Through Russian Snows (15 page)

Frank looked rather surprised.

"I had a letter," Colonel Wilson went on, "from Colonel Chambers, who
was a captain in the 15th when I joined. He spoke in very high terms of
you, and sent a copy of the proceedings and reports connected with the
murder of that magistrate, and said that it was almost entirely due to
your sharpness that your brother was cleared of the suspicion that had
not unreasonably fallen upon him, and the saddle put upon the right
horse. There is a sort of idea that any dashing young fellow will do for
the cavalry, and no doubt dash is one of the prime requisites for
cavalry officers, but if he is really to distinguish himself and be
something more than a brave swordsman, more especially if he is likely
to have the opportunity of obtaining a staff appointment, he needs other
qualities, for on a reconnaissance a man who has a quick eye, good
powers of observation and thoughtfulness, may send in a report of a most
valuable kind, while that of the average young officer might be
absolutely useless.

"Having said this much, I would advise you strongly to devote a couple
of hours a day regularly to the study of French and German. You may find
them invaluable, especially if you are engaged on any diplomatic
mission, and much more useful at first than the study of writers on
military tactics and strategy. There will be plenty of time for that
afterwards. At Canterbury you will have no difficulty in finding a
master among the many French
émigrés
, and as there are at present two
or three troops of one of our German Hussar regiments there, and some of
these men belong to families who preferred exile and service in the
ranks to living under French domination, you may find a soldier who will
be glad enough to add to his pay by a little teaching. A draft went out
only a fortnight or so since to your regiment, and you are therefore
likely to be some time at Canterbury before you are ordered out, and as
the time in a garrison town hangs heavily on hand, a little steady work
will help to make it pass not unpleasantly."

"I will certainly do so, sir. We had a French master at school. It was
not compulsory to learn the language, but I thought it might be useful
if I went into the army, and so took it up. I don't say that I can speak
well at all, but I know enough to help me a good deal."

"That is right, lad. Ah, here is supper. I am sure you must want it
after being eighteen hours on the outside of a coach in such weather as
this, though I daresay as far as food went you did not do badly."

"No, sir; there was plenty of time at the stopping-places for meals, and
as I was well wrapped up the cold was nothing."

Frank, however, could not deny that he felt very stiff after his
journey, and was not sorry to retire to bed as soon as he had eaten his
supper. There were few men in the army who had seen so much and such
varied service as Colonel Sir Robert Wilson. Joining the army in 1793,
he served through the campaigns of Flanders and Holland. In 1797, having
attained the rank of captain, he was detached from his regiment and
served on Major-general St. John's staff during the rebellion in
Ireland. Two years later he rejoined his regiment and proceeded to the
Helder, and was engaged in all the battles that took place during that
campaign. On the Convention being signed he purchased a majority in one
of the regiments of German Hussars in our service. He was then sent on a
mission to Vienna, and having fulfilled this, went down through Italy to
Malta, where he expected to find his regiment, which formed part of
General Abercrombie's command. He joined it before it landed in Egypt,
and served through the campaign there. He then purchased his
lieutenant-colonelcy, and exchanged into the 20th Light Dragoons. He was
with that portion of his regiment which formed part of Sir David Baird's
division, and sailed first to the Brazils and then to the Cape of Good
Hope, which possession it wrested from the Dutch.

On his return to England he was directed to proceed on the staff of Lord
Hutchinson to Berlin, but on his arrival at Memel was despatched to the
Russian headquarters as British commissioner. He continued with the
Russian army during the next two campaigns, and on the signature of the
treaty of Tilsit returned to England, and made several journeys to St.
Petersburg with confidential despatches, and brought to England the
first news that the Czar had concluded an alliance with Napoleon and was
about to declare war against England. In 1808 Sir Robert Wilson was sent
to Portugal to raise the Portuguese legion, and, acting independently as
a Brigadier-general, rendered very valuable services, until in 1809 the
legion was absorbed in the Portuguese army. He was now waiting for other
employment.

The colonel went out with Frank after breakfast next morning and
ordered his uniform and equipments. Frank was well supplied with money,
for by the terms of his father's will either of his sons who entered the
army was entitled to draw two hundred pounds a year to pay for outfit,
horse, and as allowance until he came of age, when he would receive his
share of the capital. Mrs. Troutbeck had, when he said good-bye to her,
slipped a pocket-book with bank-notes for a hundred pounds into his
hands.

"Money is always useful, Frank," she said, when he protested that he was
amply supplied, "and if you should ever find that your allowance is
insufficient write to me. I know that you are not in the least likely to
be extravagant or foolish, but you see what a scrape your brother has
got into, without any fault of your own, and you may also find yourself
in a position where you may want money. If you do, write to me at once."

After the orders had been given, Sir Robert Wilson took Frank about
London to see some of the sights. At dinner he asked him many questions
as to his studies and amusements, and the way in which his day was
generally spent. After dining at Sir Robert's club they returned to his
lodgings.

"I am very pleased, Frank," he said as he lighted a cigar, "both with
what I have heard of you and with what I see for myself. Now I will
speak to you more freely than I did before, but mind, what I say is
strictly confidential. Government have obtained secret information which
points surely to the fact that Napoleon is meditating an offensive war
against Russia. He is accumulating troops in Germany and Poland out of
all proportion to the operations he has been carrying on against
Austria. When that war will break out is more than I or anyone can say,
but when it does take place I have Lord Wellesley's promise that I shall
go out there in the same position I held during their last war, that is,
as British commissioner with the Russian army. Now, lad, in that
position I shall be entitled to take a young officer with me as my
assistant, or what, if engaged on other service, would be called
aide-de-camp. One cannot be everywhere at once, and I should often have
to depend upon him for information as to what was taking place at points
where I could not be present.

