This patriotic donation amounted, it is said, to two millions of rubles.  The other governments repeated, like so many echoes, the national cry of Moscow.  The Emperor accepted all; but all could not be given immediately:  and when, in order to complete his work, he claimed the rest of the promised succours, he was obliged to have recourse to constraint; the danger which had alarmed some and inflamed others, having by that time ceased to exist.

CHAP.  II.

Meanwhile Smolensk was soon reduced; Napoleon at Wiazma, and consternation in Moscow.  The great battle was not yet lost, and already people began to abandon that capital.

The governor-general, Count Rostopchin, told the women, in his proclamations, that “he should not detain them, as the less fear the less danger there would be; but that their brothers and husbands must stay, or they would cover themselves with infamy.”  He then added encouraging particulars concerning the hostile force, which consisted, according to his statement, of “one hundred and fifty thousand men, who were reduced to the necessity of feeding on horse-flesh.  The Emperor Alexander was about to return to his faithful capital; eighty-three thousand Russians, both recruits and militia, with eighty pieces of cannon, were marching towards Borodino, to join Kutusoff.”

He thus concluded:  “If these forces are not sufficient, I will say to you, ’Come, my friends, and inhabitants of Moscow, let us march also! we will assemble one hundred thousand men:  we will take the image of the Blessed Virgin, and one hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, and put an end to the business at once!’”

It has been remarked as a purely local singularity, that most of these proclamations were in the scriptural style and in poetic prose.

At the same time a prodigious balloon was constructed, by command of Alexander, not far from Moscow, under the direction of a German artificer.  The destination of this winged machine was to hover over the French army, to single out its chief, and destroy him by a shower of balls and fire.  Several attempts were made to raise it, but without success, the springs by which the wings were to be worked having always broken.

Rostopchin, nevertheless, affecting to persevere, is said to have caused a great quantity of rockets and other combustibles to be prepared.  Moscow itself was designed to be the great infernal machine, the sudden nocturnal explosion of which was to consume the Emperor and his army.  Should the enemy escape this danger, he would at least no longer have an asylum or resources; and the horror of so tremendous a calamity, which would be charged to his account, as had been done in regard to the disasters of Smolensk, Dorogobouje, Wiazma, and Gjatz, would not fail to rouse the whole of Russia.

Such was the terrible plan of this noble descendant of one of the greatest Asiatic conquerors.  It was conceived without effort, matured with care, and executed without hesitation.  This Russian nobleman has since visited Paris.  He is a steady man, a good husband, an excellent father:  he has a superior and cultivated mind, and in society his manners are mild and pleasing:  but, like some of his countrymen, he combines an antique energy with the civilization of modern times.