s at the palace as amusements.
Count Saxe would occasionally insist on taking me to the palace,
although I objected to going on the ground that the duchess had said
I was ugly. But this was reckoned a witticism of mine. Anyhow, as
Count Saxe remarked, I could return the compliment to the lady. The
entertainments there were dull, and besides, every Russian we saw
scowled at us--and there was a Russian at every turn. All the court
officials were Russian, and they took good care that we should not
find Mitau agreeable.

Ah, it was a dreary, weary time, especially after the winter set in.
In the spring it was scarcely more cheerful. Count Saxe's chances were
dwindling, there was no doubt about that. But he bore the gradual
fading of his hopes with the gaiety of heart which was his own.

And the Russians grew more numerous. They seemed to be enveloping us;
and from day to day we awaited the catastrophe which, I think, all of
us expected--but not exactly in the guise in which it came.

In August, things were looking black for my master, and one night, he
and I and Gaston Cheverny, being seated at supper, with Beauvais
serving us--an honest and devoted fellow, Beauvais is, with a squint
almost as bad as my cross eye--I said to Count Saxe:

"Sir, when shall we leave Mitau?"

Count Saxe looked hard at me, putting down his glass. Then he asked,
in a cool voice:

"Do you think it time, Babache, to beat the chamade?"

I remained silent. Gaston Cheverny scowled at me; he was at the age
when prudence seems but a beggarly virtue at best. Only Beauvais
winked at me approvingly, and Count Saxe saw him in a mirror opposite.
He was a very humble fellow, as brave as Julius Caesar, devoted to
Count Saxe, and understood nothing on earth about war or politics; but
Count Saxe knew, when the men of the Beauvais stamp see it is time to
march, that events have already marched.

"Beauvais," cried Count Saxe, "what think you of giving up the game
now?"

"Monsieur," replied Beauvais, "I promised my old father, when next we
returned to Paris, to have sixteen trumpeters ahead of us when we
crossed the Pont Royal, but I am afraid I was a liar."

Count Saxe laughed at this, and swore very melodiously at the
Courlanders; but being quick to decide, he gave orders that we should
prepare to leave Mitau within three days. Thence we should retire to
Uzmaiz, whence we hoped to give the Russians such a bone to pick that
they would not soon forget i