hold of him? and why were they gripping his wrists so tightly? He had
heard of arbitrary treatment in the Russian army, but that a colonel
should have a captain seized in this extraordinary way merely because he
was absent from his post without leave was beyond anything he thought
possible.

"I thought I was going to have the laugh all on my side," he said to
himself, "but so far it is all the other way." In ten minutes the
carriage stopped for a moment, there was a challenge, then some gates
were opened. Godfrey had already guessed his destination, and his
feeling of discomfort had increased every foot he went. There was no
doubt he was being taken to the fortress. "It seems to me that Miss
Katia has got me into a horrible scrape of some kind," he said to
himself. "What a fool I was to let myself be humbugged by the girl in
that way!"

Two men with lanterns were at the door of a building, at which the
carriage, after passing into a large court-yard, drew up. Still
retaining their grip on his wrists, two of the men walked beside him
down a passage, while several others followed behind. An officer of high
rank was sitting at the head of a table, one of inferior rank stood
beside him, while at the end of the table were two others with papers
and pens before them.

"So you have captured him!" the general said eagerly.

"Yes, your excellency," the man who had spoken to Godfrey in the
carriage said respectfully.

"Has he been searched?"

"No, your excellency, the distance was so short, and I feared that he
might wrench one of his hands loose. Moreover, I thought that you might
prefer his being searched in your presence."

"It is better so. Take off that disguise." As the hat and mask were
removed the officer sprang to his feet and exclaimed, "Why, who is this?
This is not the man you were ordered to arrest; you have made some
confounded blunder."

"I assure you, your excellency," the official said in trembling accents,
"this is the only man who was there in the disguise we were told of.
There, your excellency, is the bunch of white and red ribbons on his
cloak."

"And who are you, sir?" the general thundered.

"My name, sir, is Godfrey Bullen. I reside with Ivan Petrovytch, a
merchant living in the Vassili Ostrov."

"But how come you mixed up in this business, sir?" the general exclaimed
furiously. "How is it that you are thus disguised, and that you are
wearing that bunch of ribbon? Beware how you answer me,