I had got my diploma with
me, and some of my friends came forward and subscribed enough to
rig me out in clothes and pay my passage. What was better, one of
them happened to have made the acquaintance of Le Ford, who was, as
you may have heard, the czar's most intimate friend.
"I wished myself back a hundred times before I reached Moscow, but
when I did, everything was easy for me. Le Ford introduced me to
the czar, and I was appointed surgeon of a newly-raised regiment,
of which Le Ford was colonel. That was eight years ago, and I am
now a sort of surgeon general of a division, and am at the head of
the hospitals about here. Till the war began I had not, for five
years, done any military work, but had been at the head of a
college the czar has established for training surgeons for the
army. I was only sent down here after that business at Narva.
"So, you see, I have fallen on my feet. The czar's is a good
service, and we employ a score or two of Scotchmen, most of them in
good posts. He took to them because a Scotchman, General Gordon,
and other foreign officers, rescued him from his sister Sophia, who
intended to assassinate him, and established him firmly on the
throne of his father.
"It is a pity you are not on this side.
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