Chapter XIII (2)

The fighting was continued a whole day on the 17th. The suburbs of the old town were in our hands, but the old enclosure, with its irregular brick towers, still resisted our attack. The Russians no longer made sallies, but defended themselves heroically behind the walls. Most of the emperor's lieutenants had been opposed to the siege, and Murat, it is said, wished to be killed. He went to a part which was incessantly battered by the guns from the ramparts, and said to his aides-de-camp, "Leave me alone here." Napoleon gave orders to cease the assault. Marshal Davout sent a party to reconnoitre, General Haxo braving a storm of fire to discover the weak point of the enclosure: and the attack was to begin again next morning at daybreak. "I must have Smolensk," said the emperor.

The Russians had already seen Napoleon's obstinacy, and felt that they could no longer repulse the efforts of our arms. The bombshells had already set fire to several parts, and during the night the whole of the town was in flames, kindled by the Russians. Their battalions were withdrawn, and the old town gradually evacuated. Barclay de Tolly prepared to follow their example. At sunrise Davout entered without difficulty into Smolensk in flames. The women and children, collected in the ancient Byzantine cathedral, seemed the mere remnant of a wretched population. Many men had fled; and the bridge, which joined both banks, being cut, the Russian army had started before us on the road to Moscow, without any possibility of our at once pursuing them. Napoleon passed on horseback through the smoking and blood-stained streets. Surgeon Larrey, faithful to the sentiments of humanity which always distinguished him, had the Russian wounded collected as well as the French.

The emperor looked gloomy and discontented. Though victorious, the army was depressed: the first town taken by assault, burnt before them by the determined hatred of its defenders, seemed to the soldiers a sinister omen. They were all tired of a war which imposed upon them unheard-of efforts without any glory coming to console them with its accustomed intoxication. "The war is not a national one," said Count Daru recently at Vitebsk; "the importation of a few English goods into Russia, or even the rising of the Polish nation, is not a sufficient reason for so remote an enterprise. Neither your troops nor your generals understand the necessity of it. Let us stop while at least there is still time."

The same advice was repeated at Smolensk, on that bank of the river gained by such bravery, and difficult to leave without danger, in order to plunge into an unknown and hostile country, far from the reinforcements which were still being prepared in Germany. Before attacking Smolensk, Napoleon said to Prince Eugène, "We are going to give battle, and then we shall see Moscow." "Always Moscow! Moscow will be our ruin," muttered the Viceroy of Italy as he left the emperor. Nearly all the military leaders felt the same fears.

Marshal Ney rushed with his troops in pursuit of Barclay, and overtook two Russian columns on the plain of Valoutina behind a small muddy stream, over which they had to throw a bridge. Here a keenly contested fight cost us the life of General Gudin, when obstinately carrying the passage at the point of the bayonet. Our columns were embarrassed in their attack by the marshy ground. The Russians kept their positions till night; and when at last obliged to quit the plateau more than 13,000 to 14,000 of both sides lay dead on the field of battle. The enemy's columns resumed their retreat, and continued to intercept our route to Moscow.

Thus, without a single check to diminish the prestige of our arms--after constantly defeating the Russians in the partial engagements which had taken place--after occupying, without fighting or taking by assault, every place in our way, we found ourselves, after two months' campaigning, with an army less by a half, in the very heart of Russia, unable to reach the enemy, who were retreating without running away--further than when at Wilna from that peace, desired by all, which Napoleon wished to impose under glorious circumstances immediately after a victory. The pacific messages of the Emperor Alexander had long accompanied our invasion of his states. Now they ceased, and the sudden summer of the north was soon about to disappear. "That would make a fine station for a cantonment," said Count Lobau, the heroic General Mouton, as he looked at the position and old walls of Smolensk. The emperor made no reply.

He was hesitating or reflecting, because he waited. On our right, General Reynier and Prince Schwartzenberg, with the Saxons and Austrians, had dislodged the Russians from the important position of Gorodeczna at several leagues from Kobrin; thus opening, with considerable difficulty, the intercepted road to the grand duchy. On the left, Marshal Oudinot, hurt at the emperor severely blaming him because when victorious he took the position of the conquered, had advanced against Count Wittgenstein, although the Russians would not accept battle. The marshal again fell back on the Drissa and Polota; a strong detachment, however, covered the latter river, and on the Russians presenting themselves for the attack they were repulsed. Oudinot was wounded, and the command devolved upon General Gouvion St. Cyr, who was also slightly wounded. On the 18th August, having resolved to give battle, he directed his troops from a small Polish carriage, which was overturned in the thick of the conflict, and the general was trodden under foot. In spite of the exhaustion of the soldiers, and their leader's pain and ill-health, the feigned retreat which had deceived the Russians, as well as the battle itself, were crowned with brilliant success. After the battle of Polotsk, Wittgenstein was compelled to withdraw, and Gouvion St. Cyr received at last his marshal's baton. His instructions were to guard the Dwina, while Macdonald was kept before Riga, unable to take it or raise the siege. The two corps were now deprived of communication, as soon as the main body was still further removed from its wings, now isolated on the right and left. The emperor was resolved to leave Smolensk, and at every cost pursue the battle which was running from him. Davout and Murat, always at the head of the army, and perpetually at strife in their military operations, agreed, however, in affirming that the Russians certainly showed a real intention of fighting. Napoleon went himself towards Dorogobouje.

