CAMPAGNE DE RUSSIE. L.A.S. Lot n° 37

RUSSIAN CAMPAIGN. L.A.S. "Delbois", Moscow October 6, 1812, to his parents, "Monsieur Delbois, cultivateur à Chamant près Senlis"; 2 pages in-4, addressed with postal mark N°11 Grande Armée (some flaws, wetness in lower margin). Rare soldier's letter recounting the Moscow fire. He writes to his parents "from a city that has fallen prey to flames; the burning of this city, beautiful, rich, the largest & most commercial in Europe, offered us a spectacle as magical as it was frightening. Several thousand convicts, released by the enemy and promised pillage, waited until we had all entered Moscow, and hoping to find us drunk and happy, and to make us perish by flames, they set fire to more than twenty places; In a moment, an impetuous wind carried the flames to almost all the suburbs, and to a large part of the city's quarters; so that two-thirds of a city that should have been the admiration of travelers were burnt to the ground. No one fell victim to the evil designs of these scoundrels, and the harm they wished to do us fell on their heads; for as many as could be found were shot. It will be very difficult to restore Moscow to its former beauty, and the Russian Empire has suffered an irreparable loss in the ruin of this city, which could have been considered the most commercial city in the world, since all the goods of Asia abounded there. ....