Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

290THE FRENCH AT MOSCOW.

building must indeed possess an extraordinary style of architecture to have drawn my attention, as it did, from the Kremlin, at the moment when the mighty castle for the first time met my eyes.

Soon, however, my ideas tool·^another turn. Where is the Frenchman who coiúd resist an emotion of respect and of pride (for misfortune has its pride, and it is the most legitimate kind), on entering into the only city where, in our own times, took place a public event, a scene, as imposing as the most striking occurrences of ancient history ?

The means that the Asiatic city took to repel its enemy was a sublime deed of despair ; and thenceforward the name of Moscow is fatally united with that of the greatest captain of modern times. The sacred bird of the Greeks consumed itself in order to escape the talons of the eagle, and, like the Phœnix, the mystic dove rises again from its ashes.

In this war of giants wherein all was glory, renown does not depend upon success. The fire under the ice, the weapons of the demons of Dante — such were the arms which God placed in the hands of the Russians to repel and to destroy us. An army must be honoured for having advanced so far, though it was only to die there.

But who can excuse the chief whose want of foresight exposed it to such a struggle ? At Smolensk, Buonaparte refused the peace which they did not even deign to offer him at Moscow. He hoped for the offer, but he hoped in vain.

It was a modification of that mania for forming collections, for completing catalogues, which narrowed the views of the great politician ; he sacrificed his