t he issued a proclamation announcing a Holy War. "Rise all
of you!" he urged, "With the Cross in your hearts and arms in your
hands, no human force can prevail against you!"

Napoleon advanced clutching shadows. After his army left Wilna,
leaving dead desolation in its wake, the time soon came when retreat
was no longer possible. Russian patriotism clamored for battle and
Russian prudence had to give way to it. All of Koutouzof's remarkable
influence was required to restrain his men under the retreat which
foretold victory, because every step forward sealed Napoleon's doom.
The Corsican knew it but, with the superstition born in him, trusted
to his star. Finally he drew near Moscow, the Holy City, where Count
Rostopchine, the governor, was preparing the grand climax of the
drama, while pacifying Russian patriotism by a series of hardy falsehoods.
"I have resolved," he explained, "at every disagreeable piece of (p. 202)
news to raise doubts as to its truth; by this means, I shall weaken
the first impression, and before there is time to verify it, others
will come which will require investigation." The people implicitly
believed his most daring inventions. When he evacuated Moscow, he
ordered all prisons to be opened, and the guns in the arsenal to be
distributed among the people; he also had the pumps removed and
finally gave instructions to set fire to the stores of _vodka_ and the
boats loaded with alcohol.

Napoleon arrived at the Kremlin on the 14th of September. Short as was
his sojourn, it was with difficulty that he escaped through the flames
and found refuge in a park. Why did he waste thirty-five days in the
charred capital? Was it belief in his star, or was it despair at the
ruin of his prospects? On the 13th of October, the remnant of the
Grand Army started on its long journey over the desert it had left
behind, because all other roads were closed to it. The retreat has
been described by many writers; but what pen shall do justice to the
suffering caused by the unusually severe winter, the snow, the ice,
the hunger, and the thirst? And how many hearts were rent, when the
news came of the dead, the wounded, and the missing? Napoleon's
campaign in Russia was the most impressive sermon against war, but it
fell upon heedless ears.

After the Battle of the Berezina, Napoleon left the army and hurried
home. All his thoughts were on the effect of the disastrous
defeat,--not upon the hundred thousand desolate ho