Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

358APPENDIX.

" You must," I said, " have greatly suffered in that country from the inhumanity of the inhabitants, and the rigour of the climate ? "

" From the cold I did," he replied; " but I cannot say that the Russians want humanity. "We received in the interior of the country unhoped-for succours. The female peasants, and the ladies, sent us clothes to protect us from the cold, medicines to cure our sick, food, and even linen; nay, some of them braved the risk of contagion by coming to nurse us in our bivouacs, for our miseries had spread frightful maladies among us. To induce any one to approach us, there was required not merely a sentiment of common compassion, but a high courage, a lofty virtue; and I call this humanity."

" I do not pretend to say that there are no exceptions to the general hardness of heart which I observed in Russia. "Wherever there is woman, there is pity; the women of all countries sometimes become heroic in compassion: but it is not the less true that in Russia, the laws, the manners, the habits, the characters are impressed with a spirit of cruelty, from which our unhappy prisoners sufíered too greatly to allow of our saying much about the humanity of the inhabitants of that country."

" I suffered among them like the others, and more than many others, for since returning to my own country I have continued nearly blind. For thirty years I have had recourse, without success, to every means of art, but my sight is almost lost: the influence of the night dews in Russia, even during the fine season, is pernicious to those who sleep in the open air."

" You slept, then, beneath the open heavens ? "

" It was necessary during the military marches imposed upon us."

" Thus, during frosts of twenty or thirty degrees, you were without shelter ? "

" Yes : but it is the inhumanity of the climate, not of the men, that must be accused of our sufferings during these unavoidable halts."

" Did the men never add their unnecessary severities to those of nature ? "

" It is true I have witnessed acts of ferocity worthy of savages; but I banished the thoughts of these horrors by my love of life: I said to myself, if I indulge in any expressions of indignation,