became a soldier; something, therefore, I am willing to risk for you, but you must pledge your word as a comrade to obey me.'

"If I cannot comply,' said Bernhard firmly, beforehand, that you may bring me back hither.'

I will tell you so

"Then you shall go with us to the guard-room for the night; but you must not speak a single word to any one.'

"I will be silent as these walls-but my friend?'

Upon the same conditions he too shall pass the night with us.' "There is my hand upon it in his name.'

"Come along then.'

In the guard-room Ludwig and Bernhard are kindly treated— though strictly as prisoners-by the serjeant and his men, who give them a share of their own comfortable meal. But their only protector, Rasinski, had been ordered out of Smolensk, aud their situation is hopeless. Next morning they are again brought before their covetous, malignant, and therefore relentless enemies, sentenced to be shot, and conducted, for execution, to a spot without the walls. Here, by sudden concert, they break from the soldiers, and make for the shelter of an adjacent forest. Bernhard succeeds in reaching it, but Ludwig is recaptured, and bound to a stake; a handkerchief is tied over his eyes, and he proceeds to give two or three testamentary commissions to the kind-hearted serjeant.

"Some shots were fired near at hand.

"Already,' exclaimed Ludwig, as the serjeant, who was standing behind him, let go the secured handkerchief.

"But he heard the serjeant exclaim, The devil! what is that?' and spring away. A confused outcry and tumult now arose; many shots were fired so near, that one ball whistled close past Ludwig's car. At the same instant he heard galloping horses, and a mingled uproar of words of command, confused shouts, clashing weapons, and firing. Then sounded the serjeant's voice, Forward! close your ranks! fire!'

"A platoon fire rang close to Ludwig's ear; he fancied the muzzles pointed at himself, and a death shudder irresistibly convulsed his limbs but he felt himself alive and unharmed. The impenetrable darkness that enveloped him, the bonds that confined him, the strained excitement of his nerves and senses, drove floods of imaginations through his mind. As he heard horses' feet and sounds of assault, he for an instant fancied that Rasinski, with his cavalry, was about to rescue him. But he heard the Russian battle-cry. A wild Hurrah' rang through the air. The masses stormed past him; the powder scorched his face; yells, groans, the clash of weapons were around him; he was in the very midst of the conflict's tumult, yet vainly he strove to burst his bonds, to tear the fillet from his eyes; all was night and darkness. Is it all a frightful dream?' burst at length from his convulsed breast, as he raised his face towards heaven! Will no one wake me, and end this terrible agony?'

"But no hand touched him, and the tumult died away in the dis

tance.

"Some minutes elapsed in indescribable expectation. Ludwig struggled in his bonds. He felt that could he break them he might escape; but break them he could not. Now he heard confused voices approaching; rapid steps resounded beside him, a rude hand snatched the bandage from his eyes..

"Wondering, he gazed around; three men with long beards, whom he at once knew to be Russian boors, stood before him, looking at him with mingled surprise and contempt. * * * * One of the men lifted his musket, to strike the prisoner with the butt-end; he, in his shackles, could only twist away his head-not raise an arm to ward the blow. Suddenly a hand grasped the arm uplifted to smite; the form was that of a venerable old man, who, wrapt in a fur cloak, had advanced from the forest. His aspect acted upon Ludwig as the soft beam of morning dispersing the gloom of night with its images of dread. The grey-bearded elder, in a soft but earnest tone, spoke some words of admonition. The men took off their skin caps, crossed their arms upon their breasts, and reverentially bowed to him."

This deliverer is the priest Gregor, of whom we have made honourable mention. Ludwig is now conducted to the forest lair of this Russian troop, where he finds his French enemies, Beaucaire and St. Luces, prisoners like himself. Here his captors prepare to plunder and strip him; he attempts to resist, and again his life is endangered.

"A gigantic boor raised his club, and aimed a deadly blow. It must inevitably have crushed Ludwig's head; but a female shriek was heard, and at the same instant a dignified form, enveloped in costly furs, but with veiled face, broke through the encircling throng, and caught the uplifted arm of the Russian. Wrathfully he looked round; but when he saw who had stayed his hand, his rage was turned to abject submission, and he drew back with bows of slavish veneration. The lady stood, as though overpowered with terror; she tottered on her feet, breathed painfully from the depths of her chest, and raised her hands as in thanksgiving. At length she threw back her veil, and in accents faltering with emotion, said, 'Do you recollect me?'

