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<h2> CHAPTER XVII </h2>
<p>The movements of the Russian and French armies during the campaign from
Moscow back to the Niemen were like those in a game of Russian blindman's
bluff, in which two players are blindfolded and one of them occasionally
rings a little bell to inform the catcher of his whereabouts. First he
rings his bell fearlessly, but when he gets into a tight place he runs
away as quietly as he can, and often thinking to escape runs straight into
his opponent's arms.</p>
<p>At first while they were still moving along the Kaluga road, Napoleon's
armies made their presence known, but later when they reached the Smolensk
road they ran holding the clapper of their bell tight—and often
thinking they were escaping ran right into the Russians.</p>
<p>Owing to the rapidity of the French flight and the Russian pursuit and the
consequent exhaustion of the horses, the chief means of approximately
ascertaining the enemy's position—by cavalry scouting—was not
available. Besides, as a result of the frequent and rapid change of
position by each army, even what information was obtained could not be
delivered in time. If news was received one day that the enemy had been in
a certain position the day before, by the third day when something could
have been done, that army was already two days' march farther on and in
quite another position.</p>
<p>One army fled and the other pursued. Beyond Smolensk there were several
different roads available for the French, and one would have thought that
during their stay of four days they might have learned where the enemy
was, might have arranged some more advantageous plan and undertaken
something new. But after a four days' halt the mob, with no maneuvers or
plans, again began running along the beaten track, neither to the right
nor to the left but along the old—the worst—road, through
Krasnoe and Orsha.</p>
<p>Expecting the enemy from behind and not in front, the French separated in
their flight and spread out over a distance of twenty-four hours. In front
of them all fled the Emperor, then the kings, then the dukes. The Russian
army, expecting Napoleon to take the road to the right beyond the Dnieper—which
was the only reasonable thing for him to do—themselves turned to the
right and came out onto the highroad at Krasnoe. And here as in a game of
blindman's buff the French ran into our vanguard. Seeing their enemy
unexpectedly the French fell into confusion and stopped short from the
sudden fright, but then they resumed their flight, abandoning their
comrades who were farther behind. Then for three days separate portions of
the French army—first Murat's (the vice-king's), then Davout's, and
then Ney's—ran, as it were, the gauntlet of the Russian army. They
abandoned one another, abandoned all their heavy baggage, their artillery,
and half their men, and fled, getting past the Russians by night by making
semicircles to the right.</p>
<p>Ney, who came last, had been busying himself blowing up the walls of
Smolensk which were in nobody's way, because despite the unfortunate
plight of the French or because of it, they wished to punish the floor
against which they had hurt themselves. Ney, who had had a corps of ten
thousand men, reached Napoleon at Orsha with only one thousand men left,
having abandoned all the rest and all his cannon, and having crossed the
Dnieper at night by stealth at a wooded spot.</p>
<p>From Orsha they fled farther along the road to Vilna, still playing at
blindman's buff with the pursuing army. At the Berezina they again became
disorganized, many were drowned and many surrendered, but those who got
across the river fled farther. Their supreme chief donned a fur coat and,
having seated himself in a sleigh, galloped on alone, abandoning his
companions. The others who could do so drove away too, leaving those who
could not to surrender or die.</p>
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