Battle of Valmy

“ Besides these celebrated men, who were in the French army, and besides the King of Prussia, the Duke of Brunswick, and other men of rank and power, who were in the lines of the Allies, there was an individual present at the battle of Valmy, of little political note, but who has exercised, and exercises, a greater influence over the human mind, and whose fame is more widely spread, than that of either duke, or general, or king. ”

“ He survived those wars, and the empire itself, dying in extreme old age in 1820. The last wish of the veteran on his death-bed was that his heart should be deposited in the battle-field of Valmy, there to repose among the remains of his old companions-in-arms, who had fallen at his side on that spot twenty-eight years before, on the memorable day when they won the primal victory of Revolutionary France, and prevented the armies of Brunswick and the emigrant bands of Condé from marching on defenceless Paris, and destroying the immature democracy in its cradle. ”

“ Two men unaided, each equipped and armed a squadron of cavalry.
One village gave every single man it had, and offered besides a sum of three hundred thousand francs.
The mothers did more than give themselves or their money, they gave their sons, a more terrible and heartrending travail than that of giving them birth.
Eight hundred thousand men enlisted; France, which had been under great difficulty to raise an army to defend her Thermopylæ of the Argonne and to win the battle of Valmy, had a dozen armies at her command, and a year later began the march to conquer Europe. ”

“ The cannonade of Valmy, September 20, 1792, decided more than the battle of Hochkirch, October 14, 1758.
In a tract of country which the enemy abandons to us because he cannot defend it, we can settle ourselves differently from what we should do if the retreat of the enemy was only made with the view to a decision under more favourable circumstances. Again, a strategic attack in course of execution, a faulty position, a single false march, may be decisive in its consequence ”

“ Battle.
About seven o’clock on that battle morn as the mists were dissipating, the successfully united French forces saw with dismay the slowly advancing army of the allies; long lines of Prussian cavalry, Austrian light troops, solid columns of infantry, batteries of artillery filled the valley and moved slowly, sinuously toward the Valmy height.
Dumouriez anxiously scanned the white strained faces of his untried troops. Would they fail him in the crucial hour? Would they break away in panic rout when the death-play began? It was their custom. ”

“ On the hill beside the Cure's house was a little old cannon brought from the battle-field of Ticonderoga, and its boisterous salutations were replied to from the Seigneury, by a still more ancient piece of ordnance. Sixty of Valmond's recruits, under Lajeunesse the blacksmith, marched up and down the streets, firing salutes with a happy, casual intrepidity, and setting themselves off before the crowds with a good many airs and nods and simple vanities. ”

“ Years of camp and discipline and battle and endurance were in the whole bearing of the man. He was no more of Pontiac and this simple life than was Valmond himself.
So they neared each other, the challenger and the challenged, the champion and the invader, and quickly the village emptied itself out to see.
When Valmond came so close that he could observe every detail of the old man's uniform, he suddenly reined in his horse, drew him back on his haunches with his left hand, and with his right saluted—not the old sergeant, but the coat of the Old Guard, to which his eyes were directed. ”

“ At Valmy on the 20th of September the two armies came in contact. The affair was only a cannonade, but the French stood firm and the advance of the Allies was stayed. Brunswick had no heart for his work; the king was ill satisfied with the Austrians, and both were alarmed by the ravages of disease among the soldiers. Within ten days after the affair of Valmy they began their retreat. Dumouriez, who still hoped to detach Prussia from Austria, left them unmolested. ”

“ Valmond took it, and, holding it in his hands, said softly: "Soldier of the Old Guard, here is a drum of France." Without a word the old man took the drum, his fingers trembling as he fastened it to his belt. When the sticks were in his hand, all trembling ceased, and his hands became steady. He was living in the past entirely.
"Soldier," said Valmond in a loud voice, "remember Austerlitz. The
Heights of Pratzen are before you. Play up the feet of the army." ”

