A Post-Armistice Exchange of Coins: Russian-English-French.

A letter from the Crimea relates that upon the armistice being arranged, an English soldier on the left bank of the Chernaya Stream asked one of our soldiers standing on the right bank to let him see his St.-George cross, and to throw it across the water. But our soldier declined, saying that for this cross he would not take even half the kingdom of England. This reply so pleased some French officers that they threw some coins to our soldier. During the mutual throwing across the stream of coins and various trinkets, one Englishman also threw a coin to our soldier, but he tossed it back saying that he didn’t want any English money. This elicited applause and laughter among the French.

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Translated by Mark Conrad, 2005.