"The girl is well born," said I, "and this is neither the place nor the time to think of such things. Why do you allow her to go upon such an errand at all? Are there not other guides?"
He looked at me slyly.
"None so pretty, mon oncle; and besides, a man can always make a woman understand. She will get us very well to the Bérézina, and there we shall send her back with a present."
"Of horseflesh," said I; and then: "The whole thing is nonsense, and you are likely to pay a high price for her company. Remember what I am saying."
He promised to do so, but immediately linked his arm in hers and began to sing one of our old marching songs. We must have gone another league before he told me that her home was in a village some few miles to the south of the route the army was taking, but really upon the old main road to the Bérézina.
"You and I will give them the slip at dusk," said he, "and take our luck again. I will wager the girl's honesty against a hundred crowns. We can stop the night at her father's house and get food. Do not look so displeased, mon oncle. We will take twenty of our fellows to see that the Cossacks do not cut our throats, and we shall be half a day's march on the road to the river before the army has left the next bivouac."
I did not like the idea of it, but when a man is making love to a pretty woman, and she has asked him to her house, there is an end of the argument.
Petrovka, for such the men would call the girl, certainly disarmed suspicion by her frank airs and the merry laughter which lighted up her eyes. She made a handsome boy enough, and it was good to see her dancing across the snow which so many trod with difficulty, and to hear the cheering words of encouragement she bestowed upon all who lagged behind.
The men had come to believe that she was quite a mascot, and soon we must have had a hundred and fifty of the Guard about our party. This was unexpected and not in accord with friend Léon's plan. I believe it had been his secret hope that he and I should go alone to her father's house, but when the sun began to sink upon the horizon, and we left the main road for one which branched towards the south, the whole company followed us immediately. Vain to tell them that our errand was private. The time had passed when officers could have their will in such matters as this; and so it befell that exactly a hundred and fifty men set out to share Petrovka's hospitality, and were determined to enjoy it whatever the difficulties.