r began the work
of destruction, which was completed partly by the Russians and partly by
the French.

[139] =Cossacks=: a race of people inhabiting the south of Russia. On
account of their great skill in horsemanship they are largely employed
in the Russian army as cavalry.

[140] =Moskwa=: the French often spoke of the battle of Borodino as the
Battle of the Moskwa, though it is not on that river, but on the Kologa,
a tributary of it. The accounts of the number killed differ.

[141] =Kolomna gate=: a gate leading to Kolomna, a town on the Moskwa
River.

[142] =Miloradovitch=: a Russian general.

[143] =Mazeppa=: a Pole, who having been detected in a crime was bound
to the back of a wild horse and carried by the animal to the country of
the Cossacks. There he became head of the Cossack forces, and when Peter
the Great attempted to seize that country, Mazeppa formed an alliance
with Charles XII. of Sweden for the independence of the Cossacks.

[144] =Dorogomilow=: the name of a quarter of the city.

[145] =Daru=: a distinguished French author and statesman who
accompanied Napoleon in his Russian campaign.

[146] =Boyars=: nobles, or men of rank.

[147] =Bivouac= (biv-wak'): to encamp without tents or shelter.

[148] =Scythians=: a race of fierce barbarians, formerly inhabiting the
country north and east of the Black Sea. Napoleon intimates that these
men are their descendants.

[149] =Strelitzes=: a body of military guards that revolted under Peter
the Great.

[150] =Postern-gate=: a small rear or side gate.

[151] =Lithuania=: a province of Russia bordering on the Niemen and
hence near supplies.

[152] =Witepsk=: a point passed on the march to Moscow, about midway
from the Niemen; here the Russian general, Wittgenstein, appears to have
been stationed.

[153] =Old Guard=: the emperor's body-guard, composed of a large force
of veterans.

[154] "Napoleon also took measures for relieving the unfortunate of all
classes. He ordered lists to be made of all the citizens whom the
conflagration had deprived of the means of subsistence, opened houses of
refuge for them, and supplied them with food."

[155] =Tilsit and Erfurt=: at these places Napoleon had negotiated
treaties, greatly in favor of the French, with the Czar of Russia.

[156] =Expresses=: messengers.

[157] =Armistice=: a temporary suspension of hostilities.

[158] =Partisans=: soldiers detached to intercept convoys of provisions
and the li