villagers for years; and only the other day had agreed to give up two
meadows for the use of the village herd? He reminded them, too, of Mr.
Nicholas B.'s devotion to the sick in the time of cholera. Every word
of this was true and so far effective that the fellows began to scratch
their heads and look irresolute. The speaker then pointed at the window,
exclaiming: "Look! there's all your crowd going away quietly and you
silly chaps had better go after them and pray God to forgive you your
evil thoughts."

This appeal was an unlucky inspiration. In crowding clumsily to the
window to see whether he was speaking the truth, the fellows overturned
the little writing-table. As it fell over a chink of loose coin was
heard. "There's money in that thing," cried the blacksmith. In a moment
the top of the delicate piece of furniture was smashed and there lay
exposed in a drawer eighty half-imperials. Gold coin was a rare sight in
Russia even at that time; it put the peasants beside themselves. "There
must be more of that in the house and we shall have it," yelled the
ex-soldier blacksmith. "This is war time." The others were already
shouting out of the window urging the crowd to come back and help. The
priest, abandoned suddenly at the gate, flung his arms up and hurried
away so as not to see what was going to happen.

In their search for money that bucolic mob smashed everything in the
house, ripping with knives, splitting with hatchets, so that, as the
servant said, there were no two pieces of wood holding together left in
the whole house. They broke some very fine mirrors, all the windows and
every piece of glass and china. They threw the books and papers out
on the lawn and set fire to the heap for the mere fun of the thing
apparently. Absolutely the only one solitary thing which they left whole
was a small ivory crucifix, which remained hanging on the wall in