'Behind them, I saw the rip in the side of the tent through which Simon had entered. Before Simon could look up and see that I had observed him, I felt a heavy blow to my head from behind and I collapsed into unconsciousness.

'When I came to, it was still dark. I saw Andrei's face looming close to mine, and I feared that it was now time for me too to become a meal for these creatures. Instead, Andrei displayed concern. I feigned amnesia until I had heard enough from them to understand what they thought had happened. It turned out that they were under the impression that I had been captured by the French. They had attacked the camp by chance, but when they recognized me, they transformed their attack into a rescue mission. I played along with them, and also managed to convince them that I remembered nothing of my liberation – that the blow to my head had wiped away all images of what I had seen of their methods of killing. Their concern was so much concentrated on finding out whether I knew their true nature that they showed no inquisitiveness whatsoever into my true nature. The fact that I had been captured by the French was universally accepted and the possibility that I had voluntarily walked into the French camp was never even mooted.

'They suggested that I should rest and recover from the head wound that – it turned out – Andrei had inflicted upon me, while they would continue to harry the French as best they could. The plan was that we meet again in Goryachkino in four days. I agreed, happy that this would give me plenty of time to engineer their downfall.

'Once it was daylight, I returned to the camp where the previous night's events had taken place. Not a soul remained alive. The Oprichniki had made some effort to cover their tracks. Many of the corpses had bullet wounds or bayonet wounds which, it was clear to my eye, had been inflicted after death. A number of fires had been started, but these too only superficially hid the stomach- churning throat wounds which I found on every carcass.

'The Oprichniki had not killed the horses at the camp, but had released them from their pens so as to add to the general impression of chaos. I got hold of one, and so my journey to Goryachkino was rapid. For a few days I attended the meeting place – the farm building – that we had arranged there, but neither you, nor Vadim, nor Dmitry, nor any of the Oprichniki showed up. By the twenty-fourth of August – the night when I had arranged to meet my three Oprichniki – the French were almost upon the village and were preparing for the great battle at Borodino. I left a brief message for you, simply saying that I had been there, and then went back out to the French lines to prepare the trap that I had planned for the Oprichniki.

'I told the guards at the camp that I would be sending three enemy spies to them that night. I described what they would look like, what direction they would come from and even the incorrect password which they would use when challenged by a sentry. I instructed the guards simply to capture them, bind them hand and foot and then hold them until my return. I told them to make sure that the captives were not held in a tent, but outside next to the fire. You may be surprised, Aleksei, at how easy it was for me to issue orders, but once my bona fides had been proved, the men in the camp were all too eager to help capture the Russian infiltrators.

'I went back to Goryachkino and waited. Soon after dusk, Andrei, Iakov Alfeyinich and Simon arrived. With them, they had brought Faddei, whom they had met somewhere along the way. My enthusiasm at seeing the opportunity to destroy four of these creatures, rather than the three that I had originally planned, was, I suppose, my undoing. I told them that I had found an isolated French camp that was perfect for them to attack. I told them the weakest points in the perimeter and even what the day's password was (which, incidentally, I said you had supplied for me, Aleksei).

'Faddei was not keen to join the raiding party. He felt he should get back to Vadim and the other Oprichniki under his command. I persuaded him that the French camp was a sitting duck, and that he would be a fool not to go. The description I gave of all those young, innocent, healthy soldiers must, I think, have whetted his appetite. They departed and I lay back and waited until dawn.

'Soon after the sun rose, I returned to the French camp into which I had sent the four Oprichniki. My instructions that they should be tied up and left in the open air had been a test of them and a test of my own credulity – something akin to the trials of witches in the Middle Ages. Despite my blinkered education, I had gathered some slight knowledge of the legends of the voordalaki. It seemed preposterous to me that mere sunlight could have such a devastating effect on their physical being, but no more preposterous than what I had already discovered to be irrefutably true. If the legends proved correct, then I would enter the camp to find four dead vampires, otherwise I would find four live ones, tied up and ready for death by firing squad. Either way, the twelve Oprichniki would be reduced to eight. A third of the battle would be won.

'Already, before my arrival, there was much commotion in the camp. A lieutenant, who recognized me from my visit the night before, dashed over to me and took me to the remains of the Oprichniki – three scorched patches of grass. They had been sitting, I was told, on wooden stools, of which only a few charred lumps remained. Some scraps of shoe leather and fragments of material were all else that was left to see. I asked what had happened to the fourth. He had escaped, I was told. They had been expecting only three and so the fourth had been able to get away almost before anyone saw him. As someone who has been lying throughout my adult life, Aleksei, I have long become used to disguising the fear of discovery, but there was little I could do to suppress the fear I felt then that one of the Oprichniki was out there, somewhere, aware of the trap into which I had sent them. I managed outwardly to retain my composure, but inside me every voice shouted that I should flee. I have been fleeing almost ever since.

'The lieutenant told me that they had followed my orders. They had done better than tie the three spies up, they had put them in irons, from which there would be no escape. As dawn had approached, the three had become more and more agitated, had pleaded to be released and had even tried to run – to any extent that they could – for freedom. At around dawn there had been three terrific explosions, so close together that they sounded as one. Two of the sentries guarding the prisoners had been slightly burnt, and all that remained of the three was the ash that I now saw.

'All the soldiers who had witnessed the events were keen to discover what had caused the explosions. A Russian in the same circumstances might, I suspect, have made some connection between the violent and unusual deaths of these men and their first contact with the sun's rays. The French are, however, not as superstitious as we foolish Russians. The most popular theory was that the men had come into the camp with gunpowder hidden in their clothes, hoping to get close to Napoleon himself and ignite the powder, but it had accidentally gone off too early. Some doubted that this could be so, that no Christian – not even a Russian – could commit the sin of suicide, however much he believed in his cause. I glibly assured them that, while the Catholic Church was strong on the point, the Orthodox had no such qualms about sending young men to their deaths. And so this was the version of events that became accepted.

'I departed as quickly as possible and set out eastwards, back to Moscow. I was in unprecedented fear for my life and so I stayed away from the main roads; thus my progress was slower than it would have been if I had taken the direct route. That night I made camp in a clearing in the woods. I had slept for a few hours when I was awakened by the sound of voices. I opened my eyes to see in front of me one Oprichnik and one man – Andrei and Dmitry.