It was neither hospitality nor love of society which had procured the honour of an invitation for Balgonie; but Bernikoff shrewdly suspecting that he might have some loose cash, resolved to possess himself thereof at cards; so barely was a dinner of _shee_ (which is identically Scotch broth), croquettes, with _purée_ of beet-root, beef in the Hussar style, with salad of baked beet-root and biscuits, dismissed, than champagne-cup, and vodka (or corn-brandy) punch became the order of the evening; and Bernikoff, who was a great gourmand, with his face flushed and his uniform open, after signing the cross and bowing thrice to a picture of St. Sergius, sat down to cards with Vlasfief and Tschekin, who were quite as sharp as himself, and with poor simple-hearted Charlie Balgonie, who dreaded to decline, circumstanced as he was on all hands; and who was glad when allowed to quit the table with the loss, he never could understand how, of twenty xervonitz, or pieces worth nine shillings sterling each. "Now, Vlasfief--'tis you and I; rouge-et-noir!" exclaimed Bernikoff, draining a goblet of vodka punch at a draught. "I am too weary to play, most excellent Colonel; pray excuse me," urged the Captain, who had lost considerably to his senior also. "You, then, Tschekin?" said Bernikoff savagely. "I hav'n't a kopec to spare, Excellency!" "Well--I saw a pretty housemaid at your mansion in the town yesterday--the daughter of a serf apparently." "Feodorowna?" "Very likely--with red hair and brawn eyes." "Ah! the same; she came with Madame Tschekin from the household of her father, General Weymarn." "By all the devils, she is very like old Weymarn!" "She is the daughter of my old nurse, Colonel," said Tschekin gravely, with an air of annoyance. "I don't care whose daughter she is!" "Well?" "I'll put a hundred silver roubles on her." "Done! I put her on the ace." "The ace hath lost!" exclaimed Bernikoff, with a shout of laughter. "Holy Sergius! the girl is mine. To-morrow," he added, "I'll send a corporal and a file of men for her, with a covered kabitka. See that all her things are packed and ready, friend Tschekin, or write to your wife about it, and say you have lost her at cards." "The devil!--Excellency--this can't be." "Why? I won her fairly." "But the girl is about to be married to her cousin." "_Was_, you mean; the cards have changed her destiny, like that of the serfs whom Vlasfief drank away in champagne last night." So passed Charlie's first day at Schlusselburg. CHAPTER XV. THE IMPERIAL PRISONER. Fortunately for Balgonie, there was a chaplain, or priest, of the Russian Greek Church, attached to the fortress; and his society, at times, tended to alleviate what he endured from having to associate with such a human bear as Colonel Bernikoff,--an annoyance from which he would only be relieved by the longed-for return of General Weymarn and the Regiment of Smolensko to St. Petersburg.