e his plans for the campaign. The members of the council, the
youngest first, gave their views as to the conduct of the war. Suwarrow
listened in grim silence until they had all spoken, and had turned to
him for his comment on their views. The wrinkled veteran drew to himself
a slate, and made on it two lines.

"Here, gentlemen," he said, pointing to one line, "are the French, and
here are the Russians. The latter will march against the former and beat
them." This said, he rubbed out the French line. Then, looking up at his
surprised auditors, he curtly remarked, "This is all my plan. The
council is ended."

In war he is said to have been averse to the shedding of blood, and to
have been at heart humane and merciful. Yet this hardly accords with the
story of his exploits, it being said that twenty-six thousand Turks were
killed in the storming of Ismail, while in that of Praga at Warsaw more
than twenty thousand Poles were massacred.

Such was the character of one of the men who aided to make glorious the
reign of Catharine of Russia, and whose merit she--unlike her weak son
Paul--was fully competent to appreciate. With this estimate of the
greatest soldier Russia has ever produced, and one of the ablest
generals of modern times, we may briefly describe some of the most
striking exploits of Suwarrow's career.

In 1789, during one of the interminable wars against Turkey, in which on
this occasion the Austrians took part with the Russians, the Prince of
Coburg was at the head of an Austrian force, which he was strikingly
incapable of commanding. The prince, advancing with sublime
deliberation, found himself suddenly threatened by a considerable
Turkish army. Filled with alarm at the sight of the enemy, he sent a
hasty appeal to Suwarrow to come to his aid.

The Russian general had just rejoined his army after recovering from a
wound. The news of Coburg's peril reached him at Belat, in Moldavia,
between forty and fifty miles away, and these miles of mountains,
ravines, and almost impassable wilds. Suwarrow at once broke camp, and
with his usual impetuosity led his army over its difficult route,
reaching the Austrians in less than thirty-six hours after receiving the
news.

It was five o'clock in the evening when he arrived. At eleven he sent
his plan of attack to the prince. An assault on the enemy was to be made
at two in the morning. Coburg, who had never dreamed of such rapidity of
movement and such impetuosity i