Pougatcheff spread through the fortress. However great the respect of
Ivan Mironoff for his wife, he would not reveal to her for anything in
the world a military secret. When he had received the General's letter
he very adroitly rid himself of Basilia by telling her that the Greek
priest had received from Orenbourg extraordinary news which he kept a
great mystery. Thereupon Basilia desired to pay a visit to Accouline,
the clergyman's wife, and by Mironoff's advice Marie went also. Master
of the situation, Ivan Mironoff locked up the maid in the kitchen and
assembled us.

Basilia came home without news, and learned that during her absence a
council of war had been held, and that Polacca was imprisoned in
the kitchen. She suspected that her husband had deceived her, and
overwhelmed him with questions. He was prepared for the attack, and
stoutly replied to his curious better-half:

"You see, my dear, the women about the country have been using straw
to kindle their fires; now as that might be dangerous, I assembled my
officers, and gave them orders to prevent these women lighting fires
with anything but fagots and brushwood."

"And why did you lock up Polacca in the kitchen till my return?" Ivan
Mironoff had not foreseen that question, and muttered some incoherent
words. Basilia saw at once her husband's perfidy, but knowing that
she could extract nothing from him at that moment, she ceased her
questioning, and spoke of the pickled cucumbers which Accouline knew
how to prepare in a superior fashion. That night Basilia never closed an
eye, unable to imagine what it was that her husband knew that she could
not share with him.

The next day, returning from mass, she saw Ignatius cleaning the cannon,
taking out rags, pebbles, bits of wood, and all sorts of rubbish
which the small boys had stuffed there. "What means these warlike
preparations?" thought the Commandant's wife? "Is an attack from the
Kirghis feared? Is it possible that Mironoff would hide from me so
mere a trifle?" She called Ignatius, determined to know the secret that
excited her woman's curiosity. Basilia began by making some remarks
about household matters, like a judge who begins his interrogation with
questions foreign to the affair, in order to reassure the accused, and
throw him off his guard. Then having paused a moment she sighed and
shook her head, saying: "O God! what news! what news! What will become
of us?"

"My dear lady," said Ignatius, "the