MOSCOW MOSES. 



French, the large wart-houses in the neighbourhood 

 of the Kremlin were in flames; then the fire broke 

 out in several parts of the city. The fifth day after 

 the French had entered, a high wind carried the flames 

 in every direction ; so that, in the course of three 

 days, 7932 houses were consumed to ashes. Napo- 

 leon having given permission that those houses which 

 were on fire might be plundered, the soldiers did not 

 exert themselves in subduing the flames. The Rus- 

 sians at that time maintained that the conflagration 

 was entirely the work of the French, which added to 

 the exasperation of the people. Even Kutusoff de- 

 clared to Lauriston that he had only given orders to 

 destroy several magazines. The rest had been done 

 by the French. The following circumstances attend- 

 ed the entry of the French : Napoleon waited in vain 

 for messengers to deliver to him the keys of the city. 

 At last, a deputation appeared, consisting of twelve 

 badjy-dressed persons of the lower orders. Napoleon 

 therefore did not attend to them. A young Russian, 

 who had conceived the idea of issuing a proclamation 

 in the name of Napoleon, was killed by the people. 

 When the advanced guard of the French entered 

 Moscow, Sept. 14, and proceeded to the Kremlin, 

 a Russian peasant suddenly sprang forward, and 

 killed a Polish officer, whom he had taken for Napo- 

 leon. Some of the citizens prepared to defend the 

 Kremlin ; but Murat brought forward his cannon, 

 and they fell a sacrifice to their despair. On the 

 fifteenth, at three o'clock in the afternoon, Napoleon 

 entered with his guards, and took up his abode in the 

 Kremlin. But volleys of smoke soon rose at a dis- 

 tance, and the flames proceeded from five hundred dif- 

 ferent quarters. The attempts to extinguish the flames 

 and restore order were fruitless. All Moscow was on 

 fire. It being impossible to subdue the conflagration, 

 Napoleon left the Kremlin, and retired to castle Petro- 

 wskoi, a league from the city. His last words were, 

 !i Where you cannot extinguish, plunder !" Horrors 

 upon horrors now succeeded : Moscow was burning till 

 Sept. 21. At last, order and tranquillity were restor- 

 ed, on the first of October : but the " holy city " thus 

 destroyed roused the people to vengeance against the 

 French ; and the army, in the midst of plundered 

 treasures, was soon deprived of the very necessaries 

 of life. Of 150,000 soldiers who had entered Mos- 

 cow, Napoleon, in five weeks, had lost 40,000 : thus 

 retreat became unavoidable. From the 19th to the 

 22d of October, preparations were made for retiring, 

 which were accompanied by new acts of ferocity and 

 avidity, On the last day, it was resolved to destroy 

 the Kremlin ; but this only partly succeeded. Of 

 2600 stone houses, but 525, and, of 6600 wooden 

 buildings, only 1797, were preserved. The entire 

 loss which the fire and the war occasioned to the city 

 and the government of Moscow, was estimated at 

 321,000,000 of roubles. The Russian government 

 appointed a commissioner to make indemnification ; 

 but many of the inhabitants, who had lost the greater 

 part of their property, did not hand in their estimates; 

 thu-, for instance, the loss of the two counts Razu- 

 mowski, of general Apraxin, count Butterlin (whose 

 library, worth a million, was entirely destroyed), and 

 of general Rostopschin, amounted to five millions of 

 roubles, in houses and furniture. 



