No More Learning

He stopped, and they closed round him, and soon afterwards, probably by
his orders, four men came out of the crowd, and approached our ramparts
at full gallop. We recognized in them some of our traitors. One of them
waved a sheet of paper above his head; another bore on the point of his
pike the head of Joulai, which he cast to us over the palisade. The head
of the poor Kalmuck rolled to the feet of the Commandant.

The traitors shouted to us--

"Don't fire. Come out to receive the Tzar; the Tzar is here. "

"Children, fire! " cried the Commandant for all answer.

The soldiers fired a volley. The Cossack who had the letter quivered and
fell from his horse; the others fled at full speed. I glanced at Marya
Ivanofna. Spellbound with horror at the sight of Joulai's head, stunned
by the noise of the volley, she seemed unconscious. The Commandant
called the corporal, and bid him go and take the paper from the fallen
Cossack. The corporal went out into the open, and came back leading by
its bridle the dead man's horse. He gave the letter to the Commandant.
Ivan Kouzmitch read it in a low voice, and tore it into bits. We now saw
that the rebels were making ready to attack. Soon the bullets whistled
about our ears, and some arrows came quivering around us in the earth
and in the posts of the palisade.

"Vassilissa Igorofna," said the Commandant, "this is not a place for
women. Take away Masha; you see very well that the girl is more dead
than alive. "

Vassilissa Igorofna, whom the sound of the bullets had somewhat subdued,
glanced towards the steppe, where a great stir was visible in the crowd,
and said to her husband--

"Ivan Kouzmitch, life and death are in God's hands; bless Masha. Masha,
go to your father. "

Pale and trembling, Marya approached Ivan Kouzmitch and dropped on her
knees, bending before him with reverence.

The old Commandant made the sign of the cross three times over her, then
raised her up, kissed her, and said to her, in a voice husky with
emotion--

"Well, Masha, may you be happy. Pray to God, and He will not forsake
you. If an honest man come forward, may God grant you both love and
wisdom. Live together as we have lived, my wife and I. And now farewell,
Masha. Vassilissa Igorofna, take her away quickly. "

Marya threw herself upon his neck and began sobbing.

"Kiss me, too," said the Commandant's wife, weeping.