ENGLISH VANDALISM VS. FRENCH BREEDING. 
45t) 
missed. We had not heard the rustle of a lady’s dress 
for more than six months, and wanted something to 
make us feel civilized again. 
And thus we lounged from room to room, every thing 
deserted and cheerless ; for the governor had retreated, 
with the entire population, hundreds of miles into the 
interior hefore the expected demonstration of the com- 
bined fleet, burying every thing that they could not 
carry, and leaving Mr. Freighburg (who was a non-com- 
batant) to look out for things in general and the buried 
articles in particular. We subsequently saw long trenches 
which the Allies had dug in the (not always vain) search 
for cannon, nominally, but, in reality, for any and all public 
property worth taking away. (It must be remembered 
that Ayau was a depot of the Russian Fur Company, and 
not the property of the Czar, hence private property, at 
any rate, should have been respected.) With rare polite- 
ness, the retreating governor had left orders wdth Mr, 
Freighburg to put his house and billiard-table at the 
disposal of the allied officers, 
“I am sorry that I cannot extend to you the same 
civility,” remarked our host: “the English officers took 
a-\vay all the balls and cues when they left. V nld the table !” 
“Unheard-of vandalism!” exclaimed the master. “And 
how acted the Frenchmen?” 
“ Oh ! — the Frenchmen ? Always gentlemen. You see, 
the governor valued this table very much; for after it 
commences snowung wo are confined to the house so 
much that one must have something to make amuse- 
ment. After a shell freezes over the snow, then we dig 
our way out, hitch up our dogs to the sleighs, and are 
