I came up to him and saw what had arrested his attention. There was a deep pit before us and in it a Cossack and a woman. The former sprang up at our coming, and drawing a pistol from his belt, he snapped it at Léon's head. Happily the powder did not fire, and seeing that we were two to one, the fellow hurled the weapon at my nephew's horse and immediately bolted for the shelter of the woods.
So we were alone with the lady and her treasure, and this, at a modest estimate, must have been worth half a million of francs.
III
I have never seen such riches spread in a green wood before, nor am I likely to do so if I live to a hundred years.
Consisting of jewels chiefly, there were other objects there and all precious beyond words.
Great ropes of Eastern pearls, diamonds and emeralds; Indian images in solid gold; the most wonderful robes of ermine and sable; jewelled scabbards that should have come from Damascus—all these lay littered upon the grass by the side of the impassive woman, who now looked at us with the eyes of a child and uttered no word either of protest or of appeal.
Certainly she was a remarkably beautiful creature.
Not more than seventeen years of age, she had hair as golden as the sands of the sea, the white skin of the Circassian and the dark eyes of the Persian beauty.
Her dress was an odd compromise between the East and the West.
She had baggy breeches of blue silk, high riding-boots of Russian leather, a white and gold coat to her waist, and the kepi of the Austrian hussar. Over all she wore a superb cloak of ermine which would have brought a fortune could it have been sold in our own Paris.