Page 558 - war-and-peace

sian army, everyone declared, was extraordinary and had
achieved miracles of valor.The soldiers, officers, and gener-
als were heroes. But the hero of heroes was Prince Bagration,
distinguished by his Schon Grabern affair and by the retreat
from Austerlitz, where he alone had withdrawn his column
unbroken and had all day beaten back an enemy force twice
as numerous as his own. What also conduced to Bagration’s
being selected as Moscow’s hero was the fact that he had
no connections in the city and was a stranger there. In his
person, honor was shown to a simple fighting Russian sol-
dier without connections and intrigues, and to one who was
associated by memories of the Italian campaign with the
name of Suvorov. Moreover, paying such honor to Bagra-
tion was the best way of expressing disapproval and dislike
of Kutuzov.
‘Had there been no Bagration, it would have been nec-
essary to invent him,’ said the wit Shinshin, parodying the
words of Voltaire. Kutuzov no one spoke of, except some
who abused him in whispers, calling him a court weather-
cock and an old satyr.
All Moscow repeated Prince Dolgorukov’s saying: ‘If you
go on modeling and modeling you must get smeared with
clay,’ suggesting consolation for our defeat by the memo-
ry of former victories; and the words of Rostopchin, that
French soldiers have to be incited to battle by highfalutin
words, and Germans by logical arguments to show them
that it is more dangerous to run away than to advance, but
that Russian soldiers only need to be restrained and held
back! On all sides, new and fresh anecdotes were heard of

558 War and Peace