stores contained an immense quantity of the most valuable commodities of Europe and Asia; the cellars were filled with sugar, oils, and resin, which burnt with great fury. The French endeavoured to check the progress of the devouring element, but they soon discovered that their efforts were useless. The fire breaking out in different quarters of the city, and increased by a high wind, spread with dreadful rapidity. "So great a calamity impressed even the most hardened minds with the presentiment, that the wrath of Divine justice would one day fall on the first authors of this frightful devastation." P. 200.

"A great part of the population had concealed themselves in their houses, from the terror caused by our arrival; but they left them as the flames reached their asylums. Fear had rendered their grief dumb, and as they tremblingly quitted their retreats, they carried off their most valuable effects, whilst those who were possessed of more sensibility, actuated by natural feelings, sought only to save the lives of their parents, or their children. On one side we saw a son carrying a sick father; on the other, women who poured the torrent of their tears on the infants whom they clasped in their arms. They were followed by the rest of their children, who, fearful of being lost, ran crying after their mothers. Old men, overwhelmed more by grief than by the weight of years, were seldom able to follow their families; many of them, weeping for the ruin of the country, laid down to die, near the houses where they were born. The streets, the public squares, and especially the churches, were crowded with these unhappy persons, who mourned as they lay on the remains of their property, but shewed no signs of despair. The victors and the vanquished were become equally brutish; the former by excess of fortune, the latter by excess of misery." P. 209.

"The hospitals, containing more than TWELVE THOUSAND WOUNDED, began to burn. The heart, frozen with horror, recoils at the fatal disaster which ensued. Almost all these wretched victims perished. The few who were still living, were seen erawling, half burnt, under the smoking ashes, or groaning under the heaps of dead bodies, making ineffectual efforts to extricate themselves!"

"It is impossible to depict the confusion and tumult that ensued, when the whole of this immense city was given up to pillage. Soldiers, sutlers, galley-slaves, and prostitutes, ran through the streets, penetrated the deserted palaces, and carried off every thing that could gratify their insatiable desire." P. 211.

"The generals received orders to quit Moscow. The soldiers being no longer restrained by that awe which is always inspired by the presence of their chiefs, gave themselves up to every excess, and to the most unbridled licentiousness. No retreat was safe, no place was sufficiently sacred, to secure it from their rapacious search. To all the excesses of lust, were added the highest depravity and debauchery. No respect was paid to the nobility of blood, the innocence of youth, or to the tears of beauty. This cruel licentiousness was the consequence of a savage war, in which sixteen united nations, differing in language and manners, thought themselves at liberty to commit every crime, in the persuasion that their disorders would be attributed to one nation alone." P. 213.

Dismayed by so many calamities, I hoped that the shades of night would veil the dreadful scene; but darkness, on the contrary, rendered the conflagration more terrible. The flames, which extended from north to south, burst forth with greater violence, and agitated by the wind, seemed to reach the sky. Clouds of smoke marked the track of the rockets that were hurled by the incendiary criminals from the tops of the steeples, and which, at a distance, resembled falling stars. But nothing was so terrific as the dread that reigned in every mind, and which was heightened in the dead of the night by the shrieks of the unfortunate creatures who were massacred, or by the cries of young females, who fled for refuge to the palpitating bosoms of their mothers, and whose ineffectual struggles only served to inflame the passions of their violators. To these heart-piercing groans were added the howlings of the dogs that were chained to the gates of the palaces, according to the custom at Moscow, and were unable to escape the flames that surrounded them." P. 214.

Many of our soldiers fell victims to their own rapacity, which induced them, heedless of the extreme risk, to brave every danger : excited by the love of plunder, they rushed into the midst of the

fire and smoke; they waded in blood, trampling on the dead bodies, whilst the ruins and pieces of burning wood fell upon their murderous hands. Perhaps all would have perished had not the insupportable heat at length compelled them to take refuge in their camp. P. 218.

Sept. 17.-The 4th corps were ordered to take up their quarters at the castle of Peterskoe. On their march they overtook crowds of the inhabitants carrying off their infirm parents, with all they had rescued from their burning houses. Their horses having been taken from them by the troops, 66 men, and even women, were harnessed to the carts," which contained the wrecks of their property, and the dearest objects of their affection. "These interesting groups were accompanied by children, who were nearly naked, and whose countenances were imprinted with a sorrow uncongenial to their age. If the soldiers approached them, they ran crying to throw themselves into their mothers' arms. What abode could be offered them that would not continually recall the object of their terror? Without assistance or shelter, they wandered in the fields, or took refuge in the woods, but whereever they turned they met the conquerors of Moscow, who often ill-treated them, and sold before their eyes the goods which they had stolen from their houses." P. 219.

