The battle of Moskova is most fatal of the battles of the Empire, after that of Leipsick; the two armies were about equal forces some, and the victory was disputed a long time: certain positions were lost and taken again twice.

It was a great load of cavalry which decided day; the cuirassiers of Montbrun and Caulaincourt, after having collapsed the Russian cavalry, penetrated with its following the medium of the enemy positions, and cut through the path at the French infantry.

But Caulaincourt and Montbrun remained on the battle field; 45 other Generals and 30 000 men had been struck, including more than 12 000 with death; Ney and Murat, remained all the day in the medium of a terrible fire, had not been touched; the Russians had 60 000 men out of combat and their General, Bagration, was among deaths (September 7, 1812).

The French Army had just entered to Moscow, where it hoped to recover from its tirednesses, when suddenly, in the middle of the night, the fire burst de.toutes.parts and was propagated with an appalling speed: they was the Russians who burned their city to drive out the French.

The majority of the houses were out of wood, all the pumps had been removed, and nothing stopped the flame in its walk: 15 000 wounded Russian perished in the hospitals.

Napoleon, besieged by fire in the palate of the tsars, escaped only from grand' sorrow through the blazing inferno, the medium of a suffocating smoke and houses which collapsed (September).

The General of Ornano having been seriously wounded, Napoleon gave him the only car which it had been able to preserve and made the remainder of the road to foot.

The plains were strewn with remains and corpses buried in snow.

The rear-guard and the carriages were pressed on the narrow bridges, to join large army, when the Russians occurred with their artillery; one of the two bridges broke under the balls, and the unhappy ones which were committed there were thorough the ones after the others in the pit by the crowd which followed them; the other bridge was then disputed more than ever; one saw poor wretches, made furious by the fear, to clear a passage the sabre with the hand, through their companions; others were thrown in frozen water and drowned there; the Russians the following day counted 24 000 corpses (November).