Rostopchine, Count, Russian general, governor of Moscow; was charged with having set fire to the city against the entrance of the French in 1812; in his defence all he admitted was that he had set fire to his own mansion, and threw the blame of the general conflagration on the citizens and the French themselves (1763‒1826).
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Rostoff * Rostrum