A last effort was attempted by those about him to make him stop at Smolensk. General Rapp, just arrived from Germany, could not conceal his emotion and astonishment. "The army has only marched a hundred leagues since the Niemen," said he. "I saw it before crossing, and already everything is changed. The officers, arriving by posting from the interior of France, are frightened at the sight which meets their eyes. They had no conception that a victorious march without battles could leave behind it more ruins than a defeat." "You have left Europe, as it were, have you not?" said Murat and Berthier. "Should Europe rise against your Majesty, you will only have your soldiers for subjects, and your camp for empire; nay, the third of that even being foreign, will become hostile." Napoleon granted the truth of the facts. "I am well aware that the state of the army is frightful. From Wilna half of them could not keep up, or were left behind; and today there are two thirds. There is therefore no more time to lose. Peace must be had at any cost, and it is in Moscow. Besides, this army cannot now halt; its composition and disorganization are now such that it is kept up by movement alone. One can advance at its head, but cannot stop or retreat. It is an army of attack, not of defence; an army of operation, not of position. I shall strike a great blow, and all will rally."

When leaving Smolensk, on the 24th August, with his guard, the emperor had not yet come to a final decision as to his advance, but all his measures were taken with that result in view, and his skilful lieutenants were not deceived. Marshal Victor was already on his way to Wilna, and Napoleon sent him orders to march at once towards Smolensk. Two divisions of the army of reserve, left in Germany under the orders of Marshal Augereau, were summoned to Lithuania. When the emperor learned, on arriving at Dorogobouje, that the enemy was again escaping from him, he concluded that General Barclay was ready to fight him, and was seeking for a favorable position. "We are told that he awaits us at Wiazma," wrote Napoleon to the Duke of Bassano on 26th August; "we shall be there in a few days. We shall then be half-way between Smolensk and Moscow, and forty leagues, I believe, from Moscow. If the enemy is beaten there, nothing can protect that great capital, and I shall be there on the 5th September."

The day was in fact come, and the battle which Napoleon had so long desired was at last to be offered, given, and gained--with no other result except more deeply involving us in a desperate enterprise and consummating our ruin. The Russians having evacuated Wiazma, it was only at Ghjat that the emperor at last felt certain of encountering the enemy. The command of the Muscovite armies had changed hands: the cry raised since the beginning of the campaign against Barclay's prudent tactics, at last overbore the Czar's confidence in that able general, and old Kutusof had been placed at the head of the troops. Keenly patriotic, and long engaged in the struggle against the man who had conquered him at Austerlitz, the new general-in- chief appealed to all the national and religious passions by which his soldiers were animated. "It is in the faith," said he, "that I wish to fight and conquer; it is in the faith that I wish to conquer or die, and that my eyes shall see victory. Soldiers, think of your wives and children who claim your protection; think of your emperor who is looking upon you; and before to-morrow's sun has disappeared, you shall have written your piety and fidelity upon the fields of your country with the blood of the aggressor and his legions." The priests, clothed in their most sumptuous robes, were already carrying the holy images at the head of the regiments, while the soldiers knelt down to receive absolution. The French army was near.

The emperor having been ill for several days, his assistants found him depressed and undecided at the very moment when he was at last attaining the object of his desires. There was still a constant quarrel between Murat and Davout. The marshal blamed the King of Naples for imposing too much work upon the cavalry, and forbade the infantry of the advanced guard to manoeuvre without his express orders. The complaints of his lieutenants reached Napoleon, but he made no more efforts to reconcile them. Having a fixed ill-will against Davout, he compelled him to place under Murat's orders one of his divisions which had been refused to the King of Naples. The emperor had shown more ill-temper than usual; and on one occasion he said to Berthier himself, the most devoted of his old friends "And you, too, are you one of those who wish to stop? As you are only an old woman, you may go back to Paris. I can do very well without you." For several days the Prince of Neuchâtel refused to appear at the emperor's table.

The imperial staff had now left Wiazma. When occupying that small town, Napoleon had himself run after and horsewhipped some soldiers who were pillaging and destroying a shop. He pursued his journey under the blue sky and an exhausting heat, listening to the simple talk of a young Cossack, who had been taken prisoner that very morning amongst the Russian soldiers who had lagged behind. Lelorgne d'Ideville, the excellent interpreter who attended the emperor, put questions to the soldier. "Nobody wishes to keep Barclay," said the young Cossack; "they say that there is another general. They would all have been beaten long ago but for the Cossacks. No matter, there is going to be a great battle. If it takes place within three days, the French will gain it; but, if it is delayed longer, God only knows what will happen. It seems the French have a general called Bonaparte, who has always conquered all his enemies. Perhaps he will not be so fortunate this time; they are waiting for large reinforcements in order to make a stand." The emperor having made a sign, Lelorgne leant over towards the young Cossack's saddle and said, "That is General Bonaparte beside you--the Emperor Napoleon." The soldier opened his eyes and looked at the face of the great conqueror whose name had, like some tale of wonder, reached even his savage tribe: he said nothing, when Napoleon gave orders that he should be restored to liberty.

The weather becoming bad, the rain fell in torrents, and rendering the march of the army difficult, many soldiers left the ranks to pillage, their provisions being short; and the emperor bitterly reproached his lieutenants with a state of things which they could not prevent. "The army is in that way threatened with destruction," wrote Napoleon, "even from Ghjat. The number of prisoners made by the enemy amounts every day to several hundred. Let the Duke of Elchingen know that he is daily losing more men than if we were fighting, and that it is therefore necessary that the foraging expeditions should be better managed, and the men should not go so far away."