"He would, too, act as my secretary. It may possibly be a year before
Napoleon's preparations are completed; but even in a year I should
hardly be justified in choosing so young an officer from my old
regiment, unless he had some special qualifications for the post. Now,
for your father's sake, Frank, and because I like you and feel sure that
you are just the man I require, I should like to take you, but could not
do so unless you had some special knowledge that I could urge as a
reason for applying for you. There is only one such qualification that I
know of, namely, that you should be able to speak the Russian language.
When I spoke to you about learning French and German I did so on general
principles, and not with a view to this, for it did not seem to me that
I could possibly select you to go with me on this service; but I have
since thought it over, and have come to the conclusion that I could do
so, if you did but understand Russian. It is a most difficult language,
and although I can now get on with it fairly after my stay out there, I
thought at first I should never make any headway in it. It would,
therefore, be of no use whatever for you to attempt it unless you are
ready to work very hard at it, and to give up, I should say, at least
four hours a day to study."

"I should be quite ready to do that, sir," Frank said earnestly, "and I
thank you indeed for your kindness. But who should I get to teach me?"

"That we must see about. There are, I have no doubt, many Russian Poles
in London who speak the language well, and who have picked up enough
English for your purpose. The Poles are marvellous linguists. We will go
to-morrow to the headquarters of the Bow Street runners. They are the
detectives, you know, and if they cannot at once put their hands upon
such a man as we want, they will be able to ferret out half a dozen in
twenty-four hours. One of these fellows you must engage to go down to
Canterbury and take lodgings there. They are almost always in destitute
circumstances, and would be content with very moderate pay, which would
not draw very heavily on your resources. Thirty shillings a week would
be a fortune to one of them. Even if this war should not come off—but I
have myself no doubt about it—the language might in the future be of
great value to you. I don't suppose there is a single officer in the
English army, with the exception of myself, who knows a word of Russian,
and in the future it might secure you the position of military attaché
to our embassy there. At any rate it will render it easy for me to
secure you an appointment on my mission when it comes off, and in that
case you will be a witness of one of the most stupendous struggles that
has ever taken place. You think you can really stick to it, Frank? You
will have, no doubt, to put up with a good deal of chaff from your
comrades on your studious tastes."

"I sha'n't mind that, sir. I have often been chaffed at school, because
I used to insist on getting up my work before I would join anything that
was going on, and used to find that if I took it good temperedly, it
soon ceased."

The next day they went to Bow Street. Sir Robert's card was sufficient
to ensure them attention, and several of the detectives were questioned.
One of them replied, "I think that I know just the man. He occupies an
attic in the house next to mine. He is a young fellow of
four-and-twenty, and I know he has been trying to support himself by
giving lessons in German, but I don't think that he has ever had a
pupil, and I believe he is nearly starving. His landlady told me that he
has parted with all his clothes except those that he stands upright in.
Of late he has been picking up a few pence by carrying luggage for
people who land at the wharves. I have not spoken to him myself, but she
tells me that he is a perfect gentleman, and though sometimes, as she
believes, he has not so much as a crust of bread between his lips all
day, he regularly pays his rent of a Saturday."

"I should think that he would be just the man for us. Would you see him
when you go home this afternoon, and ask him to come to No. 44
Buckingham Street, either this evening at nine, or at the same hour
to-morrow morning? I have written my address on this card."

At nine o'clock that evening the landlady came upstairs and said, rather
doubtfully, that a young man had called to see Sir Robert, and that he
had one of Sir Robert's cards.

"That is right, Mrs. Richards. I was expecting him."

The Pole was brought up. He was a pale young man, dressed in a thin suit
of clothes that accorded but ill with the sharp frost outside. He bowed
respectfully, and said in very fair English, "I am told, sir, that you
wish to speak to me."

"Take a seat, sir. By the way, I do not know your name."

"Strelinski," the man said.

"I am told that you are desirous of giving lessons in languages."

"I am, sir, most desirous."

"Mr. Wyatt, this gentleman here, is anxious to learn Russian."

The man looked with some surprise at Frank. "I should be glad to teach
it, sir," he said doubtfully, "but Russian is not like French or
English. It is a very difficult language to learn, and one that would
require a good deal of study. I should not like to take money without
doing something in return, and I fear that this gentleman would be
disappointed at the small progress he would make."

"Mr. Wyatt has just obtained a commission, and he thinks that as there
are few, if any, officers in the army who speak it fluently, it might be
of great advantage to him. He is, therefore, prepared to work hard at
it. I myself," he went on in Russian, "speak it a little, as you see; I
have already warned him of the difficulty of the language, and he is not
dismayed. He is going down to Canterbury to join the depôt of his
regiment in the course of a few days, and he proposes that you should
accompany him and take a lodging there."

The young man's face had a look of surprise when he was addressed in the
Russian language, and Frank saw a faint flush come across his face and
tears flow to his eyes as he heard the offer.

"What terms would you ask? He might require your services for a year."

"Any terms that would keep me from starving," the man said.

"May I ask what you were in your own country, Mr. Strelinski?"

"I was educated for the law," the Pole said. "I took my degree at the
University of Warsaw, but I was suspected of having a leaning towards
the French—as who had not, when Napoleon had promised to deliver us
from our slavery—and had to fly. I had intended at first to enter one
of the Polish regiments in the French service, but I could not get
across the frontier, and had to make north, getting here in an English
ship. The war between you and France prevented my crossing the sea
again, and then I resolved to earn my living here, but—" and he
stopped.

"You have found it hard work. I can quite understand that, Mr.
Strelinski. It is terribly hard for any foreigner, even with good
introductions, to earn a living here, and to one unprovided with such
recommendations well-nigh impossible. Please to sit here for a moment.
Frank, come into the next room with me."