da has won!"

"The woman is mine!" cried Feodor, his countenance beaming with joy.

His comrades looked at him with astonishment. "A woman! How do you
know beforehand that it is a woman?"

Feodor pointed silently to the back part of the room. There stood the
Cossacks, next to the litter, waiting in solemn silence to be noticed.

"A woman! Yes, by Heavens! it is a woman," cried the officers. And,
with boisterous laughter, they rushed toward the Cossacks.

"And where did you pick her up?" asked Major von Fritsch.

"Don't know," answered one of the Cossacks. "We crept along a wall,
and when we had climbed to the top, we saw a garden. We got down
slowly and carefully, and waited behind the trees, to see if any one
would come down the long avenue. We did not have long to wait before
this lady came by herself. We rushed on her, and all her struggles, of
course, went for nothing. Luckily for her and us, she fainted, for
if she had cried out, some one, perhaps, might have come, and then we
would have been obliged to gag her."

The officers laughed. "Well," said the major, "Colonel Feodor can
stop her mouth now with kisses." In the mean while, Lieutenant Matusch
threw the Cossacks a few copper coins, and drove them out of the room,
with scornful words of abuse.

"And now let us see what we have won," cried the officers, rushing to
the litter. They were in the act of raising the cloth which concealed
the figure, but Feodor stepped forward with determined countenance and
flashing eyes.

"Let no one dare to raise this veil," said he haughtily. His comrades
rushed, with easily aroused anger, on him, and attempted again to
approach the veiled woman. "Be on your guard!" cried Feodor, and,
drawing his sword from its scabbard, he placed himself before the
litter, ready for the combat. The officers drew back. The determined,
defiant countenance of the young warrior, his raised and ready sword,
made them hesitate and yield.

"Feodor is right," said the major, after a pause; "he has fairly won
the woman, and it is his business now to settle about the ransom."

The others cast their eyes down, perhaps ashamed of their own
rudeness. "He is right, she belongs to him," murmured they, as they
drew back and approached the door.

"Go, my friends, go," said Feodor. "I promise you that I will settle
with her about her ransom, and give up beforehand all claim to my
share!"

The countenances of the Russian officers brightened up. They