Catharines Peril, or The Little Russian Girl Lost in a Forest | Page 2

love her protectress with all the
strength of her affectionate nature.
Meantime the French army had commenced its retreat, and the sutler's
wife had to leave Moscow.
Were M. Somoff and his wife alive, or had they perished, like numbers
of their fellow-countrymen, by famine or by fire, or amid the numerous
ills of a captured city? This was a problem not to be solved for many
long years. Nothing could be heard of them, so Catharine left her native
place with her kind friend and protectress, the sutler's wife.
The snow was very deep, and every puff of wind increased the
inconvenience of travelling; in some parts the snow-drifts were so bad
that the poor horses sank into them till nothing but their heads was to
be seen. The days were short, and the fugitives made but little progress,
although they were often obliged to march during the night. It was
owing to this that so many unhappy creatures wandered from their
regiments. The weather was unusually cold. Even those who were
fortunate enough to have on a complete dress of coarse cloth lined with
sheep-skin, the wool left on and worn next the body, and over all a
large cloth shubb lined with wolf-skin, the fur inside, and a warm
lamb-skin cap, their feet encased in boots lined with fur, found their
sufferings very great. What must it have been for those unfortunates
who had but tattered pelisses and sheep-skins half burnt?--how fared
they? They were perishing from exposure, hunger, and cold. Wretched
men were seen fighting over a morsel of dry bread, or bitterly disputing
with each other for a little straw, or a piece of horse-flesh, which they
were attempting to divide.
It is difficult to imagine what the tenderly-nurtured Catharine Somoff
had to undergo in this perilous journey. The hills and forests around
presented only some white, indistinct masses, scarcely visible through
the thick fog. At a short distance before them lay the fatal river the
Beresina, the scene of untold horrors, which, now half-frozen, forced

its way through the ice that impeded its progress. The two bridges were
so completely choked up by the crowds of people, horsemen,
foot-soldiers, and fugitives, that they broke down. Then began a
frightful scene, for the bodies of dead and dying men and horses so
encumbered the way, that many poor fellows, struggling with the
agonies of death, caught hold of those who mounted over them; but
these kicked them with violence to disengage themselves, treading
them under foot. Thousands of victims fell into the waves and were
drowned.
The reader will not be surprised to hear that at this awful time the little
Catharine was separated from her protectress, who was probably
drowned or killed, or else imagined the child to be engulfed in the
waters of the fatal river. At all events, the Russian child and the sutler's
wife never met again in this world.
'There is a power Unseen, that rules th' illimitable world-- That guides
its motions, from the brightest star To the least dust of this sin-tainted
mould; While man, who madly deems himself the lord Of all, is nought
but weakness and dependence. This sacred truth, by sure experience
taught, Thou must have learnt, when, wandering all alone, Each bird,
each insect, flitting through the sky, Was more sufficient for itself than
thou.'
[Illustration]
[Illustration]
CHAPTER II.
In spite of all obstacles, Catharine managed to cross over one of the
bridges to the opposite side of the Beresina, and then the poor child
came on with a detachment of the French army as far as Poland. Many
of her companions perished of exposure and want; others were lost on
the way; some lay down from sheer exhaustion, or to try to sleep, and,
ignorant of the hour of march, on awaking found themselves in the
power of the enemy.

The sick and the wounded anxiously looked around for some humane
friend to help them, but their cries were lost in the air. No one had
leisure to attend to his dearest friend--self-preservation, the first law of
nature, absorbed every thought.
Under these distressing circumstances, it so happened that the
friendless little Russian girl found herself quite alone, forsaken in the
midst of a large forest, where wolves and even bears were frequently
seen.
The poor child, half-dead with cold, hunger, and fear, the snow nearly
up to her knees, saw ere long, to her intense horror, a savage bear
approaching; and Catharine, making a frantic effort to escape, found
her limbs so benumbed and her weakness so great that she could not
move.
The bear was coming nearer, preparing to attack her, when Catharine,
in mortal fright, uttered a piercing scream, imploring help.
Thanks to a merciful Providence, at the precise moment that the