Then those villagers realised that poor Marfa had been a victim to the guile of the herdsman, and they fished her up from the bottom of the pond. But, alas! she was quite dead--both she and her companions; and this it was agreed was conclusive evidence that poor Marfa had been all the while an innocent _znaharka_ and not a witch. Had she been a _vyedma_ she might still have been alive, for--the starost declared--she had only been under water eight-and-forty hours, and a _vyedma_ must soak for fully ten days or a fortnight before she can be got to drown. As for the herdsman, the direct cause of the flagrant miscarriage of justice which ended in the drowning of poor old Marfa, he escaped scot free. The Souls of Tirnova did, indeed, hold a specially convened meeting in order to decide what steps could or should be taken to find and bring the rascal to justice, but it was unanimously decided that it would save trouble to take no steps at all. This decision was arrived at partly as the result of the starost's eloquence, and partly because it was in perfect agreement with the disposition of the councillors, who, being Russian peasants, were naturally unwilling to take any unnecessary trouble or to do anything that could with equal ease be left undone. As for the starost's speech, it was short but very much to the point. Here it is: "Brothers," he said, "God is in heaven and the Tsar is far away; also Russia is very large and the pastuch is very small. How should we set about to find one little herdsman?" Clearly the thing was ridiculous. THE END _Printed by_ BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO. _Edinburgh and London_ Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note. Irregularities and inconsistencies in the text have been retained as printed. Words printed in italics are marked with underlines: _italics_. End of Project Gutenberg's The Romance of the Woods, by F. J. Whishaw