Some formidable masses of the enemy's force were before us; but they did not venture to wait until we came up with them: they fled, some towards Golymin and others towards Pultusk. I pursued those who fled in the former direction, with the division of dragoons which the Emperor had entrusted to my command. The Marshal detached Daultane to cover the rear of the 5th corps, which he knew had proceeded to Pultusk. There had been a complete thaw for the space of two days;—a circumstance which was uncommon in Poland at that season of the year. The ground over which we passed was a clayey soil, intersected with marshes: the roads were excessively bad: cavalry, infantry, and artillery stuck in the bogs; and it cost them the utmost difficulty to extricate themselves. We advanced only a short league in the space of two hours. Many of our officers stuck in the mud and remained there during the whole of the battle of Pultusk. They served as marks for the enemy to shoot at.
The third division had no sooner debouched from the village than it was informed by its pioneers that a considerable mass of cavalry covered, at some distance a column of artillery and baggage. General Friant ordered them to be watched by detachments of cavalry, as he was well convinced that the cloud of Cossacks would disperse on the appearance of the infantry. They fled, and we took artillery, ammunition, carriages and cassoons of every kind. The General, pleased with these advantages, went to take up a position for the night, when a heavy cannonade was heard; it proceeded from Marshal Lannes' forces, who were driven by the Russians from Pultusk. We had our turn on the following day: they occupied a wood whence we wished to dislodge them; our columns advanced, the voltigeurs were in front, and the infantry were disposed en echelon behind them. We experienced obstinate resistance on the part of the enemy. He attacked us: we charged with the bayonet; and our battalions drove him back on his own masses. We remained masters of the field: it was covered with the bodies of the dead, and with bags which the Russians had thrown down in order to fly with the greater speed. The infantry was dislodged, and the cavalry now advanced. I went forward to meet them and drove them back. But the voltigeurs, who were dispersed about in the marshes, overwhelmed us with their balls: I had my left arm broken.
I had been four times wounded in the first campaigns of the army of the Rhine, under Custine, Pichegru, Moreau, and Desaix; twice before the ruins of Memphis, and in Upper Egypt before the ruins of Thebes; at the battle of Austerlitz and at Golymin. I also received four other wounds at Moscow, as I shall hereafter have occasion to mention.
From Golymin I was removed to Warsaw. Napoleon arrived there on the 1st January, and he did me the honour to come and see me. "Well, Rapp," said he, "you are wounded again; and on your unlucky arm too." It was the ninth wound which I had received on my left arm, and the Emperor therefore called it my unlucky arm.—"No wonder, Sire," said I, "we are always amidst battles." "We shall perhaps have done fighting," he replied, "when we are eighty years old."
MM. Boyer and Yvan dressed my wound in his presence. When Napoleon saw that the bone was really broken, he said, "His arm must be amputated. He is now very ill; and this wound may be his death." M. Boyer smiled and said, "Your Majesty would go too hastily to work: the General is young and vigorous; we shall cure him."—"I hope," said I, "this is not the last time you will have occasion to make me suffer martyrdom."
Napoleon soon left Warsaw for the battle of Eylau, and established his head-quarters at Osterode. Here I was appointed to the government of Thorn, whither I was directed to proceed to complete the restoration of my health. I forwarded provisions, artillery, and ammunition, to carry on the siege of Dantzic.
I was now the Providence of the Prussian Generals. They wrote to me intreating my intercession in their behalf. Blucher himself did not disdain to solicit the grace of his Majesty the Emperor and King of Italy. He was at first to have been conducted to Dijon, as has been already mentioned; but he had laid down arms, and therefore it signified little whether he was at Dijon or elsewhere. He was permitted to retire to Hamburgh; but he soon grew tired of that city, and begged to be allowed to go to the neighbourhood of Berlin. The following is the letter which he addressed to me on this subject:—
"Monsieur General,
"Your Excellency will probably remember that I had the honour of becoming acquainted with you some years ago, on your journey to Munster; and the marks of attention you then condescended to show me induce me to hope, that the unfortunate situation in which I am now placed will not be absolutely indifferent to you. I take the liberty of addressing your Excellency, to intreat your intercession with his Majesty the Emperor of France and King of Italy, that he may graciously order passports to be granted for myself, the two officers my sons, and the rest of my family, to enable us to retire to the environs of Berlin, or into Pomerania, to one of my estates. Having lost my all by the chances of war, I find it impossible to support the expenses attending a residence in a city where every thing is so enormously dear as in Hamburgh. Moreover I am in ill health, and I feel that it is only by living in the bosom of my family, and leading a very retired life, that I shall be able to recover myself.
"These reasons, and the generosity of his Majesty the Emperor, induce me to hope that he will deign to relieve my painful situation by permitting me to make choice of a place of residence; and the protection which your Excellency may condescend to grant me in this affair will add feelings of the deepest gratitude to the sentiments of high consideration, with which I have the honour to be,