Library of Universal History Volume 7 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 Excerpt: ...at Borodino, on the Moskwa, in the hope of saving Moscow. In the morning when this sanguinary engagement began, each army numbered one hundred and thirty thousand men. The battle had commenced at six o'clock in the morning, and when night put an end to its horrors ninety thousand men lay dead and wounded on the field. The result of the battle was that the Russians were obliged to resume their retreat, and the French were enabled to continue their advance in the direction of Moscow. At length, on the 14th of September, 1812, the French army came in sight of the great city of Moscow, and beheld its lofty steeples and copper domes glittering in the sun. When the city burst upon his gaze, Napoleon exclaimed: "Behold yonder is the eel ebrated city of the Czars " The French troops rushed forward and entered Moscow on the same day, but they were astonished to find it deserted by its three hundred thousand inhabitants. Only a few of the rabble remained in the city. Napoleon took up his residence in the Kremlin, the ancient palace of the Czars. Before Moscow had been abandoned by its inhabitants, Count Rostopschin, the Russian governor, had taken measures to burn the city after the French should enter. Accordingly, on the night of the 16th of September, 1812, a vast fire was seen to emanate from the eastern part of the city. Fires soon broke out in all quarters of the city, and in a few hours the holy c1ty of the Russians was wrapt in flames. The city had been set on fire by the twenty thousand convicts whom Rostopschin, before leaving the city, had liberated for the purpose. No means were at hand for extinguishing the fire; as the fountains had been destroyed, the fire-engines carried off and the waterpipes cut, before the inhabitants had left the city. ...