Some had retained from those days of
terror such vivid impressions that a conflagration or the sight of a
soldier's casque would cause them palpitation of the heart. There is
much repetition in their narrations, for all had seen the same: the
invasion, the enemy, the fire kindled by their own people, the misery,
the dearth, the pillage. There exist documents of the events in Moscow of
1812, the souvenirs of Count de Toll, the apology of Rostopchine, which we
shall come to in another chapter, the recitals of Domerque, of Wolzogen, of
Segur, but these reminiscences of people in Moscow are the only ones from
persons who actually suffered by the catastrophe, and they are in their way
as valuable as the writings of our two writers, von Scherer and von Borcke.
These plain people know nothing of the days of Erfurt, nothing of the
continental blocus, nothing of the withdrawal of Alexander from the
French Alliance; the bearers of the toulloupes (sheepskin furs) in the
streets of Moscow of the beginning of 1812 knew nothing of the
confederation of the Rhine; all they knew of Bonaparte was that he had
often beaten the Germans, and that on his account they had to pay more for
sugar and coffee. To them the great comet of 1811 was the first
announcement of coming great events. Let us see the reflections which the
comet inspired in the abbess of the Devitchi convent and the nun Antonine,
and this will give us an idea of the mental condition of the latter, one of
the narrators.
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