Maria Ivanovna took the letter with a trembling hand, and fell weeping at the empress's feet, who raised and kissed her.
"I know that you are not rich," she said; "but I must acquit myself of a debt I owe to the daughter of Captain Mironoff. Have no anxiety for the future. I take it upon myself to provide for you."
Having reassured the poor orphan, the empress dismissed her. Maria Ivanovna returned in the same court-carriage; Anna Vlassievna, who was impatiently awaiting her return, poured out question upon question, to which Maria Ivanovna replied anyhow. Anna Vlassievna was not pleased at her want of memory, but ascribed it to her provincial shyness, and was generous enough to excuse her. That same day Maria Ivanovna left on her way homewards, without a thought even of seeing Petersburg.
Here end the memoirs of Piotr Andrevitch Grineff. It is asserted from family traditions that, by an edict signed by the sovereign, he was liberated about the end of the year 1774; that he was present at the execution of Pougatcheff, who recognized him in the crowd, and nodded to him with the head which, a few minutes later, was held up bleeding to the people. Soon after, Piotr Andrevitch and Maria Ivanovna were married. Their descendants are settled in the government of Simbirsk. Thirty versts from is a village, the property of ten persons. In the house of one of the proprietors is
