Whilst he gathered from his own lips a corroboration of the narrative
of the palatine, he could not forbear inquiring how a person of his
apparent candor, and who was also the native of a soil where national
liberty had so long been the palladium of its happiness, could
volunteer in a cause the object of which was to make a brave people
slaves?

Somerset listened to these questions with blushes; and they did not
leave his face when he confessed that all he could say in extenuation
of what he had done was to plead his youth, and having thought little
on the subject.

"I was wrought upon," continued he, "by a variety of circumstances:
first, the predilections of Mr. Loftus, my governor, are strongly in
favor of the court of St. Petersburg; secondly, my father dislikes
the army, and I am enthusiastically fond of it--this was the only
opportunity, perhaps, in which I might ever satisfy my passion; and
lastly, I believe that I was dazzled by the picture which the young
men about me drew of the campaign. I longed to be a soldier; they
persuaded me; and I followed them to the field as I would have done
to a ballroom, heedless of the consequences."

"Yet," replied Thaddeus, smiling, "from the intrepidity with which
you maintained your ground, when your arms were demanded, any one
might have thought that your whole soul, as well as your body, was
engaged in the cause."

"To be sure," returned Somerset, "I was a blockhead to be there; but
when there, I should have despised myself forever had I given up my
honor to the ruffians who would have wrested my sword from me! But