opened, and a woman entered very softly, with a hand shading
the lamp which she carried. Then the hand was suddenly withdrawn from
before the light; the woman touched Leckinski on the shoulder, and said,
_in French_, 'Would you like some supper?'

Leckinski, startled, sat up, with eyes scarcely open. Yet he kept his
wits about him. 'What do they want with me?' he said, _in German_.

This was the first 'proof.' Castagnos wished it to be also the last.
'Give the man something to eat,' said he to his men, 'saddle his horse,
and let him go on his way. How, if he were a Frenchman, could he be so
thoroughly master of himself?'

But his officers refused to obey. They gave food to Leckinski, but did
not saddle his horse, and kept him in the prison until morning. Then he
was taken to a place where lay the bodies of ten Frenchman, who had been
shot by some peasants. He was threatened with a similar fate. But,
although surrounded by snares, listened to by straining ears, watched by
keen eyes, the brave fellow let slip not a single suspicious word or
gesture. At last, after many hours of this mental torture, he was taken
back to his prison, and left alone for a time.

Again Castagnos pleaded for his captive, but his high-handed officers
were still dissatisfied.

Leckinski, thankful for solitude, after a spell of uncanny visions, the
result of the horrors he had actually seen, again found relief in sleep.
Again he was disturbed. 'Get up!' said--_in French_--the same gentle
voice that had spoken to him before. 'Come with me! Your horse is
saddled, and you are free.'

'What do they want with me?' said Leckinski _in German_, as he rubbed
his eyes.

Castagnos declared that this 'young Russian,' as he called him, was a
noble fellow; but the others still persisted that he was a Frenchman and
a spy. After another wretched night, the unhappy prisoner was brought
before a sort of tribunal, composed of officers of the General's staff.
The four men who conducted him thither uttered on the way horrible
threats, but, true to his resolution, Leckinski gave no sign of
understanding them. He took, apparently, no notice of anything that was
said either in French or in Spanish, and, when he came before his
judges, asked for an interpreter.

The examination began. The prisoner was asked what was the object of his
journey from Madrid to Lisbon. To this he answered by showing his
passport and the dispatches of the Russian Ambassador. These cred