Catharine's peril

In Short

Published in 1881, Catharine's Peril is a short volume of instructional moral fiction collecting three distinct stories focused on Providence, generosity, and Christian duty. The title story follows a seven-year-old Russian girl separated from her parents during the 1812 burning of Moscow and the brutal French retreat. Saved sequentially by a French sutler, a Polish aristocrat, and her own husband, she ultimately repays her rescuers through heroic acts of intercession. Paired with tales of a disguised Scottish Earl and a self-sacrificing young Sunday-school scholar, the book presents a quiet, earnest defense of active charity across social divides.

The Story

The narrative opens amidst the historical catastrophe of the 1812 Napoleonic invasion. As Governor Rostopchin sets fire to Moscow to starve the French invaders, the city’s inhabitants flee into the freezing wilderness. In the terror and confusion, seven-year-old Catharine Somoff is separated from her family and nurse. As cold and starvation set in, she is rescued by a compassionate French sutler’s wife, who adopts Catharine and treats her as her own child.

When the French army begins its devastating retreat through the deep snows toward Poland, the sutler's wife perishes, leaving Catharine abandoned in a vast forest inhabited by wild beasts. A savage bear approaches the helpless, benumbed child. Just as it prepares to attack, a Polish nobleman named Count Barezewski shoots the beast. He feeds the starving child and takes her to his castle, adopting her into his household.

Years pass. Catharine grows into an accomplished young woman of sixteen. Each year, on the anniversary of her rescue, the Count hosts a grand feast where Catharine retells her history. During one such stormy anniversary, a gun blast sounds from the nearby forest. Count Barezewski leads a search party to the exact spot where he once saved Catharine and recovers a wounded Russian traveller who has been robbed and shot.

While Catharine tends to the stranger's wounds, the man reveals his identity: he is a Muscovite merchant who lost his cherished daughter during the burning of Moscow nine years earlier. Recognizing him, Catharine embraces her father, M. Somoff. Reunited with her parents, she returns to Moscow and eventually marries a high-ranking Russian military officer.

A decade later, political turmoil sweeps Europe as Poland revolts against Tsar Nicholas I. Catharine accompanies her husband to the front during the brutal Russian campaign. After the fall of Warsaw, Catharine's husband inspects the battlefield to care for the wounded and discovers a decorated Polish officer lying near death among a heap of corpses. He brings the officer to Catharine’s quarters, where she recognizes her former protector, Count Barezewski. Because he is a proscribed rebel face-to-face with execution or exile to the frozen wastes of Siberia, Catharine travels directly to Tsar Nicholas, falling before his knees to plead for the life of the man who twice saved her family.

The volume then shifts to two shorter contemporary domestic tales set in Scotland. "The Shabby Surtout" follows a modest traveler on a stagecoach who endures the mockery of two wealthy "dandies." The traveler quietly bestows money on a destitute widow and secures a schoolmaster position for a deserving teacher, only to be revealed as the wealthy Earl of Hyndford traveling incognito. "Jane Hill" details a young Sunday-school girl who surrenders her savings for a winter cloak to help a poor widow left homeless by an alleyway fire.

How It Unfolds

The burning of Moscow Napoleon invades Russia in 1812, capturing Moscow before Governor Rostopchin sets the city ablaze. Citizens flee into the freezing winter, and seven-year-old Catharine is separated from her parents during the panic.

Mercy during the retreat A kindly French sutler's wife adopts Catharine and protects her during the brutal French retreat through deep snow. The woman dies during a chaotic river crossing, leaving Catharine lost in a Polish forest.

Rescue at the castle Cornered by a savage bear, Catharine is saved when Count Barezewski shoots the animal. He brings the girl to his castle, where she is raised as his own daughter for nine years.

The anniversary feast During a stormy banquet celebrating Catharine's rescue, a gunshot leads the Count to a wounded traveler. Catharine treats the man, who reveals he lost his daughter during the 1812 fire, leading to a joyful reunion with her father.

The battlefield discovery Ten years later, during the Polish uprising, Catharine's husband rescues a dying Polish officer from a pile of corpses after the fall of Warsaw. Catharine recognizes the man as Count Barezewski.

