many establishments, to resign so many conveniences
and enjoyments, so much wealth, movable and immovable? and yet it cost
little or no more to obtain the total abandonment of Moscow than that of
the meanest village. There, as at Vienna, Berlin, and Madrid, the
principal nobles hesitated not to retire on our approach; for, with
them, to remain would seem to be the same as to betray. But here,
tradesmen, artisans, day-laborers, all thought it their duty to flee as
well as the most powerful of the grandees. There was no occasion to
command: these people have not yet ideas sufficient to judge for
themselves, to distinguish and to weigh differences; the example of the
nobles was sufficient. The few foreigners remaining at Moscow might have
enlightened them; some of these were exiled, and terror hindered the
rest.

It was, besides, an easy task to excite apprehensions of profanation,
pillage, and devastation in the minds of people so cut off from other
nations, and in the inhabitants of a city which had been so often
plundered and burned by the Tartars. With these examples before their
eyes, they could not await an impious and ferocious enemy but for the
purpose of fighting him: the rest must necessarily shun his approach
with horror, if they would save themselves in this life or in the next.
Thus obedience, honor, religion, fear, everything, in short, enjoined
them to flee, with all that they could carry with them.

A fortnight before our arrival, the departure of the records, the public
chests and treasure, and that of the nobles and of the principal
merchants, together with their most valuable effects, indicated to the
rest of the inhabitants what course they should pursue. The governor,
already impatient to see Moscow evacuated, appointed superintendents to
expedite the emigration.

On the 3d of September, a French woman, living in the city, ventured to
leave her hiding-place, at the risk of being torn in pieces by the
furious Muscovites. She wandered a long time through extensive quarters,
the solitude of which astonished her, when a distant and doleful sound
thrilled her with terror. It was like the funeral dirge of this vast
city: fixed in motionless suspense, she beheld an immense multitude of
persons, of both sexes, in deep affliction, carrying their effects and
their sacred images, and leading their children along with them. Their
priests, laden with the sacred symbols of religion, headed the
procession. They w