r, remained on his knees, and clasping his hands, raised his
eyes with such an expression of fear in them, that Vaninka, forgetting
her hauteur, reassured him with a smile. Foedor rose, his heart filled
with inexplicable joy, and without being able to say what had caused this
feeling, he only knew that it had made him absolutely happy, so that,
although he was just about to leave Vaninka, he had never felt greater
happiness in his life.

The young man left dreaming golden dreams; for his future, be it gloomy
or bright, was to be envied. If it ended in a soldier's grave, he
believed he had seen in Vaninka's eyes that she would mourn him; if his
future was glorious, glory would bring him back to St. Petersburg in
triumph, and glory is a queen, who works miracles for her favourites.

The army to which the young officer belonged crossed Germany, descended
into Italy by the Tyrolese mountains, and entered Verona on the 14th of
April 1799. Souvarow immediately joined forces with General Melas, and
took command of the two armies. General Chasteler next day suggested
that they should reconnoitre. Souvarow, gazing at him with astonishment,
replied, "I know of no other way of reconnoitring the enemy than by
marching upon him and giving him battle."

As a matter of fact Souvarow was accustomed to this expeditious sort of
strategy: through it he had defeated the Turks at Folkschany and
Ismailoff; and he had defeated the Poles, after a few days' campaign, and
had taken Prague in less than four hours. Catherine, out of gratitude,
had sent her victorious general a wreath of oak-leaves, intertwined with
precious stones, and worth six hundred thousand roubles, a heavy gold
field-marshal's baton encrusted with diamonds; and had created him a
field-marshal, with the right of choosing a regiment that should bear his
name from that time forward. Besides, when he returned to Russia, she
gave him leave of absence, that he might take a holiday at a beautiful
estate she had given him, together with the eight thousand serfs who
lived upon it.

What a splendid example for Foedor! Souvarow, the son of a humble
Russian officer, had been educated at the ordinary cadets' training
college, and had left it as a sub-lieutenant like himself. Why should
there not be two Souvarows in the same century?

Souvarow arrived in Italy preceded by an immense reputation; religious,
strenuous, unwearied, impassible, loving with the simplicity of a Tarta