Far from doing anything of the sort, he used his power to select ou of all the various courses open to him the stupidest and most perniciou of all. Of all the different things Napoleon might have done—spendin the winter in Moscow, going to Petersburg, going to Nizhni-Novgoroc going back a little more to the north or to the south, by the roai 1 Kutuzov afterwards took—no course one can imagine could have bee more ruinous for his army (as the sequel proved) than the one Na poleon actually did adopt; that is, the course of staying in Moscow tii October, letting the troops plunder the town, then in hesitation leaving. garrison behind, marching out of Moscow', going to meet Kutuzov am not giving battle, turning to the right and going as far as Male; Yaroslavets, again refusing to risk a battle, and finally retreating, nc by the road Kutuzov had taken, but by Mozhaisk and the Smolens route through devastated country. Let the most skilful tacticians, suppos ing that Napoleon’s object was the destruction of his army, try an devise a series of actions which could, apart from any measures tha might be taken by the Russian forces, have ensured with such certaint the complete destruction of the whole French army as the course take by Napoleon.
This the genius Napoleon did. But to say that Napoleon ruined hi army because he wanted to do so, or because he was very stupid, woul be just as unjust as to say that Napoleon got his troops to Mosco' 1 because he wanted to, and because he was very clever and a great geniu:
In both cases his personal activity, having no more force than th personal activity of every soldier, was merely coincidental with the law by which the event was determined.
Quite falsely (and simply because the sequel did not justify Ns poleon’s actions) do historians represent Napoleon’s faculties as flaggin at Moscow. Just as before, and afterwards in the year 1813, he used a his powers and faculties to do the best for himself and his army, Nape leon’s activity at this time was no less marvellous than in Egypt, i Italy, in Austria, and in Prussia. We do not know with any certaint how real was the genius of Napoleon in Egypt, where forty centurii looked down upon his greatness, because all his great exploits there a recounted to us by none but Frenchmen. We cannot judge with certaint of his genius in Austria and Prussia, as the accounts of his doings the must be drawn from French and German sources. And the unaccoun able surrender of corps of soldiers without a battle, and of fortress' without a siege, must dispose Germans to postulate Napoleon’s genii
, the unique explanation of the war as it was waged in Germany. But e have, thank God, no need to plead his genius to cloak our shame. T e have paid for the right to look facts simply and squarely in the face, id that right we will not give up.
His activity in Moscow’ was as marvellous and as full of genius as any- here else. Command upon command and plan upon plan w’as con- nually being issued by him from the time he entered Moscow to the me he left it. The absence of the citizens and of a deputation, and even je burning of Moscow, did not daunt him. He did not lose sight of the elfare of his army, nor of the doings of the enemy, nor of the welfare if the people of Russia, nor the conduct of affairs at Paris, nor of diplo- latic negotiations as to the terms of peace.
IX
»n the military side, immediately on entering Moscow, Napoleon gives ieneral Sebastiani strict orders to keep a watch on the movements of the Russian army, sends detachments along the various roads, and charges Jurat to find Kutuzov. Then he gives careful instructions for the forti- cation of the Kremlin; then he makes a plan of the coming campaign ver the whole map of Russia; that was a work of genius, indeed. On the iplomatic side, Napoleon summons to his presence Captain Yakovlev, ,'ho had been robbed and reduced to rags and did not know how to get ut of Moscow, expounds to him minutely his whole policy and his nagnanimity; and after writing a letter to the Emperor Alexander, in vhich he considers it his duty to inform his friend and brother that lastoptchin had performed his duties very badly in Moscow, he des- tatches Yakovlev with it to Petersburg.
Expounding his views and his magnanimity with equal minuteness to Futolmin, he despatches that old man too to Petersburg to open nego- iations.
On the judicial side, orders were issued, immediately after the fires proke out, for the guilty persons to be found and executed And the mis- :reant Rastoptchin was punished by the order to set fire to his houses.
On the administrative side, Moscow was presented with a constitution. \ municipal council was instituted, and the following proclamation was ssued:—
‘Citizens of Moscow!
