, and that, after a
consultation with my steward, she would in three days start direct after
sending off her letter. We were, of course, thunderstruck. She
apparently had the idea that the whole of the French were at Moscow, and
that it would, therefore, be perfectly safe to cross the roads between
them and the frontier. The poor woman said that should they by any
chance come across any body of her countrymen, she was sure that they
would not interfere with a woman and child. Her anxiety seemed to relate
solely to the weather and food, but she assured me that she would bring
an abundance of wraps of all sorts, and a supply of provisions in the
_fourgon_ sufficient for the journey.

"Half an hour after I received the letter I sent off two couriers. They
were, of course, to go round east of Moscow and then to Kieff. They were
to drive at the top of their speed the whole way, and I obtained a
special order for them to be instantly furnished with post-horses
everywhere. In the meantime there was nothing to do but to wait. My
orders were that immediately they arrived they were to send off a fresh
messenger by the way they had come, saying whether Stephanie had
started, and they were bearers of letters of instruction to the steward
that six mounted men were instantly to follow the road the carriage had
taken, making inquiries at every post-house, and to endeavour to trace
them, and if the clue was anywhere lost to bring word to me. I waited
ten days, then I got news that Stephanie had left five weeks before my
messengers arrived there. The nurse's letter had been a very long time
in coming to me, and they had started, as she said, three days after it
was written, therefore if they had got safely through the country
occupied by the French they should have arrived here at least three
weeks before.

"According to the dates there was little doubt that they must have
crossed the main road from Moscow to the frontier at the very time when
the French army on its retreat would be moving along. All that we had
heard and knew of the terrible distress, both of their army and of our
own, showed that at that time the intense suffering of the French and
the savage reprisals of our peasantry had reduced them to a state when
nothing was respected, and that a pair of valuable horses and a heap of
costly furs, to say nothing of the food carried, would be prizes almost
beyond value. Deprived of these, a nurse and child would, in a few
hours,