They thus advanced, sometimes agitated by surprise, at others by pity, and more frequently by a noble enthusiasm.  Several cited events of the great conquests which history has handed down to us; but it was for the purpose of indulging their pride, not to draw lessons from them; for they thought themselves too lofty and beyond all comparison:  they had left behind them all the conquerors of antiquity.  They were exalted by that which is second to virtue only, by glory.  Then succeeded melancholy; either from the exhaustion consequent on so many sensations, or the effect of the operation produced by such an immeasurable elevation, and of the seclusion in which we were wandering on that height, whence we beheld immensity, infinity, in which our weakness was lost:  for the higher we ascend, the more the horizon expands, and the more conscious we become of our own insignificance.

Amid these reflexions, which were favoured by a slow pace, the report of fire-arms was all at once heard:  the column halted.  Its last horses still covered the fields; its centre was in one of the longest streets of the city; its head had reached the Kremlin.  The gates of that citadel appeared to be closed.  Ferocious cries issued from within it:  men and women, of savage and disgusting aspect, appeared fully armed on its walls.  In a state of filthy inebriety, they uttered the most horrible imprecations.  Murat sent them an amicable message, but to no purpose.  It was found necessary to employ cannon to break open the gate.

We penetrated partly without opposition, partly by force, among these wretches.  One of them rushed close to the king, and endeavoured to kill one of his officers.  It was thought sufficient to disarm him, but he again fell upon his victim, rolled him on the ground, and attempted to suffocate him; and even after his arms were seized and held, he still strove to tear him with his teeth.  These were the only Muscovites who had waited our coming, and who seemed to have been left behind as a savage and barbarous token of the national hatred.

It was easy to perceive, however, that there was no unison in this patriotic fury.  Five hundred recruits, who had been forgotten in the Kremlin, beheld this scene without stirring.  At the first summons they dispersed.  Farther on, we overtook a convoy of provisions, the escort of which immediately threw down its arms.  Several thousand stragglers and deserters from the enemy, voluntarily remained in the power of our advanced guard.  The latter left to the corps which followed the task of picking them up; and these to others, and so on:  hence they remained at liberty in the midst of us, till the conflagration and pillage of the city having reminded them of their duty, and rallied them all in one general feeling of antipathy, they went and rejoined Kutusoff.

Murat, who had been stopped but a few moments by the Kremlin, dispersed this crew which he despised.  Ardent and indefatigable as in Italy and Egypt, after a march of nine hundred leagues, and sixty battles fought to reach Moscow, he traversed that proud city without deigning to halt in it, and pursuing the Russian rear-guard, he boldly, and without hesitation, took the road for Wladimir and Asia.