34 THE LIFE OF 



The Rufiian 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, depolited with even a finical 

 care j their provifion, 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 {e^n it fo baked toge- 

 ther that it was obliged to be hewed out with 

 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 ; draw or blankets are never 

 thought of by a Ruffian foldier : his cloak 

 ferves him at once for bed and for covering 5 

 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 cn- 

 trufted a foldier with the care of a conliderabic 

 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 



