487
To the Cossacks lie distributed all the gold he had abouthim —to the officers he gave his watch, and all the watchesand the gold about the persons of his entire staff, which wasnot little. The barbarians were in extacies, and his officershad no reason to complain of the contributions he had leviedon them, inasmuch as he returned what he had borrowedwith really royal interest.
The period of armistice agreed upon (six hours) beingexpired, King Joachim entered Moscow with his long,dense line of cavalry, and found not a soul, until he arrivedat the grand square, before the Imperial Palace of theKremlin . Here were seen, drawn up, and quite forgottenby those who had placed them there, five hundred Russian recruits. They were granted their liberty, and ordered todisperse, a command which the poor creatures weredelighted in obeying. A few armed nondescripts werefound in the Palace of the Kremlin , who were also sentabout their business. But the most afflicted on this occa-sion were, several thousand German and other desertersfrom the French auxiliary forces, which had not been pro-vided by the Russians with the means of following them.These unfortunates were all liable to be shot for desertionto the enemy; but here again, for the thousand and tenthtime, did the magnanimous philanthropy of Joachim Murat shine forth with heart-cheering splendour. He orderedthem all to be held free, telling them that such aschose to rejoin their respective corps, were at liberty to doso, without the fear of punishment,—or they would be fur-nished with a pass to return to their homes,—or they mightfollow the Russians , and, if they pleased, remain in thatcountry. I do not well remember the general choiceadopted by these men, but I think, that the greater partof them joined different regiments, as they found it mostconvenient.