and, swinging a hatchet round his head, he flung it at the old woman
with all his might. The hatchet penetrated the oaken door two vershok
(three inches and a half). The old woman disappeared; and a child of
seven in a white blouse, with covered head, stood in the middle of the
cottage. . . . The sheet flew off. "Ivas!" cried Pidorka, and ran to him;
but the apparition became covered from head to foot with blood, and
illumined the whole room with red light. . . . She ran into the passage in
her terror, but, on recovering herself a little, wished to help him; in
vain! the door had slammed to behind her so securely that she could not
open it. People ran up, and began to knock: they broke in the door, as
though there was but one mind among them. The whole cottage was full of
smoke; and just in the middle, where Petrus had stood, was a heap of
ashes, from which smoke was still rising. They flung themselves upon the
sacks: only broken potsherds lay there instead of ducats. The Cossacks
stood with staring eyes and open mouths, not daring to move a hair, as
if rooted to the earth, such terror did this wonder inspire in them.

I do not remember what happened next. Pidorka took a vow to go upon a
pilgrimage, collected the property left her by her father, and in a few
days it was as if she had never been in the village. Whither she had
gone, no one could tell. Officious old women would have despatched her
to the same place whither Petro had gone; but a Cossack from Kief
reported that he had seen in a cloister, a nun withered to a mere
skeleton, who prayed unceasingly; and her fellow villagers recognized
her as Pidorka, by all the signs,--that no one had ever heard her utter
a word; that she had come on foot, and had brought a frame for the ikon
of God's mother, set with such brilliant stones that all were dazzled at
the sight.

But this was not the end, if you please. On the same day that the Evil