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of the Russian field army, and by failure to stop Napoleon,especially before Smolensk and before Moscow, on thefield of Borodino, even more blood-soaked than that ofEylau. Popular clamour against foreign or semi-foreigngenerals forced Alexander to substitute for Barclay deTolly as commander-in-chief Kutuzov, whom he couldnot abide. Nor could Kutuzov Alexander. In fact, theforeigners in Russia, particularly the Germans (amongthem Stein), were full of fight, and had every reason tourge the Russians on to expel Napoleon not only fromRussia but from his conquered lands. Despite Kutuzovand Borodino, Moscow had to be abandoned. The barestshadow of consolation that he could find was that itwould be for the Grand Army "like a sponge which willsuck it up."Even as the French entered their haven—to find ithalf-deserted, "the queenless hive" of Tolstoy—Moscowbegan to burn. The initial fires were at least in part dueto orders given by Rostopchin, the flamboyant, chameleongovernor-general, who at one and the same time hadsought to inflame the patriotism of the masses andrecoiled in terror of their independent action. But thedevastating spread of the fire was due to chance, carelessness,and individual malice in a city largely built of woodand filled with an out-of-hand rabble and carousing,looting French soldiers. In five days three-quarters ofthe city was in ashes. Yet the material effects of thefire were far less serious for the French than the moral.Believing it to be due to deliberate Russian policy, theywere aghast at the "decisiveness" of these "Scythians,"which destroyed their expectations that Moscow wouldmean the end of yet another victorious campaign. TheRussians, at the time, ascribed the burning of Moscowto "the modern Attila," with whom there could be noquestion of peace.The retreat of the French was caused by the refusal ofthe Russian people, of Kutuzov, and of Alexander(despite the irresolute gloom in St Petersburg) to accepta peace dictated by Napoleon from Moscow. Kutuzov(1745-1813), the crafty, enigmatic, one-eyed idol of thetroops, summed up the national spirit of resistance403