Part 190

The equinoctial gales rose higher and higher upon the third night, and extended the flames, with which there was no longer any human power of contending. At the dead hour of midnight, the Kremlin itself was found to be on fire. A soldier of the Russian police, charged with being incendiary, was turned over to the summary vengeance of the Imperial Guard. Bonaparte was then, at length, persuaded, by the entreaties of all around him, to relinquish his quarters in the Kremlin, to which, as the visible mark of his conquest, he had seemed to cling with the tenacity of a lion holding a fragment of his prey. He encountered both difficulty and danger in retiring from the palace, and, before he could gain the city gate, he had to traverse with his suite streets arched with fire, and in which the very air they breathed was suffocating. At length he gained the open country, and took up his abode in a palace of the Czar’s called Petrowsky, about a French league from the city. As he looked back on the fire, which, under the influence of the autumnal wind, swelled and surged round the Kremlin, like an infernal ocean around a sable Pandemonium, he could not suppress the ominous expression: “This bodes us great misfortune!”

The fire continued to triumph unopposed, and consumed in a few days what it had cost centuries to raise. “Palaces and temples,” says a Russian author, “monuments of art, and miracles of luxury, the remains of ages which had passed away, and those which had been the creation of yesterday; the tombs of ancestors, and the nursery-cradles of the present generation, were indiscriminately destroyed. Nothing was left of Moscow save the remembrance of the city, and the deep resolution to avenge its fall.”

The fire raged till the 19th of September with unabated violence, and then began to slacken for want of fuel. It is said four-fifths of this great city were laid in ruins.—SIR WALTER SCOTT.

+immer stärker werden+; upon = during, with which commence the period.

there was no longer ... of contending = could no longer contend.

= quiet.

This man is charged with being incendiary, +man beschuldigt diesen Mann der Brandstiftung+.

+überge´ben+, with Dat.

here = immediate, +sofortig+, adj.

+über denen von beiden Seiten ein Feuermeer emporschlug.+

+um ein schwarzes Pandämonium (ein Dämonentempel+, +das Reich des Satans).+

+die Geburtsstätten+, N. Pl.

Section 221.

CHRISTMAS IN GERMANY.

Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Jan. 2, 1845.

We have lately witnessed the most beautiful and interesting of all German festivals—Christmas—which is celebrated in a style truly characteristic of the people. About the commencement of December, the Christmarkt, or fair, was opened in the Römerberg, and has continued to the present time. The booths, decorated with green boughs, were filled with toys of various kinds, among which, during the first days, the figure of St. Nicholas was conspicuous. There were bunches of wax candles to illuminate the Christmas tree, gingerbread with printed mottoes in poetry, beautiful little earthenware, basket-work, and a wilderness of playthings. The sixth of December, being Nicholas day, the booths were lighted up, and the square was filled with boys, running from one stand to another, all shouting and talking together in the most joyous confusion. Nurses were going around, carrying the smaller children in their arms, and parents bought presents decorated with sprigs of pine and carried them away.

Many of the tables had bundles of rods with gilded bands, which were to be used that evening by the persons who represented St. Nicholas. In the family with whom we reside, one of our German friends dressed himself very grotesquely with a mask, fur robe, and long tapering cap. He came in with a bunch of rods, a sack, and a broom for sceptre. After we all had received our share of the beating, he threw the contents of his bag on the table, and while we were scrambling for the nuts and apples, gave us many smart raps over the fingers. In many families the children are made to say: “I thank you, Herr Nicholas,” and the rods are hung up in the room until Christmas, to keep them in good behaviour. This was only a forerunner of the “Christkindchen’s” coming. The Nicholas is the punishing spirit, and the “Christkindchen” the rewarding one.

+kürzlich.+

Render ‘of the’ by the Dat. of the def. art., and use the attributive construction for ‘truly — people’.

+auf dem Römerberge+, a large square (+Platz+, m.) in the City.

+Es waren dort.+

+zur Erleuchtung.+

= verses.

= great number, +Menge+, f.

= excitement.

+sich verkleiden.+

+als.+

+läßt man die Kinder sagen.+