" Yes, we have gained a victory over Bonaparte, just when I'm not serving.

Yes, yes, he's always poking fun at me....

Ah, well! Let him!" And he began reading Bilibin's letter which was written in French.

He read without understanding half of it, read only to forget, if but for a moment, what he had too long been thinking of so painfully to the exclusion of all else.

Bilibin was now at army headquarters in a diplomatic capacity, and though he wrote in French and used French jests and French idioms, he described the whole campaign with a fearless self-censure and self-derision genuinely Russian.