have appeared at the Siege of Izmail, in company of two women who claim to be the wives of soldiers. To assuage Suvorov to consent to the women remaining with them, Juan and John tell him that the women aided their escape from the Turks. Canto VIII At war. As brave soldiers in the Imperial Russian army, Don Juan and John Johnson prove fearless in the savagery and carnage of the Russian siege upon the Turks. To conquer the fort of Izmail, the Russians kill 40,000 Turks, including the women and the children. Being a man of noble character, Don Juan rescues a ten-year-old Muslim girl from two Christian Cossacks intent upon raping and killing her for being a pagan. In that moment, Don Juan resolves to adopt the girl as his child. In the course of battle against the Christian Russians, a Tatar Kahn and his five nobleman sons valiantly fight to the death. From the aftermath of the Siege of Izmail, Don Juan emerges a hero, and then is sent to Saint Petersburg, accompanied by the rescued Muslim girl; he's vowed to protect her as a daughter. The end of canto X reveals the girl's name: "Leila". Canto IX In Russia. At the Imperial Russian court, the uniformed Don Juan is a dashing, handsome, and decorated soldier who readily impresses Empress Catherine the Great, who also is infatuated with and lustful for him. The Empress Catherine is a woman of forty-eight-years who is "just now in juicy vigour". At court, Don Juan becomes one of her favourites, and is flattered by the sexual interest of the Empress, which earns him a promotion in rank; thus "Love is vanity, / Selfish in its beginning as its end, / Except where ’tis a mere insanity". Privately, Don Juan concerns himself with the health, education, and welfare of the Muslim girl he rescued at the siege of Izmail. Canto X Russian life. The cold clime of Russia makes Don Juan fall ill, so Empress Catherine sends him west-ward, to the warmer, temperate clime of England, accompanied by Leila. Ostensibly, Don Juan is a special envoy from the court of Imperial Russia with nebulous diplomatic responsibilities for negotiating a treaty between Russia and Britain. In fact, Don Juan's special-envoy job is a sinecure, by which Empress Catherine secures his health, his favour, and his finances. Canto XI In Britain. Having arrived to