left no doubt to any one that he would appear in Moscow. In order to raise
the courage which was sinking they had the miraculous image of the Virgin
conductrice brought from Smolensk, which place was to be visited by the
French. This icon was exposed in the cathedral of St. Michael the
Archangel, for veneration by the people. The abbess of our convent, who was
from Smolensk, had a special devotion for this image, she went with all the
nuns to salute the Protatrix. At St. Michael the Archangel there was a
great crowd so that one hardly could stand, especially were there many
women, all crying. When we, the nuns, began to push, to get near the image,
one after the other in a line endlessly long, they looked upon us with
impatience. One woman said: 'These soutanes should make room for us, it is
not their husbands, it is our husbands', our sons' heads, which will be
exposed to the guns.'"

Rostopchine tried his best to keep the population at peace by his original
proclamations, which were pasted on all the walls and distributed
broadcast. After Borodino he urged the people to take up arms, and he
promised to be at the head of the men to fight a supreme battle on the
Three Mountains. Meanwhile he worked to save the treasures of the church,
the archives, the collections of precious objects in the government
palaces. From the arsenal he armed the people. A tribune was erected from
which the metropolitan addressed the multitude and made them kneel down to
receive his blessing. Rostopchine stood behind the metropolitan and came
forward after the priest had finished his ellocution, saying that he had
come to announce a great favor of his majesty. As a proof that they should
not be delivered unarmed to the enemy, his majesty permitted them to
pillage the arsenal, and the people shouted: "Thanks, may God give to the
Tzar many years to live!" This was a very wise idea of Rostopchine to have
the arsenal emptied, a feat which he could not have accomplished in time in
any other way. The pillage lasted several days and went on in good order.