“Don’t be afraid,” said the birched boy. “As soon as they let me in to the upper chambers, I will at once fall at the feet of the Virgin Mary until you are forgiven.” “Yes, do me this great favour.” Kirsha stood pale. His eyes sparkled. He trembled from head to foot and kept on repeating: “Mamma, come to me! Mamma, come to me!” A radiant apparition suddenly appeared in the throng, and Kirsha throbbed with joy. Kirsha’s mother passed by--all white, all lovely, all gentle. She turned her tranquil eyes upon her dear ones and whispered: “I will come.” Kirsha, transported with a quiet joy, stood motionless. His eyes gleamed like the eyes of the quiet angel who stood there on guard. Again the dead throng moved on. A governor passed by. All his figure breathed might and majesty. Yet hardly awake, he grumbled: “Make way for the Russian Governor! I’ll have no patience with you. I will not permit it! You cannot frighten me. What! Feed the hungry, you say?” He appeared, as it were, to awaken at these words; he looked around him and said in great astonishment, as he shrugged his shoulders: “What a strange disorder! How did I get into this crowd? Where is the police?” Then he suddenly bawled out: “Let the Cossacks come!” In response to the Governor’s cry a detachment of Cossacks came flying. Without noticing Trirodov and the children, they swept along past them and savagely flourished their _nagaikas_.[17] The dead, pressed from behind by the Cossacks’ horses, became a confused, wavering mass, and answered with malignant laughter to the blows of the _nagaikas_ upon their lifeless bodies. The grey witch sat down on a near-by stone and shook with her hideous, creaking laughter. CHAPTER XIV Elisaveta dressed herself up as a boy. She loved to do this and she did it quite often; so tedious is the monotony of our lives that even a change of dress furnishes a diversion! Elisaveta put on a white sailor-jacket with a blue collar, and blue knee-breeches which revealed the beauty and grace of her sunburnt lower limbs; she put on a cap, took a fishing-rod and went to the river. Elisaveta looked like a rather tall stripling of fourteen in this dress. It was quiet and bright on the river’s bank. Elisaveta sat down on a stone at the edge, lowered her feet into the water, and watched the float. A rowing-boat appeared. Elisaveta looked intently and saw that it contained Stchemilov. The latter called out: “I say, my lad, if you belong here, can you tell me if....” Then he paused because Elisaveta was laughing. “Well, who would have thought it--comrade Elisaveta?” “You didn’t recognize me, comrade?” asked Elisaveta with a merry laugh, as she approached the landing-place where Stchemilov was already fastening his boat. “I must confess that I didn’t know you at once,” he replied, as he pressed her hand warmly. “I have come for you. To-night we are to hold our mass meeting.” “Is it really to-night?” asked Elisaveta.