y abandoned an urgent occupation, to hasten to the
windows and watch the progress of the flames. Short and incoherent
exclamations burst from his laboring bosom! "What a tremendous
spectacle! It is their own work! So many palaces! What extraordinary
resolution! What men! These are indeed Scythians!"[148]

Between the fire and his quarters there was an extensive vacant space,
then the Moskwa and its two quays; and yet the panes of the windows
against which he leaned felt already burning to the touch, and the
constant exertions of sweepers, placed on the iron roofs of the palace,
were not sufficient to keep them clear of the numerous flakes of fire
which were continually lighting upon them.

At this moment a rumor was spread that the Kremlin had been mined; and
the fact, it was said, was confirmed later by the declarations of the
Russians, and by written documents. Some of his attendants were beside
themselves with fear, while the military awaited unmoved what the orders
of the emperor and fate should decree; but he replied to their alarm
only with a smile of incredulity.

Still, he continued to walk about in the utmost agitation: he stopped at
every window, to gaze on the terrible, the victorious element that was
furiously consuming his brilliant conquest; seizing on all the bridges,
on all the avenues to his fortress, enclosing, and, as it were,
besieging him in it; spreading every moment wider and wider; constantly
reducing him within narrower limits, and confining him at length to the
site of the Kremlin alone.

We breathed already nothing but smoke and ashes: night approached, and
was about to add darkness to our other dangers; while the equinoctial
gales, as if in alliance with the Russians, increased in violence. Then
Murat and Prince Eugene hastened to the emperor's quarters: in company
with the Prince of Neufchatel they made their way to him, and urged him
by their entreaties, and on their knees, to remove from this scene of
desolation. All was in vain.

Master, after so many sacrifices, of the palace of the Czars, he was
bent on not yielding that conquest even to the conflagration, when all
at once the shout of "the Kremlin is on fire!" passed from mouth to
mouth, and roused us from the contemplative stupor into which we had
been plunged. The emperor went out to ascertain the danger. Twice had
the fire communicated to the building in which he was and twice had it
been extinguished; but the tower of the arse