The Emperor’s young companions, with small experience and lofty aims, were keenly disappointed in him.  This alliance was in contravention of all their ideals.  He began to grow distrustful and cold toward them, leaning entirely upon Speranski, his prime minister, who was French in his sympathies and a profound admirer of Napoleon.  Alexander, no less zealous for reforms than before, hurt at the defection of his friends and trying to justify himself to himself, said “Does not this man represent the new forces in conflict with the old?” But he was not at ease.  He and his minister worked laboriously; a systematic plan of reform was prepared.  Speranski considered the Code Napoleon the model of all progressive legislation.  Its adoption was desired, but it was suited only to a homogeneous people; it was a modern garment and not to be worn by a nation in which feudalism lingered, in which there was not a perfect equality before the law; hence the emancipation of the serfs must be the corner-stone of the new structure.  The difficulties grew larger as they were approached.  He had disappointed the friends of his youth, had displeased his nobility, and a general feeling of irritation prevailed upon finding themselves involved by the Franco-Russian alliance in wars with England, Austria, and Sweden, and the prosperity of the empire seriously impaired by the continental blockade.  But when Bonaparte began to show scant courtesy to his Russian ally, and to act as if he were his master, then Alexander’s disenchantment was complete.  He freed himself from the unnatural alliance, and faced the inevitable consequences.

Napoleon, also glad to be freed from a sentimental friendship not at all to his taste, prepared to carry out his long-contemplated design.  In July of 1812, by way of Poland, he entered Russia with an army of over 678,000 souls.  It was a human avalanche collected mainly from the people he had conquered, with which he intended to overwhelm the Russian Empire.  It was of little consequence that thirty or forty thousand fell as this or that town was captured by the way.  He had expected victory to be costly, and on he pressed with diminished numbers toward Moscow, armies retreating and villages burning before him.  If St. Petersburg was the brain of Russia, Moscow—­Moscow the Holy—­was its heart!  What should they do?  Should they lure the French army on to its destruction and then burn and retreat? or should they there take their stand and sacrifice the last army of Russia to save Moscow?  With tears streaming down their cheeks they yielded to the words of Kutuzof, who said:  “When it becomes a matter of the salvation of Russia, Moscow is only a city like any other.  Let us retreat.”  The archives and treasures of the churches and palaces were carried to Valdimir, such as could of the people following them, and the city was left to its fate.