. A life of Napoleon Boneparte:. ur country! Behave as you did at Austerlitz, at Friedland, at Vitebsk,at Smolensk, and the most remote posterity will quote with pride ycurconduct on this day; let it say of you: he zvas at the great battle underthe walls of Moscozv. The French gained the battle at Borodino, at a cost ofsome thirty thousand men, but they did not destroy the Rus-sian army. Although the Russians lost fifty thousand men,they retreated in good order. Under the circumstances, avictory which allowed the enemy to retire in order was oflittle use. It was Napoleons fault, the critics sa
. A life of Napoleon Boneparte:. ur country! Behave as you did at Austerlitz, at Friedland, at Vitebsk,at Smolensk, and the most remote posterity will quote with pride ycurconduct on this day; let it say of you: he zvas at the great battle underthe walls of Moscozv. The French gained the battle at Borodino, at a cost ofsome thirty thousand men, but they did not destroy the Rus-sian army. Although the Russians lost fifty thousand men,they retreated in good order. Under the circumstances, avictory which allowed the enemy to retire in order was oflittle use. It was Napoleons fault, the critics said; he wasinactive. But it was not sluggishness which troubled Na-poleon at Borodino. He had a new enemy—a the day of the battle he suffered so that he was obligedto retire to a ravine to escape the icy wind. In this shelteredspot he paced up and down all day, giving his orders fromthe reports brought him. Moscow was entered on the 15th of September. Here theFrench found at last food and shelter, but only for a few. 244 THE RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN 245 hours. That night Moscow burst into flames, set on fireby the authorities, by whom it had been abandoned. It wasthree days before the fire was arrested. It would cost Rus-sia two hundred years of time, two hundred milhons ofmoney, to repair the loss which she had sustained. Napoleonwrote to France. Suffering, disorganization, pillage, followed the Napoleon would not retreat. He hoped to make was still smoking when he wrote a long descriptionof the conflagration to Alexander. The closing paragraphran: I wage war against your Majesty without animosity; a note fromyou before or after the last battle would have stopped my march, andI should even have liked to sacrifice the advantage of enteringMoscow. If your Majesty retains some remains of your former senti-ments, you will take this letter in good part. At all events, you willthank me for giving you an account of what is passing at Moscow. I will neve
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