Page:The Czar, A Tale of the Time of the First Napleon.djvu/287

Rh have their trophies back again. The Allies had carried off those guns of theirs when they came into the city, so what must he do but send them twelve of ours, Maria Ivanovka being one of them—to my sorrow."

For a moment Ivan wondered silently, "Was there ever such a knight in friendship or in war" as his Czar, Alexander Paulovitch? Then he said: "I think you need not grudge your gun to the poor old Frenchmen. Do you know how many of their cannon they left behind in our country, for us to show as trophies of what our arms—no, rather of what our God has done?"

"No, Barrinka, I have never heard exactly; but I am sure they must be many."

"Not counting those they contrived to bury, or lost in the rivers they passed over, we have captured of their cannon—nine hundred and twenty and nine!"

"Great St. Nicholas!" cried Michael, lifting up his one hand in amazement.

"Shall we not show our gratitude for this marvellous deliverance by gentleness and kindness to our enemies, whom God cares for, even as he does for us? That is what the Czar thinks. He has refused to break down the bridge of Austerlitz,—a standing monument of the old triumph of the French over us,—or even to change its name. 'It is enough,' said he, 'that I have passed over it with my armies.'"

"Can that be possible, Barrinka? Then no wonder every one is saying now that the Czar is taking the part of Napoleon and of his family."

"And if he is? What is a brave man's duty when a foe has fallen? Should he not think, 'How would I wish to be dealt with if the case were mine?' My friend Tolstoi tells me that as the Czar was entering Paris in triumph, he looked up and saw the statue of his great enemy on the top of the column in the Place Vendôme. 'If I had been placed so high,' said he,