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Updated: August 21, 2024
"Hold your tongue," interrupted his wife; "you want again to call a council of war, and talk without me about Emelian Pugatchéf; but you will not deceive me this time." Iván Kouzmitch opened his eyes wide. "Well, little mother," said he, "if you know all, stay; there is nothing more to be done, we will talk before you."
"Why was the poor girl obliged to stay in the kitchen till we came back?" Iván Kouzmitch was not prepared for such a question; he stammered some incoherent words.
"What possesses my Iván Kouzmitch to-day to drill his troops so long?" remarked the Commandant's wife. "Palashka, go and fetch him for dinner. And what can have become of Masha?" Hardly had she said the name than a young girl of sixteen came into the room. She had a fresh, round face, and her hair was smoothly put back behind her ears, which were red with shyness and modesty.
Be ready, place sentries, let there be night patrols in case of attack, shut the gates, and turn out the troops. You, Maximitch, keep a sharp eye on the Cossacks; look to the cannon, and let it be well cleansed; and, above all, let everything be kept secret. Let no one in the fort know anything until the time comes." After thus giving his orders, Iván Kouzmitch dismissed us.
Iván Kouzmitch, who had been a child of the regiment, had become an officer, and was a simple, uneducated man, but good and true. His wife led him completely, which, by the way, very well suited his natural laziness. It was Vassilissa Igorofna who directed all military business as she did that of her household, and commanded in the little fort as she did in her house.
Send them to Orenburg, if the road be still open, or to some fort further off and safer, which the rascals have not yet had time to reach." Iván Kouzmitch turned to his wife. "Look here, mother, really, had we not better send you away to some more distant place till the rebels be put down?" "What nonsense!" replied his wife. "Show me the fortress that bullets cannot reach.
In what respect is Bélogorskaia not safe? Thank heaven, we have now lived here more than twenty-one years. We have seen the Bashkirs and the Kirghiz; perhaps we may weary out Pugatchéf here." "Well, little mother," rejoined Iván Kouzmitch, "stay if you like, since you reckon so much on our fort. But what are we to do with Masha? It is all right if we weary him out or if we be succoured.
The Commandant of Fort Nijnéosern, a gentle and quiet young man, was known to me. Two months previously he had passed on his way from Orenburg with his young wife, and he had stayed with Iván Kouzmitch. The Nijnéosernaia was only twenty-five versts away from our fort. From hour to hour we might expect to be attacked by Pugatchéf.
All of a sudden she perceived the gallows and recognized her husband. "Villains!" she exclaimed, beside herself; "what have you done? Oh, my light, my Iván Kouzmitch! Bold soldier heart, neither Prussian bayonets nor Turkish bullets ever harmed you; and you have died before a vile runaway felon." "Silence the old witch," said Pugatchéf.
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