Hitherto we have spoken of Moscow, as it existed previous to its occupation by the French army under Buonaparte in 1812 ; but, by the conflagrations to which it was devoted, both by the Russians and the French, at their respective evacuations of the city, it was almost entirely destroyed, except some of the more distant parts of the Slabode, where the houses were thinly scattered, and a few streets in the division of Bielgorod, which had been occupied by the French guards. Preparations were made, by Buonaparte's orders, to blow up the Kremlin ; but, excepting one of the towers, and the church of St. Nicolas, the greater part of it was preserved by the exertions of the Rus sians. By official returns before the conflagrations, the wooden houses amounted to 6591, and those of stone or brick to 2567. \\Alen the French evacuated the town, there remained of the former only 2100, and of the latter 526. In the year 1814, there were re fitted in wood 1480, and in stone or brick 1312. Dur ing the summer, when the weather permitted the peo ple to bivouac in the streets amidst the ruined houses, about 170,000 inhabitants were collected ; but the re sidence of this number could not be counted upon during the winter. Its appearance at that period is thus described by an intelligent English traveller. cc It was from the road, as it passed under the turrets of the Petrousky palace, that we first beheld the my riads of domes and steeples that yet glittered among the ruins of Moscow ; and a short hour brought us to the barriers. At our first entrance, few symptoms were seen of a nature to correspond with the gloomy appearance which we had been led to expect ; but, as we advanced, the quarters of the Slabode or Faux bourg, where wood had chiefly been used in building, exhibited destruction in its fullest extent, for the most part, a champagne rase ; now and then the shell of a house was seen standing in a blank space, and here and there a few bricks and stones yet remaining, pointed out the spot where a dwelling once had been. Mov
ing onwards, we crossed the avenues of the boule vards; the trees were in full leaf and beauty, seeming to vary the view only to heighten its melancholy as pect. Leaving this, we passed to the central parts of the town, that were constructed with more durable materials, exhibiting occasionally a richness and ele gance of exterior, that must have equalled, if not sur passed, the architectural magnificence of the most beautiful towns of Europe. But all was now in the same forlorn condition ; street after street greeted the eye with perpetual ruin ; disjointed columns, mutilat ed porticos, broken cupolas, walls of rugged stones, black, discoloured with the stains of fire, and open on every side to the sky, formed a hidious contrast with the glowing pictures which travellers had drawn of the grand and sumptuous palaces of Moscow. The cross lanes looked, even at this interval, as if unused to hear the sound of human tread : the grass sprung up amidst the mouldering fragments that scattered the pavements, while a low smoke, issuing perhaps from some obscure cellar corner, gave the only indications of human habi tation, and seemed to make desolation " visible." Sec Coxe's Travels in Russia ; Clarke's Travels, vol. i. ; and James's Travels, vol. ii.