of the conquered
inhabitants. To a large extent he used this policy in his invasion of
Russia and it brought about his downfall. With an army of four hundred
thousand men he entered Russia and advanced into the interior. The
Russians constantly retreated before him and laid waste everything in
his path. Towns were burned, crops were destroyed and cattle were
driven away, as Napoleon led his forces toward the ancient and historic
city of Moscow.

When the French had advanced a long distance into Russia, the Russian
general named Kutusoff offered them battle in a place called Borodino.
It was a stubborn and bloody conflict, and more lives were lost both by
the Russians and by the French than in any previous battle Napoleon had
engaged in. The Russians then continued to retreat and Napoleon entered
Moscow on the Fourteenth of September, 1812.

Here the French believed that they would find respite from the
hardships that they had encountered, and sufficient food and grain to
feed their army. But their hopes were short lived, and in Moscow a
great disaster befell them. Flames broke out in the city on the first
night of their occupation, and were extinguished with difficulty. On
the next night fires were kindled by hidden Russians in a hundred
different places, and at last the city was a sea of flames in which no
man could live. Napoleon had gained nothing by his invasion except to
conquer a devastated country, and now, with winter coming on, he was
compelled to retreat again toward the Russian frontier.

The plight of the French army had become fearful. Without food and with
insufficient clothing they were compelled to face the rigors of a
Russian winter. As they retreated the Russians followed them and bands
of wild Cossacks harassed their rear and their flanks, cutting off and
killing any stragglers. Even the Russian peasants took part in the
pursuit, and slew the exhausted French with their flails and cudgels.
Thousands of soldiers froze to death. In crossing the Beresina River
thousands more drowned. When they approached the frontier Napoleon left
the pitiful remnant of his shattered army to Marshal Ney, one of the
bravest of his generals, while he himself in a swift sleigh hastened to
Paris to raise another army before all Europe knew of what had
happened--for as soon as they did know they would take up arms against
him, thinking that in his weakened condition they could overthrow his
power. Of the four hundred thous