an old sergeant of
Julian's company said to him, as they smoked a pipe together over two
mugs of German beer.

"It isn't that I think there will be much fighting, for what can Russia
do against such an army as this? They say Alexander has been busy since
the peace of Tilsit, but at that time he could scarce place 50,000 men
in the field. No one fears the Russians; but it is a big country, and
they say that in winter the cold is horrible. We shall have long
distances to march, and you know how much time is always wasted over
making a treaty of peace. If we are to be back again before winter we
ought to be off now. Of course, the Emperor may mean to hold St.
Petersburg and Moscow until next spring, and I daresay we could make
ourselves comfortable enough in either place; but when you come to
winter six hundred and fifty thousand men, and a couple of hundred
thousand horses, it is a tremendous job; and I should think the Emperor
would send all this riff-raff of Spaniards, Germans, and Poles back, and
keep only the French as a garrison through the winter. Still, I would
much rather that we should all be back here before the first snow falls.
I don't like these long campaigns. Men are ready to fight, and to fight
again, twenty times if need be, but then they like to be done with it.
In a long campaign, with marches, and halts, and delays, discipline gets
slack, men begin to grumble; besides, clothes wear out, and however big
stores you take with you, they are sure to run short in time. I wish we
were off."

But it was not until the 16th of May that Napoleon arrived at Dresden,
where he was met by the Emperor and Empress of Austria, the Kings of
Prussia and Saxony, and a host of archdukes and princes, and a fortnight
was spent in brilliant fetes. Napoleon himself was by no means blind to
the magnitude of the enterprise on which he had embarked, and
entertained no hopes that the army would recross the frontier before the
winter. He had, indeed, before leaving Paris, predicted that three
campaigns would be necessary before lasting terms of peace could be
secured. Thus an early commencement of the campaign was of
comparatively slight importance; but, indeed, the preparations for the
struggle were all on so great a scale that they could not, with all the
energy displayed in pushing them forward, be completed before the end of
June.

Thus, then, while Napoleon delayed in Paris and feasted at Dresden, the
roads of Germany were