"I never lie!" said the prisoner, rising. "I escaped here from Kazanlik and have been recaptured by your soldiers. One cannot go far on foot!" he added, smiling sadly, "especially when one is, like myself, wounded in the head and the leg. And I have been again wounded in the shoulder."
"You should know that according to the usages of war," answered the Major, who attempted, but in vain, to speak in an official tone.
"It is superfluous to tell me that. The power is on your side. You are the victors; tell them to kill me. I knew perfectly well the risk I ran when last night I escaped from the house of the officer in whose charge I was. I have played, I have lost, and I must die."
The Major, touched by the prisoner's tone, began to speak to him more gently.
"Were you uncomfortable where you lodged?"
"No."
"Did they treat you well?"
"The officer with whom I lodged is a very generous man. He obliged me to take his bed; he gave me food and drink; he treated me like a brother not like an enemy."
"But were you afraid of being ill-treated in Russia?"
"No. I know that the Russians always treat their prisoners well."