34 THE LIFE OF 



The Ruffian foldiers fcem fitted by nature 

 for war; their hardinefs is unparalleled, as 

 eafily may be imagined from the manner in 

 which they live. Their magazines are not as 

 with other armies, depofited with even a finical 

 care; their proviiion, which is rye meal, is 

 piled up like pyramids in bags in the open 

 air, where, by alternate expofure to rain and 

 fcorching fun, I have feen it fo baked toge- 

 ther that it was obliged to be hewed out wi^th 

 axes. The raw meal is ferved out to the com- 

 panies ; and where they have no wood, (as was 

 the cafe with us while in the environs of Cher- 

 fon where no Vvood grows, (and the chips of 

 the dock-yard hardly fupplied the hofpital 

 and General Officers,) they colled: weeds and 

 the dung of the cattle, with which they heat 

 it as well as they are able, and eat it half raw. 

 They are not lefs hardy in their tents than 

 in their eating ; ll:raw or blankets are never 

 thought of by a Ruffian foldier : his cloak 

 ferves him at once for bed and for covering i 

 and wrapped up in this, he lies down con- 

 tented on the bare cold ground. As an inftance 

 of their contempt for thefe luxuries ^ I had en- 

 trufted a foldier with the care of a conliderablc 

 number of valuable articles, at a time when I 

 was at a diftance from the Prince. I had got 

 a trench dug in the earth to ferve as my cellar ; 



and 



