“The king will be pleased when I return with you, for we all feared that you might be very badly hurt.  All that we knew was that some of your men had seen you cut down.  After the battle was over, a search was made for your body.  When it could not be found, questions were asked of some of our own men, and some wounded Russians, who were lying near the spot where you had been seen to fall.

“Our men had seen nothing, for, as the Russians closed in behind your company as it advanced, they had shut their eyes and lay as if dead, fearing that they might be run through, as they lay, by the Cossack lances.  The Russians, however, told us that they had seen two of the Cossacks dismount, by the orders of one of their officers, lift you on to a horse, and ride off with you.  There was therefore a certainty that you were still living, for the Russians would assuredly not have troubled to carry off a dead body.  His majesty interested himself very much in the matter, and yesterday morning sent me off to inquire if you were alive, and if so, to propose an exchange.

“I was much pleased, when I reached Plescow yesterday, to learn that your wound is not a serious one.  I saw the doctor, who, I found, was a countryman of yours, and he assured me that it was nothing, and made some joke that I did not understand about the thickness of North Country skulls.

“The czar arrived in the afternoon, but I did not see him until late in the evening, when I was sent for.  I found him with the general in command, and several other officers, among whom was your friend the doctor.  The czar was, at first, in a furious passion.  He abused the general right and left, and I almost thought, at one time, that he would have struck him.  He told him that he had disgraced the Russian name, by not treating you with proper hospitality, and especially by placing you in a miserable cell without a fire.

“‘What will the King of Sweden think?’ he said.  ’He treats his prisoners with kindness and courtesy, and after Narva gave them a banquet, at which he himself was present.  The Duke of Croy writes to me, to say he is treated as an honoured guest rather than as a prisoner, and here you disgrace us by shutting your prisoner in a cheerless cell, although he is wounded, and giving him food such as you might give to a common soldier.  The Swedes will think that we are barbarians.  You are released from your command, and will at once proceed to Moscow and report yourself there, when a post will be assigned to you where you will have no opportunity of showing yourself ignorant of the laws of courtesy.

“‘Doctor,’ he went on, ’you will remember that all prisoners, officers and men, will be henceforth under the charge of the medical department, and that you have full authority to make such arrangements as you may think necessary for their comfort and honourable treatment.  I will not have Russia made a byword among civilized peoples.’