The Cossacks surrounded him, and asked him who
he was and whence he came. But Zhilin no longer
recollected who he was, and burst out crying, babbling
all the time:
"Brothers! brothers!"
The regular soldiers next came running out, and crowded round Zhilin. One of them offered him bread, another broth, a third covered him with a mantle, a fourth broke up the kolodka.
The officers presently recognised him, and conducted him to the fortress. The soldiers were delighted, and his comrades gathered round Zhilin.
Zhilin told them all that had happened to him, and said:
"You see, I was going home to be married. But no! — that is not to be my fate evidently! "
And so he continued to serve in the Caucasus.
As for Kostuilin, they only ransomed him three months later for five thousand roubles. They brought him in barelyalive.
