" said the other, "was it you who fired that fatal shot?
You very nearly killed my poor patient."

"But, monsieur, I fired in the air."

"You would have done the countess less harm had you fired at her."

"Then we must not reproach each other, monsieur, for the sight of the
countess has almost killed my friend, Monsieur de Sucy."

"Heavens! can you mean Baron Philippe de Sucy?" cried the doctor,
clasping his hands. "Did he go to Russia; was he at the passage of the
Beresina?"

"Yes," replied d'Albon, "he was captured by the Cossacks and kept for
five years in Siberia; he recovered his liberty a few months ago."

"Come in, monsieur," said the master of the house, leading the marquis
into a room on the lower floor where everything bore the marks of
capricious destruction. The silken curtains beside the windows were
torn, while those of muslin remained intact.

"You see," said the tall old man, as they entered, "the ravages
committed by that dear creature, to whom I devote myself. She is my
niece; in spite of the impotence of my art, I hope some day to
restore her reason by attempting a method which can only be employed,
unfortunately, by very rich people."

Then, like all persons living in solitude who are afflicted with an ever
present and ever renewed grief, he related to the marquis at length the
following narrative, which is here condensed, and relieved of the many
digressions made by both the narrator and the listener.

CHAPTER II. THE PASSAGE OF THE BERESINA

Marechal Victor, when he started, about nine at night, from the
heights of Studzianka, which he had defended, as the rear-guard of the
retreating army, during the whole day of November 28th, 1812, left a
thousand men behind him, with orders to protect to the last possible
moment whichever of the two bridges across the Beresina might still
exist. This rear-guard had devoted itself to the task of saving a
frightful multitude of stragglers overcome by the cold, who obstinately
refused to leave the bivouacs of the army. The heroism of this generous
troop proved useless. The stragglers who flocked in masses to the banks
of the Beresina found there, unhappily, an immense number of carriages,
caissons, and articles of all kinds which the army had been forced to
abandon when effecting its passage of the river on the 27th and 28th of
November. Heirs to such unlooked-for riches, the unfortunate men, stupid
with cold, took up their abode in the deserted