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DAVOUST was to the Emperor Napoleon what Araktcheev was to Alexander. Davoust
was not like Araktcheev a coward, but he was as exacting and as cruel, and as
unable to express his devotion except by cruelty.
In the mechanism of the state organism these men are as necessary as wolves
in the organism of nature. And they are always to be found in every government;
they always make their appearance and hold their own, incongruous as their
presence and their close relations with the head of the state may appear. It is
only on the theory of this necessity that one can explain the fact that a man so
cruel—capable of pulling out grenadiers' moustaches with his own hand—though
unable, from the weakness of his nerves, to face danger, so uncultured, so
boorish as Araktcheev, was able to retain such influence with a sovereign of
chivalrous tenderness and nobility of character like Alexander.
Balashov found Davoust sitting on a tub in a barn adjoining a peasant's hut.
He was occupied in writing, auditing accounts. An adjutant was standing beside
him. Better quarters could have been found, but Marshal Davoust was one of these
people who purposely put themselves into the most dismal conditions of life in
order to have a right to be dismal. For the same reason they always persist in
being busy and in a hurry.
“How could one be thinking of the bright side of life when, as you see, I am
sitting on a tub in a dirty barn, hard at work?” was what his face
expressed.
The great desire and delight of such people on meeting others enjoying life
is to throw their own gloomy, dogged activity into their faces. Davoust gave
himself that satisfaction when Balashov was brought in. He appeared even more
deeply engrossed in his work when the Russian general entered, and glancing
through his spectacles at the face of Balashov, who looked cheerful from the
brightness of the morning and his talk with Murat, he did not get up, did not
stir even, but scowled more than before, and grinned malignantly.
Observing the disagreeable impression made on Balashov by this reception,
Davoust raised his head, and asked him frigidly what he wanted.
Assuming that such a reception could only be due to Davoust's being unaware
that he was a general on the staff of Alexander, and his representative indeed
before Napoleon, Balashov hastened to inform him of his rank and his mission.
But, contrary to his expectations, Davoust became even surlier and ruder on
hearing Balashov's words.
“Where is your despatch?” he said. “Give it to me. I will send it to the
Emperor.”
Balashov said that he was under orders to hand the document to the Emperor in
person.
“The commands of your Emperor are obeyed in your army; but here,” said
Davoust, “you must do what you are told.”
And, as though to make the Russian general still more sensible of his
dependence on brute force, Davoust sent the adjutant for the officer on
duty.
Balashov took out the packet that contained the Tsar's letter, and laid it on
the table (a table consisting of a door laid across two tubs with the hinges
still hanging on it). Davoust took the packet and read the address on it.
“You are perfectly at liberty to show me respect or not, as you please,” said
Balashov. “But, permit me to observe that I have the honour to serve as a
general on the staff of his majesty…”
Davoust glanced at him without a word, and plainly derived satisfaction from
signs of emotion and confusion on Balashov's face.
“You will be shown what is fitting,” he said, and putting the envelope in his
pocket he walked out of the barn.
A minute later an adjutant of the marshal's, Monsieur de Castre, came in and
conducted Balashov to the quarters that had been assigned him.
He dined that day in the barn with the marshal, sitting down to the door laid
across the tubs.
Next day Davoust went out early in the morning, but before starting he sent
for Balashov, and told him peremptorily that he begged him to remain there, to
move on with the baggage-waggons should the command be given to do so, and to
have no conversation with any one but Monsieur de Castre.
After four days spent in solitude and boredom, with a continual sense of
dependence and insignificance, particularly galling after the position of power
which he had hitherto occupied, after several marches with the marshal's baggage
and the French troops, who were in possession of the whole district, Balashov
was brought back to Vilna, now occupied by the French, and re-entered the town
by the very gate by which he had left it four days earlier.
Next day the Emperor's gentleman-in-waiting, Count de Turenne, came to
Balashov with a message that it was the Emperor Napoleon's pleasure to grant him
an audience.
Four days before sentinels of the Preobrazhensky regiment had been on guard
before the very house to which Balashov was conducted. Now two French grenadiers
were on duty before it, wearing fur caps and blue uniforms open over the breast,
while an escort of hussars and Uhlans, and a brilliant suite of adjutants,
pages, and generals were waiting for Napoleon to come out, forming a group round
his saddle-horse at the steps and his Mameluke, Rustan. Napoleon received
Balashov in the very house in Vilna from which Alexander had despatched him.
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