TREED BY WOLVES Path

remarks about foraging with the army, as the brigands were
ignorant that Charlie and he had any connection with the
Swedes, or that he was not, as he had given out, a young
Englishman come out to set up as a trader.

The band now journeyed slowly on, keeping near the
north bank of the Dnieper. ‘They went by twos and threes,
uniting sometimes and entering a village or surrounding a
farmhouse at night, and taking what they wanted. The
people were, however, terribly poor, and they were able to
obtain but little beyond scanty supplies of flour and occa-
sionally a few gold or silver trinkets. Many other bands
of plunderers had passed along in the course of the summer,
and the robbers themselves were often moved to pity by the
misery that they everywhere met with. When in small
parties they were obliged to avoid entering any villages, for
once or twice furious attacks were made upon those who
did so, the women joining the men in arming themselves
with any weapon that came to hand and in falling upon the
strangers.

Only once did they succeed in obtaining plunder of
value. ‘hey had visited a village, but found it contained
nothing worth taking. One of the women said,“ Why do
you trouble poor people like us? ‘There is the count’s
chateau three miles away. They have every luxury there,
while we are starving.” After leaving the village the man
to whom she had spoken repeated what she had said, and
it was agreed to make the attempt. At the first cottage
they came to they made further inquiries, and found that
the lord of the soil was very unpopular; for, in spite of the
badness of the times, he insisted on receiving his rents
without abatement, and where money was not forthcoming,
had seized cattle and horses, assessing them at a price
far below what they would have fetched at the nearest
market.

They therefore marched to the house. It was a very