The next day, Teresa and Carlos were able to converse with one another, and could use their feet a very little. The colonel came to see them, and speaking to them in French, soon acquired their eventful history. Kind as the Russians had been to the captives while they took them to be French, they were certainly pleased to find them Spaniards. The officers in the meanwhile did not know what to do with them, they were only waiting for the arrival of the Grand Duke Constantine, (the next brother of the Emperor Alexander,) and his regiment, to follow the wreck of the French army, with whom they very erroneously supposed Napoleon to be. He, however, had left the French at Smorgonie, and returned alone to Paris, like a comet shorn of its beams. The greater part of his immense host lay mouldering on the icy plains of Russia. The officers were loth to expose again the orphans, whom Providence had thrown into their hands to the mis-chances and vicissitudes of war. The Colonel resolved to make the Grand Duke acquainted with their touching history, and to abide by his decision respecting their future destiny. "The lofty feeling of a generous foe, And the imperial Claudius turned and wept." AGNES STRICKLAND. Ivan, the young soldier, who had discovered the young Spaniards, came frequently to see them. He laughed at the appearance they made in the dress of his own country, which did not set at all easily upon them. Teresa smiled in return, for no dandy in Paris boasted a smaller waist than her Russian preserver. Indeed, the tight belts of these regiments gave them all a sly resemblance to that very warlike insect, the wasp. This appearance forms a part of Russian military etiquette, and as Ivan belonged to the Grand Duke Constantine's own regiment, he was not at all answerable for the slenderness that excited the wonder of Carlos and his young sister. Still, as he stood before them, his tall fine figure glittering in green and gold, with his fair curling hair, blooming face, laughing blue eyes, and ivory teeth, he certainly looked a very handsome young chasseur indeed. The intercourse between the lovely Catalonian girl and her deliverer was limited to signs; but he liked to see her because he had saved her from perishing in the snow, and she was deeply grateful to him for his preservation of her and Carlos. Without the aid of language she discovered that Ivan was the son of the Russian serjeant belonging to the company, and that one of the kind old women who waited upon her, was his mother. The parents of Ivan had been born (as all the peasantry in Russia are) serfs, a condition that once prevailed throughout Europe, but which, happily, only now exists in this mighty empire. We must not, however, confound their state with negro slavery, for the serf, if sold to a new lord, is sold with the estate, and is never parted from his wife and children unless with his own choice. He is clothed, fed, and lodged comfortably at his master's expense, and is often attached to the noble family to whom he belongs. But, disguise it how we will, slavery is still a bitter draught, and that system which places a great many individuals at the mercy of one, must be bad, even if that individual be generally humane and amiable, since he holds an absolute power only short of life and death over a multitude, and that of necessity he must often delegate this power to others, whose characters may not resemble his own. The sovereigns of Russia, who find themselves exposed to the machinations of the aristocracy, have long endeavoured to put down the feudal system, which makes the auto |