of the birches.
Birds were winging a zigzag flight through the cloudless sky. On the
horizon mountains showed their forest-clothed summits. The air was
impregnated with a pleasant warmth.

Ivan gazed above him with an expression of astonishment. The Apparition
ascended higher and higher, inviting him to follow. His mother stood on
one side, the old man on the other, gazing at him....

The miners had seen the old man scale the ladders of the shaft. Then,
without listening to the chief miner, they hastened to follow him. They
followed so close one after the other that they seemed to be climbing on
each others' backs. When they reached the surface of the ground, they
suddenly paused and remained without moving, after having uncovered
their heads. They did not dare to disturb by a word the mystery which
was being consummated before their eyes. Nor was the consummation long
in coming. The miners formed a circle in the midst of which lay old
Ivan stretched on the ground, his face turned towards the sky, his arms
already numb, stretched far apart; his wide-open eyes saw no one; they
were intently fixed on the blue vault above him as though following some
one who was mounting in infinite space. His lips were seen to be feebly
moving, and when the chief miner bent over him, his keen ear caught the
dying old man's last whispers, "Here I am, Lord.... I am following You!"

[Illustration]

_MAHMOUD'S FAMILY_

[Illustration: "Your prediction is fulfilled. The Turk has escaped."]

_MAHMOUD'S FAMILY_

I. MAHMOUD

A fusillade of musketry fire had just broken out between the Russian and
Turkish advance-posts.

The fog was so dense that the confused masses of the Balkan mountains
could hardly be distinguished. They seemed more like clouds which had
descended on the earth to pass the night there. A red light showed
through the fog from a distance; perhaps it was a Turkish bivouac-fire
or the conflagration of some lonely farm. The Cossacks turned their
piercing eyes in this direction, but in vain, for it was absolutely
impossible to make out what it was in such dense gloom.

It was the Turks who had begun firing; the Russians were content with
merely replying. Neither side was visible to the other, but they fired,
fearing lest, owing to the denseness of the fog, the enemy might
approach close to them without being seen. On such occasions one fires
involuntarily; it is a kind of mutual warning, "I am not asleep, you