The traitors shouted to us--

"Don't fire. Come out to receive the Tzar; the Tzar is here."

"Children, fire!" cried the Commandant for all answer.

The soldiers fired a volley. The Cossack who had the letter quivered and
fell from his horse; the others fled at full speed. I glanced at Marya
Ivánofna. Spellbound with horror at the sight of Joulaï's head, stunned
by the noise of the volley, she seemed unconscious. The Commandant
called the corporal, and bid him go and take the paper from the fallen
Cossack. The corporal went out into the open, and came back leading by
its bridle the dead man's horse. He gave the letter to the Commandant.

Iván Kouzmitch read it in a low voice, and tore it into bits. We now saw
that the rebels were making ready to attack. Soon the bullets whistled
about our ears, and some arrows came quivering around us in the earth
and in the posts of the palisade.

"Vassilissa Igorofna," said the Commandant, "this is not a place for
women. Take away Masha; you see very well that the girl is more dead
than alive."

Vassilissa Igorofna, whom the sound of the bullets had somewhat subdued,
glanced towards the steppe, where a great stir was visible in the crowd,
and said to her husband--

"Iván Kouzmitch, life and death are in God's hands; bless Masha. Masha,
go to your father."