19 bundantly sufficient to satisfy his thirst for plunder. Nothing was heard but the crack- ling of flames, and the noise of the doors that were broken open-and occasionally a dreadful crash caused by the falling in of some vault. Cottons, muslins, and in short all the most costly productions of Europe and of Asia were a prey to the flames. The cellars were filled with sugar, oil, and vitriol: these burning all at once in the subterra- neous warehouses, sent forth torrents of flames through thick iron grates, and pre- sented a striking image of the mouth of hell. It was a spectacle both terrible and affecting. Even the most hardened minds were struck with a conviction that so great a calamity would on some future day, call forth the vengeance of the Almighty upon the authors of such crimes. "The hospitals too, which contained 20,000 wounded Russians, now began to burn. This offered a harrowing and dread- ful spectacle. Almost all these miserable creatures perished. A few who still lin- gered, were seen crawling, half burnt, a- mong the smoking ruins; and others, groaning under heaps of dead bodies, en- deavcured in vain to extricate themselves from the horrible destruction which sur- rounded them.
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