procession of terrified peasants came winding up
the road towards the great house. All the inhabitants of the village
had fled from their threatened homes, and were taking refuge on the
only hill in the neighbourhood.

Weeping, gesticulating and talking; the men, women, and children,
rushed on in the greatest state of confusion.

Some carried a few possessions they had snatched up hastily as they
left their houses, some helped the old bed-ridden people to hobble
along on their sticks and crutches; others led the smaller children,
or carried the gaily-painted chests containing the holiday clothes of
the family; while the boys dragged along the rough unkempt horses, and
the few cows and oxen they had been able to drive in from the fields
close by.

All, as they came within speaking distance of Elena and Boris, began
to describe their misfortunes; and such a babel of sound rose on the
air that it was impossible to separate one word from another.

"Where shall they go to, _Matoushka_?"[B] enquired Volodia anxiously,
as the strange procession spread itself out amongst the low-growing
birch trees.

[B] _Matoushka_--little mother.

Elena shook herself, as if awakening from a horrible dream.

"Oh, it is dreadful! dreadful! But you are welcome, poor people!" she
cried. "Put the horses into the stables--Adam will show you where--and
the dogs too; and come into the house all of you, if you can get in.
The cows must go to the yard. Oh, Var-Vara!" she added, as she turned
to her old nurse, who had just come out, attracted by the noise. "Have
you heard? Oh, poor mamma! Do you think she will be safe?" and Elena
rushed into the house, and up the stair of a wooden tower, from which
she could see for miles round, a wide vista of field, lake, and
forest.

No boat was in sight, and the lake looked comparatively peaceful; but
just across the middle stretched an ominous streak of muddy, rushing
water, that beat against the high grass-grown dam, separating the lake
from the village, and threatened every moment to roll over it.

Elena held her breath, and listened. There was a dull roaring sound
like distant thunder.

The streak of brown water surged higher and higher; and suddenly--in
one instant, as it seemed to the terrified child--a vast volume of
water shot over the dam, seeming to carry it away bodily with its
violence; and with a crash like an earthquake, the pent-up lake burst
out in one huge wave, that rolled towards the