In February the weather became excessively severe, more so, the peasants and charcoal burners they occasionally met with declared, than they ever remembered.  The wild animals became tamer, and in the morning when they went out, they frequently found tracks of bears that had been prowling round the hut in search of offal, or bones thrown out.  They were now obliged to hang their supply of meat, by ropes, from boughs at some distance from the ground, by which means they were enabled to prevent the bears getting at it.

They no longer dared to venture far from the hut, for large packs of wolves ranged through the forest, and, driven by hunger, even entered villages, where they attacked and killed many women and children, made their entrance into sheds, and tore dogs, horses, and cattle to pieces, and became at last so dangerous that the villagers were obliged to keep great fires burning in the streets at night, to frighten them away.  Several times the occupants of the hut were awakened by the whining and snarling of wolves outside.  But the walls and roof were alike built of solid timber, and a roughly-made door of thick wood was now fastened, every night, against the opening, and so stoutly supported by beams behind it as to defy assault.  Beyond, therefore, a passing grumble at being awakened by the noise, the men gave themselves no trouble as to the savage animals outside.

“If these brutes grow much bolder,” the captain said one day, “we shall be prisoners here altogether.  They must have come down from the great forest that extends over a large part of Russia.  The villages are scarce there, and the peasants take good care to keep all their beasts in shelter, so no doubt they are able to pick up more at the edge of the forest here.”

“How far are we from the Russian frontier?”

“I do not think anyone could tell you.  For aught I know, we may be in Russia now.  These forests are a sort of no man’s land, and I don’t suppose any line of frontier has ever been marked.  It is Russia to the east of this forest, some thirty miles away, and it is Poland to the west of it.  The forest is no good to anyone except the charcoal burners.  I have met both Russians and Poles in the wood, and, as there is plenty of room for all—­ay, and would be were there a thousand to every one now working in it—­they are on friendly terms with each other, especially as the two nations are, at present, allied against Sweden.”

In spite of the wolves, Charlie continued his walks in the forest, accompanied always by Stanislas.  Both carried axes and pistols, and, although Charlie had heard many tales of solitary men, and even of vehicles, being attacked by the wolves in broad daylight, he believed that most of the stories were exaggerations, and that the chances of two men being attacked in daylight were small, indeed.