This mortality was frightful. Schehl thinks that the
peasants killed many during the night in order to be relieved of their
guard duty. For the Cossacks would send the superfluous guardsmen away and
retain only as many as one for every four prisoners. They saw that the
completely exhausted Frenchmen could be driven forward like a herd of sick
sheep, and hardly needed any guard. In the morning we passed a village,
writes Schehl, in which stood some houses which had not been burned. The
returned inhabitants were busy clearing away the rubbish and had built some
provisional straw huts. I sat as harmless as possible on my wagon when
suddenly a girl in one of the straw huts screamed loud Matuschka!
Matuschka! Franzusi! Franzusi Niewolni! (Mother! mother! Frenchmen! French
prisoners!), and now sprang forward a large woman, armed with a thick club
and struck me such a powerful blow on the head that I became unconscious.
When I opened my eyes again the woman struck me once more, this time on my
left shoulder and so violently that I screamed. My arm was paralyzed from
the stroke. Fortunately, one of the Cossacks came to my rescue, scolded the
woman, and chased her away.
On the evening of November 1st., the troops came to a village through which
no soldiers had passed, which had not been disturbed by the war. Of the
prisoners only 60 remained alive, and these were lodged in the houses.
Schehl describes the interior of the houses of Russian peasants as well as
the customs of the Russian peasants, which description is highly
interesting, and I shall give a brief abstract of it.
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