difficulty they had been rescued from the flames. Often the French soldiers, tormented by hunger and thirst, and loosened from all discipline by the horrors which surrounded them, not content with the booty in the streets, rushed headlong into the burning edifices, to ransack their cellars for the stores of wine and spirits which they contained; and beneath the ruins great numbers perished miserably, the victims of intemperance and the surrounding fire. Meanwhile, the flames, fanned by a tempestuous gale, advanced with frightful rapidity, devouring alike in their course the palaces of the great, the temples of religion, and the cottages of the poor.

16. The emperor long clung to the Kremlin, in the hope. that the cessation of the fire would enable him to retain his long-wished-for conquest. But at length, on the 17th, the conflagration had spread in every direction; the horizon seemed a vast ocean of flame, and the cry arose that the Kremlin itself was on fire. He gave vent to his rage by commanding the massacre of the unfortunate men who had been intrusted with the duty of commencing the fire; and yielding to the solicitations of his followers, abandoned the Kremlin. The wind and the rush of the flames were so violent that Berthier was almost swept away by their fury; but the emperor and his followers arrived in safety before night at the country palace of Petrowsky.

17. General Mathieu Dumas and Count Daru, who were among the last that left the Kremlin, could scarcely bear the intense heat as they rode along the quay to follow the emperor; and, on leaving it, their horses were with difficulty brought to pass between two burning houses at the entrance of the street, which formed the sole issue that remained to them. Arrived at length at Petrowsky, they had leisure to contemplate the awful spectacle which was presented by the conflagration. Early on the following morning, Napoleon cast a melancholy look to the burning city, which now filled half the heavens with its flames, and exclaimed, after a long silence, "This sad event is the presage of a long train of disasters."

18. For thirty-six hours the conflagration continued; and

during that time above nine-tenths of the city were destroyed. The remainder, abandoned to pillage, and deserted by its inhabitants, offered no resources for the army. Moscow had been conquered, but the victors had gained only a heap of ruins. Imagination cannot conceive the horrors into which the remnant of the people who could not abandon their homes were plunged by this unparalleled sacrifice. Bereft of everything, they wandered amid the ruins, eagerly searching for a parent or an infant amid the smoking heaps; pillage became universal, and from the scene of devastation the wrecks of former magnificence were ransacked alike by the licentious soldiery and the suffering multitude.

19. The city, abandoned to pillage, was speedily filled with marauders; and in addition to the whole French army, numbers flocked in from the country to share in the general license. Furniture of the most precious description, splendid jewelry, Indian and Turkish stuffs, stores of wine and brandy, gold and silver plate, rich furs, gorgeous trappings of silk and satin, were spread about in promiscuous confusion, and became the prey of the least intoxicated among the multitude.

20. A frightful tumult succeeded to the stillness which had reigned in the city when the troops first entered it. The cries of the pillaged inhabitants, the coarse imprecations of the soldiers, were mingled with the lamentations of those who had lost their parents, their children, their all, in the conflagration. Plunder became universal in those days of unrestrained license; the same place often beheld the general's uniform and the soldier's humble garments in search of pillage. The ground, in the parts which had been consumed, was covered with a motley group of soldiers, peasants, and marauders of all countries and aspects, who sought, in the smoking ruins, the remains of the precious articles which they formerly contained.

21. The church of St. Michael, containing the tombs of the emperors of Russia, did not escape their sacrilegious violence; but no treasures were found to reward the cupidity of the depredators. The shouts of the marauders were interrupted

by the shrieks of the victims of military license, and occasionally drowned in the roar of the conflagration; while not the least extraordinary part of the clamor arose from the howling of the dogs, who, being chained to the gates of the palaces, were consumed in the flames with which they were surrounded.

[Napoleon returned to the Kremlin on the 20th of September, where he remained for some time, expecting overtures of peace from the Russian government. But he waited in vain, the Russians, on the contrary, strengthening their army and preparing for active hostilities. At length Napoleon commenced his retreat (Oct. 19), and that train of disasters ensued which he had predicted. His soldiers perished by thousands from the intense cold, famine, and the unremitting attacks of their enemies. At the passage of the Beresina River the loss of life was frightful. There Napoleon abandoned the remnant of his grand army and hastened to Paris. This dreadful defeat was but the beginning of troubles. The nations of Europe were allied against him, his armies were successively defeated, and he at last was compelled to abdicate the throne and retire to the little island of Elba, granted to him as a place of residence by his enemies (March 31, 1814). He, however, remained there scarcely a year, but, quitting his place of exile, again entered France, and was received with open arms by the French. He soon raised a large army; but at Waterloo was finally defeated (1815), after which he was sent to St. Helena, where he died (1821).]

