Page:The Czar, A Tale of the Time of the First Napleon.djvu/180

170 for mercy, and without accusing any one as having instigated them to the deed."

"How did you escape?" asked Adrian.

"There was little difficulty in escaping. It was easy enough to hide in the ruins or in the cellars, many of which had been left well stocked with provisions when the city was abandoned. But have you heard about our wounded men?" he asked, with a return of animation, and even of something like cheerfulness.

"No; I have heard nothing."

"The count was obliged to leave two thousand men, who were too desperately wounded to bear removal, concealed in the cellars of the city. Here they managed to drag on their lives, though in a state of extreme wretchedness. We found them out, and used to bring them food and other comforts. That work was even more hazardous than setting the city on fire; for discovery would have cost, not our lives alone, but theirs. Napoleon's last act before he left the city was to order ten sick men, found in a cellar, to be shot."

"Wretch!" cried Adrian, clenching his hand.

"The half has not been told you, or you would find no name to call him by," returned Ivan fiercely. "He has defiled our holiest sanctuaries; he has torn open our imperial tombs; he has stabled his horses in the church where our Czar was crowned; he has carried everything away upon which he could lay his sacrilegious hands, even to the cross upon the tower of Ivan Veliki, and the Tartar banners which hung as trophies in the Arsenal. Well may Count Rostopchine curse him, as only he knows how to curse. But those wounded—we contrived somehow to keep them alive; and I think a goodly number may be saved yet. I asked the count not to lose an hour in sending them succour."

"I hope he has had the grace to do justice to your courage and your exertions."

"He has condescended to approve my conduct," said Ivan