Tears burst from her eyes, her pride was broken,
she was again the trembling young girl, no longer the heroic woman; she
wept, and in tremulous tone, with folded hands, she implored of these
rough soldiers a little mercy, a little compassion.
They understood not her language, they had no sympathy; but the
crowd were touched by the tears of the beautiful girl and by the sad
lamentations of her companion. They screamed, they howled, they insulted
the soldiers, they swore to liberate the two women by force, if the
soldiers any longer refused them a passage. Dumb, unshaken, immovable,
like a wall stood the soldiers with their weapons stretched forth.
Through the hissing and tumult a loud and commanding voice was suddenly
heard to ask, "What is going on here? What means this disturbance?" An
officer made his way through the crowd, and approached the garden gate.
The soldiers respectfully gave way, and he stepped into the garden.
"Oh, sir," said Natalie, turning to him her tearful face, "if you are an
honorable man, have compassion for an abandoned and unprotected maiden,
and command these soldiers, who seem to obey you, to let me and my
companion go forth unhindered."
The Russian officer, Joseph Ribas, bowed low and respectfully to her.
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