It is only where the stakes are small that the leisurely players,
idly fingering the fallen cards, return in fancy to certain points--
to this trick trumped or that chance missed, playing the game over
again. But when the result is great it overshadows the game, and
all men's thoughts fly to speculation on the future. How will the
loser meet his loss? What use will the winner make of his gain?
The results of the Russian campaign were so stupendous to history
that the historians of the day, in their bewilderment, sought rather
to preserve these than the details of the war. Thus the student of
to-day, in piecing together an impression of bygone times, will
inevitably find portions of his picture missing. As a matter of
fact, no one can say for certain whether Alexander gently led
Napoleon onward to Moscow or was himself driven thither in confusion
by the conqueror.
Perhaps each merely pushed on from day to day, as men who are not
Emperors must needs do in the stress of life. It is only in calm
weather that the eye is able to discern things afar off and make
ready; but in a storm the horizon is dimmed by cloud and spray. All
Europe was so obscured at this time. And even Emperors, being only
men, could look no farther than the immediate and urgent danger of
the moment.
Napoleon's generals were scarcely social lights. Ney, the hero of
the retreat, the bravest of the brave, was a rough man who ate
horseflesh without troubling to cook it.
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