o became the
greatest glory of the Russian army. Many heroes have been described to
us in verse and prose, but of Dokhturov scarcely a word has been said.

It was Dokhturov again whom they sent to Forminsk and from there to
Malo-Yaroslavets, the place where the last battle with the French was
fought and where the obvious disintegration of the French army began;
and we are told of many geniuses and heroes of that period of the
campaign, but of Dokhturov nothing or very little is said and that
dubiously. And this silence about Dokhturov is the clearest testimony to
his merit.

It is natural for a man who does not understand the workings of a
machine to imagine that a shaving that has fallen into it by chance
and is interfering with its action and tossing about in it is its most
important part. The man who does not understand the construction of
the machine cannot conceive that the small connecting cogwheel which
revolves quietly is one of the most essential parts of the machine, and
not the shaving which merely harms and hinders the working.

On the tenth of October when Dokhturov had gone halfway to Forminsk and
stopped at the village of Aristovo, preparing faithfully to execute the
orders he had received, the whole French army having, in its convulsive
movement, reached Murat's position apparently in order to give
battle--suddenly without any reason turned off to the left onto the new
Kaluga road and began to enter Forminsk, where only Broussier had
been till then. At that time Dokhturov had under his command, besides
Dorokhov's detachment, the two small guerrilla detachments of Figner and
Seslavin.

On the evening of October 11 Seslavin came to the Aristovo headquarters
with a French guardsman he had captured. The prisoner said that the
troops that had entered Forminsk that day were the vanguard of the whole
army, that Napoleon was there and the whole army had left Moscow four
days previously. That same evening a house serf who had come from
Borovsk said he had seen an immense army entering the town. Some
Cossacks of Dokhturov's detachment reported having sighted the French
Guards marching along the road to Borovsk. From all these reports it was
evident that where they had expected to meet a single division there
was now the whole French army marching from Moscow in an unexpected
direction--along the Kaluga road. Dokhturov was unwilling to undertake
any action, as it was not clear to him now what he ought to do. He