great deal of sulphur and saltpeter.

During the night from the 14th. to the 15th. Rostopchine developed a great
activity, though he could save only some miraculous images left in the
churches, and destroy some magazines.

The inhabitants suddenly aroused from their security went to the barriers
of the city and obstructed the streets with vehicles; to remove what still
remained in Moscow the means of transportation and the time allowed for
this purpose were insufficient.

Those who remained had nothing to lose and were glad to take revenge on the
rich by burning and pillaging their mansions.

On the 14th. the criminals in the prisons, with one-half of their heads
shaved, were set at liberty that they might participate in the burning and
pillaging.

Before leaving Moscow Rostopchine uncovered his head and said to his son,
"Salute Moscow for the last time; in half an hour it will be on fire."

Quite a literature has developed on the question: who has burned Moscow?
The documents which Popof has examined leave no doubt concerning
Rostopchine's part in regard to its conflagration. But, after all, it was
caused by those who had a right to do it, those who, beginning at
Smolensk, burned their villages, their hamlets, even their ripening or
ripened harvest, after the Russian army had passed and the enemy came in
sight. Who? The Russian people of all classes, of all conditions without
exception, men even invested with public power, and among them Rostopchine.