To save face, Rastoptchin has a young man arrested. This young man is Vereshtchagin. Rastoptchin says, "This man, Vereshtchagin, is the wretch by whose doing Moscow is lost." Rastoptchin claims that this man is a traitor, a deserter to Bonaparte. Through his words and actions, Rastoptchin lets the crowd know that they can do with him as they please. Like wild beasts the crowd falls upon him and kills him with whatever they have in their hands. Rastoptchin feels sick, but then he goes and tells Kutuzov that none of this would have happened if he hadn't allowed Moscow to fall. At 4 o'clock Murat's troops enter Moscow in an orderly manner, even though they are hungry and exhausted. The moment that the army disperses into the wealthy, well-stocked houses of.....
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