ion at Moscow, which commenced in the night of
the 14th of September, suspended through our exertions during the day of
the 15th, revived in the following night, and raging in its utmost
violence on the 16th, 17th, and 18th, abated on the 19th. It ceased on
the 20th. That very day, Napoleon, whom the flames had driven from the
Kremlin, returned to the palace of the czars. He invited thither the
looks of all Europe. He there awaited his convoys, his reinforcements,
and the stragglers of his army; certain that all his men would be
rallied by his victory, by the allurements of such vast booty, by the
astonishing sight of captive Moscow, and above all, by his own glory,
which from the top of this immense pile of ruins, still shone attractive
like a beacon upon a rock.

Twice, however, on the 22d and 28th of September, letters from Murat had
well nigh drawn Napoleon from this fatal abode. They announced a battle;
but twice the orders for departure, written in consequence, were burned.
It seemed as though the war was finished for our Emperor, and that he
was only waiting for an answer from Petersburg. He nourished his hopes
with the recollections of Tilsit and Erfurt. Was it possible that at
Moscow he should have less ascendancy over Alexander? Then, like men who
have long been favourites of fortune, what he ardently wished he
confidently expected.

His genius possessed besides that extraordinary faculty, which consisted
in throwing aside the most important occupation whenever he pleased,
either for the sake of variety or of rest: for in him the power of
volition surpassed that of imagination. In this respect he reigned over
himself as much as he did over others.

Thus Paris diverted his attention from Petersburg. His affairs were as
yet divided, and the couriers, which in the first days succeeded each
other without intermission, served to engage him. But the rapidity with
which he transacted business soon left him nothing to do. His expresses,
which at first came from France in a fortnight, ceased to arrive. A few
military posts, placed in four towns reduced to ashes, and in wooden
houses rudely palisaded, were not sufficient to guard a road of
ninety-three leagues: for we had not been able to establish more than a
few echelons, and those at too great distances, on too long a line of
operation, broken at every point where it was touched by the enemy; and
for which a few peasants and a handful of Cossacks were quite
suffic