Order was not restored in the army when, on the 5th September, it debouched upon the plain of Borodino. Following the table-lands extending between the Baltic and Black Sea, we descended the slopes by which the Moskwa on the left, and the Protwa on the right, flow towards the Oka, a tributary of the Volga. The rain ceasing, Napoleon was encouraged by the appearance of the sky to hope for fine weather. At one time he thought of returning towards Smolensk; but when the sun reappeared he cried, "The lot is cast; let us set out." He at last found himself face to face with the Russians.

General Kutusof had taken advantage of the natural position. Entrenched on the left behind the river Kolocza, he had raised a series of earthen redoubts, furnished with a formidable artillery, to defend the small heights at the foot of which were extended the Russian battalions. The course of the river changing its direction at the point where the village of Borodino was placed, the heights were there protected only by hollows. It was this position which Napoleon first gave orders to attack, in order to carry a detached redoubt placed on a mamelon. Our troops had scarcely arrived, and night was approaching, but after a very severe engagement the advanced work of Schwardino remained in our power. The whole of the 6th of September was spent in reconnoitring. Several of the corps had not yet joined the main body. Marshal Davout proposed to cross the thick curtain of forest extending on the left of the Russian army, and by taking the old Moscow road, turn the enemy's positions and seize their troops between two fires. Napoleon refused, thinking this movement too dangerous. He himself seemed disturbed and ill at ease; with his head in hand, and deeply plunged in thought, he all at once tore himself from his meditations to make sure of the execution of some orders. "Are you confident of victory?" he asked General Rapp, abruptly. "Certainly," replied he, "but with much bloodshed." "Ah! that is true," said the emperor. "But I have 80,000 men; if I lose 20,000, I shall enter Moscow with 60,000; the soldiers who have fallen behind will join us, and then the marching battalion. We shall be stronger than before the battle." In enumerating his forces, Napoleon did not reckon his cavalry or the guard. He was still ill, being under an attack of fever, but it was with a voice of the greatest firmness that he again harangued his troops. "Soldiers!" said he, "this is the battle which you have so much wished for. The victory now depends upon yourselves. It is necessary for you; it will give us abundance, good quarters in winter, and a ready return to our own country. Behave as you did at Austerlitz, Friedland, Vitebsk, and Smolensk, and so that the most remote posterity may quote your conduct this day. Let them say of you, 'He was at that great battle under the walls of Moscow!'"

On the 7th, before daybreak, Napoleon was already on the battlefield, near the redoubt which had been gained on the evening of the 5th. The troops had received orders to look their very best. Stretching his hand towards the sky the emperor exclaimed, "See! it is an Austerlitz scene!" The bright rays, however, were in the soldiers' faces, and the Russians had more advantage from their brilliancy than we. At seven o'clock the combat broke out on the left: Prince Eugène carried the village of Borodino, but his troops, being too eager, crossed the bridge instead of breaking it down, and were crushed under the fire of the enemy's artillery, placed on the heights of Gorki. The attack became general--so passionate and violent, that on both sides they scarcely took time to manoeuvre. For the first time in his long career as head of an army, the emperor remained in the rear, looking on the struggle without taking part in it, yet opposing the eager demands of his generals for reinforcements. "If there is a second battle to-morrow, what troops shall I give it with?" he replied to Berthier, who entreated him to send assistance to Murat and Ney, on their carrying the enemy's redoubts. Generals fell on every side, dead or severely wounded. They hurriedly bound up the wounds of Marshal Davout, who was seriously hurt; and Rapp, wounded for the twenty-second time in his life, was carried before the emperor. "Always Rapp!" said Napoleon; "and what is going on over there?" "Sire, they want the guard, in order to put an end to it," replied the general's aide-de-camp. "No," retorted the emperor, "I won't have them destroyed. It is not when 800 leagues from home that one risks his last resource."

