Austerlitz

Prolouge

Prologue

Alain breathed heavily and slowly as he tried to calm the nerves building in his stomach, today was the day he’d been waiting for. He looked over at his uncle the man was beaming with pride and had put on his best clothes for the occasion, both of their horses swayed gently and they slowly headed towards the city in the distance, the city of Orléans. He’d spent the first seventeen years of his life at home and working on the farm, under the care of his uncle, though it pained him greatly and brought a tear to his eye neither of his parents had been around to watch him grow up. They’d both been killed in the revolution a year after he had been born. His uncle told him they were both brave and loving people but Alain couldn’t help but feel dejected by the fact that they had left him alone.

He sighed before casting his eyes over the countryside they were at the tail end of winter and the plants were preparing for their sudden explosion of colour and warmth but the air still carried a harsh bite. Alain quickly tugged his riding cape around him not wanting to start shivering and look scared to his uncle or least of all the recruiting officer, he knew he needed to be a man and that was what the Emperor demanded of his soldiers and Alain was not going to disgrace his uncle.

It had been a long ride from the small village in which he had grown up and he had long since become bored of the constant clip-clop of his horse’s hooves on the cobbled road it was now a distant sound as he felt his stomach clench in anticipation, he wanted to make his family name worth something and he wanted his uncle to brag to his friends about his nephew in the army but he didn’t know if he was quite ready. What if he panicked and fled during a battle, what if he wasn’t good enough and ended up cooking for or cleaning up after the other soldiers, so much dread filled his mind.

“Why the sheepish look?” His uncle said clapping him on the back suddenly, making Alain jump in the saddle “I know it’s a big change for you but you’re going to have a great time, I did when I served my time in the grenadiers”

“I doubt I’ll become a grenadier Uncle, I just hope I get accepted as a normal fusilier, that’s good enough for me” Alain explained whilst fiddling with the tassel on the front of his saddle.

“Maybe not a grenadier, you’re too small for that but what about the new voltigeur battalions, you’re agile and quick you’d be perfect for that” Beamed his uncle “Yes that’d suit you fine”

“If you say so Uncle” Alain sighed in disbelief, he wasn’t good enough to do that and he was sure his Uncle knew it, the man was just too proud to admit it.

They passed numerous riders on the road just before the city, several with a spare horse roped behind, obviously the previous riders of those horses had been accepted into the army and Alain began to fret that there would be no places left but he quickly dispelled the thought, the army always needs new men as his Uncle always said. The amount of wars the Emperor had fought and the amount of campaigns he wanted to win meant the army needed a constant supply of young men not so much to fill the spaces of the dead but to keep up with the Emperor’s thirst for conquering.

Their horses trotted through the gates and Alain stared up at the French flag billowing overhead, he could see soldiers relaxing on street corners and chatting in groups, there was no doubt that the army was here especially as parts of their uniforms caught the light and made them look even more splendid that they did ordinarily. To Alain and he was sure many of the other soldiers, the uniform of a soldier is not just a form of identification it made them into men that people wanted to be, they became heroes in an instant and Alain couldn’t wait to be given a little more respect than the country boy everyone treated him as.

People milled around him and he swiftly moved forwards as he saw his uncle wave from the next street corner, he had a tendency he noticed to day dream and he hoped it wouldn’t matter in the army or that at least they would beat it out of him.

“Alain the recruitment office is the building on the other side of the square, the one with the flag hung across the door, that’s where you want to be” His uncle pointed with great enthusiasm “I think it’s best if we dismount our horses and skirt around the edge firstly we don’t want to knock anyone over and secondly once you get into the crowd neither you nor I are going to have a clue where we are.

Alain nodded in agreement looking at the mass of people and market stalls in the centre of the square, there were so many people he could barely see the floor and within the turmoil vendors yelled about their wares, the constant noise and confliction did Alain’s head in and he couldn’t wait to be inside. They headed over to the stables in one of the backstreets close to the square, his uncle passed the man in charge a few coins and said he should be back within the hour, the man grunted and slipped the money into a small leather pouch at his waist. Alain couldn’t help but see the dagger to the right of the pouch obviously placed there as a warning, Alain noticed the man glaring at him so he quickly turned and followed his Uncle trying to hide his reddening face.

They were soon in the recruitment building, which to be quite blunt was a hall with a man behind a desk, and a rather stern and irritable looking man at that. Alain and his Uncle joined the queue. Alain felt his heart beginning to beat faster and faster through his shirt, what would the man say to him would he send him away in disgrace or would he interrogate him on his military knowledge. He felt his hands start to shake slightly. The queue began to diminish in front of him until it was his turn; his Uncle looked at him appraisingly as Alain focused on the ill-tempered man behind the desk, holding his breath as the background noise faded away. He held his breath in anticipation of what was to happen next; the petulant man looked up at him his eyebrows turned up in a sarcastic frown.

“What are you gawping at?” The grouchy man sneered.

“I...er...um…er” Alain choked, not expecting the sudden outburst.

“Nevermind...sign here” The man thudded a heavy finger down onto the list on the table and gestured to the pen and ink.

Alain gulped this was it, he was about to sign his life away to the Emperor and within a second it was over he’d just made the biggest decision of his life without a seconds consideration and his tutor would have been most upset by this brashness but it was far too late now.

“Come back tomorrow morning and we’ll sort you out then…oh yes…welcome to the army boy”