our
cause by an insurrection more or less general. But there had been
nothing to work upon excepting a few straggling savage boors, whom the
Russians had perhaps left as spies amongst us. This attempt had only
served to betray his plan, and to put the Russians on their guard
against it.

This expedient, moreover, was repugnant to Napoleon, whose nature
inclined him much more to the cause of kings than to that of nations. He
employed it but carelessly. Subsequently, at Moscow, he received several
addresses from different heads of families. They complained that they
were treated by the nobility like herds of cattle, which they might sell
or barter away at pleasure. They solicited Napoleon to proclaim the
abolition of slavery, and in the event of his doing so, they offered to
head partial insurrections, which they promised speedily to render
general.

These offers were rejected. We should have seen, among a barbarous
people, a barbarous liberty, an ungovernable, a horrible licentiousness:
a few partial revolts had formerly furnished the standard of them. The
Russian nobles, like the planters of St. Domingo, would have been
ruined. The fear of this prevailed in the mind of Napoleon, and was
confessed by him; it induced him to give up, for a time, all attempts to
excite a movement which he could not have regulated.

Besides, these masters had conceived a distrust of their slaves. Amidst
so many dangers, they distinguished this as the most urgent. They first
wrought upon the minds of their unfortunate serfs, debased by all sorts
of servitude. Their priests, whom they are accustomed to believe,
imposed upon them by delusive language; they persuaded these peasants
that we were legions of devils, commanded by Antichrist, infernal
spirits, whose very look would excite horror, and whose touch would
contaminate. Such of our prisoners as fell into their hands, remarked
that these poor creatures would not again make use of the vessels which
they had used, and that they reserved them for the most filthy animals.

As we advanced, however, our presence would have refuted all these
clumsy fables. But behold! these nobles fell back with their serfs into
the interior of the country, as at the approach of a dire contagion.
Property, habitations, all that could detain them, and be serviceable to
us, were sacrificed. They interposed famine, fire, and the desert,
between them and us; for it was as much against their serfs as against
Napol