Petersburg, Nicholas and Alexander were our best friends. Louis
Napoleon was our worst enemy.
'There is nothing which ought to be so much left to the discretion of
those on the spot as war. Even a commander-in-chief actually present in a
field of battle can do little after the action, if it be really a great
one, has once begun.
'If we suppose 80,000 men to be engaged on each side, each line will
extend at least three miles. Supposing the general to be in the centre,
it will take an _aide-de-camp_ ten minutes to gallop to him from one of
the wings, and ten minutes to gallop back. But in twenty minutes all may
be altered.'
[Footnote 1: 'Chrzanowski has passed thirty years fighting against or for
the Russians. He began military life in 1811 as a sous lieutenant of
artillery in the Polish corps which was attached to the French army. With
that army he served during the march to Moscow, and the retreat. At the
peace, what remained of his corps became a part of the army of the
kingdom of Poland. He had attained the rank of major in that army when
the insurrection on the accession of Nicholas broke out. About one
hundred officers belonging to the staff of the properly Russian army were
implicated, or supposed to be implicated, in that insurrection, and were
dismissed, and their places were supplied from the army of the kingdom of
Poland.
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