ue my master had three hundred men, many of them my Uhlans,
the "Clear-the-way-boys," intrenched on the island in the Lake of
Uzmaiz, five days' march away, where they stood guard over a military
chest of considerable value, and a large quantity of arms and
ammunition. Our enemies would have given their ears to know where our
money and arms were--for they knew Count Saxe had both--and it
finally took near five thousand Russians a month to find them.

I reckon those fourteen months in Mitau as going far to atone for our
sins. It was a time of negotiations, contentions, bickerings,
proclamations and counter proclamations, Count Saxe on the one side,
and the Russian Empire on the other; the Courlanders in between,
handing out lies by the shovelful, with equal impartiality on either
hand! What liars they were! There was an open green field near the
town, where the Diet met in those summers of 1726 and 1727, which
Count Saxe called the Field of Lies, after the celebrated spot in
France, where the heirs of Charlemagne met to divide the empire. I am
sure more lies were told about the duchy of Courland than were told
about the division of the empire of Charlemagne. We had promises
enough, and even votes enough to elect Count Saxe Duke of Courland, if
only he could have put his hand on ten thousand stout soldiers, to
make the election good. The Russians very rightly paid no attention to
the pretensions of the Holsteiners, and the Hessians, and the rest of
the crown snatchers, as Madame Riano had called them. They were but
lath and plaster; but Count Saxe was a man well fashioned by nature of
her strongest metal, and him the Russians reckoned with, and him
only.

We had but one piece of good luck in Mitau, and that was the place in
which we were lodged. It was an old stone schloss near the river, and
had been the residence of the dukes of Courland until they screwed the
money from their miserable people with which to build the fine palace.
They had made themselves secure from their lieges in case the lieges
should rise against their masters; for the walls of the old schloss
were nine feet thick, with mere slits for windows, and it was
surrounded by a moat, with a drawbridge. Moreover, there was a brick
tunnel a half of a quarter of a mile long, which debouched at the
river's edge. The market-place, however, had sprung up at that point,
and also, the bridge of boats, so that it was no longer available for
the escape of armed men