The Two Great Retreats of History Part 20

[128] Count Segur was elected a member of the French Academy, and his history of the retreat has not only pa.s.sed through many editions in France, but it has been translated into all the leading languages of Europe.

[129] The history of Napoleon after the Russian retreat will form the subject of a note at the close of Count Segur's narrative.

[130] =Moscow=: the ancient capital of Russia is situated on the Moskwa river (a tributary of the Oka), from which the city derives its name. It first appears in history in the middle of the twelfth century. It early became the metropolis and seat of government, and continued so until a short time after the founding of St. Petersburg by Peter the Great, in 1703.

For centuries Moscow was both the political and religious centre of the empire. Here the Czars were crowned, here they resided, here they were buried. Here, too, the patriarch, or former head of the Russian church, had his residence, amid cathedrals, monasteries, and shrines, which have always been regarded with peculiar reverence.

To the Russian peasant the city still remains sacred. It is the heart, as it were, of his native land. He cherishes toward it the same feeling which the devout Mohammedan does for Mecca, or the devout Catholic for Rome. He calls it "Our Holy Mother Moscow"; and when he comes in sight of its gilded spires and cupolas he makes the sign of the cross, falls upon his knees, and utters a prayer.

In the centre of Moscow stands the Kremlin, or fortress--for so the Tartar name is usually translated. This famous stronghold marks the original settlement. It covers nearly a hundred acres, and is situated on an eminence on the left bank of the river. It is triangular in shape, and is surrounded by a lofty stone wall, considerably more than a mile in extent, which is pierced with five gates and surmounted by eighteen commanding towers.

The Kremlin is almost a city in itself. Besides extensive barracks and an a.r.s.enal, with other government buildings, it contains the ancient palace of the Czars, a monastery, and several noted churches, one of which is the oldest and most venerated in Russia.

Formerly the entire fortification was encompa.s.sed by a broad, deep moat.

This has been filled up, and now forms a s.p.a.cious boulevard, with pleasure gardens, a library, a museum, and the great bazaar or market, where all kinds of merchandise are offered for sale.

At the time of the French invasion Moscow is supposed to have had a population of at least 325,000; at the present time it has more than double that number.

Napoleon entered the city September 14, 1812. That very night it was set on fire, and the conflagration continued until the whole place, outside the Kremlin, was practically a heap of bricks and ashes.

During the fire Napoleon was obliged to leave his quarters in the fortress and establish them in a suburb of the city, but later he returned to the Kremlin.

He evacuated Moscow on October 19, not quite five weeks after he entered it. He found it a great metropolis. He left it a ma.s.s of ruins, where nothing any longer existed to support life.

[131] =Serfs=: these serfs were slaves in all but name, and were bought and sold like cattle. They were emanc.i.p.ated by law in 1861, the whole number throughout Russia then being over 21,000,000.

[132] =Czar=: the correct Russian spelling of this word is said to be Tsar, which is now gradually coming into use in English. The t.i.tle was first a.s.sumed by Ivan IV. (Ivan the Terrible) in 1533.

[133] =Ruble= (or Rouble): a Russian silver coin worth about seventy-five cents.

[134] =Smolensk=: see Introduction, "Napoleon."

[135] =Rostopchin=: (Ros-top-chen').

[136] =Kutusoff=: commander-in-chief of the Russian army.

[137] =Muscovite=: a native of Muscovy, an old name for Russia.

[138] Rostopchin denied, in a work which he published, that he set fire to the city. He insisted that it was done by the French, together with the rabble of Moscow. It is now thought that the governor began the work of destruction, which was completed partly by the Russians and partly by the French.

[139] =Cossacks=: a race of people inhabiting the south of Russia. On account of their great skill in horsemanship they are largely employed in the Russian army as cavalry.

[140] =Moskwa=: the French often spoke of the battle of Borodino as the Battle of the Moskwa, though it is not on that river, but on the Kologa, a tributary of it. The accounts of the number killed differ.

[141] =Kolomna gate=: a gate leading to Kolomna, a town on the Moskwa River.

[142] =Miloradovitch=: a Russian general.

[143] =Mazeppa=: a Pole, who having been detected in a crime was bound to the back of a wild horse and carried by the animal to the country of the Cossacks. There he became head of the Cossack forces, and when Peter the Great attempted to seize that country, Mazeppa formed an alliance with Charles XII. of Sweden for the independence of the Cossacks.

[144] =Dorogomilow=: the name of a quarter of the city.

[145] =Daru=: a distinguished French author and statesman who accompanied Napoleon in his Russian campaign.

[146] =Boyars=: n.o.bles, or men of rank.

[147] =Bivouac= (biv-wak'): to encamp without tents or shelter.

[148] =Scythians=: a race of fierce barbarians, formerly inhabiting the country north and east of the Black Sea. Napoleon intimates that these men are their descendants.

[149] =Strelitzes=: a body of military guards that revolted under Peter the Great.

[150] =Postern-gate=: a small rear or side gate.

[151] =Lithuania=: a province of Russia bordering on the Niemen and hence near supplies.

[152] =Witepsk=: a point pa.s.sed on the march to Moscow, about midway from the Niemen; here the Russian general, Wittgenstein, appears to have been stationed.

[153] =Old Guard=: the emperor's body-guard, composed of a large force of veterans.

[154] "Napoleon also took measures for relieving the unfortunate of all cla.s.ses. He ordered lists to be made of all the citizens whom the conflagration had deprived of the means of subsistence, opened houses of refuge for them, and supplied them with food."

[155] =Tilsit and Erfurt=: at these places Napoleon had negotiated treaties, greatly in favor of the French, with the Czar of Russia.

[156] =Expresses=: messengers.

[157] =Armistice=: a temporary suspension of hostilities.

[158] =Partisans=: soldiers detached to intercept convoys of provisions and the like.

[159] =Invalides=: one of the great public buildings at Paris; a soldiers' home and hospital. Napoleon is buried here.

[160] =Aid-de-camp=: an officer who carries orders and directs movements for a general.

[161] =The viceroy=: Prince Eugene.

[162] The indecisive battle of Malo-jaroslavetz, a town about fifty miles southwest of Moscow, compelled Napoleon to give up his original plan of retreat, which would have taken him through an unexhausted country to the southward, and forced him to go back to the north, retracing his steps by the route he came.

[163] =Wittgenstein=: commander of one division of the Russian forces, held a position on the Dwina River and later on the Berezina, a tributary of the Dnieper.

[164] =Verea=: a village about twenty-five miles northwest of Malo-jaroslavetz.

[165] =Kremlin=: it was afterward found that the fortress was but slightly injured.

[166] =Mojaisk=: about ten miles northwest of Verea and seventy west of Moscow.

[167] The battle-field of Borodino, which Napoleon had fought on his march to Moscow. See Introduction.

[168] =Viazma=: about fifty miles west of Borodino.