Collage 554

There was an abundance of riches and no end of them in sight; everywhere around the area occupied by the French, there were other areas, unknown and unoccupied, in which, as it seemed to the French, there were still greater riches. And Moscow absorbed them into itself more and more. Just as when water is poured onto dry ground, the result is that both water and dry ground disappear, so when the famished army entered the abundant, empty city the result was that the army was annihilated and the abundant city was annihilated; there was mud, there were fires and looting. p. 897 in P/V

Lynn Waskelis
from page 363-364, volume 2 of original text
collage
made 6/10/11
Pevear/Volokhonsky translation page 896-898