heart; but what did it matter when the time was drawing near? And always this clever fellow--do you know, sir, his name was Verdt too?--encouraging, helping, goading these poor people on. Then the last night--how the miserable rabbits of creatures kept huddled together, shivering in the dark, till the hour arrived! and then the death-like stillness they found outside; and the wild wonder and fear of it; and the old men and the women crying like children to find themselves in the free air again. Marie Falevitch--that was my sister-in-law--she kissed me, and was laughing when she whispered, 'Eljen a haza!' I think she was a little off her head with the long, sleepless nights."
He stopped for a second; his throat seemed choked.
"Did I tell you they had all got out?--the poor devils all wondering there, and scarcely knowing where to go. And now suppose, sir--ah! you don't know anything about these things, you happy English people--suppose you found the black night around you all at once turned to
