[131] Serfs: these serfs were slaves in all but name, and were bought and sold like cattle. They were emancipated by law in 1861, the whole number throughout Russia then being over 21,000,000.
[132] Czar: the correct Russian spelling of this word is said to be Tsar, which is now gradually coming into use in English. The title was first assumed by Ivan IV. (Ivan the Terrible) in 1533.
[133] Ruble (or Rouble): a Russian silver coin worth about seventy-five cents.
[134] Smolensk: see Introduction, "Napoleon."
[135] Rostopchin: (Ros-top-chen').
[136] Kutusoff: commander-in-chief of the Russian army.
[137] Muscovite: a native of Muscovy, an old name for Russia.
[138] Rostopchin denied, in a work which he published, that he set fire to the city. He insisted that it was done by the French, together with the rabble of Moscow. It is now thought that the governor began the work of destruction, which was completed partly by the Russians and partly by the French.
[139] Cossacks: a race of people inhabiting the south of Russia. On account of their great skill in horsemanship they are largely employed in the Russian army as cavalry.
[140] Moskwa: the French often spoke of the battle of Borodino as the Battle of the Moskwa, though it is not on that river, but on the Kologa, a tributary of it. The accounts of the number killed differ.