NARVA 89

“T have not thought much about them, except that we are
going to do a long and quick march somewhere.”

“And where is that somewhere, do you think?”

“That I have not the slightest idea.”

“You would not say that it was to Narva?”

“T certainly should not, considering that we have but five
thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry, and of these
a large number have been so weakened by fever as to
be unfit for fighting; while at Narva report says there
are eighty thousand Russians in a strongly intrenched
camp.”

“Well, that is where we are going, Jervoise, nevertheless.
At least that is what the colonel has told me.”

“He must have been surely jesting, major. We may be
going to push forward in that direction and occupy some
strong position until the army comes up, but it would be
the height of madness to attack an enemy in a strong
position and just tenfold our force.”

“Well, we shall see,” Jamieson said coolly. “It is cer-
tain that Narva cannot hold out much longer, and I know
that the king has set his heart on relieving it; but it does
seem somewhat too dangerous an enterprise to attack the
Russians. At any rate that is the direction in which we
are going to-morrow. It is a good seventy miles distant,
and as they say that the whole country has been devastated
and the villagers have all fled, it is evident that when the
three days’ bread and meat we carry are exhausted we shall
have to get some food out of the Russian camp if nowhere
else.”

Captain Jervoise laughed, as did the others. “We can
live for a short time on the horses, Jamieson, if we are hard
pushed for it, though most of them are little beyond skin
and bone.”

“That is true, the cavalry are certainly scarcely fit for
service. Welling’s troops have had a very hard time of it,