f
she fell into the hands of the Russians. Her husband had fought for
the French, and she claimed French protection. Instantly the two
marshals declared that she should have the protection she asked, and
Prince Eugene offered her a seat in a wagon that would accompany his
division when it started in the course of a few days.

Madame Ladoinski accepted the offer with gratitude, whereupon the
aide-de-camp was informed that she was to be placed in a baggage-wagon,
and that the drivers were to be told that if their passengers did not
reach the end of the journey in safety they would answer for it with
their lives. On the other hand, if she arrived safely in Poland, and
declared that she and her boy had been well-treated on the way, each
driver would receive five hundred francs.

In a few days Madame Ladoinski was once again in a baggage-wagon; but
Napoleon's 'Grand Army' was now in a terrible condition. Ragged,
starving, dispirited by the constant harassing from the enemy, and the
continuous marching through snow, it made but slow progress. The
gloomy forests through which the miserable army tramped on its way to
attempt the passage of the Beresina were blocked with snow, and so
difficult was it to move the guns that Napoleon ordered that one half
of the baggage-wagons were to be destroyed, so that the horses and oxen
might be utilised for dragging forward the artillery. The wagon in
which Madame Ladoinski rode was one of the number condemned to
destruction, but the men who had been ordered to protect her speedily
found room for her in another vehicle.

A day or two later, when the bedraggled army was nearing the Polish
frontier, Madame Ladoinski was startled from her dejection by hearing
loud joyful shouts, and on enquiring of the driver the reason of the
noise she was told that a reinforcement under Marshal Victor had
unexpectedly arrived.

Soon the reinforcements were passing the wagon, but Madame Ladoinski
possessed neither the energy nor the curiosity to glance out at them.
She could think of nothing but her dead husband and her little orphaned
boy. But suddenly as she sat brooding over her great loss she heard,
'Forward, lancers!' uttered in Polish. Believing that it was her
husband's voice she had heard, she sprang up and looked out at the
troop trotting ahead. But she could not recognise her husband among
the lancers, and she turned to sit down, believing that she was the
victim of a delusion. To her