar in social dissipation.
The Tsar, with his suite—Count Tolstoy, Prince Volkonsky, Arak- :cheev, and the rest—left Petersburg on the 7th of December, and reached Vilna on the nth, and drove straight up to the castle in his travelling sledge. In spite of the intense cold there were some hundred generals and staff-officers in full parade uniform, and a guard of honour of the Semyonovsky regiment standing before the casth.
A courier, galloping up to the castle with steaming horses in advance of the Tsar, shouted: ‘He is coming!’
Konovnitsyn rushed into the vestibule to inform Kutuzov, who was waiting in the porter’s little room within.
