“Just wait a little while and see what you will get, you traitors to the Czar!”
They dragged us through the streets; the inhabitants came out of their houses with bread and salt;[4] the bells began to ring. Suddenly among the crowd a cry was raised that the Czar was in the square waiting for the prisoners to take their oath of allegiance to him. The throng pressed towards the market-place, and our captors dragged us thither also.
Pougatcheff was seated in an armchair on the steps of the Commandant’s house. He was attired in an elegant Cossack caftan, ornamented with lace. A tall cap of sable, with gold tassels, came right down to his flashing eyes. His face seemed familiar to me. He was surrounded by the Cossack chiefs. Father Gerasim, pale and trembling, stood upon the steps with a cross in his hands, and seemed to be silently imploring mercy for the victims brought forward. In the square a gallows was being hastily erected. As we approached, the Bashkirs drove back the crowd, and we were brought before Pougatcheff. The bells had ceased ringing, and a deep silence reigned around.
“Which is the Commandant?” asked the pretender.
Our orderly stepped forward out of the crowd and pointed to Ivan Kouzmitch.
Pougatcheff regarded the old man with a menacing look, and said to him:
“How dared you oppose me—your emperor?”
The Commandant, weakened by his wound, summoned ill his remaining strength and replied in a firm voice:
“You are not my emperor; you are a robber and a pretender, that is what you are!”
Pougatcheff frowned savagely and waved his white handkerchief. Several Cossacks seized the old captain and dragged him towards the gallows. Astride upon the cross-beam could be seen the mutilated Bashkir whom we had examined the day before. He held in his hand a rope, and a minute afterwards I saw poor Ivan Kouzmitch suspended in the air. Then Ivan Ignatitch was brought before Pougatcheff.