set-fire

Updated: July 18, 2025

I went to visit her at her country-house, in the interior of Moscow. I was obliged to cross a lake and a wood in* order to reach it: it was to this house, one of the most agreeable residences in Russia, that Count Rostopchin himself set-fire, on the approach of the French army. Certainly an action of this kind was likely to excite a certain kind of admiration, even in enemies.

Madame de (Anne-Louise-Germaine) Staël - Ten Years' Exile: Memoirs of That Interesting Period of the Life of the Baroness De Stael-Holstein, Written by Herself, during the Years 1810, 1811, 1812, and 1813, and Now First Published from the Original Manuscript, by Her Son.