f," answered the poor fellow in a
faint voice.

I gave George my carbine, and hastened to the wounded man. A part of his
jaw was torn away, and the blood flowed abundantly from a large wound in
his neck. I for a moment feared that the carotid artery was opened, and
scarcely knowing whether I did right or wrong, I seized a handful of
snow and applied it to the wound. The sufferer uttered a cry and fainted
away.

"O God!" cried Louise, "have mercy upon him!"

"To your posts," shouted George in a stentorian voice; "the wolves are
upon us."

I left the wounded man in Louise's care, and jumped upon the cart.

I can give no details of the combat that followed. I had too much
occupation myself to attend to what my companions were doing. We were
attacked by at least twenty wolves at once. After discharging my two
pistols, I armed myself with an axe that George gave me. The fight
lasted nearly a quarter of an hour, and certainly the scene was one of
the most terrible it is possible to imagine. At length, and just as I
was splitting the skull of a wolf that hung on to one of the wheels of
my waggon, a shout of victory resounded along our line, and again our
enemies fled, but this time it was for good.

Three of our men were wounded, besides Nicholas, who was still alive,
but in a desperate state. We were obliged to shoot the horse that had
been torn by the wolf.

By daybreak, a passage was opened through the wall of snow, and we
resumed our journey. The evening of the same day we reached a small
village, where we found an inn, that, under any other circumstances,
would have been pronounced abominable, but which appeared a palace after
three such days as we had passed. The following morning we parted from
our friends the carriers, leaving George five hundred rubles to divide
among them.

All now went well. Thanks to the imperial order with which we were
provided, the best horses were always for us, and, when necessary,
escorts of ten or twelve men galloped on either side of our sledge. The
country was flat and the pace good, and exactly a week after leaving the
Ural mountains we entered Tobolsk.

We were dreadfully fatigued, but yet Louise would only remain long
enough to take a bath; and at two in the morning we set out for the
little town of Koslowo, which had been selected as the abode of twenty
of the exiles, among whom was Alexis. On arriving, we hastened to the
officer commanding there, and showing him the Empero