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"It is easy to talk," said the Co the paper; "but we , and we have only 130the Cossacks, upon whom there is no dependence, be it said without reproach to thee, Maxim" The Corporal of the Cossacks silant, post sentries, establish night patrols; in case of an attack, shut the gates and call out the soldiers Maxim, watch well your Cossacks It is necessary to examine the cannon and clean it; and above all to keep the secret, that no one in the fortress should know any thing before the tiiven his orders, Ivan Mironoff dis on e had heard "What do you think of it? Hoill this end?" I asked him
"God knows," he replied, "we shall see At present there is no danger" And he began, as if thinking, to hu our precautions the news of the apparition of Pougatcheff spread through the fortress However great the respect of Ivan Mironoff for his wife, he would not reveal to her for anything in the world a military secret When he had received the General's letter he very adroitly rid hi her that the Greek priest had received froreat mystery Thereupon Basilia desired to pay a visit to Accouline, the clergyman's wife, and by Mironoff's advice Marie went also Master of the situation, Ivan Mironoff locked up the maid in the kitchen and assembled us
Basilia ca her absence a council of war had been held, and that Polacca was imprisoned in the kitchen She suspected that her husband had deceived her, and overwhelmed him with questions He was prepared for the attack, and stoutly replied to his curious better-half: "You see,straw to kindle their fires; now as that ave the but fagots and brushwood"
"And why did you lock up Polacca in the kitchen till my return?" Ivan Mironoff had not foreseen that question, and muttered some incoherent words Basilia saw at once her husband's perfidy, but knowing that she could extract nothing fro, and spoke of the pickled cucumbers which Accouline kne to prepare in a superior fashion That night Basilia never closed an eye, unable to iine what it was that her husband knew that she could not share with him