don't know. It must be under1 a very particular character, or on some extraordinary occasion, that a Christian is admitted into the house of a man of quality; and their harams are always forbidden ground.2 Thus they can only speak of the outside, which makes no great appearance ; 3 and the women's apartments are always built backwards, removed from sight, and have no other prospect than the gardens, which are enclosed with very high walls. There are none of our parterres in them;5 but they are planted with high trees, which give an agreeable shade, and, to my fancy, a pleasing view. In the midst of the garden is the chiosk, that is, a large room, commonly beautified with a fine.fountain in the midst of it. It is raised nine or ten steps, and enclosed with gilded lattices, round which vines, jessamines, and honeysuckles make a sort of green wall.9 Large trees are planted round this place, which is the scene of their greatest pleasures, and where the ladies spend most of their hours, employed by their 10 music or embroidery.

In the public gardens there are public chiosks, where people go that are not so well accommodated at home, and drink their coffee, sherbet, &c. Neither are they ignorant of a more durable manner of building: 11 their mosques are all of freestone,12 and the public hanns, or inns, extremely magnificent, many of them taking up a large square, built round with shops under stone arches,13 where poor artificers are lodged gratis. They have always a mosque joining to them,14 and the body of the hann is a most noble

4

hall, capable of holding three or four hundred persons, the court extremely spacious, and cloisters round it,2 that give it the air of our colleges. I own I think it a more reasonable piece of charity than the founding of convents.3 I think I have now told you a great deal5 for once. If you don't like my choice of subjects, tell me what you would have me write upon; there is nobody more desirous to entertain you than, dear Mrs. Thistlethwayte, Yours,' &c. &c.

THE BURNING OF MOSCOW.

8

(1812.)

ON the 14th September, 1812, while the rear-guard of the Russians were in the act of evacuating 9 Moscow, Napoleon reached the hill called the Mount of Salvation, because it is there that the natives kneel and cross themselves 10 at first sight of the Holy City.

Moscow seemed lordly and striking as 11 ever, with the steeples of its thirty churches, and its copper domes glittering in the sun; its palaces of Eastern architecture mingled

with trees, and surrounded with gardens; and its Kremlin, a huge triangular mass of towers, something between1 a palace and a castle, which rose like a citadel out of the general mass of groves and buildings. But not a chimney sent up smoke, not a man appeared on the battlements, or2 at the gates. Napoleon gazed every moment expecting to see a train of bearded3 boyards arriving to fling themselves at his feet, and place their wealth at his disposal. His first exclamation was, "Behold at last that celebrated city!"4-His next, " It was full time."5 His army, less regardful of the past or the future, fixed their eyes on the goal of their wishes, and a shout of "Moscow ! -Moscow!" passed from rank to rank.

8

His

During the

When he entered the gates of Moscow, Bonaparte, as if unwilling to encounter the sight of the empty streets, stopped immediately on entering the first suburb. troops were quartered in the desolate city. first few hours 10 after their arrival, an obscure rumour, which could not be traced,11 but one of those which are sometimes found to get abroad before the approach of some awful certainty, announced that the city would be endangered by fire 12 in the course of the night. The report seemed to arise from those evident circumstances which rendered the event probable, but no one took any notice of it, until at midnight, when 13 the soldiers were startled from their quarters, by the report that the town was in flames. The memorable conflagration began amongst the coachmakers' warehouses and workshops in the Bazaar, or general market, which was the most rich district of the city. It was imputed to accident, and the progress 14 of the flames was subdued by the exertions of

the French soldiers. Napoleon, who had been roused by the tumult, hurried to the spot, and when the alarm seemed at an end,2 he retired, not to his former quarters in the suburbs, but to the Kremlin, the hereditary palace of the only sovereign whom he had ever treated as an3 equal, and over whom his successful arms had now attained such an apparently immense superiority. Yet he did not suffer himself to be dazzled by the advantage he had obtained, but availed himself of the light of the blazing Bazaar, to write to the Emperor proposals of peace with his own hand. They were despatched by a Russian officer of rank 5 who had been disabled by indisposition from following the army. But no answer was ever returned.

Next day the flames had disappeared, and the French officers luxuriously employed themselves in selecting out of the deserted palaces of Moscow, that which best pleased the fancy of each for his residence. At night the flames again arose in the north and west quarters of the city. As the greater part of the houses were built of wood, the conflagration spread with the most dreadful rapidity. This was at first imputed to the blazing brands and sparkles which were carried by the wind; but at length it was observed, that, as often as 8 the wind changed, and it changed three times in that terrible night, new flames broke always forth in that direction, where the existing gale was calculated to direct them on the Kremlin.10 These horrors were increased by the chance of explosion. There was, though as yet unknown to the French, a magazine of powder in the Kremlin ;11 besides that a park of artillery, with its ammunition, was drawn up under the Emperor's

9

1 See page 6, note 5.

,

2 Translate, 'seemed to have ceased,' or, was appeased.' 3 he had; see page 39, note as an,' en.

5.

4 Translate, he did not let himself,' with the infinitive active, and no preposition before it.

5 distingué. 66 ' amongst.' 7 During the.'

8 every time that.'

preterite and the imperfect.

&c.

10 on voyait s'élever de nouvelles flammes, qui partaient toujours du côté d'où le vent pouvait.. (or, . • flammes précisément dans la nouvelle direction que le vent prenait sur le Kremlin).

11 See page 22, note 1.-though,' &c.; turn, though the French were yet ignorant of it (use ignorer)'; or, in the way pointed out

9 Remember the rule about the at page 37, note 3.

window. Morning came, and with it1 a dreadful scere. During the whole night, the metropolis had glared with an untimely and unnatural light. It was now covered with a thick and suffocating atmosphere, of almost palpable smoke.3 The flames defied the efforts of the French soldiery; and it is said that the fountains of the city had been rendered inaccessible, the water-pipes cut, and the fire-engines destroyed or carried off.5

Then came the reports of fire-balls having been found burning in deserted houses; of men and women, that, like demons, had been seen openly spreading flames, and who were said to be furnished with combustibles for rendering their dreadful work more secure. Several wretches against whom such acts had been charged, were seized upon, and probably without much inquiry, were shot on the spot. While it was almost impossible to keep the roof of the Kremlin clears of the burning brands which showered down the wind, Napoleon watched from the windows the course of the fire which devoured his fair conquest, and the exclamation burst from him, "These are indeed Scythians !"9

The equinoctial gales rose higher and higher upon the 10 third night, and extended the flames, with which there was no longer any human power11 of contending. At the dead hour of midnight,12 the Kremlin itself was found to be on fire. A soldier of the Russian police, charged with being the incendiary, was turned over to the summary vengeance 13 of the Imperial Guard. Bonaparte was then, at length, persuaded, by the entreaties of all around