‘Your misfortunes have been cruel, but his Majesty the Emperor and King wishes to put an end to them. Terrible examples have shown you 'how he punishes crime and breach of discipline. Stern measures have 'been taken to put an end to disorder and to restore public security. A [paternal council, chosen from among yourselves, will compose your municipality or town council. It will care for you, for your needs and your
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interests. The members of it will be distinguished by a red ribbon, which they will wear across the shoulder, and the mayor will wear a white sash over it. But except when discharging their duties, they will wear only a red ribbon round the left arm.
‘The city police are established on their former footing, and they are already restoring order. The government has appointed two general commissioners, or superintendents of police, and twenty commissioners, or police inspectors, stationed in the different quarters of the town. You will recognise them by the white ribbon they will wear round the left arm. Several churches of various denominations have been opened, and divine service is performed in them without hindrance. Your fellow- citizens are returning every day to their dwellings, and orders have been given that they should find in them the aid and protection due to misfortune. These are the measures which the government has adopted to restore order and alleviate your position; but to attain that end, it is necessary that you should unite your efforts with them; should forget, if possible, the misfortunes you have suffered; should look hopefully at a fate that is not so cruel; should believe that a shameful death inevitably awaits those guilty of violence against your persons or your deserted property, and consequently leaves no doubt that they will be preserved, ■since such is the will of the greatest and most just of monarchs. Soldiers and citizens of whatever nation you may be! Restore public confidence, . the source of the prosperity of a state; live like brothers, give mutual aid and protection to one another; unite in confounding the projects of the ■ evil-minded; obey the civil and military authorities, and your tears will soon cease to flow.’
On the commissariat side, Napoleon issued orders for all the troops to < enter Moscow in turn, a la maraude, to gather supplies for themselves; so that in that way the army was provided with supplies for the future. ;
On the religious side, Napoleon ordered the priests to be brought back, and services to be performed again in the churches.
With a view to encouraging commerce and providing supplies for the troops, the following notice was placarded everywhere:—
‘Proclamation.
‘You, peaceable inhabitants of Moscow, artisans, and working men, who have been driven out of the city by the disturbance, and you, scattered tillers of the soil, who are still kept in the fields by groundless terror, i hear! Tranquillity is returning to this capital, and order is being restored in it. Your fellow-countrymen are coming boldly out of their hiding- places, seeing that they are treated with respect. Every act of violence against them or their property is promptly punished. His Majesty the Emperor and King protects them, and he reckons none among you his enemies but such as disobey his commands. He wishes to put an end to your trouble, and to bring you back to your homes and your families.
