the enemy.

A fresh dispatch had just arrived from General von Fermore, and its
contents had darkened the brow of Tottleben with anxious care. He
had received orders to blow up the arsenal in Berlin. This noble and
handsome building, which rose in proud splendor in the midst of a
populous town, was to be destroyed without reference to the fact that
the blowing up of this colossal edifice would scatter death and ruin
throughout unfortunate Berlin.

"I will not do it," said he, pacing up and down the room, and crushing
the accursed paper which brought the cruel order in his clinched hand.
"I cannot be such a barbarian. Fermore may command me to do barbarous
actions, but I will not accept such commands! I will not obey! No
one but myself knows of this order. I will ignore it. The Empress
Elizabeth has always been very gracious toward me, and will forgive
me for not executing an order which certainly never proceeded from
her own kind heart." At this moment the door opened, and the adjutant
entering, announced Count de Lacy.

Tottleben's countenance assumed a gloomy expression, and, as with
hasty step he advanced toward the Austrian general, he muttered to
himself, "I perceive the bloodhounds have got the scent, and are
eager for blood." In the mean time Count de Lacy approached him with
a friendly and gracious smile. He seemed not to be at all aware that
Tottleben did not accept the hand which the Austrian general held out
to him with a hearty greeting.

"I come to chat for a short quarter of an hour with your excellency,"
said Count de Lacy, in very fluent German, but with the hard foreign
accent of a Hungarian. "After a battle won, I know nothing pleasanter
than to recall with a comrade the past danger, and to revel again in
memory the excitement of the fight."

"May I request your excellency to remember that the Austrians cannot
count the conquest of Berlin in the list of their victories," cried
Count Tottleben, with a sarcastic smile. "It was the Russian army
which besieged Berlin, and Berlin surrendered _to us_."

"You are very kind to remind me of it," said Count de Lacy, with his
unchangeable, pleasant smile. "In the mean time may I request a more
particular explanation than this polite reminder?"

"You shall have it, sir," cried Tottleben, passionately. "I mean
to say that Berlin is not Charlottenburg, and to request that the
vandalism which the Austrian troops practised there, may not be
transferred to Be