d fortune was required to prevent its being
realized. In fact, not only did the Kremlin contain, unknown to us, a
magazine of powder, but that very night, the guards, asleep and
carelessly posted, suffered a whole park of artillery to enter and draw
up under the windows of Napoleon.

It was at this moment that the flames were driven from all quarters,
with the greatest violence, towards the Kremlin; for the wind, drawn
towards this vast conflagration, increased every moment in strength. The
flower of the army and the emperor himself would have been destroyed, if
but one of the brands that flew over our heads had alighted on one of
the powder-wagons. Thus upon a single spark out of the multitudes that
were for several hours floating in the air, depended the fate of the
whole army.

At length the day, a dismal day it was, appeared; it came only to add to
the horrors of the scene, and to take from it all its brilliancy. Many
of the officers sought refuge in the halls of the palace. The chiefs,
and Mortier himself, who had been contending for thirty-six hours
against the fire, there dropped down from fatigue, and in despair.

They said nothing, and we accused ourselves. Most of us supposed that
want of discipline on the part of our troops and drunkenness had begun
the disaster, and that the high wind had completed it. We viewed
ourselves with feelings of disgust. The cry of horror which all Europe
would not fail to set up, terrified us. Filled with consternation at so
tremendous a catastrophe, we accosted each other with downcast looks. We
were roused only by our eagerness to obtain intelligence; and every
account now began to accuse the Russians alone of the disaster.

In fact, officers arrived from all quarters, and they all agreed on this
point. The very first night, that of the 14th, a fire-balloon had
settled on the palace of Prince Trubetskoi, and consumed it: this had
been the signal. Fire was now immediately set to the Exchange; and
Russian police soldiers had been seen stirring it up with tarred lances.
In some places, shells, perfidiously placed in the stoves of the
houses, had exploded and wounded the military who crowded around them.
Retiring to other quarters still standing, they sought there for fresh
retreats; but when on the point of entering houses that were closely
shut up and uninhabited, they had heard faint explosions within; these
were succeeded by a light smoke, which immediately became thick and