cused us of these outrages, in order that the
mercantile class and the peasantry might not separate their cause from
that of the nobility.

The emperor listened attentively. "But," said he to him at last, "has
your church been burned?"--"No, sire," replied the pope; "God will be
more powerful than you; he will protect it, for I have opened it to all
the unfortunate people whom the destruction of the city has deprived of
a home!"--"You are right," rejoined Napoleon, with emotion, "yes, God
will watch over the innocent victims of war; he will reward you for your
courage. Go, worthy priest, return to your post. Had all your popes
followed your example, they had not basely betrayed the mission of peace
which they received from heaven; if they had not abandoned the temples
which their presence alone renders sacred, my soldiers would have spared
your holy edifices; for we are all Christians, and your God is our God."

With these words, Napoleon sent back the priest to his temple with an
escort and some succours. A heart-rending shriek arose at the sight of
the soldiers penetrating into this asylum. A crowd of terrified women
and children thronged about the altar; but the pope, raising his voice,
cried; "be of good cheer: I have seen Napoleon; I have spoken to him.
Oh! how have we been deceived, my children! the emperor of France is not
the man that he has been represented to you. Learn that he and his
soldiers worship the same God as we do. The war which he wages is not
religious, it is a political quarrel with our emperor. His soldiers
fight only our soldiers. They do not slaughter, as we have been assured,
old men, women, and children. Cheer up, then, and let us thank God for
being relieved from the painful duty of hating them as heathen, impious
wretches, and incendiaries!" The pope then commenced a hymn of thanks,
in which they all joined with tearful eyes.

But these very words demonstrated how much the nation had been deceived.
The rest of the inhabitants had fled. Henceforward, then, it was not
their army alone, it was the population, it was all Russia, that fled
before us. The emperor felt that, with this population, one of his most
powerful engines of conquest was escaping from his hands.

CHAP. IX.

Ever since our arrival at Witepsk, Napoleon had in fact employed two of
his officers to sound the sentiments of these people. The object was,
to instil into them notions of liberty, and to compromise them in