picture that my shot had passed through, he fired at it almost without
taking aim, and disappeared. My wife had fainted away; the servants did
not venture to stop him, the mere look of him filled them with terror.
He went out upon the steps, called his coachman, and drove off before I
could recover myself."

The Count was silent. In this way I learned the end of the story, whose
beginning had once made such a deep impression upon me. The hero of it I
never saw again. It is said that Silvio commanded a detachment of
Hetairists during the revolt under Alexander Ipsilanti, and that he was
killed in the battle of Skoulana.






ST. JOHN'S EVE

BY

NIKOLAI VASILIEVITCH GOGOL


From "St. John's Eve." Translated by Isabel F. Hapgood.

1886

[Footnote: This is one of the stories from the celebrated volume
entitled "Tales at a Farmhouse near Dikanka."]