The unexpected blow nearly killed my father. He had heard of my arrest, and both Savélütch and Marya had assured him of my complete innocence. Now he broke out into bitter lament. "What!" he kept on saying. "What! My son mixed up in the plots of Pugatchéf! Just God! What have I lived to see! The tzarina grants him life, but does that make it easier for me to bear? It is not the execution which is horrible. My ancestors have perished on the scaffold for conscience sake; but that an officer should join with robbers and felons! Shame on our race for ever!" In vain my mother endeavoured to comfort him by talking of the injustice of the verdict. My father was inconsolable. _IV.--The Captain's Daughter to the Rescue_ From the first Marya had been received with the warm-hearted hospitality that belonged to old-fashioned country people. The opportunity of giving a home to a poor orphan seemed to them a favour from God. In a very short time they were sincerely attached to her, for no one could know Marya without loving her, and both my father and my mother looked forward to the union of their son Peter with the captain's daughter. My trial and condemnation plunged all three into misery; and Marya, believing that I could have justified myself had I chosen, and suspecting the motive which had kept me silent, and holding herself the sole cause of my misfortune, determined to save me. All at once she informed my parents that she was obliged to start for Petersburg, and begged them to give her the means to do so. "Why must you go to Petersburg?" said my mother, in distress. "You, too--are you also going to forsake us?" Marya answered that she was going to seek help from people in high position for the daughter of a man who had fallen a victim to his fidelity. My father could only bow his head. "Go," he said. "I do not wish to cast any obstacles between you and your happiness. May God grant you an honest man, and not a convicted traitor, for husband." To my mother alone Marya confided her plans, and then, with her maid Palashka and the faithful Savélütch--who, parted from me, consoled himself by remembering he was serving my betrothed--set out for the capital. Arrived at Sofia, Marya learnt that the court was at the summer palace of Tzarskoe-Selo, and at once resolved to stop there. She was able to get a lodging at the post-house, and the postmaster's wife, who was a regular gossip, began to tell her all the routine of the palace, at what hour the tzarina rose, had her coffee, and walked in the gardens.