me.  Alexis, above all, was to be feared.  Chief, invested with the usurper’s authority, in the fortress with this unhappy girl, he was capable of any crime.  What ought I to do to deliver her?  To set out at once for Orenbourg, to hasten the deliverance of Belogorsk, and to co-operate in it, if possible.  I took leave of Father Garasim and Accoulina, recommending to them Marie, who I already looked upon as my wife.  I kissed the young girl’s hand, and left the room.

“Adieu, Peter Grineff,” said Accoulina.  “Do not forget us.  Except you, Marie has no support or consolation.”  Choked by emotion, I did not reply.  Out on the square, I stopped an instant before the gibbet.  With bare head I reverently saluted the loyal dead, and took the road to Orenbourg, accompanied by Saveliitch, who would not abandon me.  Thus plunged in thought, I walked on.  Hearing horses galloping behind me, I turned my head and saw a Cossack from the fortress leading a horse, and making signs to me that I should wait.  I recognized our Corporal.  Having caught up with us, he dismounted from his own horse, and giving me the bridle of the other, said:  “Our Czar makes you a gift of a horse, and a pelisse from his own shoulder.”  To the saddle was tied a sheep-skin touloup.  I put it on, mounted the horse, taking Saveliitch up behind me.  “You see, my lord,” said my serf, “that my petition to the bandit was not useless!  And although this old hack and this peasant’s touloup are not worth half what the rascals stole, yet they are better than nothing.  ’A worthless dog yields even a handful of hair.’”

X. THE SIEGE.

Approaching Orenbourg, we saw a crowd of convicts, with shaved heads and faces disfigured by the pincers of the public executioner.  At that time red-hot irons were applied to tear out the nostrils of the condemned.  They were working at the fortifications of the place under the supervision of the garrison pensioners.  Some carried away in wheel-barrows the rubbish that filled the ditch, others threw up the earth, while masons were examining and repairing the walls.  The sentry stopped us at the gate and asked for our passports.  When the sergeant heard that we were from Belogorsk he took me at once to the General, who was in his garden.  I found him examining the apple trees, which autumnal winds had already despoiled of their leaves; assisted by an old gardener, he covered them carefully with straw.  His face expressed calmness, good humor and health.  He seemed very glad to see me, and questioned me about the terrible events I had witnessed.  The old man heard me attentively, and whilst listening, cut off the dead branches.

“Poor Mironoff!” said he, when I had finished my story; “it is a pity; he was a brave officer; and Madame Mironoff a kind lady, an expert in pickling mushrooms.  What has become of Marie, the Captain’s daughter?”

“She is in the fortress, at the house of the Greek priest.”