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Updated: May 16, 2025
He had long since come to the conclusion that his wife was right when she said that Napoleon never had any intention of setting Poland free, but had obtained the services of the brave Poles under false pretences. Madame Ladoinski deserved years of happy domestic life after her fearful experiences with the French army, and it is pleasant to be able to say that she had them.
'It is I, it is Aimée. But the din of warfare and the roaring of the wind drowned her voice. Again she called, but still he did not hear. 'Lancers! forward, he shouted. 'For God and Poland! 'For God and Poland! his men answered, and spurring their horses they dashed forward once more to meet the enemy. Ladoinski had not seen his wife, and perhaps he would never see her again!
Captain Ladoinski could not seek safety in flight, for he had been commanded to remain in his quarters, and the order had not been cancelled. Assuring his wife that he would soon be at liberty to leave his post, he urged her to depart with their child and wait for him outside the city. This she refused to do, declaring that as long as he remained where he was she would stay with him.
It seemed to Madame Ladoinski that there was to be no end to the terrors of that day. She felt that she was going out of her mind, and prayed that she and her boy might die quickly. Throughout the night Madame Ladoinski lay beside her boy in the snow. But she did not sleep a minute.
Captain Ladoinski and his wife and child had many narrow escapes from the fiery brands which fell hissing into the roads as they hurried on towards the suburbs, but fortunately they received no injury. Arriving on high ground, and safe from the fire's onslaught, the Ladoinskis stood, with thousands of Napoleon's army, gazing at the destruction of Moscow.
The bedraggled soldiers would march on, and when the drivers were well in rear of the force they murdered their wounded passengers and looted the wagons. One night Madame Ladoinski was awakened by the stoppage of their wagon.
It was not for love of him that Captain Ladoinski had fought under 'the Little Corporal. He was a Pole, and it was because Napoleon was fighting the oppressor of the Polish race Russia that he fought for the French. The Russians had been humbled, and he, a Pole, had marched as one of a victorious army into their capital.
Madame Ladoinski, her spirits reviving at the prospect of soon being in her husband's native land, lay listening to the noise of the men busily engaged in building the bridges over which the French army was to pass. Suddenly there was a tremendous uproar; shouts of joy, cries of triumph.
The Cossacks hung on with tenacity to the remains of the great French army, swooping down at unexpected times upon some dispirited, disorganised section, cutting it to pieces, and recapturing some of the spoil with which the troops were loaded. Captain Ladoinski was present when one of these attacks was made, and, while assisting to repel the attackers, received a dangerous wound.
The wagon in which Madame Ladoinski rode was one of the number condemned to destruction, but the men who had been ordered to protect her speedily found room for her in another vehicle.
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