upery; he had
not been able to perceive that if the emperor of Russia had allowed
himself to go too far in his enthusiasm for him, it was because
he believed him a partizan of the first principles of the French
revolution, which agreed with his own opinions; but never had
Alexander the idea of associating with Napoleon to reduce
Europe to slavery. Napoleon thought in that, as well as in all
other circumstances, to succeed in blinding a man by a false
representation of his interest; but he encountered conscience, and
his calculations were entirely baffled; for that is an element, of
the strength of which he knows nothing, and which he never allows to
enter into his combinations.

Although General Barclay de Tolly was a military man of great
reputation, yet as he had met with reverses at the beginning of the
campaign, the general opinion designated as his successor, a general
of great renown, Prince Kutusow; he took the command fifteen days
before the entry of the French into Moscow, but he got to the army
only six days before the great battle which took place almost at the
gates of that city, at Borodino. I went to see him the day before
his departure; he was an old man of the most graceful manners, and
lively physiognomy, although he had lost an eye by one of the
numerous wounds he had received in the course of a fifty years'
service. On looking at him, I was afraid that he had not sufficient
strength to struggle with the rough young men who were pouncing upon
Russia from all corners of Europe: but the Russian courtiers at
Petersburg become Tartars at the army: and we have seen by Suwarow
that neither age nor honors can enervate their physical and moral
energy. I was moved at taking leave of this illustrious Marshal
Kutusow; I knew not whether I was embracing a conqueror or a martyr,
but I saw that he had the fullest sense of the grandeur of the cause
in which he was employed. It was for the defence, or rather for the
restoration of all the moral virtues which man owes to Christianity,
of all the dignity he derives from God, of all the independence
which he is allowed by nature; it was for the rescuing of all these
advantages from the clutches of one man, for the French are as
little to be accused as the Germans and Italians who followed his
train, of the crimes of his armies. Before his departure, Marshal
Kutusow went to offer up prayers in the church of Our Lady of Casan,
and all the people who followed his steps, c