The Invasion of France in 1814

The Invasion of France in 1814

Jean-Claude Hullin, a shoemaker and old soldier of the Sambre-et-Meuse and Egyptian campaigns, lives in the Vosges village of Charmes with his adopted daughter Louise, a foundling of gypsy stock whom he loves as his own. Louise is betrothed to Gaspard, son of Catherine Lefevre, mistress of the farm of Bois-de-Chenes, who has been away for months with the army and sends no word. Into this quiet world wanders Yegof, a red-bearded madman with a tin crown and a raven, who calls himself Luitprandt, Emperor of Australasia and Polynesia, and who three times demands Louise in marriage, threatening ruin if refused. Catherine Lefevre, deeply unsettled by a strange tale Yegof told her servants about an ancient massacre of her ancestors, the Triboques, by invading red-haired Germans led by one Luitprandt, sends Hullin to Phalsbourg for news of the war. At Phalsbourg, Hullin finds the town fortifying against invasion and encounters convoys of wounded from Leipzig and Hanau. An old sergeant of Gaspard's regiment confirms the young man is alive but reports the campaign going badly, with former allies turning against the French. Hullin returns to Bois-de-Chenes and tells Catherine the truth: invasion is imminent. She resolves to arm the mountain and sends him to buy powder and lead from the smuggler Marc Dives and his wife Hexe-Baizel, who keep a hidden cave and arsenal beneath the ruined Falkenstein castle. Hullin then spends over a week touring the mountain hamlets, rallying hunters and woodcutters such as Materne of Hengst and his sons Kasper and Frantz, Labarbe of Dagsburg, Jerome of St. Quirin, and Daniel Hirsch, though the anabaptist Christ-Nickel refuses on religious grounds. Returning home, Hullin finds Louise determined to accompany the fighters rather than stay behind. That same evening Gaspard unexpectedly arrives on a twenty-four-hour leave; after a joyful but brief reunion with his mother and Louise, he departs again for his regiment at Phalsbourg. That night Marc Dives brings word that the enemy has crossed the frontier, and a signal fire is lit on the Falkenstein. The mountaineers gather at the Valtin sawmills, where Hullin is chosen as their leader by acclamation. He organizes the defense: the main force will hold the Donon pass on the only road practicable for artillery, while Piorette watches Raon-les-Leaux, Jerome the Grosmann, and Labarbe the hills of Haslach, with Marc Dives guarding the arsenal and convoys at the Falkenstein. Catherine Lefevre and Louise take charge of provisions and an ambulance under Doctor Lorquin. The partisans encamp near Pelsly's farm below the Donon. Materne and his sons scout toward Schirmeck, meeting the treacherous innkeeper Dubreuil, who urges surrender under an Austrian proclamation and speaks of betraying the mountaineers as guides; enraged, they leave him unharmed only for their sons' sake. They see fleeing villagers and herds, sight a large enemy force near Urmatt, and on the way back Kasper shoots a Cossack, whose horse and body they bring back as proof. Meanwhile the shepherd Robin, seeking his sheepskin near the Blutfeld gorge, witnesses Yegof, followed silently by five gray wolves, sitting among the ancient battle-stones and addressing the wolves by name, recalling the legendary slaughter of the Germans by the Triboques on that very ground centuries before. The Germans attack the Donon position. In a fierce first assault their column is repulsed by musket fire and Rochart's fighting at the barricade; the little tailor Riffi is captured while trying to ride off on a captured horse. Because Marc Dives delayed too long wanting to fight himself instead of watching the flank, the enemy hauls two cannon up an unguarded ravine and threatens to turn the position; Hullin furiously orders Dives to retake it. Dives leads a cavalry charge through the woods, his smugglers and the mountaineers overrunning the German infantry guarding the guns, and Dives himself kills the officer commanding them. Turning the captured cannon on the fleeing enemy, he shatters their ranks and secures victory, though at heavy cost: Rochart is mortally wounded, and Doctor Lorquin and his assistant Dubois perform amputations through the night at the farm while Catherine and Louise nurse the wounded and feed the surviving fighters. The German prisoners are sent off toward Abreschwiller under guard. Through the battle Yegof had stood on the summit of the Little Donon, crowned and gesturing as if commanding phantom armies, until he vanished at the last cannon shot. The narrative then turns to local legend concerning two strange sisters, "little Kateline" and "great Berbel," who dwell in the Cave of Luitprandt on the Bocksberg — named, tradition says, for the German king who buried his fallen chiefs there after the battle of the Blutfeld — with Kateline living on alms gathered from the village of Tiefenbach and Berbel feared as a weather-witch who curses the crops of those who withhold charity.

By Erckmann-Chatrian · First published 1814 · Genre: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction, Adventure · 26 chapters · 79,750 words

First lines

If you would wish to know the history of the great invasion of 1814, such as it was related to me by the old hunter Frantz du Hengst, you must transport yourself to the village of Charmes, in the Vosges. About thirty small houses, covered with shingles and dark-green houseleeks, stand in rows along the banks of the Sarre: you can see the gables carpeted with ivy and withered honeysuckles, for winter is approaching; the beehives closed with corks of straw, the small gardens, the palings, the hedges which separate them one from the other.

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Napoleonic Wars · French History · Military History · Invasion · Warfare · 19th Century · Historical Fiction · European History · Battle · Conquest · Imperialism · Politics

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