One morning the prisoners were told that next day their march inland would be resumed. Every man was served out with a pair of thick socks and rough boots and a sheepskin coat. Added to that was an overcoat with a large yellow diamond on the back, and in the morning they started. The escort was of infantry, and their journey was to be on foot. The prisoners were informed they would be allowed thirty copecks[8] a day. On this they were to provide for themselves.
The weather was cold but fine, and in pretty good spirits the whole convoy started. They had a long march that day, and in the afternoon entered a town. The drummer of the escort beat his drum as they marched in, and the inhabitants turned out to see the prisoners; but their demeanour was not unfriendly. Under escort the prisoners were marched to the market-place, where they made their purchases, after which they were conducted to the prison, where they cooked their food, often passing the evening quite merrily.
Ekaterinoslav was reached, and here two days’ halt was made; then on again, day after day, week after week, through Kharkov and Starai-Oskoe, always north, sometimes through pleasant country, sometimes through bleak and flat and wild regions.
The French were not treated so well as the English, the Russians seeming for some reason to dislike them personally. At Starai-Oskoe the French were left behind, their destination being different from that of the English.
Alphonse Bluet parted with Jack most reluctantly, indulging freely in tears. ‘Farewell, mon ami!’ he cried; ‘I feel we shall never meet again. The bones of Alphonse Bluet will whiten in this barbarous Russia; he will never see the boulevards of his dear Paris again. But no matter. Ever he will remember his brave comrade Monsieur Blair de Balaclava.’
‘Cheer up, Alphonse,’ said Jack, ‘we shall meet again when we have licked the Russians and peace is declared.’
‘Licked? How do you mean? Je ne comprends pas.’ But a Russian sergeant at that moment, taking him by the nape of the neck, gently intimated that it was time he joined his companions, and with a look of supreme disdain at his captor and a wave of the hand to Jack, he was hurried away.
There were still some weeks of tramping before Jack and his companions. As they got farther north discipline was much relaxed, and they became quite friendly with their guards, especially when they stood treat to them out of their thirty copecks, which they were easily able to do.
At many of their halting-places the ladies of the town visited them, giving them presents of warm clothing, food, and so on. Several times they came across English and Scotch people who had settled in Russia, and then they had a royal time.
At last, at the end of what had been a really fine day, the captain of the escort pointed to the burnished copper domes of a large town before them, and said, ‘Men, that is Voronesh, the end of your journey.’