"It was Bianca !

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* *

Trembling he caught her hand in both his, bowing his head upon his tears streamed; it seemed as though his life must end in this excess of joy.

it;

"I have then been able to repay!' said she, as she raised her blue eyes, swimming in tears, to heaven. Thy hand, oh Almighty Father, guided my steps! But had I been too late!'

"All present gazed upon the groupe in speechless astonishment. "Suddenly a harsh, masculine voice, asked What is the meaning of all this?' Ludwig awoke from his trance of rapture, and started from his knees. A horseman had galloped into the circle, whose gallant steed and rich dress bespoke the leader. It was Count Dolgorow.

"Oh, my father!' ejaculated Bianca passionately; 'behold our preserver !'

"How? who?' asked the Count, as he fixed an inquiring look upon Ludwig. But suddenly be interrupted his expressions of surprise, with the exclamation, Thou here, miserable villain!' And springing from his horse, he dashed amidst the groupe of prisoners, seized Beaucaire, whose knees sank under him with cold and terror, and dragged him from amongst the rest. Dolgorow, to whom vengeance was more congenial than gratitude, forgot the latter emotion, to gratify the former. "Gracious God! how fateful!' cried Feodorowna (the proper name of Bianca), as her eye fell upon the wretch haled forward by her father.

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*

"Beaucaire now saw her, and, bursting with the energy of desperation from Dolgorow's hold, he flung himself at her feet. Convulsively he grasped her knees, and screamed Mercy! Countess, do you obtain my pardon! My frantic passion for you was my destruction!"

"Bianca trembled, and raised her anxiously-imploring eyes to her father. But he, with savage fury, shouted, Seize him, and fling him into those flames, that every Russian may see how a traitor is punished.'

She must

"Bianca stood a marble statue. Beaucaire, in the Beaucaire, in the agony of despair, clung to her knees, striving to hide his head in her bosom. have fallen, had not Ludwig, springing to her side, supported her. "Execute my orders!' again commanded Dolgorow. from the Princess!'

Tear him

"At this reiterated command two men, bounding with barbarian joy from the mass, grappled the despairing wretch by the hair, two others seized his feet, and a Cossack, snatching his knife from his belt, cut him over the hands with which he clutched Bianca's knees. Only when the sinews were severed did his arms drop. Amidst a hideous roar of exultation he was half carried, half dragged away. His piercing screams of agony rang through the shouts and tumult of the blood-thirsty band, who, stimulated by a savage desire for the atrocious spectacle, rushed in a black mass to the fire.

"Watch the rest of the prisoners!' shouted Dolgorow, and, passing through the crowd that respectfully gave way, he walked rapidly to the spot where his frightful orders were to be executed.'

On the way from the forest to the castle, then inhabited by the Dolgorow family, Bernhard, nearly dead with cold and fatigue, is picked up; and Bianca now proves to be his sister, stolen, and passed for their own daughter, by the childless Count and Countess Dolgorow, in order fraudulently to evade some testamentary condition, by which their want of offspring would have debarred them from an inheritance. The young lady flies with her newly-found brother and her lover from the violent and nefarious designs of the plotting Count, to the French army; and thus a Russian Princess, she is the widowed bride of a

Prince Ochalskoi, whom she had consented to marry, as the price of the rescue of a victim, her father's serf, from the knout, becomes a sharer in the increasing disasters of the retreat, in the calamitous passage of the Beresina, &c. &c. Gradually she loses sledge, horses, servants, and proceeds on foot with Bernhard, Ludwig, and the equally dismounted Rasinski, with his daily decreasing remnant of a band. Even in this extremity, Bianca perseveres in burthening herself with a forlorn orphan, whose desertion is one of the striking scenes that illustrate the demoralizing, unhumanizing influence of prolonged physical suffering. A vehicle of some kind, loaded with women and children, as well as with sick and wounded soldiers, is overthrown and broken by the falling of the worn-out horses, in struggling to climb the ice-covered side of a hill.

