at our disposal?  Henceforth that enterprise in which he had so rashly engaged, brought to a successful termination by dint of boldness, will pass for the result of a high combination; his imprudence for greatness:  henceforth his victory at the Moskwa, incomplete as it was, will be deemed his greatest achievement.  Thus all that might have turned to his ruin will contribute to his glory:  that day would begin to decide whether he was the greatest man in the world, or the most rash; in short, whether he had raised himself an altar, or dug himself a grave.

Anxiety, however, soon began to take possession of his mind.  On his left and right he already beheld Prince Eugene and Poniatowski approaching the hostile city; Murat, with his scouts, had already reached the entrance of the suburbs, and yet no deputation appeared:  an officer, sent by Miloradowitch, merely came to declare that his general would set fire to the city, if his rear was not allowed time to evacuate it.

Napoleon granted every demand.  The first troops of the two armies were, for a short time, intermingled.  Murat was recognized by the Cossacks, who, familiar as the nomadic tribes, and expressive as the people of the south, thronged around him:  then, by their gestures and exclamations, they extolled his valour and intoxicated him with their admiration.  The king took the watches of his officers, and distributed them among these barbarous warriors.  One of them called him his hettman.

Murat was for a moment tempted to believe that in these officers he should find a new Mazeppa, or that he himself should become one:  he imagined that he had gained them over.  This momentary armistice, under the actual circumstances, sustained the hopes of Napoleon, such need had he to delude himself.  He was thus amused for two hours.

Meanwhile the day was declining, and Moscow continued dull, silent, and as it were inanimate.  The anxiety of the emperor increased; the impatience of the soldiers became more difficult to be repressed.  Some officers ventured within the walls of the city.  “Moscow is deserted!”

At this intelligence, which he angrily refused to credit, Napoleon descended the Hill of Salvation, and approached the Moskwa and the Dorogomilow gate.  He paused once more, but in vain, at the entry of that barrier.  Murat urged him.  “Well!” replied he, “enter then, since they wish it!” He recommended the strictest discipline; he still indulged hopes.  “Perhaps these inhabitants do not even know how to surrender:  for here every thing is new; they to us, and we to them.”

Reports now began to succeed each other:  they all agreed.  Some Frenchmen, inhabitants of Moscow, ventured to quit the hiding-place which for some days had concealed them from the fury of the populace, and confirmed the fatal tidings.  The emperor called Daru.  “Moscow deserted!” exclaimed he:  “what an improbable story!  We must know the truth of it.  Go and bring me the boyars.”  He imagined that those men, stiff with pride, or paralysed with terror, were fixed motionless in their houses:  and he, who had hitherto been always met by the submission of the vanquished, provoked their confidence, and anticipated their prayers.