sparks and big flaring brands fell in showers. Unless
they departed quickly they would be burned to death.

Captain Ladoinski could not seek safety in flight, for he had been
commanded to remain in his quarters, and the order had not been
cancelled. Assuring his wife that he would soon be at liberty to leave
his post, he urged her to depart with their child and wait for him
outside the city. This she refused to do, declaring that as long as he
remained where he was she would stay with him. And this determination
he could not alter, although he used every persuasion possible to that
end.

On came the flames, crackling, hissing and roaring, and soon the houses
facing the Ladoinskis would be engulfed in them. The captain would not
quit his post without orders, and his wife would not leave him. Death
seemed certain, and they were preparing to meet it, when suddenly an
order came from head-quarters ordering the troops to evacuate the city
with all despatch. Instantly the retreat began, but many men fell in
the scorching, suffocating streets never to rise again. Captain
Ladoinski and his wife and child had many narrow escapes from the fiery
brands which fell hissing into the roads as they hurried on towards the
suburbs, but fortunately they received no injury.

Arriving on high ground, and safe from the fire's onslaught, the
Ladoinskis stood, with thousands of Napoleon's army, gazing at the
destruction of Moscow. The captain, remembering the havoc which the
Russians had wrought by fire and sword in Warsaw, rejoiced to see their
capital in flames; but his wife checked his rejoicing by warning him
that the destruction of Moscow would not bring freedom to Poland.

And now began Napoleon's retreat. Terrible were the sufferings of the
men, but it is only with Madame Ladoinski's trials that we are
concerned. Knowing that after the burning of Moscow it would be
dangerous for any French person to remain in Russia, she, with many
other people of her nationality, accompanied the French army on its
disastrous retreat. She travelled in a baggage-wagon, which at any
rate afforded her and her child some protection from the frost and
snow. To her the journey was not so terrible an undertaking as to some
of her compatriots, for she had the pleasure of being daily with her
husband, after some years of separation. But her pleasure soon
received a rude shock. The Cossacks hung on with tenacity to the
remains of the great Fre