human through the mist; their short whips looked enormous as they
knocked some other shadows that we saw down like logs. The general
stopped the sleigh and got out to see what was going on. I got out
with him. They were soldiers of the famous Semenowsky regiment,
who had two prisoners, a young man and a child. The child was being
beaten on the nape of the neck. It writhed on the ground and cried
in torment. It couldn't have been more than nine years old. The
other, the young man, held himself up and marched along without a
single cry as the thongs fell brutally upon him. I was appalled.
I did not give my husband time to open his mouth before I called
to the subaltern who commanded the detachment, 'You should be
ashamed to strike a child and a Christian like that, which cannot
defend itself.' The general told him the same thing. Then the
subaltern told us that the little child had just killed a lieutenant
in the street by firing a revolver, which he showed us, and it was
the biggest one I ever have seen, and must have been as heavy for
that infant to lift as a small cannon. It was unbelievable.

"'And the other,' demanded the general; 'what has he done?'

"'He is a dangerous student,' replied the subaltern, 'who has
delivered himself up as a prisoner because he promised the landlord
of the house where he lives that he would do it to keep the house
from being battered down with cannon.'

"'But that is right of him. Why do you beat him?'

"'Because he has told us he is a dangerous student.'

"'That is no reason,' Feodor told him. 'He will be shot if he