ming a plaintive air; Saveliitch, sound asleep, swayed
from side to side; our kibitka was gliding rapidly over the winter road.
I saw in the distance a village well known to my eyes, with its palisade
and church spire on the steep bank of the river Iaik. A quarter of an
hour after we entered the fortress of Belogorsk.

XII. MARIE.

The kibitka stopped before the Commandant's house. The inhabitants had
recognized the usurper's bells and equipage, and had come out in crowds
to meet him. Alexis, dressed like a Cossack, and bearded like one,
helped the brigand to descend from his kibitka. The sight of me troubled
him, but soon recovering himself, he said: "You are one of us?" I turned
my head away without replying. My heart was wrung when we entered
the room that I know so well, where still upon the wall hung, like an
epitaph, the diploma of the deceased Commandant. Pougatcheff seated
himself upon the same sofa where many a time Ivan Mironoff had dozed to
the hum of his wife's voice. Alexis' own hand presented the brandy to
his chief. Pougatcheff drank a glass and said, pointing to me: "Offer a
glass to his lordship." Alexis approached me, and again I turned my back
upon him. Pougatcheff asked him a few questions about the condition of
the fortress, and then, in an unpremeditated manner, said: "Tell me, who
is this young girl that you have under guard?"

Alexis became pale as death. "Czar," said he, a tremor in his voice,
"she is in her own room; she is not locked up."

"Take me to her room," said the usurper, rising.

Hesitation was impossible. Alexis led the way to Marie's room. I
followed. On the stairs Alexis stopped: "Czar, demand of me what you
will, but do not permit a stranger to enter my wife's room."

"You are married?" I shouted, ready to tear him to pieces.

"Silence!" interrupted the brigand, "this is my business. And you," said
he, turning to Alexis, "do not be too officious. Whether she be your
wife or not, I shall take whom I please into her room. Your lordship,
follow me."

At the door of the room Alexis stopped again: "Czar, she has had a fever
these three days; she is delirious."

"Open," said Pougatcheff.

Alexis fumbled in his pockets, and at last said that he had forgotten
the key. Pougatcheff kicked the door; the lock yielded, the door opened
and we entered.

I glanced into the room, and nearly fainted. On the floor, in the coarse
dress of a peasant, Marie was seated, pale, thin,