rant
as a pig, and setting to improve himself--working in the dockyards
of Holland and England, attending lectures, and all kinds of
subjects. Why, man, he learnt anatomy, and can take off a leg as
quickly as I can. He is building a fleet and getting together an
army. It is not much good yet, you will say, but it will be some
day. You can turn a peasant into a soldier in six months, but it
takes a long time to turn out generals and officers who are fit for
their work.

"Then, while he is trying everywhere to improve his country, every
man jack of them objects to being improved, and wants to go along
in his old ways. Didn't they get up an insurrection, only because
he wanted them to cut off their beards? Any other man would have
lost heart, and given it up years ago. It looks as hopeless a task
as for a mouse to drag a mountain, but he is doing it.

"I don't say that he is perfect. He gets into passions, and it is
mighty hard for anyone he gets into a passion with. But who would
not get into passions, when there is so much work to be done, and
everyone tries to hinder instead of to help? It would break the
heart of Saint Patrick! Why, that affair at Narva would have broken
down most men. Here, for years, has he been working to make an
army, and the first time they meet an enemy worthy of the name,
what do they do? Why, they are beaten by a tenth of their number of
half-starved men, led by a mad-brained young fellow who had never
heard a shot fired before, and lose all their cannon, guns,
ammunition, and stores. Why, I was heartbroken, myself, when I
heard of it; but Peter, instead of blowing out his brains, or
drowning himself, set to work, an hour after the news reached him,
to bring up fresh troops, to re-arm the men, and to prepare to meet
the Swedes again, as soon as the snow is off the ground.

"If James of England had been Peter of Russia, he would be ruling
over Ireland now, and England and Scotland, too.

"But now, I must be off. Don't you worry about your head. I have
seen as bad a clip given by a blackthorn. I have got to go round
now and see the wounded, and watch some operations being done, but
I will come in again this evening. Don't eat any more of their
messes, if they bring them in. You and I will have a snug little
dinner together. I might get you put into a more dacent chamber,
but the general is one of the old pig-headed sort. We don't pull
together, so I would rather not ask any favours from him