The Battle of Waterloo.-Byron.

[On the evening of the 15th of June (1815) a ball was given by the Duchess of Richmond at Brussels, which was attended by the Duke of Wellington and many of his officers. The sudden commencement of operations by the French, with the immediate consequences, and the dreadful scene of the battle-field, are graphically depicted in the following verses from Lord Byron's beautiful poem entitled "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage."]

THERE was a sound of revelry by night,
And Belgium's capital had gather'd then
Her beauty and her chivalry, and bright

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men;
A thousand hearts beat happily; and when

Music arose with its voluptuous swell,

Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spoke again;
And all went merry as a marriage-bell :

But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising kneli!

Did ye not hear it ?—No; 'twas but the wind,

Or the car rattling o'er the stony street;

On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;

No sleep till morn, when Youth and Pleasure meet

To chase the glowing hours with flying feet

But hark!-that heavy sound breaks in once more,
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before!

Arm! Arm! it is-it is the cannon's opening roar!

Within a window'd niche of that high hall
Sat Brunswick's fated chieftain; he did hear
That sound the first amidst the festival,

And caught its tone with Death's prophetic ear;
And when they smiled because he deemed it near,
His heart more truly knew that peal too well
Which stretch'd his father on a bloody bier,

And roused the vengeance blood alone could quell:
He rush'd into the field, and foremost fighting, fell.

Ah! then and there was hurrying to and fro,
And gathering tears, and tremblings of distress,
And cheeks all pale, which but an hour ago
Blush'd at the praise of their own loveliness;
And there were sudden partings, such as press
The life from out young hearts, and choking sighs
Which ne'er might be repeated; who could guess
If ever more should meet those mutual eyes,
Since upon night so sweet such awful morn could rise!

And there was mounting in hot haste; the steed,
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed,
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war;
And the deep thunder peal on peal afar;

And near, the beat of the alarming drum

Roused up the soldier ere the morning-star;

While throng'd the citizens, with terror dumb,

Or whispering, with white lips-" The foe! they come! they come !"

And wild and high the "Cameron's Gathering” rose!
The war-notes of Lochiel, which Albyn's hills
Have heard, and heard, too, have her Saxon foes;-
How in the noon of night that pibroch thrills,
Savage and shrill! But with the breath that fills
Their mountain-pipe, so fill the mountaineers

With the fierce native daring which instills

The stirring memory of a thousand years,

And Evan's, Donald's fame rings in each clansman's ears!

And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves,
Dewy with nature's tear-drops as they pass,
Grieving, if aught inanimate ere grieves,
Over the unreturning brave,—alas !
Ere evening to be trodden like the grass

Which now beneath them, but above shall grow

In its next verdure, when this fiery mass

Of living valor, rolling on the foe

And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold and low.

Last noon beheld them full of lusty life,
Last eve in Beauty's circle proudly gay,

The midnight brought the signal sound of strife,
The morn the marshalling in arms,—the day
Battle's magnificently stern array!

The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which, when rent,
The earth is cover'd thick with other clay,

Which her own clay shall cover, heap'd and pent,
Rider and horse,-friend, foe,-in one red burial blent!

Character of Napoleon.-Channing.

[Extract from an Essay on the "Character of Napoleon," by William Ellery Channing, D.D.]

1. ONE of the striking properties of Bonaparte's character was decision, and this was perverted, by the spirit of selfexaggeration, into an inflexible stubbornness, which counsel could not enlighten nor circumstances bend. Having taken the first step, he pressed onward. His purpose he wished others to regard as a law of nature, or a decree of destiny. It must be accomplished. Resistance but strengthened it; and so often had resistance been overborne, that he felt as if his unconquerable will, joined to his matchless intellect, could vanquish all things. On such a mind the warnings of human wisdom and of Providence were spent in vain; and the Man of Destiny lived to teach others, if not himself, the weakness and folly of that all-defying decision which arrays the purposes of a mortal with the immutableness of the counsels of the Most High.