So I sat in my saddle beside the gateway, waiting till the last of our laggards had come in. I saw Loris lift Anne from her horse and support her up the short flight of wide stone steps that led up to the house.
An elderly peasant woman hurried out to meet them, and behind her appeared a weird unearthly figure; a tall woman, wearing a kind of loose white dressing-gown. Her gray hair was flying dishevelled about her shoulders; and her face, even seen from a distance as I saw it now, appeared like some horrible travesty of humanity. The wide open eyes were sightless, covered with a white film; the nose was flattened and distorted, the lips contracted, while the other features, forehead and cheeks and chin, were like a livid lined mask, grotesquely seamed and scarred.
The “Thing”—I could not think of it as a human being at that moment—flung out its hands, and shrieked in French, and in a voice that, though shrill with anguish, was piercingly sweet and powerful.
“They have come,—but they shall never take me again; at least they shall not take me alive. Anthony—Anthony! Where are you, my husband? Save me! do not let them take me!”
Anne hurried towards her, but with a scream she turned and sped back into the house, and some one pushed the door to, so I saw no more; but for some minutes those dreadful screams continued. They sounded almost like the shrieks of Yossof’s horse when the wolves were on him.
The men had all ridden in and were muttering to each other, crossing themselves in superstitious fear. They seemed scared to approach the house; and I believe they’d have stampeded back into the forest if I hadn’t slammed the gates and barred them again.
“It is not good to be here, Excellency,” stammered one. “This place is haunted with ghosts and devils.”
“Nonsense,” I answered roughly. “Brave men you are indeed to be frightened of a poor mad lady who has suffered so cruelly!”
By judicious bullying I got them calmed down a bit; a Russian peasant is a difficult person to manage when he’s in a superstitious funk. Mishka joined me presently, and we marched our men round to the back of the house, and set them foraging for breakfast. Fortunately there was plenty of food; the place seemed provisioned for a siege. I stood about, watching and directing them. I didn’t feel in the least hungry myself, only rather dazed.
A hand fell on my shoulder, and I found Loris beside me.