"Oh!" said the officer, very sarcastically. "Have you any evidence that you were regularly enlisted in the Russian ranks, which we know to be impossible?"
"I do not say I was 'enlisted.' The papers you have taken from me prove that I held honourable relations with the Russian Army, and that I have fought with it for a period of nine months."
The man looked through my papers again. Those written in Russian he evidently could not read; but he sent for a soldier, having the appearance of an orderly-room clerk, who translated them to the officers.
"Bah! They are only passports to enable you to carry on your nefarious business. You are a spy," he said; and deliberately tore the whole of the papers to shreds, which he cast on the floor.
My indignation was so hot that I exclaimed: "You scoundrel!"
"What!" he shouted. "You d——d Englishman! You shall be shot to-morrow morning. Take him away."
"You are a cowardly murderer!" I replied fiercely.
I did not get an opportunity to say more; for my guards hauled me away with great roughness, and took me to a house which seemed to be used as a prison; for at least a hundred persons were crowded into it. Two-thirds of these were Russian soldiers; the remainder were civilians of various grades, including one woman, a lady of mature years; and one man was nursing a young child.
Was there ever a more horrible way of conducting war? Women, children, harmless citizens and honourable soldiers, treated as felons! Is there to be a retribution for this cruelty and wickedness?
It would be waste of time to pause and inquire what were the probable charges against these civilians. What are the charges against a bandit's victims? The revolutionists of '93 splashed blood on the walls of their cities: Blood should be splashed on the brows of the German monsters who have deluged Europe with it.