LXVII

'Ah, Dmitri, I'm so glad I'm with you tonight! That dreadful ball! Do you know, all night the boyars kept looking at me?'

'Of course they did, Marie! Every one did!' 'No; not like that. I don't mean that, but -somehow-it was awful. At times I almost screamed. Oh, that horrible Prince Shuiski. I shall have nightmare. His eyes sneered at me So. I am afraid of him, Dmitri.'

'Well, now, he's gone, and forgotten all about you.'

'Put your arms round me, Dmitri. There, now I feel safe.'

Why, you're all cold. What is it?'

'I don't know. I feel so — unhinged. I'm afraid-'

'You're overtired, little woman. You'll be all right to-morrow,

'You won't let him hurt me, Dmitri ?'

'Foolish little Marie!'

'I'm so sorry.

I can't help it.

They all

seem enemies to me. I feel so lost and friend

less here.

evening?

all.'

Dmitri, do you remember that

'At Sandomir? Yes, I should think so.'
'And-my song?'

'Yes.'

'Well, it's come true. I am an exile after

'Foolish little exile; why, you're in your own house. Now go to sleep.'

LXVIII

'Are we all ready? Are the men prepared, Otrépieff? Good! Comrades, you know the plan. To the Spaski Gate; not a sound till the bell rings. Who's that? Vlassief? Come in! 'Everything's quiet,' said the newcomer. 'They suspect nothing. The Poles are making merry in one or two houses.'

'Have you set the watches at the gates, Otrépieff? Are the men come in from the

suburbs?'

'They're all there.'

'Come on, then.

Remember the signal: the

big bell. Now, then, every man to his post. In an hour it will be all over.

Quietly now!'

LXIX

It was three o'clock in the morning.

Moscow

cold. A

was still as death. The night was very cold. faint light hung in the sky, but the streets were pitchy black.

Clang-boom-whirr-boom.

The great bell rang out into the startled air. A noise of shouting, the trample of hurried feet. Doors flew open. People leaped out of their beds, and hurried on their clothes.

'What's that?' 'Lord, have mercy upon us!' What's the matter?' 'Get up!'

The streets filled like magic. Torches dashed about; soon a stream of people began to pour along in affright.

'What is it?' The Kremlin's on fire!' 'The Poles, the Lithuanians are murdering the Tsar!'

"The Lithuanians-down with the pagan dogs! Come along!'

Every now and then half a dozen soldiers hurried by. The bell boomed on into the night. Church after church took it up, and the clamour became infernal.

At the Spaski Gate Shuiski, at the head of his band of conspirators and a detachment of soldiers, shouted to the mob that grew every moment—

'Christians, to the work! The accursed impostor and his Lithuanians have sold Russia and the holy city to the King of Poland. You have seen how they laugh at our customs and defile our churches; how they desecrate our monasteries and convents. People, the time has come! All good Christians, follow me. Death to the impostor and the Poles!'

6

The gate, held by some treacherous guards, flew open, and the conspirators rushed in. Behind them, the cry grew: Death to the Lithuanians!' Shuiski and his band, with shouts of Death to the heretic!' hurried across the Square, brandishing hatchets, swords, and spears. Arrived at the Tsar's palace, they began to batter at the doors.

Within five minutes the whole city was in an uproar. The infuriated mob, led by sections of the conspirators, poured in detachments to the different quarters assigned to the principal Poles, and began to beat in the doors. A few of those in the plot rapidly collected a heap of prepared materials, and an enormous bonfire suddenly flared up on the Red Place; its red uncertain flickering flames gave the weird Church of St. Vassili and the crowds of startled citizens pouring past into the Kremlin an effect almost unearthly.

LXX

Asleep in his palace in the Kremlin, Dmitri dreamed a dream.

He thought he was flying along in his sledge after two bears, one black and one white, which ran like the wind. They always kept just ahead of him. He felt, somehow, that his life depended on his catching them up. They flew along, the wind whistling in his ears.

He could see their

little short tails, always at the same distance, just in front of him. He noticed suddenly he had