During this long day this was Napoleon's constant reply to all the leaders of divisions who believed they held in their hands the foretaste of victory, or who saw officers and soldiers slaughtered around them. Napoleon was waiting for a propitious moment, to decide himself the success of the day. "It is too soon," he repeated several times; "the hour for me to join in the fight personally is not yet come; I must see the whole chess-board more clearly." The reserve artillery, however, had been authorized to advance, and crowned the heights which had just been taken from the Russians. The enemy's cavalry came to dash against that unsurmountable obstacle; their infantry fell in dense files, without withdrawing or breaking. For two hours the Russian regiments remained exposed to this terrible fire. Marshal Ney at last turned what were left of this heroic corps, commanded by Prince Bagration. The struggle gradually ceased in the plain; the heights remained partially in the hands of the Russians; Prince Eugène used his utmost endeavors to take the great redoubt; and Prince Poniatowski was unable to force the old Moscow road. In vain did Murat and Ney demand loudly for the advance of the guard, still remaining motionless. For a moment the arguments of General Belliard seemed to take effect, and the order to march was given to the young guard. Count Lobau was already putting them in motion under the pretext of rectifying their lines, but Kutuzoff, till then motionless and inactive, had anticipated Napoleon in his final determination, and throwing forward his cavalry of reserve, the forces again formed in the plain, and a charge of the enemy, came pouring upon the divisions which held it. The emperor stopped the guard, forbidding an operation which, though recently likely to be successful, was now dangerous from the delay. The gap made in the centre of the Russian army by the untiring efforts of Murat and Ney was now closed up; the Russians again occupied their outer works; their ardor and courage never slackened under the fire of our artillery. The great redoubt, however, having been carried, and the Moscow road being abandoned, the generals who still miraculously survived after having a hundred times exposed their lives, asked to try a supreme effort to throw back the enemy and drive him into the Moskwa. Napoleon left his post, and came to inspect himself the point of attack. Marshal Bessières was not disposed to risk the guard; and Napoleon once more resisted all urgent demands. He instructed Marshal Mortier to occupy the field of battle with the young guard; and night being come, the battle at last ceased. "I do not ask you to advance, or commence any engagement," repeated Napoleon twice; and calling back the Marshal as he was going off, "You thoroughly understand? Keep the battle-field, without advancing or retreating, whatever may happen." The Russians had not yet evacuated all their positions, and the conquered and conquerors, both equally heroic, were extended in confusion on the plain. Several Russian detachments threw up a rampart of dead bodies. When on the morrow General Kutuzoff effected his brave retreat, he left no soldiers lagging behind, and the wounded who died on the march were religiously buried. The Emperor Alexander's army left 60,000 dead or dying on the plain of Borodino--or the battle-field of the Moskwa, as Napoleon himself named that terrible day. Prince Bagration was killed.

The battle of the Moskwa caused in our ranks 30,000 dead and wounded. Ten generals had succumbed, including Montbrun and Caulaincourt, brother of the Duke of Vicenza. Thirty-nine general officers were wounded: and ten colonels killed, and twenty-seven wounded. Three days were scarcely sufficient to attend to the dead and wounded. The abbey of Kolotskoi and the neighboring villages were converted into provisional hospitals, under the direction of General Junot, commandant of the Westphalians. The emperor had advanced towards Mojaisk, and Murat followed with his decimated regiments. Napoleon refused Davout the command of the advanced guard. The town was attacked on the 9th: some attempts had been made to set it on fire, but the walls and houses were still standing when the emperor fixed his abode there for several days. It was there that he reviewed the state of his losses on the 7th. He had gone over the battlefield, showing more emotion and compunction than usual at the sight of the frightful carnage which had signalized the battle. Only 800 prisoners remained in our hands. The soldiers well knew that the number of captives was an indisputable sign of the importance of a victory. They beheld with terror the heaps of their enemies' corpses. "They all prefer death to being taken!" said they. "Eight days of Moscow," exclaimed the emperor, "and the enemy will not be seen again." He still remained ill and moody, however; and on the previous evening wrote to Marshal Victor, "The enemy when attacked in the heart no longer attends to his extremities; tell the Duke of Belluna to direct everything, battalions, squadrons, artillery, and isolated men, upon Smolensk, so that he may come from there to Moscow."

It was indeed upon Holy Moscow, the traditional capital of old Russia, that the hopes of Napoleon were now concentrated, hoping there to conclude a peace, and finish a war which he himself felt to be above human strength. Several weeks previously the Czar had left Moscow and returned to St. Petersburg, whence he watched at a distance, and without military skill, the defence of his empire. He upheld the courage of his subjects, however, and had personally obtained from them great sacrifices. The lords assembled round him, in the cradle and tomb of nobility, as they called Moscow, had voted the levy of every tenth serf, armed, equipped, and supplied with three months' provisions. The merchants offered the emperor half their wealth. On the approach of the French, and while waiting for the defence of the old capital, the orders of Rostopchin, the governor, forbade the evacuation of the town. Women, children, old men, on carts and carriages, loaded with goods, money, and furniture, slowly removed from the town, where their husbands, sons and brothers still remained. "The less fear the less danger," said the governor. Kutuzoff's proclamations at first represented the battle of Borodino as a disputed combat, which left the Russian army standing, and capable of defending Moscow; but when their battalions appeared before the gates of the capital the sad truth struck the eyes of all. Whatever it might cost the invader, the national army was beaten, and Moscow could not repulse an attack. There was an immediate and constantly-increasing rush to leave the place. Popular rumor described the French as fierce monsters, worthy of that emperor whom Alexander himself had portrayed as a "Moloch, with treason in his heart and loyalty on his lips, come to efface Russia from the surface of the world."

In his real heart Kutuzoff had decided what to do. Skilful and cunning, without presence of mind or great courage on the field of battle, he could direct the operations of a campaign, and choose the proper mode of leading his country's enemies to their downfall. Nevertheless, he held a council of war, being determined to make the other generals share the weight of a terrible responsibility. Must they defend Moscow by a second battle in open field, wait for the enemy behind the walls, and dispute with him, foot by foot, the possession of the town? Must they abandon the capital, and, as it was recommended by Barclay de Tolly, always bravely true to his original purpose, retreat to Vladimir, and thus cover the road to St. Petersburg? All these proposals were proposed, and keenly discussed. Several spoke in favor of immediate and unflinching resistance, who would have bitterly regretted the adoption of their advice. At last the old general rose: he had listened to all their speeches without speaking, and only shook his head, to signify, as it were, his strong conviction that whether his head were good or bad, it had to make the final decision of the question.

