rebassof, your governor,' than he cried, 'Ah, is it you, Trebassoff'
and drew a revolver from no one knows where and fired straight at
the general, almost against his breast. But the general was not hit,
happily, nor I either, who was by him and had thrown myself onto the
student to disarm him and then was tossed about at the feet of the
soldiers in the battle they waged around the student while the revolver
was going off. Three soldiers were killed. You can understand that the
others were furious. They raised me with many excuses and, all together,
set to kicking the student in the loins and striking at him as he lay on
the ground. The subaltern struck his face a blow that might have blinded
him. Feodor hit the officer in the head with his fist and called,
'Didn't you hear what I said?' The officer fell under the blow and
Feodor himself carried him to the sleigh and laid him with the dead
men. Then he took charge of the soldiers and led them to the barracks.
I followed, as a sort of after-guard. We returned to the palace an hour
later. It was quite dark by then, and almost at the entrance to the
palace we were shot at by a group of revolutionaries who passed swiftly
in two sleighs and disappeared in the darkness so fast that they could
not be overtaken. I had a ball in my toque. The general had not been
touched this time either, but our furs were ruined by the blood of the
dead soldiers which they had forgotten to clean out of the sleigh. That
was the first attempt, which meant little enough, after all, because it
was fighting in the open. It was some days later that they commenced to
try assassination."

At this moment Ermolai brought in four bottles of champagne and Thaddeus
struck lightly on the piano.

"Quickly, madame, the second attempt," said Rouletabille, who was
aking hasty notes on his cuff, never ceasing, meanwhile, to watch the
convivial group and listening with both ears wide open to Matrena.

"The second happened still in Moscow. We had had a jolly dinner because
we thought that at last the good old days were back and good citizens
could live in peace; and Boris had tried out the guzla singing songs of
the Orel country to please me; he is so fine and sympathetic. Natacha
had gone somewhere or other. The sleigh was waiting at the door and we
went out and got in. Almost instantly there was a fearful noise, and we
were thrown out into the snow, both the general and me. There remained
no trace of sleigh or