But he spoke no
French, and only cringed in silence when addressed. Other doors
were broken in.
It was like a play acted in dumb show on an immense stage. It was
disquieting and incomprehensible even to the oldest campaigner,
while the young fire-eaters, fresh from St. Cyr, were strangely
depressed by it. There was a smell of sour smoke in the air, a
suggestion of inevitable tragedy.
On the Krasnaya Ploschad--the great Red Square, which is the central
point of the old town--the soldiers were already buying and selling
the spoil wrested from the burning Exchange. It seemed that the
citizens before leaving had collected their merchandise in this
building to burn it. To the rank-and-file this meant nothing but an
incomprehensible stupidity. To the educated and the thoughtful it
was another evidence of that dumb and sullen capacity for infinite
self-sacrifice which makes Russians different from any other race,
and which has yet to be reckoned with in the history of the world.
For it will tend to the greatest good of the greatest number, and is
a power for national aggrandisement quite unattainable by any Latin
people.
Charles, with the other officers of Prince Eugene's staff, was
quartered in a palace on the Petrovka--that wide street running from
the Kremlin northward to the boulevards and the parks. Going
towards it he passed through the bazaars and the merchants'
quarters, where, like an army of rag-pickers, the eager looters were
silently hurrying from heap to heap.
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