g but little about the maledictions of so many
unfortunate creatures, provided they could throw the weight of them upon
us.

The silence of Alexander leaves room to doubt whether he approved this
grand determination or not. What part he took in this catastrophe is
still a mystery to the Russians: either they are ignorant on the
subject, or they make a secret of the matter:--the effect of despotism,
which enjoins ignorance or silence.

Some think that no individual in the whole empire excepting the
sovereign, would have dared to take on himself so heavy a
responsibility. His subsequent conduct has disavowed without
disapproving. Others are of opinion that this was one of the causes of
his absence from the army, and that, not wishing to appear either to
order or to defend, he would not stay to be a witness of the
catastrophe.

As to the general abandonment of the houses, all the way from Smolensk,
it was compulsory, the Russian army defending them till they were
carried sword in hand, and describing us every where as destructive
monsters. The country suffered but little from this emigration. The
peasants residing near the high road escaped through by-ways to other
villages belonging to their lords, where they found accommodation.

The forsaking of their huts made of trunks of trees laid one upon
another, which a hatchet suffices for building, and of which a bench, a
table, and an image, constitute the whole furniture, was scarcely any
sacrifice for serfs, who had nothing of their own, whose persons did not
even belong to themselves, and whose masters were obliged to provide for
them, since they were their property, and the source of all their
income.

These peasants, moreover, in removing their carts, their implements, and
their cattle, carried every thing with them, most of them being able to
supply themselves with habitation, clothing, and all other necessaries:
for these people are still in but the first stage of civilization, and
far from that division of labour which denotes the extension and high
improvement of commerce and society.

But in the towns, and especially in the great capital, how could they be
expected to quit so many establishments, to resign so many conveniencies
and enjoyments, so much wealth, moveable and immoveable? and yet it cost
little or no more to obtain the total abandonment of Moscow than that of
the meanest village. There, as at Vienna, Berlin, and Madrid, the
principal nobles hesita