ying men and horses so
encumbered the way, that many poor fellows, struggling with the agonies
of death, caught hold of those who mounted over them; but these kicked
them with violence to disengage themselves, treading them under foot.
Thousands of victims fell into the waves and were drowned.

The reader will not be surprised to hear that at this awful time the
little Catharine was separated from her protectress, who was probably
drowned or killed, or else imagined the child to be engulfed in the
waters of the fatal river. At all events, the Russian child and the
sutler's wife never met again in this world.

'There is a power
Unseen, that rules th' illimitable world--
That guides its motions, from the brightest star
To the least dust of this sin-tainted mould;
While man, who madly deems himself the lord
Of all, is nought but weakness and dependence.
This sacred truth, by sure experience taught,
Thou must have learnt, when, wandering all alone,
Each bird, each insect, flitting through the sky,
Was more sufficient for itself than thou.'

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

CHAPTER II.

In spite of all obstacles, Catharine managed to cross over one of the
bridges to the opposite side of the Beresina, and then the poor child
came on with a detachment of the French army as far as Poland. Many of
her companions perished of exposure and want; others were lost on the
way; some lay down from sheer exhaustion, or to try to sleep, and,
ignorant of the hour of march, on awaking found themselves in the power
of the enemy.

The sick and the wounded anxiously looked around for some humane friend
to help them, but their cries were lost in the air. No one had leisure
to attend to his dearest friend--self-preservation, the first law of
nature, absorbed every thought.

Under these distressing circumstances, it so happened that the
friendless little Russian girl found herself quite alone, _forsaken in
the midst of a large forest_, where wolves and even bears were
frequently seen.

The poor child, half-dead with cold, hunger, and fear, the snow nearly
up to her knees, saw ere long, to her intense horror, a savage bear
approaching; and Catharine, making a frantic effort to escape, found her
limbs so benumbed and her weakness so great that she could not move.

The bear was coming nearer, preparing to attack h