he wept at the
prospect of it "like a child." Who, then, _did_ desire and cause it?
There are some things in this remarkable world that no man can
understand. At all events I cannot. When I put the same question, long
afterwards, to my dear and ever-sagacious mother, she replied, "Do you
not think, Jeff; that perhaps the men in power, somewhere, wanted it and
caused it? There are some countries, you know, where the _people_ are
mere chessmen, who have nothing whatever to do or say in the management
of their own affairs, and are knocked about, wisely or foolishly as the
case may be, by the _men in power_. England herself was in that sad
case once, if we are to believe our school histories, and some of the
European nations seem to be only now struggling slowly out of that
condition, while others are still in bondage."

I think my mother was right. After much consideration, I have come to
the conclusion that war is usually, though not always, caused by a few
ambitious men in power at the head of enslaved or semi-enslaved nations.
Not always, I repeat, because free nations, being surrounded by savage,
barbarous, and semi-free, are sometimes wheedled, dragged, or forced
into war in spite of themselves.

After the review some of the regiments started directly for the
frontier.

Nicholas Naranovitsch was summoned to the presence of his colonel.
Nicholas was very young and inexperienced; nevertheless, during the
brief period in which he had served, he had shown himself possessed of
so much ability and wisdom that he was already selected to go on a
secret mission. What that mission was he never told me. One result of
it, however, was, that he and I had a most unexpected meeting on the
Danube in very peculiar circumstances.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

TREATS OF TORPEDOES, TERRIBLE CATASTROPHE, UNEXPECTED MEETINGS, AND SUCH
LIKE.

To return to my personal experiences. It now became a matter of the
deepest importance that we should get out of the river before the
Russian army reached its banks and stopped the navigation. The weather,
however, was against us. It rained a great deal, and the nights were
very dark. The swollen current, it is true, was in our favour;
nevertheless, as we had already spent several weeks in ascending the
river, it was clear that we should have to race against time in
retracing our course.

One dark night about the end of May, as we were approaching the Lower
Danube, and speculating on the p