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At the men's end of the table the talk grew more and more

animated. The colonel told them that the declaration of war had

already appeared in Petersburg and that a copy, which he had

himself seen, had that day been forwarded by courier to the

commander in chief.

"And why the deuce are we going to fight Bonaparte?" remarked

Shinshin. "He has stopped Austria's cackle and I fear it will be

our turn next."

The colonel was a stout, tall, plethoric German, evidently

devoted to the service and patriotically Russian. He resented

Shinshin's remark.

"It is for the reasson, my goot sir," said he, speaking with a

German accent, "for the reasson zat ze Emperor knows zat. He

declares in ze manifessto zat he cannot fiew wiz indifference ze

danger vreatening Russia and zat ze safety and dignity of ze

Empire as vell as ze sanctity of its alliances..." he spoke this

last word with particular emphasis as if in it lay the gist of

the matter.