, and produced the paper given
him on his enlistment, guaranteeing that he should not be called upon to
fight against his countrymen.

"Since we entered Russia, Count," he said, "and I have seen the savage
manner in which the peasantry were treated, not so much by the French
troops as by the allies, I bitterly regretted that I had enlisted; but,
at the time, no notion of this had ever entered my mind. I have told you
that the life at Verdun was intolerable. We died in hundreds, for a sort
of dull despair seemed to settle on everyone; and, although for a long
time I had borne up against it, I had come to the point when death would
have been welcome. A return to my own country seemed closed to me, owing
to the circumstances I have related to you; and I entered the French
service, just as, in the wars a couple of hundred years ago, Englishmen
and Scotchmen were to be found fighting as soldiers of fortune in the
armies of well-nigh every power of Europe."

"I cannot blame you, Mr. Wyatt. Yours is a singular and most unfortunate
story, and it seems to me that, had I been in your place, I should have
acted precisely the same, and should have been glad to take service
under any flag rather than have remained to rot in a prison. Certainly
you had a thousand times better excuse than had the Austrians and
Prussians, who, after having been our allies, entered upon this savage
war of invasion without a shadow of excuse, save that it was the will of
Napoleon. However, I think that it will be as well, in order to save any
necessity for explanation, that I should introduce you to my friends as
an English gentleman who has come to me with the warmest
recommendations, and whom I am most anxious to serve in any way. This is
not a time when men concern themselves in any way with the private
affairs of others. There is not a family in Russia, high or low, who
has not lost one or more members in this terrible struggle. Publicly,
and as a nation, we rejoice at our deliverance, and at the destruction
of our enemies. Privately, we mourn our losses.

"They have been terrible. As yet we scarcely know how great; but I
imagine that they will be found to have been no less than that of the
enemy. We hear that, in the pursuit, and without having taken any part
in the actual fighting after Krasnoi, Kutusow's army alone has lost
nearly 100,000 men from cold and fatigue; while, of the central army of
Napoleon, but four hundred infantry and six hundred