Paris diverted his attention from Petersburg. His accumulating
affairs and the couriers, which in the first days succeeded each other
without intermission, served to engage him. But the rapidity with which
he transacted business soon left him again with nothing to do. His
expresses,[156] which at first came from France in a fortnight, now
ceased to arrive. A few military posts, placed in four towns reduced to
ashes, and in wooden houses rudely palisaded, were wholly insufficient
to guard a road of nearly two hundred and eighty miles; for we had been
able to fix only these few steps, and at so great a distance apart, on
so long a ladder. This too lengthened line of operation was consequently
broken at every point where it was touched by the enemy: a few peasants,
or a handful of Cossacks, were quite sufficient for the purpose.

Still no answer was received from Alexander. The uneasiness of Napoleon
increased, while his means of diverting his attention from it
diminished. The activity of his genius, accustomed to the government of
all Europe, had nothing with which to occupy itself but the management
of one hundred thousand men; and then, the organization of his army was
so perfect, that this was scarcely any occupation to him. Here
everything was fixed: he held all the wires in his hand: he was
surrounded by ministers who could tell him immediately, at any hour of
the day, the position of each man in the morning or at night, whether
with his colors, in the hospital, on leave of absence, or wherever else
he might be, and that, from Moscow to Paris: to such a degree of
perfection had the science of a concentrated administration been then
brought, so experienced and well chosen were the officers, and so much
was required by their commander.

But eleven days had already elapsed: still Alexander was silent, and
still did Napoleon hope to overcome his rival by obstinacy: thus losing
the time which he ought to have gained, and which might have been made
so serviceable against attack.

From this period all his actions indicated to the Russians, still more
strongly than at Witepsk, that their mighty foe was resolved to fix
himself in the heart of their empire. Moscow, though in ashes, received
a governor and municipal officers: orders also were issued to provision
it for the winter: and a theatre was formed amid its ruins. The first
actors of Paris, it is said, were sent for. An Italian singer strove to
reproduce in the Kremlin