Everywhere it was the same. There are, as God created it, few
countries of a sadder aspect than that which spreads between the
Moskwa and the Vistula. But it has been decreed by the dim laws of
Race that the ugly countries shall be blessed with the greater love
of their children, while men born in a beautiful land seem readiest
to emigrate from it and make the best settlers in a new home. There
is only one country in the world with a ring-fence round it. If a
Russian is driven from his home, he will go to another part of
Russia: there is always room.
Before the advance of the spoilers, chartered by their leader to
unlimited and open rapine--indeed, he had led them hither with that
understanding--the Prussians, peasant and noble alike, fled to the
East. A hundred times the advance guard, fully alive to the
advantages of their position, had raced to the gates of a chateau
only to find, on breaking open the doors, that it was empty--the
furniture destroyed, the stores burnt, the wine poured out.
So also in the peasants' huts. Some, more careful than the rest,
had pulled the thatch from the roof to burn it. There was no corn
in this the Egypt of their greedy hopes. And, lest they should
bring the corn with them, the spoilers found the mills everywhere
wrecked.
It was something new to them. It was new to Napoleon, who had so
frequently been met halfway, who knew that men for greed will part
smilingly with half in order to save the residue.
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