Intercession before the Tsar Facing execution or brutal exile to Siberia, Count Barezewski is saved when Catharine travels to Tsar Nicholas I and successfully begs for her benefactor's pardon.

The nobleman in disguise In "The Shabby Surtout," a modest passenger on an Edinburgh stagecoach endures the taunts of two arrogant dandies while secretly aiding a destitute widow and testing a schoolmaster. The traveler is revealed to be the wealthy Earl of Hyndford.

The sacrificial gift In "Jane Hill," an old tenement building catches fire, leaving a mother and five children homeless. A young Sunday-school student gives up her new winter cloak to help the family rebuild their lives.

The People

• Catharine Somoff: The central heroine of the primary tale. Displaced as a young child during the 1812 destruction of Moscow, she retains a gentle, deeply grateful nature through successive hardships, eventually using her high social standing to intercede for the man who saved her life.
• Count Barezewski: A noble Polish landowner living near the border forests. Driven by instinctive chivalry and compassion, he rescues Catharine from a wild bear, raises her as his daughter, and later joins the Polish fight for independence.
• M. Somoff: Catharine’s father, a Muscovite merchant who loses his fortune and his child during the burning of Moscow. He maintains faith through years of separation until a chance encounter in a winter storm restores his daughter to him.
• The Earl of Hyndford: A wealthy Scottish peer who travels incognito in a worn claret-colored coat ("surtout"). He uses his anonymity to evaluate the true moral character of those around him, protecting the vulnerable and humbling arrogant social climbers.
• Jane Hill: A timid, tender-hearted working-class girl in a Scottish industrial town. Deeply moved by Christian teachings on charity, she willingly surrenders her own savings to assist a widowed victim of a house fire.
• Mrs. Martin: An impoverished widow with five children who is driven to near-catatonic despair after losing her home in a tenement fire, but is restored to hope by Jane Hill's selfless generosity.

In Its Own Voice

When seven-year-old Catharine is left alone in the snow during the retreat, the narrator reflects on human helplessness without divine protection:

"While man, who madly deems himself the lord / Of all, is nought but weakness and dependence."

In "The Shabby Surtout," the young nobleman in disguise comforts a grieving young widow traveling on the stagecoach with words of scripture:

"'Well, I trust that, though desolate as far as this world is concerned, you know something of Him who is the Father of the fatherless and the Judge of the widow.'"

In "Jane Hill," the young scholar explains to her teacher why she prefers to give away her winter coat fund:

"'I don't think my old cloak is so very shabby after all, and maybe if you could iron it and bind it, it would do quite well another winter; and at any rate I'll be better off than Mrs. Martin's children, who haven't got no clothes at all.'"

What It's Really About

At its core, Catharine's Peril is an extended meditation on the cyclical nature of mercy and Providence. The text argues that no act of compassion, no matter how small or extended across enemy lines, is ever lost. By setting its primary story against the brutal backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars and the Polish-Russian conflicts, the book presents human kindness as a universal duty that transcends national enmity.

The accompanying stories echo this message in quiet, domestic settings, illustrating that moral courage does not require a grand historic stage. Whether a Polish lord saves an enemy child, a Scottish earl hides his wealth to aid a widow, or a poor child surrenders a cloak, the text insists that true nobility lies in quiet self-sacrifice.

Why Read It Today

Modern readers interested in nineteenth-century moral literature and historical juvenile fiction will find Catharine's Peril a fascinating period piece. Mrs. Bewsher writes with a direct, earnest clarity that captures the Victorian evangelical worldview, where historic disasters like the burning of Moscow serve as backdrops for personal spiritual testing.

The reading experience is swift and modest. The narrative moves at a clipped pace, prioritizing moral clarity and emotional beats over complex characterization. Readers should be prepared for explicit religious instructional tone, stark melodrama, and nineteenth-century imperial attitudes regarding Russian autocracy and Siberian penal exile.

What lingers is the book's sincere conviction that empathy is a tangible force. The image of the young Catharine kneeling before the Tsar to save the Polish lord who saved her from a bear years prior carries a classic, storybook resonance. It stands as a reminder of an era when popular literature sought above all to instill basic, unvarnished empathy in young minds.