at which a war with Russia must needs be carried on, and the natural poverty of most of the Czar’s provinces, and came to the resolution of departing on this occasion from his old system.  In a word, months before he left Paris, he had given orders for preparing immense quantities of provisions of all kinds, to be conveyed along with his gigantic host, and render him independent of the countries which might form the theatre of his operations.  The destruction of the magazines at Wilna was sufficient indication that the Emperor had judged well in ordering his commissariat to be placed on an efficient footing; and his attention was naturally directed to ascertaining, ere he advanced further, in how much his directions as to this matter had been fulfilled.  He remained twenty days at Wilna—­a pause altogether extraordinary in a Buonapartean campaign, and which can only be accounted for by his anxiety on this head.  The result of his inquiries was most unsatisfactory.  The prodigious extent of the contracts into which his war-minister had entered was adequate to the occasion; but the movement of such enormous trains of cattle and waggons as these contracts provided for must, under any circumstances, have been tedious, and in some degree uncertain.  In this case they were entered into either by French traders, who, in consequence of Buonaparte’s own practice in preceding campaigns, could have slender experience of the method of supplying a great army in the field; by Germans, who regarded the French Emperor as the enemy of the world, and served him accordingly with reluctance; or finally, by Polish Jews—­a race of inveterate smugglers, and consequently of inveterate swindlers.

The result was, that after spending three weeks at Wilna, the Emperor found himself under the necessity, either of laying aside his invasion for another year, or of urging it in the face of every difficulty which he had foreseen, and, moreover, of that presented by a commissariat less effective by two-thirds than he had calculated on.

[Footnote 61:  This officer had been born and educated in Germany.  He was descended from an ancient Scottish family, exiled for adherence to the Stuarts, in 1715.]

CHAPTER XXX

Russia makes Peace with England, with Sweden, and with Turkey—­Internal preparations—­Napoleon leaves Wilna—­The Dwina—­Bagrathion’s Movements—­Battle of Smolensko—­Battle of Borodino—­Napoleon enters Moscow—­Constancy and Enthusiasm of the Russians—­Conduct of Rostophchin—­The burning of Moscow—­Kutusoff refuses to Treat.

While Napoleon was detained in the capital of Lithuania by the confusion and slowness which marked almost every department of his commissariat at this great crisis, the enemy employed the unexpected pause to the best advantage.  The Czar signed treaties of strict alliance with England, Sweden, and the Spanish Cortes, in the middle of July; and the negotiation