year 1826, and were locked up in the archives of the Imperial Chancellor
where they would remain, perhaps forever. Fortunately, one of the daughters
of Count Rostopchine had taken a copy of some passages of this precious
manuscript. These passages were published in 1864 by a son of Rostopchine,
Count Alexis R., in a book entitled "Materiaux en grande partie inedits,
pour la biographie future du Comte Rostopchine," which is of a rare
bibliographic value, for only twelve copies were printed. These same
fragments, three in number, were reproduced by Count Anatole de Segur in
the biography of his ancestor, of which we have spoken. Aside from these
extracts nothing was known of Rostopchine's memoirs until Popof had made
his researches. To verify the memoirs Popof quotes long passages which he
compares carefully with other documents of that epoch. This book on the
whole is a continuous commentary upon the memoirs of Rostopchine.

Rostopchine, having been made governor of Moscow in March, 1812, wrote to
the Tzar: "Your empire has two strongholds, its immensity and its climate.
It has these 16,000,000 men who profess the same creed, speak the same
language, and whose chin has never been touched by a razor. The long beards
are the power of Russia, and the blood of your soldiers will be a seed of
heroes. If unfortunate circumstances should force you to retreat before the
invader, the Russian emperor will always be terrible in Moscow, formidable
in Kazan, invincible at Tobolsk." This letter was dated June 11/23, 1812.

At that time Rostopchine was 47 years of age, in perfect health and had
developed a most extraordinary activity, something which was not known of
his predecessors; the governors of Moscow before his time had been old and
decrepit. He understood the character of the Russian people and made
himself popular at once, and adored, because he made himself accessible to
everybody. He himself describes how he went to work: "I announced that every
day from 11 to noon everybody had access to me, and those who had something