"Sell us that horse!" Denisov called out to the Cossacks.

"If you like, your honor!" The officers got up and stood round the Cossacks and their prisoner.

The French dragoon was a young Alsatian who spoke French with a German accent.

He was breathless with agitation, his face was red, and when he heard some French spoken he at once began speaking to the officers, addressing first one, then another.

He said he would not have been taken, it was not his fault but the corporal's who had sent him to seize some horsecloths, though he had told him the Russians were there.