Oct. 18.-On the evening of this day the order for the retreat was given, in consequence of the surprise of a part of the French army at Taroutina with severe loss; and on the 22d, Moscow was completely evacuated. On the 24th, the Russians attacked the 4th corps, which was posted at Malo Jaroslavetz. The battle began at four o'clock in the morning, and lasted till nine at night.

Oct. 25.-" The town in which we had fought was no longer standing, and we could only discover the line of the streets by the numerous dead bodies with which they were strewed. On all

The French troops, as they poured into the devoted city, had spread themselves in every direction in scarch of plunder, and in their progress they committed outrages so horrid on the persons of all whom they discovered, that fathers, desperate to save their children from pollution, would set fire to their places of refuge, and find a surer asylum in the flames. The streets, the houses, the cellars flowed with blood, and were filled with violation and carnage."-Porter's Narra

sides we saw human heads and scattered limbs crushed by the artillery that had been manoeuvred over them. Many of the sick and wounded had quitted the fight to take refuge in the houses, which were now reduced to heaps of ruins, and under the burning ashes appeared their half consumed remains. The few who had escaped the flames, having their faces blackened, and their clothes and hair burnt, presented themselves before us, and in an expiring tone uttered cries of the deepest anguish. On seeing them, the most ferocious were moved with compassion, and turning away their eyes, could not refrain from tears." P. 262.

Oct. 30." As we advanced, the country appeared yet more desolate; the fields, trampled by thousands of horses, seemed as though they had never been cultivated; the forests, thinned by the long residence of the troops, partook of the devastation. But the most horrible sight was the multitude of dead bodies, which had been fifty-two days unburied, and scarcely retained the human form. My consternation was at its height on finding, near Borodino, the 20,000 men who had been slaughtered there, lying where they fell. The half-buried carcasses of men and horses covered the plain, intermingled with garments stained with blood, and bones gnawed by the dogs and birds of prey, and with the fragments of arms, drums, helmets, and cuirasses." P. 276.

6

'I was

"As we were marching over the field of battle, we heard at a distance a pitiable object, who demanded our assistance. Touched by his plaintive cries, many of the soldiers drew near the spot, when, to their great astonishment, they observed a French soldier stretched on the ground, with both his legs broken: wounded,' said he, on the day of the great battle, and finding myself in a lonely place, where I could gain no assistance, I dragged myself to the brink of a rivulet, and have lived near two months on grass and roots, and on some pieces of bread which I found amongst the dead bodies. At night I have lain in the carcasses of dead horses, and with the flesh of these animals have dressed my wounds, as well as with the best medicines. Having observed you at a distance, I collected all my strength, and have advanced sufficiently near to make myself heard.' Whilst we expressed our surprise at the event, a General, who was made

acquainted with a case, as singular as it was affecting, ordered him to be placed in his own carriage." P. 277.

"Were I to relate all the calamities that sprung from this atrocious war, my narration would be too long; but if I wished from one instance to convey an idea of the rest, it would be from that of the 3000 prisoners we brought from Moscow. During the march, having no provisions to give them, they were herded together like beasts, and were not allowed on any pretext to quit the narrow limits assigned them. Without fire, perishing with

cold, they lay on the bare ice; to appease their ravenous hunger, they seized with avidity the horse-flesh which was distributed to them, and for want of time and means to dress it, ate it quite raw; and I have been assured, though I dare not believe it, that when this supply failed, many of them ate the flesh of their comrades, who had sunk under their miseries." P. 278.

Whilst the retreating army drank the cup of unmingled gall, its course was marked by the outrages of unrestrained cruelty and vindictive rage. The first division, on leaving the quarters where they had slept the preceding night, generally consigned them to the flames, as well as the towns and villages through which they passed, equally regardless of the sufferings of the inhabitants, or of their following countrymen, who were thus deprived of shelter. The few houses that escaped their ravages were burnt by the second division, who completed what their comrades had left unfinished in the work of devastation. In the ruins were entombed soldiers and peasants, children wantonly murdered, and young girls massacred on the spot where they had been violated. Boundless destruction was the word of command, and such was the obedience paid to the order, that the Abbey of Kolotskoi, about 150 miles from Moscow, was the only building in that distance that was left undemolished. Stripped of its former splendour, and crowded with the sick and wounded, it resembled a hospital rather than a convent.

Nov. 6th." We marched towards Smolensk with an ardour that redoubled our strength, and had nearly reached Doroghoboui, which is only twenty leagues from it, when the thought alone, that in three days we should arrive there, excited a general intoxication of joy. The atmosphere, which till then had been brilliant,