"But, mademoiselle," said I, "what sent you upon such an errand as this?"
She looked at me, I think, with some amazement at my want of understanding.
"What Frenchwoman remains in Moscow now?" she asked coldly. And then as quickly she turned to Léon and inquired of him where the Emperor would be.
"I must see him immediately," says she; "it was for that I followed the army. Captain Courcelles, will you not help me?"
He replied that nothing would give him greater pleasure.
"You are returning to Paris, mademoiselle?" he asked her.
She said that it was possible.
"But," cried I, "I thought you would never leave Moscow. You told me so yourself."
"Major," she rejoined, "I did not then know that my father was alive, nor that he served the Emperor."
I thought upon it a minute, and then a sudden memory coming to me, I said: