"Your Excellency, permit me to take a battalion of soldiers and half a
hundred Cossacks, to go and storm the fortress of Belogorsk."

"Storm the fortress?" said the General.

"I answer for the success of the attack, only let me go."

"No, young man," said he; "at so great a distance the enemy would
easily cut off all communication with the principal strategic point."

I was frightened by his military wisdom, and hastened to interrupt him:
"Captain Mironoff's daughter has written me, begging for relief.
Alexis threatens to compel her to be his wife!"

"Ah! Alexis, traitor! If he fall into my hands I shall try him in
twenty-four hours, and he shall be shot on the glacis of the fortress!
meantime patience."

"Patience!" I cried; "in the interval Marie will be compelled to
obey him."

"Oh," said the General, "that would not be a misfortune--it is better
that she should become the wife of Alexis, who can protect her. When
we shall have shot the traitor, then she will find a better husband."

"I would rather die," I said with fury, "than yield her to Alexis."

"I understand it all now," said the old man. "You are, no doubt, in
love yourself with Marie Mironoff. That's another thing. Poor boy!
Still, I can not give you a battalion and fifty Cossacks. The thing is