resently
he ordered the elder and cook to depart, after which Michael went behind
a screen and threw himself upon the bed. He was sighing and moaning, as
if in great distress, when his wife came in and spoke kindly to him. He
refused to listen to her, exclaiming:

"He has conquered me, and my end is near!"

"Mishinka," said the woman, "arise and go to the moujiks in the field.
Let them go home, and everything will be all right. Heretofore you have
run far greater risks without any fear, but now you appear to be very
much alarmed."

"He has conquered me!" he repeated. "I am lost!"

"What do you mean?" demanded his wife, angrily. "If you will go and
do as I tell you there will be no danger. Come, Mishinka," she added,
tenderly; "I shall have the saddle-horse brought for you at once."

When the horse arrived the woman persuaded her husband to mount the
animal, and to fulfil her request concerning the serfs. When he reached
the village a woman opened the gate for him to enter, and as he did so
the inhabitants, seeing the brutal superintendent whom everybody feared,
ran to hide themselves in their houses, gardens, and other secluded
places.

At length Michael reached the other gate, which he found closed also,
and, being unable to open it himself while seated on his horse, he
called loudly for assistance. As no one responded to his shouts he
dismounted and opened the gate, but as he was about to remount, and had
one foot in the stirrup, the horse became frightened at some pigs and
sprang suddenly to one side. The superintendent fell across the
fence and a very sharp picket pierced his stomach, when Michael fell
unconscious to the ground.

Toward the evening, when the serfs arrived at the village gate, their
horses refused to enter. On looking around, the peasants discovered
the dead body of their superintendent lying face downward in a pool of
blood, where he had fallen from the fence. Peter Mikhayeff alone had
sufficient courage to dismount and approach the prostrate form, his
companions riding around the village and entering by way of the back
yards. Peter closed the dead man's eyes, after which he put the body in
a wagon and took it home.

When the nobleman learned of the fatal accident which had befallen his
superintendent, and of the brutal treatment which he had meted out to
those under him, he freed the serfs, exacting a small rent for the use
of his land and the other agricultural opportunities.

And thus