He gave his orders, which showed great skill and prudence. The army was to pass through Moscow without halting, without assisting in any preparation for resistance, or joining in any skirmish even when on the rearguard; then falling back upon Riazan, it was, after several days, to occupy the road to Kalouga, and thus intercept the way to the French, while preserving communication with the provinces in the south of the empire, which are the richest and most fertile. The troops at once began to defile. Behind them long convoys hurried to escape the French. Five sixths of the population had quitted the town when the columns of those wounded in the battle of Borodino appeared at their doors, and they were obliged to crowd their hospitals and churches with 15,000. By abandoning their capital the Russians entrusted these wretches to the pity of their enemies.

The governor of Moscow, Count Rostopchin, had not yet left the town. On the previous evening he trusted to the assurances of Kutuzoff, that the capital would be keenly defended. "There will be fighting in the streets," said he, in his proclamations. "The courts are already closed, but that does not matter; there is no need of courts to do justice to ruffians. I shall soon give you the signal; take care to provide yourselves with hatchets, and especially three-pronged forks, for a Frenchman does not weigh more than a sheaf of corn. I shall have mass said for the wounded, and holy water to hasten their cure. I shall then join General Kutuzoff, and we shall soon set about sending those guests to the devil, forcing them to give up the ghost, and reducing them to powder."

Kutuzoff, nevertheless, withdrew, not less resolute, but more skilful than Count Rostopchin. It was then that the latter conceived an idea, the responsibility of which, as well as the honor, rests entirely upon him. Nobody was consulted; and it is not known whether the Emperor Alexander, with some anticipation of gloomy fate crossing his mind, may not have beforehand granted the dread authority to the governor of his capital. For several days inflammable substances had been collected in the garden of his palace. At the moment of leaving the town, Rostopchin ordered the prisons to be opened, and the hideous crowd of condemned prisoners jostled and mixed with the half-frantic citizens who were fleeing before the French. The governor retained two prisoners--one a Frenchman, lately come to Moscow to earn a living; the other, a Russian, and both accused of having acted as agents of the enemy. "Go," said Rostopchin to the Frenchman, "you have been ungrateful but you have the right to prefer your country; you are now again free, go back to your own people. As for you," he added, turning to the Russian, "let even your own father be your judge." An old merchant came near, tottering under the weight of his grief. "You may speak to him and bless him," said the governor. "Me bless a traitor!" exclaimed the old man; and, raising his hands to heaven, he cursed his son, who was immediately beheaded. The mob showed their keen vindictiveness in their treatment of his body.

Count Rostopchin at last left Moscow, letting all precede him, like the captain who hesitates to abandon the sinking ship. He had given all his instructions. All the baggage all the wealth, he took with him, were the fire engines of that great city, which was nearly entirely built of wood. "Of what use are those in the country?" asked Colonel Wolzogen, with astonishment. "I have my reasons," replied the governor; then, leaving the last friends who still accompanied him, he turned round, and pointing with his finger to Moscow, and then touching the sleeve of his coat, he said, "I take away nothing except what is on my back." He went towards his country house at Voronovo.

Meantime, however, the French advanced guard were approaching Moscow. Several slight skirmishes had taken place during the march, and Kutuzoff succeeded in protecting his retreat. When Murat appeared at the head of the first columns, General Miloradovitch, who commanded the Russian rearguard, made a verbal agreement with the King of Naples to suspend hostilities for several hours, for the protection of the troops, and the safety of the citizens. Murat agreed to it, limiting himself to the pursuit of the Russians when they should have completed their evacuation of Moscow.

The soldiers, as well as the generals and Napoleon himself, were delighted at the distant sight of that town, illuminated by the rays of the setting sun, which brought into full relief the Oriental brilliance of its palaces and churches. "Moscow! Moscow!" they repeated from one end of the ranks to the other. The emperor added to the enthusiastic expression of his troops another thought: "Not a moment too soon!" he muttered.

The great conqueror was deceived, and divine justice punished more completely than he anticipated his guilty ambition and insatiable pride. The dense ranks of the French soldiers presented themselves before the gates of the capital, without any one coming to open them. Several ragged wretches, with gloomy looks appeared on the turrets of the Kremlin and fired a few shots; but while passing along the streets of Moscow, among palaces mixed with cottages--before golden-domed churches, adorned with paintings of a thousand colors--our soldiers wondered, and felt uneasy at the solitude which reigned around them. "What is become of them?" they asked. It was not thus that the French army had entered Berlin or Vienna. "Let the head men of the town be brought to me!" ordered the emperor. The population of Moscow had no longer any head men. Those who hid themselves in terror in the houses, or wept in the churches, felt themselves at the mercy of the ruffians whom the governor, by quitting Moscow, had let loose upon them. The door of the Kremlin had to be burst open with cannon-balls before the old palace of the Czars could be rid of the wretches who had shut themselves up in it. Napoleon took possession of it, without at first fixing his abode there, curious to admire its barbarous magnificence, not yet subjected to the influence of French elegance like the houses of the rich merchants already occupied by his generals. The whole army gazed with delight upon this strange and long-anticipated sight. On the 15th September, 1812, the Emperor Napoleon and his soldiers passed through the streets of Moscow, deserted, but still standing. They examined the concentric quarters, like a series of ramparts round the Kremlin; the old or Chinese town, the centre of Oriental commerce; the white town, with its broad streets and gilt palaces, the quarter of the great nobles and rich merchants; and all round the privileged districts: the "land town," composed of villages and gardens, interspersed with magnificent houses.

