oint of what was supposed to be the plan of campaign
formed by Alexander, whose object was thought to be to entice forward
and to detain Napoleon, till winter should come upon him, seize him, and
deliver him up defenceless to the whole incensed nation. For it was
natural to presume that these flames would enlighten that conqueror;
they would take from his invasion its end and aim. They would of course
compel him to renounce it while it was yet time, and decide him to
return to Lithuania, for the purpose of taking up winter quarters in
that country--a determination which was likely to prepare for Russia a
second campaign more dangerous than the first.

But in this important crisis Rostopchin perceived two great dangers; the
one, which threatened the national honour, was that of a disgraceful
peace dictated at Moscow, and forced upon his sovereign; the other was a
political rather than a military danger, in which he feared the
seductions of the enemy more than his arms, and a revolution more than a
conquest.

Averse, therefore, to any treaty, this governor foresaw that in the
populous capital, which the Russians themselves style the oracle, the
example of the whole empire, Napoleon would have recourse to the weapon
of revolution, the only one that would be left him to accomplish his
purpose. For this reason he resolved to raise a barrier of fire between
that great captain and all weaknesses, from whatever quarter they might
proceed, whether from the throne or from his countrymen, either nobles
or senators; and more especially between a population of serfs and the
soldiers of a free nation; in short, between the latter and that mass of
artisans and tradesmen, who form in Moscow the commencement of an
intermediate class--a class for which the French Revolution was
specially adapted.

All the preparations were made in silence, without the knowledge either
of the people, the proprietors of all classes, or perhaps of their
Emperor. The nation was ignorant that it was sacrificing itself. This is
so strictly true, that, when the moment for execution arrived, we heard
the inhabitants who had fled to the churches, execrating this
destruction. Those who beheld it from a distance, the most opulent of
the nobles, mistaken like their peasants, charged us with it; and in
short, those by whom it was ordered threw the odium of it upon us,
having engaged in the work of destruction in order to render us objects
of detestation, and carin