New Years Day with Sgt Bourgogne - 01/01/1813

[[N]Legless Lannes]

I reminded Picart that the next day was New Year’s Day, 1813, and that I wished to spend the day at my own lodgings. He looked into a glass to see what his face was like, then decided that he would come too. As he did not know my lodgings, it was arranged that I should meet him at eleven o’clock in front of Murat’s palace. We now thought of getting home, but so great a quantity of snow had fallen that we were obliged to hire a sledge. We reached our lodgings, I with a splitting headache and a little fever, the result of the festivities the evening before.

My absence had made Madame Gentil uneasy; her servant had waited up till midnight. I told her how sorry I was, and made the bad weather my excuse. I said that the following day I should have two friends to dinner. She replied that she would do all she could to please me, which meant that it was to be at her expense. She gave me afterwards some grease that she said was very good for chilblains, and wished me to use it at once. I obeyed her. How good Madame Gentil was! But all the German women were good to us.

I spent the rest of the day in the house – in bed almost the whole time – cared for and comforted by my charming hostess.

When evening came, I began to think what I could give her for a present on New Year’s Day. I resolved to get up early, and see if I could not find something among the Jews. Thereupon I went to bed, as I wanted a good night’s rest, for the party the evening before had tired me.

The next day, January 1st, 1813, the ninth after our arrival at Elbing, I got up at seven o’clock to go out, but first I looked to see how much of my money was left. I found that I had 485 francs left, of which more than 400 francs was in gold, the rest in five-franc pieces. On leaving Wilna I had 800 francs. Could I have spent 315 francs? The thing was impossible. I must have lost some. That was not surprising, but I was still rich enough to spend twenty or thirty francs on a present for my charming hostess.

At the very moment when I was opening the door, I met the fat servant Christian, who had scrubbed me so thoroughly in the bath. She wished me a ‘Happy New Year,’ and as she was the first person I had seen, I kissed her and gave her five francs. She went off, saying that she would not tell Madame I had kissed her.

I turned in the direction of the palace square. I had not reached it, when I saw two soldiers belonging to the regiment walking slowly and painfully, bowed down under the weight of their accoutrements, nearly spent with fatigue.

Seeing me, they came up, and to my great surprise I recognised two men of my company, whom I had not seen since the passage of the Bérézina. They were in such a wretched state that I made them follow me to an inn, where I ordered hot coffee to warm them.

They related that on the morning of November 29th, a little before the departure of the regiment from the ranks of the Bérézina, they had been ordered on fatigue-duty to bury several men belonging to the regiment, who had been killed the preceding evening, or who had died of exposure. When they had finished they started off, thinking they were following the route the regiment had taken; but, unfortunately, they obeyed the direction of some Poles, who guided them towards their own country. They did not find it out till the following day.

‘The end of it was,’ they told me, ‘that for a whole month we were walking about in an unknown, deserted country, always under deep snow. We were unable to make ourselves understood, not knowing where we were, nor where we were going. Our money was of no use to us, and we could only procure such things as milk or dripping at the cost of our clothes, by parting with our “eagle” buttons, or some handkerchiefs that we had kept by chance. We were not alone in this; there were many others of different regiments going the same way, and like ourselves, not knowing where they were going, for the Poles we had been following had disappeared, and it is only by chance, sergeant, that we have got here, and have had the good luck to meet you.’

I told them how glad I was to see them again; they had been in my company four years. Suddenly one of them exclaimed:

‘Why, sergeant, I have something to hand over to you! You remember that when we were leaving Moscow you entrusted me with a parcel? Here it is just as you gave it me; it has never been taken out of my knapsack.’

The parcel consisted of a military overcoat of fine dark-gray cloth that I had had made for me during our stay in Moscow by the Russian tailors whose lives I had saved, and of another article – an inkstand – that I had taken from a table in the Rostopchin Palace, thinking it was of silver (that it was not, however).

The year was beginning well for me. I hoped that it would prove the same for this man. I gave him twenty francs, and then I made haste to get into my new overcoat.

I now had a second delightful surprise. Putting my hands into the pockets of the new coat, I drew out an Indian silk handkerchief, and in one of its corners, tightly knotted, I found a little cardboard box, containing five rings, set with beautiful stones. I thought I had lost this box with my knapsack, and now here it was all ready for a present for Madame Gentil. The finest one was to be for her.

Telling my two soldiers to wait till roll-call to be re-entered in the company and receive a billet, I returned to my own lodging.

On the way I bought a large sugar-cake, which I presented to my hostess, with the ring, begging her to keep it as a souvenir from Moscow. She asked me how I had bought it. I told her that I had paid for it very dearly, and that not for a million would I go on a similar search for another.

At eleven o’clock I returned to the square in front of the palace. There were already a good many men there; in three days our numbers were almost doubled. One would have said all those one believed dead had come to life again to wish each other a ‘Happy New Year.’ But it was a melancholy sight, for a great number were without nose or fingers or toes; some had suffered all three misfortunes combined.

The rumour that the Russians were advancing was confirmed. The order was given that we should hold ourselves in readiness, as if on the eve of a battle, and to sleep with one eye open, to avoid a surprise; to keep our arms primed and ready, to supply ourselves with new cartridges, and to attend the roll-call with all our weapons and accoutrements.

The muster was not yet over, when I felt a tap upon my shoulder and a loud laugh in my ears. It was Picart, in fine array and without his mask, who threw himself on my neck, embraced me, and wished me a ‘Happy New Year.’ On the other side there was Grangier doing the same, and putting thirty francs into my hand. My travelling companions had just sold our sledge and the horse for 150 francs. This was my share. After a great many questions about my new overcoat, we set out to dine at my place, as had been arranged. On our arrival we found two other ladies, so there was one for each. Shortly afterwards we sat down informally to table.

It was late enough when our dinner ended, as it had begun, very joyously.

I heard one of the ladies on leaving say to Madame Gentil: ‘Tarteifle des Franzosen!’ She added: ‘They are always gay and amusing.’

The next day, at the muster, Picart came to look for me and tell me that on returning to his lodging he had found the whole family of his hostess gathered together and swearing at the defunct uncle. The mistress told him that during the day a woman had arrived from Riga, accompanied by a little boy of nine or ten, whom she said she had had by M. Kennmann, the deceased, and that he had acknowledged him as his heir. Everything was to be sealed up, and Picart had asked if they were going to seal up the cellar. They told him to bring up some bottles for his own consuming as a precaution. He answered that he would get as many as possible, and thereupon had set to work on the job, and had already fetched more than forty, which he had hidden under the bundle of straw he used as a bolster, and that after the muster he was going to empty his knapsack to fill it with bottles. As a matter of fact, he arrived an hour later, knapsack on back. He told me we must make haste to drink up the wine, as everyone in the town was talking of the speedy arrival of the Russians.

Excerpt taken from Retreat from Moscow - Memoirs of Sergeant Bourgogne, Chapter XI.

[[N]Sloop]

Misery and death all around but they keep their priorities straight...women and drink.

[[N]Pints of Guinness]

Fantastic excerpt and fantastic observation Sloop!