On Tuesday, August 10, at four o’clock in the morning, I left Dresden. An hour before my departure, the kind, gracious Baron Fircks came to see me. He broke away from the embraces of sleep to say goodbye to me one more time. We sat down to have coffee and did not notice how the time flew. An unrestrained conversation about our dear Russia, about our friends and relatives, turned an hour into a minute. But it was time to leave! “It is so fortunate,” I said to him, “that you, gracious baron, are not a woman. God knows what people might have thought about us. We met a week ago and have been almost inseparable since then. Moreover, had this happened in Paris, French journalists certainly would have written, “A certain Mr. G., who had been sent, as is known, on a secret mission, fortunately, fell in love with one young baroness from Courland, and spending all his time with her, he forgot about the purpose of his visit!” He sat with me in the carriage and rode to the Pirna Gate. There, we hugged each other one more time with the soulful emotion of sincere friendship and parted. The turnpike gate went up, the carriage rode at its regular pace, and a sad cloud overshadowed my soul. Another parting with a good friend; another step into a dark distance; another disquieting anticipation of an unknown future.

The road from Dresden to Bohemia runs along the left bank of the Elbe like a beautiful alley surrounded by picturesque views. This region is rich in military history. The southern part of the Saxon Kingdom and the northern part of Bohemia witnessed the heroic deeds of the greatest military leaders of the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries—Gustav Adolf, Frederick, and Napoleon. Some countries are destined, it seems, by fate itself to become the sites of great, decisive military events. Such are Upper Italy, the Netherlands, and Saxony. In these countries, every step is commemorated by some heroic military deed or event. A traveler involuntarily recalls the past and makes comparisons. While thinking about Frederick and Napoleon, I opened a book that I happened to have about me and read, “The locations were the same, but their strategies were different.