Chapter 38 Chapter Thirty-eight

The horrible sight of the dead and wounded strewn across the battlefield, plus the dizziness of the head and the news that twenty of the generals he knew were wounded or dead, the feeling that the arms that were once strong had grown limp, and it was all in love with the dead and wounded. , And an unexpected impression formed in Napoleon's mind as a test of his spiritual strength.The dreadful sights of the field that day had subdued him from that spiritual force from which he had supposed his exploits and his greatness.He hastily left the battlefield and returned to the Shevardino Hill.He was sitting on a folding chair, his face was ginger and swollen, his heart was heavy, his eyes were cloudy, his nose was red, and his voice was hoarse. He couldn't help but droop his eyelids, listening to the sound of gunfire unconsciously.He longed with morbid anxiety to end the war he had started, but he could not stop it.The human feeling possessed by the individual overcomes temporarily the false phantom of life with which he has long served.

He really felt the horror of the suffering and death he had seen on the battlefield.The heaviness in his head and chest reminded him of the possibility of suffering and death himself.For a moment, he didn't want Moscow, he didn't want victory, he didn't want glory.What more honor does he need?He wanted only one thing now, and that was rest, quiet, and freedom.However, when he was on the Semyonovskoye Heights, the artillery commander suggested to him that several artillery companies should be transferred to these high places to strengthen the fire attack on the Russian army gathered in front of Knyazkovo. Napoleon agreed. and ordered to report to him the results of the operations of the batteries.

An adjutant came to report that, in accordance with the emperor's order, two hundred cannons had been dispatched to bombard the Russians, but the Russians were still standing. "They were knocked down in rows by our guns, but they didn't move," said the adjutant. "Illsenveulentencore!..." Napoleon said hoarsely. "Sire?" ②The adjutant didn't hear clearly and asked. -------- ① French: They are not enough! ... ②French: Your Majesty? "Illsenveulentencore, donnezleur-en." Napoleon said hoarsely, frowning. In fact, what he asked to be done was done before he gave an order.He issues orders only because he thinks people are waiting for his orders.So he returned to his old illusory world of some great phantasm (like a mill-horse who thought he was doing work for himself), and tamely played the cruel, pathetic, Heavy, inhuman characters.

Not only in that moment, not only in that day, was clouded over the intellect and conscience of the man who, more than any other, had borne the burden before him; but forever, to the end of his life, He cannot understand truth, goodness, and beauty, and cannot understand the meaning of his actions.Because his actions were so contrary to truth and goodness, and so removed from everything that was human, that he could not comprehend their significance.He cannot abandon his hemisphere-famous behavior, so he must abandon truth and kindness and all human things. Not only on this day, he patrolled the field full of dead and wounded (casualties he believed to be caused by his will), looked at these people, counted how many Russians were for a Frenchman, and thus deceived himself He quickly found a reason to please him: five Russians are worth one Frenchman.Not only on this day, he writes to Paris: lechampdebatailleaetesu Bperbe,2 because there are fifty thousand dead on the battlefield, and on St. Helena, in that confinement and silence, he says, He wanted to use his spare time to describe his great achievements, and he wrote in French:

-------- ①French: If it’s not enough, give them more. ② French: The scene of the battlefield is magnificent. "The war of the Russian Expedition was originally the most famous war of modern times, because it was a war of reason, of real interests, of the appeasement and security of all mankind; it was a war of pure peace-loving security. That war was for a great purpose, for accidental events The end, for a stable beginning.New realms, new undertakings are emerging, and the peace, happiness, and prosperity of all mankind are emerging.The institutions of Europe have been laid, and it remains only to establish them further.

After these great problems have been satisfactorily resolved, and peace has settled down everywhere, Finally, I have my Congress and Holy Alliance.These are the views they stole from me.In this great assembly of princes of nations, we shall discuss our interests as one family.And report to the peoples as the accountant does to the master. In this way, Europe must soon become a unified people, and no matter where a person travels, it is like entering a common motherland.I call upon all rivers to be navigable by all, and the seas to be common, and that great standing armies should be reduced to the retinue of the princes of all nations.

To France, to the great, the mighty, the magnificent, the peaceful, the glorious Motherland, I want to declare that her national boundaries will never change; all future wars will be defensive; any expansion will run counter to national interests; I will take charge of imperial politics with my son, my dictatorship will end, and he The constitutional government is about to begin... Paris shall be the capital of the world, and the French shall be the people of all nations Object of admiration! ... At that time, I will use my leisure and old age, accompanied by the queen, and during my son's royal education, to drive my own carriage like a real rural couple, to travel to all corners of the empire, accept complaints, and rehabilitate the unjust prison , spreading knowledge and giving favors everywhere. "

Providence destined him to be a sad, involuntary executioner of the people, confident that his motives for action were to benefit the people, confident that he could control the fate of millions, and that he could do favors by virtue of his rights. "Of the 400,000 people who crossed the Vistula, half were Austrians, Prussians, Saxons, Poles, Bavarians, Württembergers, Mecklenburgers, Spaniards, Italians, and Neapolitans. In fact, one-third of the Dutch, Belgians, Rhinelanders, Piedmontese, Swiss, Genevans, Tuscans, Romans, thirty The Second Division, as well as Bremen, Hamburg, etc.; hardly 140,000 French speakers among them. In fact, the French lost less than 50,000 in the Russian expedition; the Russian army retreated from Vilna to Moscow, and in various In the first battle, losses were three times higher than those of the French; the fire at Moscow killed 100,000 Russians, who died from the cold and want of supplies in the forest; The bitterness of the harsh season; at Vilna it had but fifty thousand men left, and at Changleish not eighteen thousand."

The war with Russia, imagined, had been brought about at his will, so that the terrible sight had not shocked his soul.He bravely took full responsibility for the incident, and in his insanity he managed to find justification in the fact that among the hundreds of thousands of victims there were fewer French than Hessians and Badalians. -------- ① Thirty-two division refers to the division commanded by Marshal Davout, most of the soldiers were recruited from Hamburg, Bremen and other places.