e commander of the enemy's rear-guard if they knew him.
"Yes," replied the latter, "we have seen enough of you under fire to
know you." Murat seeming struck with, the long fur mantle, which
looked as if it would be very comfortable for a bivouac, the old
officer unfastened it from his shoulders to make him a present of it.
Murat, receiving it with as much courtesy as it was offered, took a
beautiful watch and presented it to the enemy's officer, who received
this present in the same way as his had been accepted. After these
acts of courtesy, the Russian rear-guard filed off rapidly to give
ground to our vanguard. The King of Naples, followed by his staff and
a detachment of cavalry, went down into the streets of Moscow,
traversed alternately the poorest and the richest quarters, rows of
wooden houses crowded together, and a succession of splendid palaces
rising from amidst vast gardens: he found everywhere the most profound
silence. It seemed as if they were penetrating into a dead city, whose
inhabitants had suddenly disappeared.

The first sight of it, surprizing as it was, did not remind us of our
entry into Berlin or Vienna, Nevertheless, the first feeling of terror
experienced by the inhabitants might explain this solitude. Suddenly
some distracted individuals appeared; they were some French people,
belonging to the foreign families settled at Moscow, and asked us in
the name of heaven to save them from the robbers who had become
masters of the town. They were well received, but we tried in vain to
remove their fears. We were conducted to the Kremlin,[53] and had
hardly arrived in sight of these old walls than we were exposed to a
discharge of shot. It came from bandits let loose on Moscow by the
ferocious patriotism of the Count of Rostopchin. These wretched beings
had invaded the sacred citadel, had seized the guns in the arsenal,
and were firing on the French who came to disturb them after their few
hours' reign of anarchy. Several were sabered, and the Kremlin was
relieved of their presence. But on making inquiry we learned that the
whole population had fled, except a small number of strangers, or of
Russians acquainted with the ways of the French and not fearing their
presence. This news vexed the leaders of our vanguard, who were
flattering themselves that they would see a whole population coming
before them, whom they would take pleasure in comforting and filling
with surprize and gratitude. They made haste