the ground and cried in torment.  It couldn’t have been more than nine years old.  The other, the young man, held himself up and marched along without a single cry as the thongs fell brutally upon him.  I was appalled.  I did not give my husband time to open his mouth before I called to the subaltern who commanded the detachment, ’You should be ashamed to strike a child and a Christian like that, which cannot defend itself.’  The general told him the same thing.  Then the subaltern told us that the little child had just killed a lieutenant in the street by firing a revolver, which he showed us, and it was the biggest one I ever have seen, and must have been as heavy for that infant to lift as a small cannon.  It was unbelievable.

“‘And the other,’ demanded the general; ‘what has he done?’

“‘He is a dangerous student,’ replied the subaltern, ’who has delivered himself up as a prisoner because he promised the landlord of the house where he lives that he would do it to keep the house from being battered down with cannon.’

“‘But that is right of him.  Why do you beat him?’

“‘Because he has told us he is a dangerous student.’

“‘That is no reason,’ Feodor told him.  ’He will be shot if he deserves it, and the child also, but I forbid you to beat him.  You have not been furnished with these whips in order to beat isolated prisoners, but to charge the crowd when it does not obey the governor’s orders.  In such a case you are ordered “Charge,” and you know what to do.  You understand?’ Feodor said roughly.  ’I am General Trebassof, your governor.’

“Feodor was thoroughly human in saying this.  Ah, well, he was badly ecompensed for it, very badly, I tell you.  The student was truly dangerous, because he had no sooner heard my husband say, ’I am General Trebassof, your governor,’ than he cried, ’Ah, is it you, Trebassoff’ and drew a revolver from no one knows where and fired straight at the general, almost against his breast.  But the general was not hit, happily, nor I either, who was by him and had thrown myself onto the student to disarm him and then was tossed about at the feet of the soldiers in the battle they waged around the student while the revolver was going off.  Three soldiers were killed.  You can understand that the others were furious.  They raised me with many excuses and, all together, set to kicking the student in the loins and striking at him as he lay on the ground.  The subaltern struck his face a blow that might have blinded him.  Feodor hit the officer in the head with his fist and called, ’Didn’t you hear what I said?’ The officer fell under the blow and Feodor himself carried him to the sleigh and laid him with the dead men.  Then he took charge of the soldiers and led them to the barracks.  I followed, as a sort of after-guard.  We returned to the palace an hour later.  It was quite dark by then, and almost at the entrance to the palace we were shot at by a