All the military posts were chosen, On the north-west, south-west, and south-east, between the roads to Riazan and Vladimir, the forces of Prince Eugène, Davout, Poniatowski, and Ney had taken their quarters. The guard occupied the Kremlin. Soldiers and generals enjoyed the luxury which had been preceded by the cruel privation of the months immediately preceding. "We have provisions for six months," said the soldiers.

On the morning of the 16th fire broke out in a spirit-warehouse, and some hours afterwards in a magnificent bazaar which was filled with valuable goods. The officers blamed for it the stupidity of a drunken soldier. They at once battled with the fire, but the wind was contrary, and the wealth heaped up in the warehouses became a prey to the flames and pillage, which it was impossible to prevent. The fire soon spread even to the neighborhood of the Kremlin, and the sparks, carried by the equinoctial breeze, fell from all parts on the gilded roofs. The courts of the palace being crowded with artillery wagons, and the cellars heaped up with ammunition which the Russians had neglected to take with them, a horrible catastrophe seemed imminent. The generals had great difficulty in persuading Napoleon to leave the Kremlin. The imperial guard, acting as firemen, inundated incessantly the roofs and walls. The fire-engines of the city were searched for in vain. Soon there was a rumor spread that incendiaries had been arrested in several quarters.

The emperor ordered these wretches to be brought before him. They were proud of the terrible mission with which they had been entrusted, taking a delight in the fatal disorder produced under their hands, pillaging and murdering in the houses which they delivered up to the flames. They all made a bold declaration of the orders they had received, and underwent unflinchingly the extremest punishment. The poor population, who had remained concealed in the lowest haunts of the capital, now fled in terror, the women carrying with them their children, the men dragging behind them the most valuable of their household goods, or the shameful results of pillaging the shops. The flames extended from street to street, house to house, church to church: thrice the wind seemed to fall, and thrice it changed its direction, driving the fire into quarters previously untouched. The Kremlin remained always surrounded by fire. The imperial guard had not quitted the palace. The army carried their cantonments outside the town. When scarcely fallen into the hands of the conquerors, Moscow succumbed before a more powerful enemy, enrolled for the defence of the country. Palaces and huts were both become uninhabitable, and the hospitals, filled with wounded Russians, had perished in the flames. The emperor quitted Moscow, and took up his quarters at Petrowskoi. For three days the conflagration remained alone in possession of the capital.

The wind falling, was succeeded by rain. The fire everywhere brooded under the dead ashes, ready to burst out afresh at the contact of air; but the spectacle had lost its avenging beauty. The roofs left standing were relieved against the columns of smoke. The Kremlin still rose majestic, and almost untouched, as if protecting the city against its various enemies. The soldiers soon began to steal from their cantonments into the streets; and in the cellars of the houses, under heaps of rubbish, protected by walls blackened with the flames, they found provisions collected by households for the winter; valuable clothes; plate which had been carefully concealed in hiding-places which no longer existed; objects of art, of which the finders did not know the value; strong drink, which they madly used to intoxicate themselves. After the fire, in spite of the efforts of the officers, Moscow was delivered up to pillage.

So much disorder and mad prodigality shocked all the Emperor Napoleon's instincts of order and government. Returning hastily to Moscow, he repressed by his mere presence the outrages of the soldiers. Regular search was everywhere organized for the collection of provisions buried under the ruins, and bringing them into stores. The resources collected in a few days were sufficient to supply the troops for a long time. Forage alone was wanting, and companies were formed for the purpose of scouring the country round Moscow. The prices offered to the peasantry for their stock was expected to encourage them to supply the markets of the capital. Napoleon even considered the interests of the wretches who wandered, defenceless and houseless, in the streets of Moscow, or timidly glided into the town at the opening of the gates to look for those they had been compelled to abandon, and the remainder of their property concealed under ruined walls. Huts were erected to shelter them.

The desire for peace daily took stronger possession of Napoleon's mind, and he had already authorized several indirect overtures. On the 20th September he thus wrote the Czar:

"My brother, having learned that the brother of your Imperial Majesty's minister was at Moscow, I sent for him, and had some conversation with him. I requested him to wait upon your Majesty, and acquaint you with my sentiments. The handsome and superb city of Moscow no longer exists. Rostopchin has had it burnt. Four hundred incendiaries were taken in the act; and having all declared that they had lighted the fire by order of that governor and the director of police, they were shot. The fire at last seems to have ceased. Three fourths of the houses are burnt, and one fourth remain. Such conduct is atrocious, and serves no purpose. Was the intention to deprive us of some resources? But those resources were in the cellars, which the fire could not reach. Besides, why destroy one of the finest towns of the world, and the work of ages, to accomplish so paltry an object? It is the procedure followed since Smolensk, and it has reduced 600,000 families to beggary. The fire-engines of Moscow were broken or carried off, and some arms from the arsenal given to ruffians, who could not be driven from the Kremlin without using cannon. Humanity, the interests of your Majesty and this great city, demanded that it should have been entrusted to my keeping, since it was deserted by the Russian army. They ought to have left administrations, magistrates, and civil guards. That is what was done at Vienna twice, at Berlin, and Madrid; and what we have ourselves done at Milan, when Souwarof entered. Incendiarism causes pillage, the soldier abandoning himself to it to rescue what is left from the flames. If I thought such things were done by your Majesty's orders, I should not write you this letter; but I consider it impossible that, with your principles, heart, and sense of justice, you have authorized such excesses, unworthy of a great sovereign and a great nation. While carrying away the fire-engines from Moscow, they left 150 field cannon, 60,000 new muskets, 1,600,000 infantry cartridges, more than 200 tons of powder, 150 tons of saltpetre, and also of sulphur, etc.