After the recovery of the country, the Russians 

 were so actively employed in rebuilding Moscow, 

 that, in the course of nine years, it had risen from 

 its ruins in greater beauty than before the conflagra- 

 tion. The houses are principally of brick ; the streets 

 are paved with pebbles, and bordered with foot-paths; 

 fifteen main streets diverge from the centre, termina- 

 ting at the fifteen barriers; the principal squares are 

 those of Loubianka, and of the poultry market, near 

 the centre of the city ; the number of streets is 



765; houses, 10,000, of which 8027 lutve Ixmi built 

 since the conflagration of 1812; cathedrals 7; churches 

 iiinl clmpels, 275, and 1 mosque, 21 monasteries, 5fi 

 hospitals, &c. The imperial university has a Jilmiry 

 of 33,000 volumes : the course of instruction includes 

 the moral and political sciences, physics, mathema- 

 tics, medicine, and polite literature. Several lesirnod 

 societies are connected with it. There are numerous 

 other literary institutions. Some of the hospitals are 

 very extensive, particularly the military hospital, with 

 1900 beds, which received 1 1 ,650 patients in 1823. 

 The population, in summer, is 246,545, and, in win 

 ter, receives an increase of 150,000. 



MOSELLE ; a department of France. See De- 

 partments. 



MOSELLE, or MOSEL (anciently Mosella), a 

 tributary of the Rhine, rises in France, in the Vosges, 

 and flows into the Rhine at Coblentz, opposite to 

 Ehrenbreitstein. It runs through the French depart- 

 ments of the Vosges, the Meurthe, and the Moselle, 

 the southern part of Luxembourg, and the Prussian 

 1 rovince of the Lower Rhine. The length of its 

 course is about 300 miles. Its principal tributaries 

 are the Meurthe and the Saar. From Metz to Tre- 

 ves, it has a broad valley, but, below the latter place, 

 it is confined by the branches of the Hundsruck. 

 The mean breadth is about 500 feet ; depth, seven 

 to fifteen feet. The navigation is tedious, on account 

 of the winding course of the river, and, in some parts, 

 is difficult and dangerous. From Treves to Coblentz, 

 the scenery on the river is very picturesque, almost 

 every village and every group of hills present- 

 ing a beautiful landscape. The neighbourhood of 

 Trarbach is charming ; mountains, vine-clad hills, 

 fertile valleys, interchange with each other, and 

 several brooks run into the Moselle. The principal 

 towns on its banks are Pont-a-Mousson, MetzThion* 

 ville, Treves and Coblentz. Wood for fuel and build- 

 ing, coal, iron, slates, wine, grain, c., are brought 

 down the river in large boats, eighty feet in length 

 by twenty in breadth. 



MOSELLE WINES ; a sort of clear and dry wines, 

 with a light, pleasant flavour and high aroma, pro 

 duced in the countries on and near the Moselle. 

 They are generally only first rate ordinary wines, but 

 are sometimes of a superior quality. They come to 

 maturity in about five or six years, but in a favour- 

 able season, they will keep twice that time without 

 deterioration. The best are produced at Braunen- 

 berg, Graach, Wehlen, Zeltingen. The Pisporter, 

 Drobner, and Neumagner are also esteemed. They 

 are now much used in Prussia, on account of the 

 high duties on foreign wines. The Moselle wines 

 are often recommended for their diuretic qualities, and 

 as preventive of obesity. 



MOSES was born in Egypt, about 1600 B.C., 

 among the then severely oppressed Hebrew people. 

 Three months after his birth, his father, Amram, and 

 mother, Jochebed, both of the race of Levi, were 

 obliged to expose him, in obedience to a royal com- 

 mand, which enjoined that all the male children of the 

 Hebrews should be put to death. But the daughter of 

 the Egyptian king (a tradition preserved by Josephus 

 names her Thermutis), going to bathe in the Nile, 

 found the child exposed in a carefully constructed 

 basket of bulrushes upon the border of the river, and 

 took compassion upon him. His sister Miriam, who 

 was standing near, offered to procure him u nurse, 

 and immediately summoned his mother. The feelings 

 of his unhappy people were therefore instilled into 

 him with his mother's milk, and he returned, when 

 he had reached a fit age for instruction, to the king's 

 daughter, who named him Mo-udsche (whence the 

 Hebrew Mvcheh), signifying one delivered from tho 

 waters, and adopted him as her son. He was after- 



