The Daughter of the Commandant Part 25

[Footnote 28: One _versta_ or verst (p.r.o.nounced viorst) equal to 1,165 yards English.]

[Footnote 29: Peasant cottages.]

[Footnote 30: _Loubotchnyia, i.e._, coa.r.s.e illuminated engravings.]

[Footnote 31: Taken by Count Munich.]

[Footnote 32: John, son of Kouzma.]

[Footnote 33: Formula of affable politeness.]

[Footnote 34: Subaltern officer of Cossacks.]

[Footnote 35: Alexis, son of John.]

[Footnote 36: Basila, daughter of Gregory.]

[Footnote 37: John, son of Ignatius.]

[Footnote 38: The fashion of talking French was introduced under Peter the Great.]

[Footnote 39: Diminutive of _Marya_, Mary.]

[Footnote 40: Russian soup, made of meat and vegetables.]

[Footnote 41: In Russia serfs are spoken of as souls.]

[Footnote 42: Ivanofna, p.r.o.nounced Ivanna.]

[Footnote 43: Poet, then celebrated, since forgotten.]

[Footnote 44: They are written in the already old-fashioned style of the time.]

[Footnote 45: Trediakofski was an absurd poet whom Catherine II. held up to ridicule in her "Rule of the Hermitage!"]

[Footnote 46: Scornful way of writing the patronymic.]

[Footnote 47: Formula of consent.]

[Footnote 48: One _verchok_ = 3 inches.]

[Footnote 49: Grandson of Peter the Great, succeeded his aunt, Elizabeth Petrofna, in 1762; murdered by Alexis Orloff in prison at Ropsha.]

[Footnote 50: Torture of the "_batogs_," little rods, the thickness of a finger, with which a criminal is struck on the bare back.]

[Footnote 51: Edict or ukase of Catherine II.]

[Footnote 52: Pugatch means bugbear.]

[Footnote 53: Sarafan, dress robe. It is a Russian custom to bury the dead in their best clothes.]

[Footnote 54: Girdles worn by Russian peasants.]

[Footnote 55: Peter III.]

[Footnote 56: Little flat and glazed press where the Icons or Holy Pictures are shut up, and which thus const.i.tutes a domestic altar or home shrine.]

[Footnote 57: _Ataman_, military Cossack chief.]

[Footnote 58: 1 petak = 5 kopek copper bit.]

[Footnote 59: First of the false Dmitri.]

[Footnote 60: Allusion to the old formulas of pet.i.tions addressed to the Tzar, "I touch the earth with my forehead and I present my pet.i.tion to your 'lucid eyes.'"]

[Footnote 61: At that time the nostrils of convicts were cut off. This This barbarous custom has been abolished by the Tzar Alexander.]

[Footnote 62: Daughter of another Commandant of a Fort, whom Pugatchef outraged and murdered.]

[Footnote 63: Name of a robber celebrated in the preceding century, who fought long against the Imperial troops.]

[Footnote 64: In the torture by fire the accused is tied hand and foot; he is then fixed on a long pole, as upon a spit, being held at either end by two men; his bare back is roasted over the fire. He is then examined and abjured by a writer to confess, and any depositions he may make are taken down.]

[Footnote 65: Slight skirmish, wherein the advantage remained with Pugatchef.]

[Footnote 66: Frederick, son of Frederick; name given to Frederick the Great by the Russian soldiery.]

[Footnote 67: t.i.tle of a superior officer.]

[Footnote 68: Hazard game at cards.]

[Footnote 69: Diminutive of Emelian.]

[Footnote 70: Little summer carriage.]

[Footnote 71: Fedor Poushkin, a n.o.ble of high rank, ancestor of the author, was executed on a charge of treason by Petr' Alexiovitch the Great.]

[Footnote 72: Leaders of the Russian faction against John Ernest, Duc de Biren, Grand Chamberlain, and favourite of the Tzarina, Anne Ivanofna.

Both were executed in a barbarous manner.]

[Footnote 73: Anna, daughter of Blaize.]

[Footnote 74: General Romanoff, distinguished in the wars against the Turks, vanquished them at Larga and Kazoul, 1772. He died 1796.]