Project Gutenberg's The Conscript, by Emile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian

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Title: The Conscript
A Story of the French war of 1813

Author: Emile Erckmann
Alexandre Chatrian

Release Date: February 15, 2010 [EBook #31288]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONSCRIPT ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: War and Glory]

HISTORICAL ROMANCES OF FRANCE

THE CONSCRIPT

A STORY OF THE FRENCH WAR OF 1813

TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF

ERCKMANN-CHATRIAN

ILLUSTRATED

CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS

NEW YORK :::::::::::::::::::::: 1911

ILLUSTRATIONS

_War and glory_ . . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_

_The dragoon fell heavily_

"_Close up the ranks!_"

_Everything gave way before him_

_In the river the dead were floating by in files_

"_Halt! Stop!_"

INTRODUCTORY NOTE

Instead of following "Madame Therese" with stories celebrating the
victories of Napoleon and thus appealing to their compatriots' love of
glory and military illusions, MM. Erckmann-Chatrian take up next the
tragic and far more significant story of 1812-13. With "The Conscript"
begins their long, sustained, and eloquent sermon against war and
war-wagers--the exordium, so to say, of their arraignment of Napoleon
for wanton and insatiate love of conquest. "The Conscript" is
certainly one of the most impressive statements of the darker side of
the national pursuit of military glory that have ever been made. The
first part of the book is taken up with a vivid and pathetic account of
the passage of the _grande armee_ through Alsace on its way to Moscow
and the Beresina, of the anxious waiting for news of the battles that
succeeded, of the first suspicions of disaster and their overwhelming
confirmation, of the final rout and awful straggling retreat and return
of the great expedition, and its demoralized and harassed entry within
the national frontiers once more. The second and major portion
narrates the rude surprise of the continuation of warfare and the still
more fatal campaign which opened so dubiously with Lutzen and Bautzen,
and culminat