advance lodgings, beds, supplies, etc. These officers were Messieurs
Sarrazin, adjutant-lieutenant, Verges, Molene, and Lieutenant Pachot. I
will devote farther on an entire chapter to our itinerary from Paris to
Moscow.

A short time before the battle of La Moskwa, a man was brought to the
camp dressed in the Russian uniform, but speaking French; at least his
language was a singular mixture of French and Russian. This man had
escaped secretly from the enemy's lines; and when he perceived that our
soldiers were only a short distance from him, had thrown his gun on the
ground, crying in a very strong Russian accent, "I am French," and our
soldiers had at once taken him prisoner.

Never was prisoner more charmed with his change of abode. This poor
fellow, who seemed to have been forced to take arms against his will in
the service of the enemies of his country, arrived at the French camp,
called himself the happiest of men in finding again his fellow-
countrymen, and pressed the hand of all the soldiers with an ardor which
delighted them. He was brought to the Emperor, and appeared much over-
awed at finding himself in the presence of the King of the French, as he
called his Majesty. The Emperor questioned him closely, and in his reply
he declared that the noise of the French cannon had always made his heart
beat; and that he had feared only one thing, which was that he might be
killed by his compatriots. From what he told the Emperor it appeared
that he belonged to that numerous class of men who find themselves
transplanted by their family to a foreign land, without really knowing
the cause of their emigration. His father had pursued at Moscow an
unremunerative industrial profession, and had died leaving him without
resources for the future, and, in order to earn his bread, he had become
a soldier. He said that the Russian military discipline was one of his