ach other.
Some Frenchmen, resident in the country, and even a Russian officer of
police, came to give intelligence respecting the conflagration. He
related all the particulars of the preparations that had been made for
it. The emperor, alarmed by these accounts, strove in vain to compose
himself to rest. He called every moment, and fatal tidings were repeated
to him. Still he persisted in his incredulity till about two in the
morning, when news was brought to him that the fire had actually broken
out.

It was at the Exchange, in the centre of the city, in its richest
quarter. Instantly he issued orders upon orders. As soon as it was
light, he himself hastened to the spot and threatened the Young Guard
and Mortier. The marshal pointed out to him some houses covered with
iron; they were closely shut up, still untouched and uninjured without,
and yet a black smoke was already issuing from them. Napoleon dejectedly
entered the Kremlin.

At the sight of this half-Gothic, half-modern palace of the Ruricks and
the Romanoffs, of their throne still standing, of the cross of the great
Ivan, and of the finest part of the city, which is overlooked by the
Kremlin, and which the flames, as yet confined to the bazaar, seemed
disposed to spare, his former hopes revived. His ambition was flattered
by this great conquest. "At length, then," he exclaimed, "I am in
Moscow, in the ancient palace of the Czars, in the Kremlin!" He examined
every part of it with pride, curiosity, and gratification.

He required a statement of the resources of the city; and, in this brief
moment given to hope, sent proposals of peace to the Emperor Alexander.
A superior officer of the enemy had just been found in the great
hospital: he was charged with the delivery of this letter. It was by
the baleful light of the flames of the bazaar that Napoleon finished
it, and the Russian departed. He was to be the bearer of the news of the
disaster to his sovereign, whose only answer was the conflagration of
his capital.

Daylight favored the efforts of the Duke of Treviso to subdue the
flames. The incendiaries kept themselves concealed. Doubts even were
entertained of their existence. At length, strict injunctions being
issued, order restored, and alarm for a moment suspended, each took
possession of a commodious house or sumptuous palace, under the idea of
finding comforts that had been dearly purchased by long and excessive
privations.

Two officers had taken