Page:Julian Niemcewicz - Notes of my Captivity in Russia.djvu/53

Rh my cravat, my green coat, my waistcoat, &c., and dressed me in uniform which he stripped from the body of a dead soldier; he then took my horse, and put me on his own. I was dying of pain and fatigue, whilst he was amusing himself in conducting me through the numerous Russian battalions, puffed up with the pride which the victory inspired, and filling the air with their insolent clamours. Several officers called out to my conductor, “Why do you not kill him? kill him! kill him!” and he might, perhaps, have rendered me this service, at which I should not have been sorry at this time, nor afterwards, if Colonel Miller had not arrived. He spoke to me with politeness and humanity, and took upon himself to conduct me to head-quarters.

We passed again through the battle-field; the ground was covered with corpses already stripped, and left naked. There was something great in this melancholy sight, in spite of its horrors. All those soldiers, most of whom were six feet high, stretched upon