Napoleon was so fortunate as to be joined exactly at this time by two fresh divisions from Smolensk which nearly restored his muster to what it had been when the battle began, and thus reinforced commanded that the pursuit be pushed. On the 9th the French vanguard came in sight of the Russian rear again and Napoleon prepared for battle but once more Kutusoff fled precipitately in the direction of the capital.
The Emperor reached the "Hill of Salvation,"—so called because from that eminence the Russian traveler obtains his first view of the ancient metropolis affectionately called "Mother Moscow," and hardly less sacred in his eyes than Jerusalem. The soldiery beheld with joy and exultation the magnificent extent of the place; its mixture of Gothic steeples and oriental domes; and high over all the rest the huge towers of the Kremlin, at once the palace and citadel of the old Czars. The cry of "Moscow! Moscow!" ran through the lines. Napoleon himself reined in his horse, and exclaimed, "Behold, at last, that celebrated city!"
It was soon observed that no smoke came from the chimneys, and again, that no military appeared on the battlements of the old walls and towers. Murat, who commanded the van, now came riding up and informed the Emperor that he had held a parley with Milarodowitch, general of the Russian rear-guard, and that he had declared that unless two hours were granted for the safe withdrawing of his troops, he would at once set fire to Moscow. Napoleon immediately granted the armistice. When the Emperor halted at the barrier he had the exterior of the city reconnoitred; Eugene was ordered to surround it on the north, and Poniatowski to embrace the south, whilst Davoust remained near the centre; the Guard was then ordered to march, and, under the command of Lefebvre, Napoleon entered Moscow, and prepared to establish himself in the city. He found the capital deserted by all but the very lowest and most wretched of its vast population. The French soldiers soon spread themselves over its innumerable streets filling the magnificent palaces, the bazaars of the merchants, the churches, convents and public buildings of every description. The meanest soldier clothed himself in silk and furs and drank at his pleasure the costliest wines. Napoleon, perplexed at the abandonment of so great a city, had great difficulty in keeping together 30,000 men under Murat, who followed Milarodowitch, and watched the walls on that side.
At midnight the Emperor, who had retired to rest in a suburban palace, was awakened by the cry of "Fire!" The chief market-place was in flames and it was some hours before it could be extinguished. While the fire still burned Napoleon established his quarters in the Kremlin, and wrote by that fatal light, a letter to the Czar, containing proposals for peace. In his letter he assured the Czar, "that whatever might be the vicissitudes of war, nothing could diminish the esteem entertained for him by his friend of Tilsit and Erfurt."
From a Painting by Horace Vernet
Napoleon at the Battle of Freidland
The letter was committed to a prisoner of rank but no answer was ever received to it. On the next day the flames broke out again and in a short time various detached parts of the city were in flames, combustibles and matches were found in many places, and the water-pipes cut so that attempts to control the spreading flames were almost useless. The wind changed three times in the course of the night and the flames always broke out again with new vigor in the quarter from which the prevailing breeze blew right on the Kremlin. It was now found that the governor, in abandoning the city, had set all the malefactors in the numerous jails at liberty.
For four days the fire continued with more or less fury and four-fifths of the city was wholly consumed. "Palaces and temples," says Karamsin the Russian author, "monuments of arts and miracles of luxury, the remains of ages long since past, and the creation of yesterday, the tombs of ancestors, and the cradles of children were indiscriminately destroyed. Nothing was left of Moscow save the memory of her people, and their deep resolution to avenge her fall."