"I made war upon your Majesty without animosity. A letter from you before or after the last battle would have stopped my march, and I should have been ready to forego the advantage of entering Moscow. If your Majesty still retains aught of your former sentiments, you will take this letter in good part. In any case, you must feel indebted to me for giving an account of what is taking place in Moscow."

When thus writing to the Emperor Alexander, Napoleon well knew that the material disasters of the burning of Moscow were exceeded by the moral results, and that the ruins of the capital were a proclamation to the French army, to Russia, and to the whole of Europe, of the implacable resolution of the old Muscovites. Rostopchin himself had written on the iron door of his splendid country-house at Voronovo: "For eight years I have been improving this estate, and have lived here happy in the bosom of my family. The inhabitants of this estate, to the number of 1720, leave it at your approach, and I set fire to my house that it may not be polluted by your presence. Frenchmen, I have left you my two houses in Moscow, with contents worth half a million of roubles. Here you will find nothing but ashes."

The hatred which he had excited against the invader was afterwards to fall back upon himself. Count Rostopchin driven from Russia by the execration of all those whom he had ruined, was compelled to take refuge in France, where he died in peace, honored by his former enemies. He had nevertheless rendered to Russia one of those terrible services excused by a state still half barbarous, and that violent patriotism by which the soul is possessed in presence of foreign invasion. He revived in the Russian people the unconquerable ardor of resistance. Moscow on fire was an appeal to the eyes and hearts of all.

Napoleon understood this well. Besides, other difficulties were becoming extreme. Time was passing; no reply arrived from St. Petersburg, and the emperor's overtures made to Kutuzoff by Lauriston remained without result. The attempt to continue hostilities was unsuccessful, General Sebastiani having been deceived as to the direction taken by Kutuzoff, and, after following him in vain for two or three days, compelled to return to Moscow. Murat being again put in command of the advanced guard, met the enemy on the Pakra, after being joined by Marshal Bessières. In spite of the cries of his army, who were furious at the burning of Moscow, and wished to march to battle, Kutuzoff slowly retreated before the French generals, and finally pitched his camp at Taroutino on the road to Kaluga. Two cavalry engagements terminated successfully for our arms. Napoleon's lieutenants waited for his orders. A sort of armistice reigned between the two armies. Murat had several times seen Kutuzoff; and the Russian officers overwhelmed him with attentions. He showed himself in favor of peace, concluded by him and through his exertions. The Cossack chiefs celebrated his exploits, one of them surnaming him the "hetmann." Kutuzoff had sent Prince Wolkonsky to St. Petersburg, with instructions to communicate to the Czar the pacific advances which had been made. Alexander replied on the 21st October: "All the opinions which you have received from me, all the determinations expressed in the orders addressed to you by me--everything ought to convince you that my resolution is immovable, and that at the present moment no proposal of the enemy can make me think of terminating the war, and so failing in the sacred duty of avenging our outraged country."

Before the Emperor Alexander thus expressed his resolution of listening to no offers of peace, his enemy had already evacuated Moscow--beginning, whatever pain it cost him and whatever care he took to conceal it, a retrograde movement, which was soon to be the consummation of his ruin. Napoleon long hesitated as to what route he should take. By advancing upon Kaluga in pursuit of Kutuzoff he should plunge further into Russia, towards regions where he should be without winter-quarters and communication with the rear. By resuming the road to Poland, as all his lieutenants wished, he should tacitly admit his defeat. He conceived the idea of making the Duke of Belluna march upon St. Petersburg, reckoning that, on his arrival and while threatening the capital and court, he could effect an oblique movement northwards by Woskresensk, Wolokolamsk, and Bieloi, and then concentrate all his forces at Smolensk. Winter being past, Napoleon would then be in a position to attack St. Petersburg in earnest. To satisfy his own mind, the emperor wrote out this plan before speaking of it to the generals, who were waiting, full of serious thought, to know his determination.

They all opposed Napoleon's new plans; all repeating that he did not take into account the hardships of the army, that he over-reckoned the strength of the corps, that the soldiers were incapable of any fresh effort. He went over, with Count Lobau, the statistics of the different regiments and the detachments in charge of generals at a distance. "There, six thousand." "Four thousand, sire," said the general. "Ten thousand here." "Five at the most." "You are perhaps right," the emperor admitted. But on coming to sum up the total of his resources, he always went back to his first inaccurate reckoning, the truthful and blunt obstinacy of Lobau being unable to overcome his master's voluntary illusions. Nevertheless, Napoleon understood that he could now no longer, by the mere superiority of his genius, take his lieutenants along with him without discussion or hesitation. He did not insist upon marching northwards. Count Daru's proposal was to spend the winter in Moscow. From his administrative experience, he concluded that their supplies were sufficient for the army, while the troops should thus be spared all the hardships and difficulties of travelling. In spring, all the army corps would be again brought together, there would be a rising in Lithuania, and the emperor could complete his conquest. Napoleon turned toward his faithful servant, and looked upon his energetic features, his robust figure, and the resolution which shone in his looks. "My dear Daru," said he, "that advice is lion- like, but I should require lions to put it in execution. You are right, Moscow is not a military position, it is a political position. Yet what would be said in Paris? what would become of France during that long absence, without possible communication? No, it is impossible. Austria and Prussia would take advantage of it to betray me."

