ke a caged monkey here. Of course, as you say,
no one would dream of such a thing if one would have to go to Spain to
fight our fellows there. Still, if by any chance, after this Russian
business, your regiment was ordered back to France, and then to Spain,
you would at any rate have a fair chance of escaping on such a journey.
I would not do it myself, because I have a wife at home. One hopes,
slight as the chance seems to be, that some day there will be a general
exchange of prisoners. But as you can't go home, I don't know but that
it would be a good plan for you to do what you propose. At any rate,
your life as a soldier would be a thousand times better than this dog's
existence."

"I could put up with that for myself, but it is awful seeing many of the
men walking about with their heads down, never speaking for hours, and
the pictures of hopeless melancholy. See how they die off, not from
hunger or fever, for we have enough to eat, but wasting away and dying
from home-sickness, and because they have nothing to live for. Why, of
the forty-five of us who came up together, ten have gone already; and
there are three or four others who won't last long. It is downright
heartbreaking; and now that I have no longer anything to keep my
thoughts employed a good part of the day, I begin to feel it myself. I
catch myself saying, what is the use of it all, it would be better make
a bolt and have done with it. I can quite understand the feelings of
that man who was shot last week. He ran straight out of the gate; he had
no thought of escape; he simply did it to be shot down by the sentries,
instead of cutting his own throat. I don't believe I could stand it
much longer, Jim; and even if I were certain of being killed by a
Russian ball I think I should go."

"Go then, lad," the man said. "I have always thought that you have borne
up very well; but I know it is even worse for you than it is for us
sailors. We are accustomed to be cooped up for six months at a time on
board a ship, without any news from outside; with nothing to do save to
see that the decks are washed, and the brasses polished, except when
there is a shift of wind or a gale. But to anyone like yourself, I can
understand that it must be terrible; and if you feel getting into that
state, I should say go by all means."

"I will give you a letter before I enlist, Jim; and I will get you, when
you are exchanged, to go down with it yourself to Weymouth, and tell
them