Page 135 - A Jacobite Exile

"The czar arrived in the afternoon, but I did not see him until late in the
evening, when I was sent for. I found him with the general in command,

and several other officers, among whom was your friend the doctor. The
czar was, at first, in a furious passion. He abused the general right and left,

and I almost thought, at one time, that he would have struck him. He told
him that he had disgraced the Russian name, by not treating you with
proper hospitality, and especially by placing you in a miserable cell without

a fire.

"'What will the King of Sweden think?' he said. 'He treats his prisoners with
kindness and courtesy, and after Narva gave them a banquet, at which he
himself was present. The Duke of Croy writes to me, to say he is treated as

an honoured guest rather than as a prisoner, and here you disgrace us by
shutting your prisoner in a cheerless cell, although he is wounded, and

giving him food such as you might give to a common soldier. The Swedes
will think that we are barbarians. You are released from your command,
and will at once proceed to Moscow and report yourself there, when a post

will be assigned to you where you will have no opportunity of showing
yourself ignorant of the laws of courtesy.

"'Doctor,' he went on, 'you will remember that all prisoners, officers and
men, will be henceforth under the charge of the medical department, and

that you have full authority to make such arrangements as you may think
necessary for their comfort and honourable treatment. I will not have

Russia made a byword among civilized peoples.'

"Then he dismissed the rest of them, and afterwards sat down and chatted

with me, just as if we had been of the same rank, puffing a pipe furiously,
and drinking amazing quantities of wine. Indeed, my head feels the effects

of it this morning, although I was quite unable to drink cup for cup with
him, for, had I done so, I should have been under the table long before he
rose from it, seemingly quite unmoved by the quantity he had drank. I have

no doubt he summoned me especially to hear his rebuke to the general, so
that I could take word to the king how earnest he was, in his regrets for

your treatment."