there been a
meteorologist present able to warn Napoleon, even then, the army could
have retreated safely. But the army went on and on, into the land that
the Russians themselves had swept bare and left empty. Villages and
towns were passed, each deserted, as Smolensk had been. What the people
could not carry away they had burned. The fields were scorching and
black. Smoke filled the air. For three weeks more, well into September,
the French army toiled forward, steadily growing hungrier and leaner,
losing horses and men all along the line of march.

"At last the Russians made a stand. The desperate conditions of the
march had divided the French army into scattered portions, and when,
quite suddenly, the Russian troops confronted them, only a hundred and
twenty-eight thousand men were available, the others straggling behind.
The Russians had a hundred thousand men, but the French superiority was
not enough for them to secure a final victory. The great battle of
Borodino began before sunrise, and the setting sun, red as always, sank
too early to see its end. When night fell on the scene, thirty-eight
thousand Russians had fallen and only twenty-five thousand French, but
it acted almost as a defeat upon the French, accustomed as they were to
sweeping victories.

"The red sun next morning rose on the French army, eager to continue the
battle. But in the night the Russians had fallen back again, and, before
the French, the road to Moscow lay open. Open, indeed, but burned black
and desolate as before. Seven more days of marching, with hungry
stomachs and famished horses and then, Moscow! The goal of the French!
The army beheld the city it had come so far to conquer. The red sun of
the seventh day found the spires of the Kremlin in sight. Again the
French were sure of victory.

"Moscow was as clean swept as the smallest village on the road.
Everything had been carried off or destroyed. Moscow lies far to the
north and the days began to grow perilously short. Napoleon sought to
make terms with the Russians, but met with nothing but delays. The
Russians were waiting for the approach of their great ally, the winter.

"In all Moscow there was no food and forage. All the people had gone.
Napoleon did not dare to bring his whole army into the city. There was
nothing to eat. They camped at various distances outside, tightening
their belts for hunger. Meantime the Russians, constantly retreating and
moving the provisions back w