V. N. Nazaryef, _Zhizn i ludi bylogo vremeni_, in _Istoritchesky Vestnik_: November 1900. Tolstoy's talk with Pogodin, quoted in Mihaylovsky's _Literary Recollections_: Petersburg, 1900. _L. N. Tolstoy._ By E. Solovef: Petersburg, 1897. Light is also thrown on this period by Tolstoy's _Childhood_, _Boyhood_, and _Youth_, _The Memoirs of a Billiard Marker_, _Two Hussars_, _A Squire's Morning_, and _Albert_ (which, however, are not autobiographies), as well as by stories included in Tolstoy's Readers for School-children--_The Old Horse_ and _How I Learned to Ride_. CHAPTER III THE CAUCASUS Journey. Russian Conquest. Letters to Aunt Tatiána. Diary. Cossacks. He volunteers. Enters army. Hádji Mourát. Story of a gaming debt. Sádo. Dreams for the future. _Childhood._ Shooting. Boúlka. Slow promotion. _The Raid._ The Censor. Danger. Applies for discharge. Applies to Gortchakóf. _Memoirs of a Billiard Marker._ Receives his commission. His retrospect. 1851 THE brothers Nicholas and Leo left Yásnaya Polyána on 20th April 1851, and spent a couple of weeks in Moscow. The frankness of Leo's intercourse with his Aunt Tatiána is illustrated by the following letter which he wrote, telling her of a visit he paid to Sokólniki, a pleasant outskirt of Moscow on the borders of a pine forest, where a fête is held on May-day. That he wrote in French is explained by the fact that Tatiána, like many Russian ladies educated early in the nineteenth century, knew French better than she did Russian. [4]J'ai été à la promenade de Sokólniki par un temps détestable, c'est pourquoi je n'ai rencontré personne des dames de la société, que j'avais envie de voir. Comme vous prétendez que je suis un homme à épreuves, je suis allé parmi les plébs, dans les tentes bohémiennes. Vous pouvez aisément vous figurer le combat intérieur qui s'engagea là-bas pour et contre. Au reste j'en sortis victorieux, c.à d. n'ayant rien donné que ma bénédiction aux joyeux descendants des illustres Pharaons. Nicolas trouve que je suis un compagnon de voyage très agréable, si ce n'était ma propreté. Il se fâche de ce que, comme il le dit, je change de linge 12 fois par jour. Moi je le trouve aussi compagnon très agréable, si ce n'était sa saleté. Je ne sais lequel de nous a raison.