m Sweden
or from the king's army, I cannot say."

"Are you a Swede?" the general asked.

"I am an Englishman in the Swedish service, general."

"We have many of your countrymen with us," the general said. "It
would have been better for you, had you come to the czar.

"See that he is well treated," he said to the officers, and then
mounted and rode away.

Chapter 15: An Old Acquaintance.

The next morning Charlie was placed in a tent, in which lay several
officers who had been wounded, either the night before or by shots
from the town. He learned with great pleasure, upon questioning the
doctor, that the Swedes had got off safely in the darkness. Some
eight or ten men only had straggled and been made prisoners, and
not more than twenty had been left dead on the field. He had the
satisfaction, therefore, of knowing that the defence made by his
own pikemen had been the means of saving the whole force. In other
respects he had nothing to complain of, for he was well attended
to, and received the same treatment as the Russians.

For another ten days the roar of the cannon continued, some seventy
guns keeping up an incessant fire on the town. At the end of that
time the governor capitulated, and was allowed to march out with
the honours of war.

Only forty out of the brave garrison remained unwounded at the end
of the siege. They, as well as such of their comrades as were
strong enough to travel, passed through the lines of the Russians,
and marched to Vyburg.

Three weeks after being made a prisoner, Charlie's wound was so far
healed that the surgeon pronounced him able to sit a horse, and,
under the escort of an officer and four Cossacks, he was taken by
easy stages to Bercov, a prison fortress a short distance from
Moscow. He had inquired from the surgeon who attended him for
Doctor Kelly. The doctor knew him, but said that he was not with
the army, but was, he believed, away visiting some towns on the
Volga, where a serious pestilence was raging.

Charlie remained but a short time at Bercov. His wound was healing
rapidly, and the surgeon who attended him assured him that there
was every prospect of his making a complete cure, if he would but
keep his arm, for some weeks, in a sling.

He had nothing to complain of, either as to his comfort or food.
The governor, who spoke a little Polish, visited him every day, and
asked many questions as to his native country. On one of these
visits he said to him: