journals in a coffee-house, and expressing some well-founded doubts of the veracity of their contents. I was informed that they received a severe reprimand, and were _ordered to believe_ all that was written under the government sanction—a thing extremely difficult to do, seeing the extraordinary falsehoods inserted in the papers, and the wonderful triumphs of Russian valour recounted; but to be sure the word _victory_ is as easily written as the word _defeat_; and it certainly sounds much more agreeably to the ear. Although we English did not believe the accounts published, yet it was extremely annoying to hear the exulting remarks of the Russians on the supposed advantages obtained by their armies. The majority of the people professed to believe the accounts given, and very likely they really did so, as only a select few are acquainted with anything like the truth. I was told that even the Emperor himself is not always informed of the extent of his losses, because so few have the courage to tell him of them. A friend of mine accidentally heard two military generals[21] talking of the great reverses the Russian arms had experienced; they were speaking in an under-tone, but she distinctly heard the words— “It is very strange that three generals should have fallen, and so few soldiers slain!” “How!” exclaimed the other, “few? why, we have lost altogether forty thousand men!” This was before the fatal siege of Silistria, or just at its commencement: so the thousands that have perished altogether by the sword and pestilence must amount to a fearful number. Even while I was at St. Petersburg, it was affirmed that the Russians had lost since their entry into the principalities, at the lowest estimate, seventy thousand men.