ber of
inhabitants who remained, and the great number of enemies they met with.
But if, in the first moments of pillage, some excesses were perpetrated,
ought this to appear surprising in an army exasperated by such urgent
wants, such severe sufferings, and composed of so many different
nations?

Misfortunes having since overwhelmed these warriors, reproaches, as in
such circumstances is ever the case, have been raised against them. Who
can be ignorant that similar disorders have always been the bad side of
great wars, or, so to speak, the inglorious part of glory; that the
renown of conquerors casts its shadow like everything else in this
world? Does there exist a creature however diminutive, on every side of
which the sun can shine at once? It is a law of nature, therefore, that
great bodies shall cast great shadows.

Sec. 8. Rostopchin sets fire to his country-seat; anxiety of Napoleon at
not hearing from the Czar.

Meanwhile Kutusoff, on leaving Moscow, had drawn Murat towards Kolomna,
the point where the Moskwa intersects the road. Here, under favor of the
night, he suddenly turned to the south, proceeding by the way of Podol,
to throw himself between Moscow and Kaluga. This night march of the
Russians around Moscow, the ashes and flames of which were wafted to
them by the violence of the wind, was gloomy in the extreme. They were
lighted on their march by the baleful conflagration which was consuming
the centre of their commerce, the sanctuary of their religion, the
cradle of their empire! Filled with horror and indignation, they kept a
sullen silence, which was unbroken save by the dull and monotonous sound
of their footsteps, the roaring of the flames, and the howling of the
blast. The dismal light was frequently varied by livid and sudden
flashes. The brows of these warriors might then be seen contracted by
intense and unutterable grief, and the fire of their sombre and
threatening looks answered to these flames, which they regarded as our
work; they already betrayed the ferocious revenge which was rankling in
their hearts, which spread throughout the empire, and of which so many
Frenchmen were the victims.

At that solemn moment, Kutusoff, in a firm and impressive tone,
addressed his sovereign, and informed him of the loss of his capital. He
stated that, "in order to save the fertile provinces of the south, and
to keep up his communications with Tormasoff and Tchitchakoff, he had
been obliged to abandon