Suffering, and the imperative necessity of self-preservation, had so blunted all sense of humanity, that the passengers in the carriages remaining behind, rejoiced more in the removal of an obstacle to their own progress, than they sympathized with the lot of their comrades and of the helpless women thus left destitute. These last soon recovered their feet, and seeing their own conveyance disabled, hastened, baggage in hand, to the carts, waggons, &c. nearest to them, upon which they endeavoured to climb. Almost everywhere they were forcibly repulsed, as indeed there scarcely existed a possibility of further loading the carriages.

"Boleslav (himself wounded and in one of these carriages), felt his heart pierced by the sight of wounded warriors cruelly repulsed, and helpless women driven away with the whip. He rose and said, 'Friends, let us not desert our comrades! Come hither, old one,' addressing a severely wounded, grey-headed grenadier, we will take thee in, and one of us will walk turn about; I myself the first.'

"So saying he alighted, and assisted the wounded soldier into his own place. The example worked influentially, and every carriage took But there were more candidates than conveyances; and a young woman closely muffled in fur, seemingly the wife of an officer, with a child about three years old in her arms, was refused admit

up one.

tance.

"Boleslav shuddered at the thought, 'Shall the mother be left here to perish, because incumbered with her child?' But colder was the shudder that shook his frame when he saw the wretched woman fling the child down in the snow, and rush to the nearest conveyance, screaming in tones of anguish, Take me in alone then! Save one life at least !' "This unnatural act of a mother awoke horror even in warriors inured to the miseries and atrocities of war. * * * Bring us the child, the poor child, we'll save that,' cried a chasseur, leaning from the waggon that Alisette was attempting to climb, and driving her away with blows..

"[By the way, the mother being now recognized, we beg to state that she was not the wife of any body, although she had managed to pre

serve her reputation.] Boleslav did so, and the rough, bearded warrior kissed and caressed the deserted infant. Alisette, meanwhile, ran in frantic agony to another carriage, and weeping and wringing her hands, sought to excite pity. But aversion filled all hearts, and a grey-headed serjeant answered, Away, she-wolf! Trudge afoot, as you can, through the snow!'

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the

"Oh, have pity on my youth!' moaned Alisette, and Aung herself on her knees in the snow, and wrung her hands in despair. 'What, must I perish in this wilderness!' With these words, starting passionately up, she darted upon the carriage where the trembling child was nestled in the chasseur's bosom. Before her purpose could be conjectured, she snatched away the little innocent, hurled it again upon ground, and cried, 'Leave it there! She knows not how delicious is life, how terrible death here. Me, save me! I know how beautiful this world is, for I have seen better days!' As she spoke, she strove, with spasmodic efforts, to scramble into the waggon, unheeding the hard blows inflicted by the chasseur's heavy fist. pent! Away viper!' he cried in exasperation. to invite the wrath of God. Let the wolves than a wolf!' And, assisted by his neighbour, he vulsively clutching hands, and threw her back. the hard ground.'

Away poisonous serTo take thee in were devour thee, thou worse forced away her conShe fell stunned on

We have not room for the detail of her frantic despair, her clinging round the feet of Boleslav, whose endeavour to encourage her to walk, supported and guided by him, she scarcely seems to hear; but will briefly state that, when she is torn from his feet, she clings to the wheel of the last carriage. The exhausted horses are unable to overcome this obstacle to their progress, and a wounded cuirassier presents his pistol, threatening to fire if she persists.

"Paralyzed by the sudden fright, she loosed her hold, and lay whining and moaning in the road. So Boleslav saw her as he looked back, and he hesitated whether again he would not return to her aid; but his comrades forcibly hurried him forward, and the young soldier who supported him, (in his weakened state he was exhausted with the scene and the struggle,) exclaimed, Leave her, leave her! Touch not the mother who could kill her own child, lest the curse of Heaven fall upon Leave her, she meets with her fitting punishment!'"

us.

Of the child thus thrown upon the mercy of strangers, Bianca afterwards takes charge; and, after the dreadful passage of the Beresina, Bernhard is carrying it, following at a little distance his sister and Ludwig.

"At this moment a voice bellowed to him from behind, Stand, dog! Give me thy fur cloak, or I fire.' "Bernhard started and turned round. A soldier, covered with miserable rags, of burly figure, with bewildered aspect, long, rugged beard, a