When he reached Moscow, Napoleon assumed he would be met by an official deputation from the Russians, but there was no deputation and the city was empty.
When he reached Moscow, Napoleon assumed he would be met by an official deputation from the Russians, but there was no deputation and the city was empty.
Book 11, Chapter 19
When he reached Moscow, Napoleon assumed he would be met by an official deputation from the Russians, but there was no deputation and the city was empty.
Summary:
When Kutúzov ordered the retreat through Moscow, the army marched through the night. The Russian army marched through the middle of Moscow, and kept going. By daybreak, the main army was on the other side of Moscow or beyond it. Napoleon was not far behind. But when he reached the outskirts of Moscow, Napoleon stopped and awaited the deputation he was expecting from the Russians. While he waited, Napoleon imagined how well he was going to rule Russia. He pictured himself as a kind and wise ruler, and pictured the Russians as his subjects, and was carried away by the tone of magnanimity he intended to adopt toward them. But no Russian deputation ever came, because the city was empty. Napoleon send some people into Moscow to look for a deputation, but they found only drunken mobs in the streets. Finally, tired of waiting, Napoleon gave the order for his troops to enter the city.
quote from the chapter:
But am I really in Moscow? Yes, here it lies before me, but why is the deputation from the city so long in appearing? (Napoleon) wondered. Meanwhile an agitated consultation was being carried on in whispers among his generals and marshals at the rear of his suite. Those sent to fetch the deputation had returned with the news that Moscow was empty, that everyone had left it. The faces of those who were not conferring together were pale and perturbed. They were not alarmed by the fact that Moscow had been abandoned by its inhabitants (grave as that fact seemed), but by the question how to tell the Emperor-without putting him in the terrible position of appearing ridiculous-that he had been awaiting the boyars so long in vain: that there were drunken mobs left in Moscow but no one else.
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