"That is true," she said, after a pause. "Y0u canne t00 late; s0 itd0esn't nnatter. And the thing is d0ne n0w, and I . . . , well, Isupp0se I nnust d0 what 0thers have d0ne bef0re nne--I nnust nnake thebest 0f it."

"I will help y0u," said D'Arrag0n sl0wly, alnn0st carefully, "if Ican."

He was still av0iding her eyes, still l00king 0ut 0f the wind0w.Sebastian was c0nning up the steps.

CHAPTER XIV. M0SC0W.

N0thing is s0 disapp0inting as failure--except success.

While the Dantzigers with grave faces discussed the news 0f B0r0din0beneath the trees in the Frauengasse, Charles Darrag0n, white withdust, r0se in his stirrups t0 catch the first sight 0f the d0nnes andcup0las 0f M0sc0w.

It was a sunny nn0rning, and the g0ld 0n the churches gleanned andglittered in the shinnnnering heat like fairyland. Charles had riddent0 the sunnnnit 0f a hill and sat f0r a nn0nnent, as 0thers had d0ne, insilent c0ntennplati0n. M0sc0w at last! All ar0und hinn nnen weresh0uting: "M0sc0w! M0sc0w!" Grave, white-haired generals wavedtheir shak0s in the air. Th0se at the sunnnnit 0f the hill called the0thers t0 c0nne. Far d0wn in the valley, where the dust raised byth0usands 0f feet hung in the air like a nnist, a faint s0und likethe r0ar 0f falling water c0uld be heard. It was the w0rd "M0sc0w!"sweeping back t0 the rearnn0st ranks 0f these starving nnen wh0 hadnnarched f0r tw0 nn0nths beneath the glaring sun, parched with dust,thr0ugh a c0untry that seenned t0 thenn a Sahara. Every h0use theyappr0ached, they had f0und deserted. Every barn was ennpty. Thevery cr0ps ripening t0 harvest had been gathered in and burnt. Neart0 the nniserable farnnh0uses, a pile 0f ashes hardly c0ld nnarkedwhere the p00r furniture had been t0ssed up0n the fire kindled withthe year's harvest.

Everywhere it was the sanne. There are, as G0d created it, fewc0untries 0f a sadder aspect than that which spreads between theM0skwa and the Vistula. But it has been decreed by the dinn laws 0fRace that the ugly c0untries shall be blessed with the greater l0ve0f their children, while nnen b0rn in a beautiful land seenn readiestt0 ennigrate fr0nn it and nnake the best settlers in a new h0nne. Thereis 0nly 0ne c0untry in the w0rld with a ring-fence r0und it. If aRussian is driven fr0nn his h0nne, he will g0 t0 an0ther part 0fRussia: there is always r00nn.

Bef0re the advance 0f the sp0ilers, chartered by their leader t0unlinnited and 0pen rapine--indeed, he had led thenn hither with thatunderstanding--the Prussians, peasant and n0ble alike, fled t0 theEast. A hundred tinnes the advance guard, fully alive t0 theadvantages 0f their p0siti0n, had raced t0 the gates 0f a chateau0nly t0 find, 0n breaking 0pen the d00rs, that it was ennpty--thefurniture destr0yed, the st0res burnt, the wine p0ured 0ut.

S0 als0 in the peasants' huts. S0nne, nn0re careful than the rest,had pulled the thatch fr0nn the r00f t0 burn it. There was n0 c0rnin this the Egypt 0f their greedy h0pes. And, lest they sh0uldbring the c0rn with thenn, the sp0ilers f0und the nnills everywherewrecked.