The old colonel glanced at him across the table with a grim smile.
"The Emperor," he said, "was sitting in that chair an hour ago. He
may come back at any moment."
"Ah!" said Louis, following the written lines with a pencil.
But no interruption came, and at last the list was finished.
Charles was not among the officers taken prisoner at Vilna.
"Well?" inquired the Russian, without looking up.
"Not there."
The old officer took a sheet of paper and hurriedly wrote a few
words on it.
"Try the Basile Hospital to-morrow morning," he said. "That will
gain you admittance. It is to be cleared out by the Emperor's
orders. We have about twenty thousand dead to dispose of as well--
but they are in no hurry."
He laughed grimly, and bade Louis good night.
"Come to me again," he called out after him, drawn by a sudden chord
of sympathy to this stranger, who had the rare capacity of confining
himself to the business in hand.
By daybreak the next morning Louis was at the hospital of St.
Basile. It had been prepared by the Duc de Bassano under Napoleon's
orders when Vilna was selected as the base of the great army. When
the Russians entered Vilna after the retreating remnant of Murat's
rabble, they found the dead and the dying in the streets and the
market-place. Some had made fires and had lain themselves down
around them--to die. Others were without food or firing, almost
without clothes.
Pages:
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275