Your uncle could not believe his eyes ; he stood rooted to the ground.
'Behind the house, as you know, there is a big garden, and we went there, hoping to be safe. We sat down sadly enough on some benches that were there, when suddenly a band of drunken soldiers carne in and one of them began to strip your uncle of a fur coat he had put on for the journey. But the old gentleman resisted, and the soldier pulled out his dirk and struck him in the face ; and your uncle kept the scar to his dying day. The other soldiers set upon us, and one of them snatched you from the arms of your foster-mother, and undid your clothes, to see if there were any notes or jewels hidden there ; when he found nothing, the mean fellow tore the clothes on purpose and then left you alone.
'As soon as they had gone, a great misfortune happened. You remember our servant Platon, who was sent to serve in the Army ?
He was always fond of the bottle and had had too much to drink that day. He had got hold of a sword and was walking about with it tied round his waist. The day before the enemy carne, Count Rostopchin distributed arms of all kinds to the people at the Arsenal, and Platon had provided himself with a sword. Towards evening, a dragoon rode into the court-yard and tried to take a horse that was standing near the stable ; but Platon flew at him, caught hold of the bridle, and said : "The horse is ours ; you shan't have it." The dragoon pointed a pistol at him, but it can't have been loaded. Your father saw what was happening and called out :
"leave that horse alone, Platon ! Don't you interfere." But it was no good : Platon pulled out his sword and struck the soldier over
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5
the head; the man reeled under the blow, and Platon struck him again and again. We thought we were doomed now ; for, if his comrades saw him, they would kill us. When the dragoon fell off, Platon caught hold of his legs and threw him into a limepit, though the poor wretch was still breathing ; the man's horse never moved but beat the ground with its hoof, as if it understood ; our people shut it up in the stable, and it must have been burnt to death there.
'We all cleared out of the court as soon as we could ; the fires everywhere grew worse and worse. Tired and hungry, we went into a house that had not caught fire, and threw ourselves down to rest ; but, before an hour had passed, our servants in the street were calling out : "Come out ! come out ! Fire, fire I " I took a piece of oilcloth off the billiard table, to wrap you up from the night air. We got as far as the Tversky Square, and the Frenchmen were putting out the fires there, because one of their great generals was living in the Governor's house in the square ; we sat down as we were on the street; there were sentries moving all about and other soldiers on horseback. You were crying terribly; your foster-mother had no more milk, and none of us had even a piece of bread. But Natalya Konstantinovna was with us then, and she was afraid of nothing. She saw some soldiers eating in a comer ; she took you in her arms and went straight off, and showed you to them. "The baby wants mange:r," she said. At first they looked angrily at her and said, "Alle:z, al!e:z!" Then she called them every bad name she could think of; and they did not understand a word, but they laughed heartily and gave her some bread soaked in water for you and a crust for herself. Early next morning an officer came and collected all the men, and your father too, and took them off to put out the fires round about ; he left the women only, and your uncle who had been wounded. We stayed there alone till evening ; we just sat there and cried. But at dark your father came back, and an officer with him.'
2
But allow me to take the place of my old nurse and to continue her story.
When my father had finished his duties as a fireman, he met a squadron of Italian cavalry near the Monastery of the Passion. He went up to the officer in command, spoke to him in Italian, and
6
C H I L D H O O D, Y O U T H A N D E X I L E
explained the plight of his family. When the Italian heard his native language - Ia sua dolce favella - he promised to speak to the Duke of Treviso,2 and to post a sentinel at once, in order to prevent a repetition of the wild scenes which had taken place in my uncle's garden. He gave orders to this effect to an officer, and sent him off with my father. When he heard that none of the party had eaten any food for two days, the officer took us all off to a grocer's shop ; it had been wrecked and the floor was covered with choice tea and coffee, and 8eaps of dates, raisins, and almonds ; our servants filled their pockets, and of dessert at least we had abundance. The sen·
tinel proved to be of no little service : again and again, bands of soldiers were inclined to give trouble to the wretched party of women and servants, camping in a comer of the square, but an order from our protector made them pass on at once.
Mortier, who remembered having met my father in Paris, reported the facts to Napoleon, and Napoleon ordered him to be presented the next day. And so my father, a great stickler for propriety and the rules of etiquette, presented himself, at the Emperor's summons, in the throne-room of the Kremlin, wearing an old blue shooting-jacket with brass buttons, no wig, boots which had not been cleaned for several days, grimy linen, and a beard of two days' growth.
Their conversation - how often I heard it repeated I - is reproduced accurately enough in the French history of Baron Fain and the Russian history of Danilevsky.
Napoleon began with those customary phrases, abrupt remarks, and laconic aphorisms to which it was the custom for thirty-five years to attribute some profound significance, until it was dis·
covered that they generally meant very little. He then abused Rostopchin for the fires, and said it was mere vandalism ; he declared, as always, that he loved peace above all things and that he was fighting England, not Russia; he claimed credit for having placed a guard over the Foundling Hospital and the Uspensky Cathedral ; and he complained of the Emperor Alexander : 'My desire for peace is kept from His Majesty by the people round him,'
he said.
My father remarked that it was rather the business of the con·
queror to make proposals of peace.
2.. Mortier (1 768-183 5), one of Napoleon's marshals, bore this title.
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7
'I have done my best. I have sent messages to Kutuzov,3 but he will hear of no discussions whatever and does not acquaint his master with my proposals. I am not to blame - if they want war they shall have it ! '
When this play-acting was done, my father asked for a safe conduct to leave Moscow.
'I have ordered that no passes be given. Why do you want to go ? What are you afraid of ? I have ordered the markets to be opened.'
Apparently the Emperor did not realise that, though open markets are a convenience, so is a shut house, and that to live in the open street among French soldiers was not an attractive prospect for a Russian gentleman and his family.
When my father pointed this out, Napoleon thought for a little and then asked abruptly :