us stronghold marks the
original settlement. It covers nearly a hundred acres, and is situated
on an eminence on the left bank of the river. It is triangular in shape,
and is surrounded by a lofty stone wall, considerably more than a mile
in extent, which is pierced with five gates and surmounted by eighteen
commanding towers.

The Kremlin is almost a city in itself. Besides extensive barracks and
an arsenal, with other government buildings, it contains the ancient
palace of the Czars, a monastery, and several noted churches, one of
which is the oldest and most venerated in Russia.

Formerly the entire fortification was encompassed by a broad, deep moat.
This has been filled up, and now forms a spacious boulevard, with
pleasure gardens, a library, a museum, and the great bazaar or market,
where all kinds of merchandise are offered for sale.

At the time of the French invasion Moscow is supposed to have had a
population of at least 325,000; at the present time it has more than
double that number.

Napoleon entered the city September 14, 1812. That very night it was set
on fire, and the conflagration continued until the whole place, outside
the Kremlin, was practically a heap of bricks and ashes.

During the fire Napoleon was obliged to leave his quarters in the
fortress and establish them in a suburb of the city, but later he
returned to the Kremlin.

He evacuated Moscow on October 19, not quite five weeks after he entered
it. He found it a great metropolis. He left it a mass of ruins, where
nothing any longer existed to support life.

[131] =Serfs=: these serfs were slaves in all but name, and were bought
and sold like cattle. They were emancipated by law in 1861, the whole
number throughout Russia then being over 21,000,000.

[132] =Czar=: the correct Russian spelling of this word is said to be
Tsar, which is now gradually coming into use in English. The title was
first assumed by Ivan IV. (Ivan the Terrible) in 1533.

[133] =Ruble= (or Rouble): a Russian silver coin worth about
seventy-five cents.

[134] =Smolensk=: see Introduction, "Napoleon."

[135] =Rostopchin=: (Ros-top-chen').

[136] =Kutusoff=: commander-in-chief of the Russian army.

[137] =Muscovite=: a native of Muscovy, an old name for Russia.

[138] Rostopchin denied, in a work which he published, that he set fire
to the city. He insisted that it was done by the French, together with
the rabble of Moscow. It is now thought that the governo