“ The sun was going down behind the hills, like a drowsy boy to his bed, radiant and weary from his day’s sport. The villagers were up at Dalgrothe Mountain, soldiering for Valmond. Every evening, when the haymakers put up their scythes, the mill-wheel stopped turning, and the Angelus ceased, the men marched away into the hills, where the ardent soldier of fortune had pitched his camp.
Tents, muskets, ammunition came out of dark places, as they are ever sure to come when the war-trumpet sounds. ”

“ The names of these battles recur again and again in the caricature of the period, in the legends, in maps conspicuously hung upon the walls of the background. An anonymous cut represents the public gazing eagerly into a magic lantern, the old "Poire" officiating as showman: "You have before you (p. 78) the conqueror of Jemappes and of Valmy. You see him surrounded by his nobles, his generals, and his family, all ready to die in his defense. See how the jolly rascals fight. They are not the ones to be driven in disgrace from their kingdom. ”

“ On one occasion during the campaign of Valmy, eight battalions of federates, intoxicated with massacre and sedition, joined the forces under Dumouriez, and soon threatened to uproot all discipline, saying openly that the ancient officers were traitors, and that it was necessary to purge the army, as they had Paris, of its aristocrats. Dumouriez posted these battalions apart from the others, placed a strong force of cavalry behind them, and two pieces of cannon on their flank. ”

“ He got no further, for Valmond raised his hand to Lagroin, and the drums began to beat. Then he rode down in front of Lajeunesse's men, the others sprang from the drays and fell into place, and soon the little army was marching, four deep, through the village.
This was the official beginning of Valmond's fanciful quest for empire. The people had a phrase, and they had a man; and they saw no further than the hour.
As they filed past the house of Elise Malboir, the girl stood in the glow of a bonfire, beside the oven where Valmond had first seen her. ”

“ Come, Corporal Lagroin,’ he call; and I come. ‘But, first,’ he say, ‘up on the shoulder of your big soldier again, and play.’ ‘What shall I play, sire?’ I ask. ‘Play ten thousand heroes to Walhalla,’ he answer. I play, and I think of my brother Jacques, who went fighting to heaven the day before. Beautiful God! that was a day at Auerstadt.”
“Soldier,” said Valmond, waving his hand, “step on. There is a drum at Louis Quinze. Let us go together, comrade.”
The old sergeant was in a dream. He wheeled, the crowd made way for him, and at the neck of the white horse he came on with Valmond. ”

“ The Cure understood him at last. "The longest journey is short by the light of the grave," he responded gently.
Presently the door opened, admitting the avocat. Valmond calmly met
Monsieur Garon's pained look, and courteously whispered his name.
"Your Excellency has been basely treated," said the avocat, his lip trembling.
"On the contrary, well, dear monsieur," answered the ruined adventurer.
"Destiny plays us all. Think: I die the death of a soldier, and my
crusade was a soldier's vision of conquest. I have paid the price.
I have—"
He did not finish the sentence, but lay lost in thought. ”

“ Valmond stood over his body, one leg on either side, and drew a pistol.
“Surrender, monsieur,” said the officer, “or we fire!”
“Never! A Napoleon knows how to die!” was the reply, and he raised his pistol at the officer.
“Fire!” came the sharp command.
“Vive Napoleon!” cried the doomed man, and fell, mortally wounded.
At that instant the Cure, with Medallion, came hurrying round the corner of the church.
“Fools! Murderers!” he said to the soldiers. “Ah, these poor children!”
Stooping, he lifted up Valmond’s head, and Medallion felt Lagroin’s pulseless heart. ”

“ She looked at the Cure, where he knelt praying, and wondered how much of this tragedy the anxious priest would lay at his own door.
"It is no tragedy, dear Cure" Valmond said suddenly, as if following her thoughts.
"My son, it is all tragedy until you have shown me your heart, that I may send you forth in peace."
He had forgotten Madame Chalice's presence, and she sat very still.
"Even for our dear Lagroin," Valmond continued, "it was no tragedy. He was fighting for the cause, not for a poor fellow like me. As a soldier loves to die, he died—in the dream of his youth, sword in hand." ”

