obstructed; the open places, like the camps, were turned
into markets, whither every one repaired to exchange superfluities for
necessaries. There, the rarest articles, the value of which was not
known to their possessors, were sold at a low price; others, of
deceitful appearance, were purchased at a price far beyond their worth.
Gold, as being more portable, was bought at an immense loss with silver,
which the knapsacks were incapable of holding. Everywhere soldiers were
seen seated on bales of merchandize, on heaps of sugar and coffee,
amidst wines and the most exquisite liqueurs, which they were offering
in exchange for a morsel of bread. Many, in an intoxication aggravated
by inanition, had fallen near the flames, which reached them, and put an
end to their lives.

Most of the houses and palaces which had escaped the fire served
nevertheless for quarters for the officers, and all that they contained
was respected. All of them beheld with pain this vast destruction, and
the pillage which was its necessary consequence. Some of our men
belonging to the _elite_ were charged with taking too much pleasure in
collecting what they were able to save from the flames; but their number
was so few that they were mentioned by name. In these ardent men, war
was a passion which presupposed the existence of others. It was not
covetousness, for they did not hoard; they spent lavishly what they
picked up, taking in order to give, believing that one hand washed the
other, and that they had paid for every thing with the danger.

Besides, on such an occasion, there is scarcely any distinction to be
made, unless in the motive: some took with regret, others with pleasure,
and all from necessity. Amidst wealth which had ceased to belong to any
individual, ready to be consumed, or to be buried in ashes, they were
placed in a quite novel situation, where right and wrong were
confounded, and for which no rule was laid down. The most delicate,
either from principle, or because they were richer than others, bought
of the soldiers the provision and apparel which they required: some sent
agents to plunder for them; and the most necessitous were forced to help
themselves with their own hands.

As to the soldiers, many of them being embarrassed with the fruits of
their pillage, became less active, less thoughtless: in danger they
began to calculate, and in order to save their booty, they did what they
would have disdained to do to save themselves