“There is not a soldier in his army but likes him,” Charlie said enthusiastically.  “He expects us to do much, but he does more himself.  All through the winter, he did everything in his power for us, riding long distances from camp to camp, to visit the sick and to keep up the spirits of the men.  If we live roughly, so does he, and, on the march, he will take his meals among the soldiers, and wrap himself up in his cloak, and sleep on the bare ground, just as they do.  And as for his bravery, he exposes his life recklessly—­too recklessly, we all think—­and it seemed a miracle that, always in the front as he was, he should have got through Narva without a scratch.”

“Yes, that was a bad bit of business, that Narva,” the other said thoughtfully.  “Why do you think we were beaten in the horrible way we were?—­because the Russians are no cowards.”

“No; they made a gallant stand when they recovered from their surprise,” Charlie agreed.  “But in the first place, they were taken by surprise.”

“They ought not to have been,” the doctor said angrily.  “They had news, two days before, brought by the cavalry, who ought to have defended that pass, but didn’t.”

“Still, it was a surprise when we attacked,” Charlie said, “for they could not suppose that the small body they saw were going to assail them.  Then, we had the cover of that snowstorm, and they did not see us, until we reached the edge of the ditch.  Of course, your general ought to have made proper dispositions, and to have collected the greater part of his troops at the spot facing us, instead of having them strung out round that big semicircle, so that, when we made an entry they were separated, and each half was ignorant of what the other was doing.  Still, even then they might have concentrated between the trenches and the town.  But no orders had been given.  The general was one of the first we captured.  The others waited for the orders that never came, until it was too late.  If the general who commanded on the left had massed his troops, and marched against us as we were attacking the position they held on their right, we should have been caught between two fires.”

“It was a badly managed business, altogether,” Doctor Michaeloff growled; “but we shall do better next time.  We shall understand Charles’s tactics better.  We reckoned on his troops, but we did not reckon on him.

“Kelly tells me that you would not care to change service.”

“My friends are in the Swedish army, and I am well satisfied with the service.  I daresay, if Russia had been nearer England than Sweden is, and we had landed there first, we should have been as glad to enter the service of the czar as we were to join that of King Charles.  Everyone says that the czar makes strangers welcome, and that he is a liberal master to those who serve him well.  As to the quarrel between them, I am not old enough to be able to give my opinion on it, though, as far as I am concerned, it seems to me that it was not a fair thing for Russia to take advantage of Sweden’s being at war with Denmark and Augustus of Saxony, to fall upon her without any cause of quarrel.”