“But I must to work.”

And he motioned to a group of five or six officers, who had been standing a short distance away, to approach him.

Charlie was struck with the air of humility with which they saluted his companion, who at once asked a number of questions as to the supplies that had arrived, the progress that had been made, at a point where they had met with a deep slough into which the piles had penetrated without meeting with any firm ground, the number of huts that had been erected during the past three days for the reception of labourers, the state of stocks of meat and flour, and other particulars.  To each he gave short, sharp orders.  When they had left, he turned to Charlie.

“You guess who I am, I suppose?”

“I guess now, your majesty,” Charlie said respectfully, “but until now the idea that my kind friend was the czar himself never entered my mind.  I understood, from Doctor Kelly, that you were a surgeon.”

“I don’t think he said so,” the czar replied.  “He simply said that I could perform an amputation as well as he could, which was not quite true.  But I studied surgery for a time in Holland, and performed several operations under the eyes of the surgeons there.

“I saw that you did not recognize my name.  It is known to every Russian, but doubtless you never heard of me save as Peter the Czar.  Directly you mentioned it to the commandant at Bercov, and described my appearance, he knew who it was you were speaking of, and despatched a messenger at once to me.  He will be here in the course of a week or so.  Upon your report of the state of the prison, I at once despatched an order for him to hand over his command to the officer next in rank, and to proceed hither at once.  He is evidently a good administrator, and heaven knows I have need of such men here.

“I was pleased with you, when I saw you with my friend Doctor Kelly.  It was pleasant not to be known, and hear a frank opinion such as you gave me, and as you know, I sent you back on the following morning.  I certainly told Kelly, at the time, not to mention who I was, but I did not intend that he should keep you in ignorance of it after I had left, and it was not until I heard, from your jailer at Bercov, that you were ignorant that Peter Michaeloff was the czar, that I knew that he had kept you in ignorance of it until the end.

“I should have liked to have kept you as my guest for a time, but winter comes on early and suddenly, and if you did not go now you might be detained here until the spring.  I have therefore given orders that one of the Swedish vessels we captured on the lake should be got in readiness, and its crew placed on board again.  You shall embark in an hour, and it shall carry you to any port in Sweden you may choose.  The wind is from the east, and you have every chance of a quick run thither.”

Charlie expressed his warm thanks to the czar for his thoughtful kindness.