The Commandant walked along the ranks of his little army, saying to the soldiers:
“Now, my children, let us stand firm to-day for our mother the Empress and let us show the whole world that we are brave people, and true to our oath.”
The soldiers responded to his appeal with loud shouts. Shvabrin stood near me and attentively observed the enemy. The people riding about on the steppe, perceiving some movement in the fortress, gathered together in a group and began conversing among themselves. The Commandant ordered Ivan Ignatitch to point the cannon at them, and then applied the match to it with his own hand. The ball whistled over their heads, without doing any harm. The horsemen dispersed, galloping out of sight almost immediately, and the steppe was deserted.
At that moment Vassilissa Egorovna appeared upon the rampart, followed by Masha, who was unwilling to leave her.
“Well,” said the Commandant’s wife, “how goes the battle? Where is the enemy?”
“The enemy is not far off,” replied Ivan Kouzmitch. “God grant that all may go well!... Well, Masha, do you feel afraid?”
“No, papa,” replied Maria Ivanovna; “I feel more afraid being at home alone.”
Then she looked at me and made an effort to smile. I involuntarily grasped the hilt of my sword, remembering that I had received it from her hand the evening before—as if for the protection of my beloved. My heart throbbed. I imagined myself her champion. I longed to prove that I was worthy of her confidence, and waited impatiently for the decisive moment.
All of a sudden some fresh bodies of mounted men made their appearance from behind an elevation situated about half a mile from the fortress, and soon the steppe was covered with crowds of persons armed with lances and quivers. Among them, upon a white horse, was a man in a red caftan[2], holding a naked sword in his hand; this was Pougatcheff himself. He stopped his horse, and the others gathered round him, and, in obedience to his order as it seemed, four men detached themselves from the crowd and galloped at full speed towards the fortress. We recognized among them some of our traitors. One of them held a sheet of paper above his head, while another bore upon the top of his lance the head of Youlai, which he threw over the palisade among us. The head of the poor Calmuck fell at the feet of the Commandant.
The traitors cried out: