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He questioned me about the fate of the Captain Mironoff, whom he called his chum, and often interrupted me by sententious remarks, which, if they did not prove him to be a man well versed in war, showed his natural intelligence and shrewdness. During this time other guests arrived.

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 before Pougatcheff.

"What is the matter with my dear Ivan Mironoff, today, that he is so long instructing his troops?" said the mistress. "Polacca, go and bring him to dinner. And where is my child, Marie?"

I soon forgot the snowstorm, the guide, and my hare-skin touloup, and on arrival at Orenburg hasted to wait on the general, an old comrade-in-arms of my father's. The general received me kindly, examined my commission, told me there was nothing for me to do in Orenburg, and sent me on to Fort Bélogorsk to serve under Commander Mironoff.

In saying this, I turned to the one-eyed old man, whom I took for the commandant. The good lady interrupted the speech which I had prepared in advance: "Ivan Mironoff is not at home; he is gone to visit Father Garasim; but it is all the same; I am his wife. Deign to love us and have us in favor! Take a seat, my dear sir." She ordered a servant to send her the Corporal.

"Poor Mironoff!" said he, when I had finished my story; "it is a pity; he was a brave officer; and Madame Mironoff a kind lady, an expert in pickling mushrooms. What has become of Marie, the Captain's daughter?" "She is in the fortress, at the house of the Greek priest." "Aye! aye! aye!" exclaimed the General. "That's bad, very bad; for it is impossible to depend upon the discipline of brigands."

"Alone! but you are very young to travel by yourself." "I have neither father nor mother." "You are here on business?" "Yes, lady, I came to present a petition to the Tzarina." "You are an orphan; doubtless you have to complain of injustice or wrong." "No, lady, I came to ask grace, and not justice." "Allow me to ask a question: Who are you?" "I am the daughter of Captain Mironoff."

An autograph letter from the tzarina, Catherine II., framed and glazed, is carefully preserved. It is addressed to the father of Peter Grineff, and contains, with the acquittal of his son, many praises of the intelligence and good heart of the daughter of Captain Mironoff. Gargantua and Pantagruel Francois Rabelais was born at Seuillé in Touraine, France, about 1483.

I could not help smiling at this scene. Alexis preserved all his gravity, and said to Basilia: "Notwithstanding all my respect for you, I must say you take useless pains to subject us to your tribunal. Leave that duty to Ivan Mironoff; it is his business." "What! what! my dear sir," said the lady, "are not man and wife the same flesh and spirit? Ivan Mironoff, are you trifling?

The old man heard me with attention, and, while listening, cut the dead branches. "Poor Mironoff!" said he, when I had done my sad story; "'tis a pity! he was a goot officer! And Matame Mironoff, she was a goot lady and first-rate at pickled mushrooms. And what became of Masha, the Captain's daughter?" I replied that she had stayed in the fort, at the pope's house.