took her lover's hand, and said,--

"Whatever you are, Boris, I will be faithful to you."



VII.


Leaving Boris to discover the exact form and substance of the
passion of love, we will return for a time to the castle of
Kinesma.

Whether the Princess Martha conjectured what had transpired in St.
Petersburg, or was partially informed of it by her son, cannot now
be ascertained. She was sufficiently weak, timid, and nervous, to
be troubled with the knowledge of the stratagem in which she had
assisted in order to procure money, and that the ever-present
consciousness thereof would betray itself to the sharp eyes of
her husband. Certain it is, that the demeanor of the latter
towards her and his household began to change about the end of the
summer. He seemed to have a haunting suspicion, that, in some way
he had been, or was about to be, overreached. He grew peevish,
suspicious, and more violent than ever in his excesses.

When Mishka, the dissipated bear already described, bit off one of
the ears of Basil, a hunter belonging to the castle, and Basil drew
his knife and plunged it into Mishka's heart, Prince Alexis
punished the hunter by cutting off his other ear, and sending him
away to a distant estate. A serf, detected in eating a few of the