XIII
OUR hearts sank within us, and the Reverend Father whispered to Arkadie:
"It is evident, my dear child, you are not to be hidden in the trunk with the vestments. Get quickly under the feather-bed."
And he said to me:
"You, my dear child, get in here," saying which he locked me up in the clock-case, put the key in his pocket and then went to open the door to the new arrivals. One could hear that there were many people outside. Some stood at the door, and two men were already looking in at the windows.
Seven men entered the room, all beaters from the Count's hunt, with their iron balls and straps, long whips in their hands and rope leashes in their girdles. The eighth who followed them was the Count's steward, in a long wolfskin coat and high fur cap.
The clock-case I was hidden in had a grating in front with a thin old muslin curtain behind it, through which I was able to see all that was going on in the room.
The old priest lost courage, perhaps, because he
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