"It is easy to talk," said the Commandant, taking off his spectacles, and folding the paper; "but we must use every precaution. The rascal seems strong, and we have only 130 men, even adding the Cossacks, upon whom there is no dependence, be it said without reproach to thee, Maxim." The Corporal of the Cossacks smiled. "Gentlemen, let us do our part; be vigilant, post sentries, establish night patrols; in case of an attack, shut the gates and call out the soldiers. Maxim, watch well your Cossacks. It is necessary to examine the cannon and clean it; and above all to keep the secret, that no one in the fortress should know any thing before the time."
Having given his orders, Ivan Mironoff dismissed us. I went out with Alexis, speculating on what we had heard. "What do you think of it? How will this end?" I asked him.
"God knows," he replied, "we shall see. At present there is no danger." And he began, as if thinking, to hum a French air.
Notwithstanding our precautions the news of the apparition of 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.