f
one of the roads leading to Kalouga. There, and at Toula, the chief
magazines of the Russian army were known to be established; and,
moreover, by retiring in that direction towards Poland, (should a
retreat finally be found necessary,) Napoleon counted on the additional
and far greater advantage of traversing a country hitherto unwasted.

The King of Naples, accordingly, pushed his light troops over a new
district; and had the mortification to find the Russian system of
defence persevered in wherever he advanced. The splendid country house
of Rostophchin was burnt to the ground, ere the French reached it; and
the following letter, affixed to its gates, breathed the same spirit
which had dared to sacrifice Moscow:--"I have for eight years
embellished this residence, and lived happily in it with my family. The
inhabitants of the estate, in number 1720, quitted it at your approach;
and I set fire to my house, that it may not be polluted with your
presence."

Kutusoff was no longer disposed to witness in inaction the progress of
Murat. He divined that Napoleon must at last be convinced of the
necessity of abandoning Moscow, and determined that at all events he
should not make his retreat in the direction of Kalouga. General
Bennigsen was ordered to attack Murat, on the 18th October, at Vincovo:
and the result was decidedly in favour of the Russians, in whose hands
there remained nearly 3000 prisoners, and forty pieces of artillery.
The cannonade was heard at the Kremlin; and no sooner did the issue of
the day reach Napoleon, than he made up his mind to march his whole army
to the support of the King of Naples. That same evening, several
divisions were put in motion; he himself, at the head of others, left
Moscow on the 19th; and the metropolis was wholly evacuated on the
morning of the 22nd. Russian troops entered it immediately afterwards,
in time to preserve the Kremlin, which had been undermined and attempted
to be blown up in a last access of rage; and within a few hours, so
completely had the patriotic peasants baffled Napoleon, the town swarmed
with people, and all the market-places were crowded with every species
of provision. The Emperor's bulletins announced that "Moscow had been
found not to be a good military position,"--that it was "necessary for
the army to breathe on a wider space." The precipitancy, however, with
which the French retired was such that they left their sick and wounded
to the mercy of the R