a council of war it had been decided to
abandon the city, there was first dismay, then fury, then despair. The
long trains of departing citizens wailed their church hymns with
sullen mien and joyless voices.

The surrender was marked by barbarous conduct on the part of the civil
authorities. It has been recounted that by a military convention the
Russian rear-guard had been permitted to withdraw unmolested after
Borodino, in return for a promise not to destroy Moscow. Yet on
September fourteenth, the day of the French occupation, as has also
been told, fires had been kindled in the suburbs, whether by accident
or design cannot be determined. Besides this, on receipt of the notice
to evacuate, such stores as in the short interval could be reached
were destroyed; the prison doors were opened, and a horde of maddened
criminals was set free in the streets. Nevertheless, there was fair
order throughout the fifteenth. Next day a raging conflagration burst
forth. At the time, and long afterwards, this was attributed as a deed
of dastardly incendiarism to the invaders; with the growth of modern
ideas about ruthlessness in warfare, Russian historians have begun to
attribute it to the inhabitants as a heroic measure. It is now
asserted that the governor cast the first brand into his own
country-seat. More probably, the fanaticism of the populace,
heightened by the criminal rage of the escaped prisoners, led to the
almost simultaneous firing of many buildings in various quarters. A
possibility of method in the destruction of the city begins to dawn,
however, when it is remembered that the devastation of the surrounding
country by the fleeing Russians was equally thorough, and was carried
out according to a carefully devised plan.

The entry of the French into Moscow has been compared to the
appearance of great actors before an empty house. When the
conflagration broke out, every effort was made to stop it, and eight
hundred fire fiends were summarily punished. But as the burning walls
of the storehouses fell, the rabble seized the barrels of spirits thus
revealed, and drank themselves into blind fury; the French soldiery
pillaged with little restraint, not sparing even the Kremlin. Finally,
the flames were checked and order was restored, but not until three
quarters of the city proper were destroyed; the Kremlin and the
remaining fourth were saved. On the evening of the fourth day the
French army was disposed in rude comfort wi