the Turks he killed a large number with his own hands, and brought, on his shoulders, a sackful of heads, which he rolled out at the feet of his general.  This was the commencement of his reputation.[26] His whole military career was in accordance with this act.  He had but one passion, love of war.  He would often, even in mid-winter, have one or two pailsful of cold water poured upon him, as he rose from his bed, and then, in his shirt, leap upon an unsaddled horse and scour the camp with the speed of the wind.  Sometimes he would appear, in the early morning, at the door of his tent, stark naked, and crow like a cock.  This was a signal for the tented host to spring to arms.  Occasionally he would visit the hospital, pretending that he was a physician, and would prescribe medicine for those whom he thought sick, and scourgings for those whom he imagined to be feigning sickness.  Sometimes he would turn all the patients out of the doors, sick and well, saying that it was not permitted for the soldiers of Suwarrow to be sick.  He was as merciless to himself as he was to his soldiers.  Hunger, cold, fatigue, seemed to him to be pleasures.  Hardships which to many would render life a scene of insupportable torture, were to him joys.  He usually traveled in a coarse cart, which he made his home, sleeping in it at night, with but the slightest protection from the weather.  Whenever he lodged in a house, his aides took the precaution to remove the windows from his room, as he would otherwise inevitably smash every glass.

[Footnote 26:  Histoire Philosophique et Politique de Russie.  Tome cinquieme, p. 233.]

Notwithstanding this ostentatious display of his hatred of all luxury, he was excessively fond of diamonds and other precious stones.  He was also exceedingly superstitious, ever falling upon his knees before whatever priest he might meet, and imploring his benediction.  Such men generally feel that the observance of ceremonial rites absolves them from the guilt of social crimes.  With these democratic manners Suwarrow utterly detested liberty.  The French, as the most liberty-loving people of Europe, he abhorred above all others.  He foamed with rage when he spoke of them.  In the sham fights with which he frequently exercised the army, when he gave the order to “charge the miserable French,” every soldier was to make two thrusts of the bayonet in advance, as if twice to pierce the heart of the foe, and a third thrust into the ground, that the man, twice bayoneted, might be pinned in death to the earth.  Such was the general whom Paul sent “to destroy the impious government,” as he expressed it, “which dominated over France.”