Austerlitz

Prologue-Part Two

Part 2

It had been six weeks since the day Alain had signed up to join what was now called the Grande Armée, he had gone through most of the training and now felt like he was truly part of something, something big. He wondered if this was how his parents had felt when they were part of the revolution, he dismissed the thought, of course they did, it was one of the greatest moments in French history.

Their camp was situated near Boulogne and it was one of six camps, he’d been sharing a tent with seven other recruits; most of them were quite quiet, so it led him to believe that at least one of them must have had a questionable past. Alain wasn’t vastly surprised by this after the stories his Uncle had told him.  Most of the men in his Uncle’s company were murderers, thieves and the like, but his Uncle said that when it came down to it they were all good fighters. Now he was no longer just a boy, now he was Fusilier Private Dubois, a man.

Alain had grown close to one of the other soldiers during training, he was called Valentin, and he was huge. A true giant and a natural soldier, he obeyed orders without question and would have been the perfect soldier had it not been one of his tendencies to brawl. On an almost weekly basis Valentin would stagger back into the tent with a swollen black eye or purple bruises on his cheeks. Luckily Valentin was usually let off with a menial task in training the next day.  

Alain had only seen him fight once and that was in the second week of training, he couldn’t remember quite why it happened but somehow Valentin knocked over a jug of beer in one of the taverns around Boulogne, it had spilled over the laps of three large Grenadiers, who were the elite infantry in the army. The three men got up so violently that the table went flying into the backs of some other soldiers sat drinking and smoking at the bar. They each in turn swung around ready for a fight. The Grenadiers struck first as the second one with a nasty scar down his chin lunged at Valentin, who quickly responded with a colossal uppercut into the scarred chin, knocking the first Grenadier out cold. The big man stepped over the slumped form on the floor and turned to face the other two. The scene suddenly erupted with the two remaining Grenadiers tackling Valentin and then the men at the bar joining in without a care for who they were hitting. Alain had quickly tried to escape when stools and chairs started flying; the bartender gave up shouting and quickly ducked as a stool went arching over his head. Alain scurried out into a side street along with several other soldiers from the bar, and together they charged off into the night as they saw the night watchmen thundering into the bar.  

His drink then got the better of him and he couldn’t remember much more than collapsing into bed and having a splitting headache the next day.

Light suddenly flooded the tent and a corporal announced “Dubois you’re wanted over at the commander’s offices, you’re expected to be there in quarter of an hour” The man grinned sarcastically “and by that Dubois they mean now!”

Alain threw himself out of his tired state and threw on his uniform, hastily buttoning up his blue and white Habite vest and cursing as he went as his fingers kept getting caught. He pulled his boot on with a tug and strode out into the day with the tent flap fluttering behind him. He made a quick jog to the command offices, which was the only reasonably permanent structure in the camp, fully equipped with glass windows and proper wooden doors. The bricks were quite a stark contrast to the tents that lined the camp on every side. He quickly climbed the steps, went through the door and up to the desk where a clerk was sat busily writing a note probably for one of the Captains.  Alain stood there for about a minute the clerk didn’t acknowledge him at all, in an attempt to get the man’s attention he first cleared his throat rather loudly and when that got no response he rapped his fist on the desk and noisily exclaimed “Excuse me” the clerk looked up at once, his eyes irritable and tired.

“What do you want?” said the man rolling his eyes.

“I was told to report here, I’m not sure why” Alain replied coolly.

“Name?”

“Fusilier Private Alain Dubois” Alain announced, not expecting to be quite so loud.

“Lieutenant Fontaine is expecting you, his office is the sixth on the right down the left hand corridor” The man gestured clearly despairing at his unrewarding job.

“Perfect, thank you” Alain said over his shoulder as he headed off to find the room. He counted each door he passed as to not make a mistake and end up going to the wrong place, he imagined how humiliated he would be so he quickly went back and started counting again, just to be sure. He finally came to the right door and knocked smartly three times before entering, the room was quite spacious with white walls, polished wooden furniture and several paintings of past battles on the walls. Behind the desk sat quite a young man not too much older than Alain himself, his most imposing feature was his great moustache which twitched slightly as it’s master read some correspondence strewn on the desk. Alain saluted neatly and the Lieutenant glanced up to see the man in front of him.

“Good timing soldier, most are a little early or late but you’re right on time, fantastic” the man grinned.

Alain swallowed “Thank you sir”

“Now then, we’ve been monitoring you during your training and we have some important news to give you”

Alain’s heart jumped, this was it he’d done something wrong and he was going to get kicked out, it had to be, was his shooting not good enough or his marching too slow? There was no way to return to his Uncle with news like that, he would have to flee to Paris.

“Your drill sergeant has informed me that you are an extremely agile young man and accurate with a rifle, now I am in charge of a Voltigeur company and I need the best shots and runners in the army to be part of my company. You my dear fellow suit the bill perfectly, the food is a bit better and so is the pay, but I’d have to say the best part has to be the uniform. So what do you say?”

“I’d be delighted sir” Alain responded, completely taken aback by what he had just heard, he could feel his hand trembling with excitement, his Uncle would be ecstatic and he couldn’t wait to give him the good news.

“Great, take this note down to the quartermaster, he’ll know what to do with you. You’re dismissed now Voltigeur Private Dubois, don’t let me down’.