sants, whose hatred of the French uniform had hitherto
caused them to stand aloof from him, and they now patted him on the
shoulder, shook his hand, and drank glasses of _vodka_, evidently to his
health, with great heartiness. Julian could, as yet, scarcely believe
that all this was not a dream. From the day that he had crossed the
Niemen he had been filled with gloomy forebodings of disaster, and
sickened by the barbarities of the soldiers upon the people, while,
during the retreat, he had been exposed to constant hardship, engaged in
innumerable fights and skirmishes, and impressed with the firm belief
that not a Frenchman would ever cross the frontier save as a prisoner.
After this the sense of warmth, the abundance of food, and the absence
of any necessity for exertion seemed almost overpowering, and for the
next three or four days he passed no small proportion of his time in
sleep.

Stephanie was quite in her element. She was treated like a little queen
by the villagers, who considered her presence among them a high honour
as well as a source of future reward. They were never weary of
listening to the details of her stay among the French, and accorded to
Julian a good deal of deference both for the kindness he had shown the
little countess and for the service that he had thereby rendered to
themselves. It was ten days before an answer was received as to the
count's estates. They lay, it said, far to the south, but the bishop was
of opinion that the little countess had better be sent to St.
Petersburg, as the count had a palace there, and would be certain to be
at the capital at the present juncture of affairs. He offered that, if
they would bring her to him, he would see that she was sent on thither
by a post-carriage, but that in view of the extreme cold it would be
better that she should not be forwarded until the spring.

A village council was held on the receipt of this letter, and the
proposal that she should be sent by the bishop was unanimously
negatived. It seemed to the villagers that in such a case the glory of
restoring Stephanie to her parents, and the reward that would naturally
accrue from it, would not fall to them; but, at the same time, no
alternative method occurred to them. Finally, after much consultation,
Stephanie was asked to interpret the bishop's letter to Julian, and when
she had done so she was told to add: "They think, Julian, that if they
send us to the bishop papa will not know that i