, for a sortie!"

The Captain, Ignatius and I were in an instant beyond the parapet. But
the frightened garrison had not moved from the square. "What are you
doing, my children?" shouted the Captain; "if we must die, let us die;
the imperial service demands it!"

At this moment the rebels fell upon us, and forced the entrance to the
citadel. The drum was silent; the garrison threw down their arms. I had
been knocked down, but I rose and entered, pell-mell, with the crowds
into the fortress. I saw the Commandant wounded on the head, and closed
upon by a small troop of bandits, who demanded the keys. I was running
to his aid when several powerful Cossacks seized me and bound me with
their long sashes, crying out: "Wait there, traitor to the Czar, till we
know what to do with you."

We were dragged along the streets. The inhabitants came out of their
houses offering bread and salt. The bells were rung. Suddenly, shouts
announced that the Czar was on the square, awaiting to receive the oaths
of the prisoners.

Pougatcheff was seated in an arm-chair on the steps of the Commandant's
house. He was robed in an elegant Cossack cafetan embroidered on the
seams. A high cap of martin-skin, ornamented with gold tassels, covered
his brow almost to his flashing eyes. His face seemed to me not unknown.
Cossack chiefs surrounded him. Father Garasim, pale and trembling,
stood, the cross in his hand, at the foot of the steps, and seemed to
supplicate in silence for the victims brought before him.

On the square itself, a gallows was hastily erected. When we approached,
the Bashkirs opened a passage through the crowd and presented us to
Pougatcheff. The bells ceased; the deepest silence prevailed. "Which is
the Commandant?" asked the usurper. Our Corporal came out of the crowd
and pointed to Mironoff. Pougatcheff looked at the old man with a
terrible expression, and said to him: "How did you dare to oppose me,
your emperor?"

The Commandant, weakened by his wound, collected all his energy, and
said, in a firm but faint voice: "You are not my emperor; you are a
usurper and a brigand."

Pougatcheff frowned and raised his white handkerchief. Immediately the
old Captain was seized by Cossacks and dragged to the gibbet. Astride
the cross-beam of the gallows, sat the mutilated Bashkirs who we had
questioned; he held a rope in his hand, and I saw, an instant after,
poor Ivan Mironoff suspended in the air. Then Ignatius was brought up
bef