The emperor came back to the idea of marching upon Kaluga, and driving Kutuzoff from the camp of Taroutino, summoning the Duke of Belluna to join him in order to keep up communications with Smolensk, at the same time leaving Marshal Mortier in the Kremlin with 10,000 men to occupy and preserve Moscow. Preparations were being made for this purpose, when, on the 18th of October, cannon were heard on the road which Napoleon was making ready to follow, and speedily one of Murat's aides-de-camp appeared. The King of Naples, who had long complained of the isolation in which he was left, was careless in his guard, and had been attacked by Kutuzoff at Winkowo. The Russian army taking advantage of all the delays which gradually diminished our forces, had increased theirs; and their general had 100,000 men at his disposal, when he yielded to the urgent request of his lieutenants, and all at once made an attack with two corps upon our positions. Murat's personal courage and skill in the field partly compensated for the faults of his imprudence. He repulsed the enemy's attack, and fell back upon Voronovo, continuing to cover the road to Moscow. Kutuzoff, however, held our positions, and the King of Naples lost the greater part of his cavalry. Napoleon immediately resolved to march to the enemy. According to the plan already decided upon, Mortier fixed his quarters at the Kremlin, over the mines laid ready to blow up the citadel and palace of the Czars. All the rest of the army defiled through the open gates of the city, recently so eagerly longed for, and now only occupied for thirty-seven days, which had been full of agitation and terror. The long trains of carriages, the soldiers' booty heaped upon the wagons or their shoulders, the furs fastened to their haversacks or arms, were all proof enough that the troops were no more deceived than the generals as to the possibility of a return to Moscow. The Duke of Trevisa's friends and comrades looked upon him as a man condemned beforehand to death, and sorrowfully bade him adieu without shaking his courage. The French families formerly settled in Moscow fled from the anger of the Russians, and joined the march of their fellow-countrymen. The long train on its march seemed more like a convoy defiling, than the progress of an army advancing against the enemy. Napoleon, however, had not yet said anything to imply that the evacuation was final; he was marching against Kutuzoff, whom he wished to chastise, and, if possible, crush. Before leaving Moscow, his last instructions were devoted to the defence of the Kremlin.

It was on the morning of the 20th October that the emperor left the city, in fine autumnal weather which prevented any one from yet anticipating the rigors of winter. On reaching the castle of Troitskoi, he was struck with a new idea; Kutuzoff held the old Kaluga road, and a battle was necessary to dislodge him; and the French, even if victorious, would lose men and be encumbered with a crowd of wounded. The new road to Kaluga was protected by Broussier's division, and had not been cut up by the passage of troops; if it were possible to deceive Kutuzoff by a sudden detour to the right, and to gain the new road, Kaluga would be reached without a battle, and the positions for winter secured. The occupation of Moscow must now no longer be insisted upon, and Mortier immediately instructed to leave Moscow and join them. Having made up his mind, the emperor in the evening sent his orders to the Duke of Trevisa: "My cousin," said Napoleon to the Marshal Berthier, "give orders to the Duke of Trevisa to put on march, to- morrow, at daybreak, all the tired and lame soldiers of the corps of Prince Eckmühl and the viceroy, of the foot-cavalry, and the young guard, and to direct the whole upon Mojaisk. On the 22nd or 23rd, at two o'clock in the morning, he will set fire to the brandy storehouse, the barracks, and the public buildings, except the Foundling Hospital. [Footnote: This establishment, founded by the dowager empress, had been patronized by Napoleon. The governor General Toutelmine, had been one of the agents of his communications with St. Petersburg.] He will have the palace of the Kremlin set on fire. He will take care that all the guns are broken into pieces, that powder is placed under the towers of the Kremlin, that all the gun-carriages are broken, as well as the wagon wheels.

"When these orders are attended to, and the Kremlin is on fire in several places, the duke will leave the Kremlin, and advance on the Mojaisk road. At four o'clock, the officer of artillery appointed to that duty will blow up the Kremlin, according to instructions.

"On the march he will burn all carriages left behind, use every endeavor to bury all the dead, and burn all the muskets he can find. On reaching the Gallitzin palace, he will take the Spanish and Bavarians stationed there, and put fire to the ammunition wagons, and everything which cannot be removed. He will collect all the commanders of posts, and order the garrisons to fall back.

"He will reach Mojaisk on the 25th or 26th, and there receive further orders to put himself in communication with the army. He will naturally leave a strong advanced guard of cavalry on the Mojaisk road.

"He will be particular in remaining in Moscow till he has himself seen the Kremlin blown up; and also in setting fire to the governor's two houses and that of Rasomowsky."

Thus Napoleon himself put hands to that burning of Moscow with which he had recently blamed the Russians, and the originator of which he did not forget to punish even then! The march upon Kaluga was already begun, and one of Prince Eugène's divisions, being in advance, had already occupied Malo-Jaroslawetz, on the Lougea. General Delzons, who was in command, was engaged in repairing the bridges, when Kutuzoff was informed of the direction which the French seemed to take. General Doctoroff at once advanced with a large body, and Kutuzoff raised his cantonments to follow him.