ALAND THE BALTIC IX 1854. 213 



on the one side, and the small wiry forms and sharp 

 visages, electrical, as it were, with excitability, on 

 the other. !N"ear the gate of the fort were Baraguay 

 d'Hilliers, with a brilliant staff, the admirals, and 

 Brigadier Jones. Trooping forth came the prisoners 

 a pitiful spectacle so pitiful as to check almost 

 any feeling of generous respect for a conquered foe. 

 Trooping forth they came : the greater number, 

 drunken and disorderly, danced, capered, shouted, 

 sung, and exhibited frantic gestures and contortions, 

 which would have been ludicrous, had not drunken 

 frenzy given a fiendish look to their broad, heavy- 

 browed, Tartar faces. Some passed by, sullen, in- 

 different, and apathetic ; others openly rejoiced in 

 captivity none showed the dejection and mortifica- 

 tion of defeat. One man alone bore himself worthily. 

 He was a Pole, and wore a cross of honour on his 

 breast. Seeming to disdain companionship with the 

 rest, he strode on alone, with martial step and air, as 

 though he wished to show us there was at least one 

 soldier in the garrison. It was an ignoble spectacle 

 so ignoble as to crush any feeling of triumph, such 

 as men might feel from a victory over " foemen worthy 

 of their steel" 



It was a great relief when the thing was over 

 Avhen the last man had passed onwards to the boats ; 

 a great relief to renew one's ideas of soldiership, by 

 turning to the bronzed face and flowing beard of a 

 meille moiustache in the ranks opposite. 



