War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy [653]
The city police force has been established on its former bases, and, through its activity, already better order exists. The government has appointed two commissaries general or police chiefs and twenty commissaries or district officers, placed in all districts of the city. You will recognize them by a white band worn around the left arm. Several churches of various confessions have been opened, and divine offices are celebrated in them without hindrance. Your fellow citizens daily return to their dwellings, and orders have been given so that they may find in them the help and protection owed to misfortune. These are the means that the government has employed to restore order and ease your situation; but to achieve that, it is necessary that you join your efforts to it, that you forget, if possible, the misfortunes you have suffered, give yourselves to the hope of a less cruel fate, be assured that an inevitable and shameful death awaits those who venture upon your persons or your remaining possessions, and finally that you not doubt that these latter will be safeguarded, for such is the will of the greatest and most just of monarchs. Soldiers and inhabitants, of whatever nation you may be! Restore public confidence, the source of the good fortune of the state, live as brothers, render mutual aid and protection to one another, unite to foil the intentions of the evil-minded, obey the military and civil authorities, and your tears will soon cease to flow!
In respect of supplies for the army, Napoleon prescribed to all his troops that they take turns going around Moscow à la maraude*688 in order to stock up on provisions for themselves, so that in this way the army would be provided for in the future.
In the religious respect, Napoleon gave orders to ramener les popes†689 and resume church services.
In respect of trade and supplies for the army, the following was hung up everywhere.
PROCLAMATION
You, tranquil inhabitants of Moscow, artisans and working people whom misfortune has driven out of the city, and you, scattered tillers of the soil, whom a groundless fear still keeps in the fields, hear this! Stillness is returning to the capital, and order is being restored in it. Your compatriots are boldly leaving their refuges, seeing that they are respected. Every violence committed against them and their property is immediately punished. His Majesty the Emperor and King protects them and regards none among you as his enemies save those who disobey his orders. He wishes to put an end to your misfortunes and return you to your homes and families. Correspond to his beneficent intentions and come to us without any danger. Citizens! Return with confidence to your dwellings: you will soon find ways to satisfy your needs! Craftsmen and labor-loving artisans! Go back to your handiwork: houses, shops, protective guards are waiting for you, and you will be duly paid for your work! And, finally, you peasants, leave the forests where you have hidden yourselves from terror, return without fear to your cottages, in precise assurance that you will find protection. Depots are being set up in the city, where peasants can bring their surplus stocks and plants of the earth. The government has taken the following measures to provide them with a free market: (1) As of today, peasants, tillers of the soil, and those living in the environs of Moscow can without any danger bring to the city their supplies, of whatever sort they may be, to the two appointed depots, that is, to Mokhovaya Street and to Okhotny Row. (2) The said supplies will be purchased from them for the price agreed upon between the buyer and the seller; but if the seller does not obtain the fair price he demands, he is free to take them back to his village, and no one can prevent him by any means from doing so. (3) Each Sunday and Wednesday are appointed every week as major market days, for which reason a sufficient number of troops will be stationed on Tuesdays and Saturdays