“ He smiled at the mealman's hesitation, even while he said to himself: "This ends it—ends it!"
He said it with no great sinking of heart, with no fear. It was the solution of all; it was his only way to honour.
The soldiers were halted a little distance from the two; and the officer commanding, after a dull mechanical preamble, in the name of the Government, formally called upon Valmond and Lagroin to surrender themselves, or suffer the perils of resistance.
"Never!" broke out Lagroin, and, drawing his sword, he shouted: "Vive
Napoleon! The Old Guard never surrenders!" ”

“ I shall await them under the walls of Paris. An invading army, placed between a capital of six hundred thousand souls, who close their gates, and a national army, which cuts off their retreat, is a destroyed army. France will be saved in the heart of France, instead of on the frontiers; but still she will be saved."
Thus reasoned Dumouriez, when the first sounds of the Prussian cannon, resounding from the heights of Valmy, came to announce to him that the Duke of Brunswick, having perceived the danger of advancing, and thus leaving the French army behind him, had attacked Kellermann. ”

“ The Corps of the Count De Valmy, which has 3,000 Cuirassiers d'Élite, at the intersection of the Roman road with that of Brussels in order that I may draw it to myself if I should have need of it; as soon as my decision is made, you will send him the Order to rejoin you. I would desire to have with me the Division of the Guard commanded by General Lefèbvre Desnouettes, and I send you the two Divisions of the Corps of the Count De Valmy to replace it. ”

“ Instantly the clothes flew off, masks fell, pumpkins came crashing to the ground, the stilts of the marshals dropped, and thirty men stood upon the drays in crude military order, with muskets in their hands and cockades in their caps. At that moment also, a flag—the Tricolor—fluttered upon the staff at Valmond’s window. ”

“ An officer of lancers has just told the Emperor that the enemy had masses on the side of the Quatre-Bras; Unite the corps of Count Reille and d'Erlon, and that of the Comte de Valmy, who is at this moment on his way to join you; With these forces you must beat and destroy all enemy bodies that may present themselves; Blücher was yesterday at Namur, and it is unlikely that he sent troops to Quatre-Bras, so you only have to deal with what comes from Brussels. ”

“ Day was spreading over the drowsy landscape. There was no life as yet in all the horizon, no fires, no animals stirring, no early workmen, no anxious harvesters. But the birds were out, and presently here and there cattle rose up in the fields.
Then, over the foot-hills, he saw a white horse and its rider show up against the grey dust of the road. Elise's sorrowful words came to him: "Valmond! Valmond! O Valmond!"
His duty to the girl was done; she was safe; now he must follow that figure to where the smoke of the campfires came curling up by Dalgrothe Mountain. ”

“ As Valmond looked, a soft light passed across his face, relieving its theatrical firmness, the half-contemptuous curl of his lip. He knew well enough that this event would make or unmake him in Pontiac. He became also aware that a carriage had driven up among the villagers, and had stopped; and though he did not look directly, he felt that it was Madame Chalice. This soft look on his face was not all assumed; for the ancient uniform of the sergeant touched something in him, the true comedian, or the true Napoleon, and it seemed as if he might dismount and take the old soldier in his arms. ”

“ Valmond had purchased a tolerable white horse through Medallion. After a day’s grooming the beast showed off very well; and he was now seen riding about the parish, dressed after the manner of the First Napoleon, with a cocked hat and a short sword at his side. He rode well, and the silver and pennies he scattered were most fruitful of effect from the martial elevation. He happened to be riding into the village at one end as Sergeant Lagroin entered it at the other, each going towards the Louis Quinze. ”

“ On the Friday evening of this particular week, all were seated in the front garden of the Cure’s house, as Valmond came over the hill, going towards the Louis Quinze. His step was light, his head laid slightly to one side, as if in pleased and inquiring reverie, and there was a lifting of one corner of the mouth, suggesting an amused disdain. Was it that disdain which comes from conquest not important enough to satisfy ambition? The social conquest of a village—to be conspicuous and attract the groundlings in this tiny theatre of life, that seemed little! ”