“They are under the staircase!”
Then Rouletabille confronted a sight that he could
never forget all his life.
At this cry, they all stopped, after an instinctive
move to go back. Feodor Feodorovitch, who was
still in Matrena Petrovna’s arms, cried:
“Vive le Tsar!”
And then, those whom the reporter half expected to
see flee, distracted, one way and another, or to throw
themselves madly from the height of the steps, abandoning
Feodor and Matrena, gathered themselves instead by
a spontaneous movement around the general, like a
guard of honor, in battle, around the flag. Koupriane
marched ahead. And they insisted also upon descending
the terrible steps slowly, and sang the Bodje tsara
Krani, the national anthem!
With an overwhelming roar, which shocked earth and
sky and the ears of Rouletabille, the entire house
seemed lifted in the air; the staircase rose amid
flame and smoke, and the group which sang the Bodje
tsara Krani disappeared in a horrible apotheosis.
THE MARSHES
They ascertained the next day that there had been
two explosions, almost simultaneous, one under each
staircase. The two Nihilists, when they felt
themselves discovered, and watched by Ermolai, had
thrown themselves silently on him as he turned his
back in passing them, and strangled him with a piece
of twine. Then they separated each to watch
one of the staircases, reasoning that Koupriane and
General Trebassof would have to decide to descend.
The datcha des Iles was nothing now but a smoking
ruin. But from the fact that the living bombs
had exploded separately the destructive effect was
diffused, and although there were numerous wounded,
as in the case of the attack on the Stolypine datcha,
at least no one was killed outright; that is, excepting
the two Nihilists, of whom no trace could be found
save a few rags.
Rouletabille had been hurled into the garden and he
was glad enough to escape so, a little shaken, but
without a scratch. The group composed of Feodor
and his friends were strangely protected by the lightness
of the datcha’s construction. The iron
staircase, which, so to speak, almost hung to the
two floors, being barely attached at top and bottom,
raised under them and then threw them off as it broke
into a thousand pieces, but only after, by its very
yielding, it had protected them from the first force
of the bomb. They had risen from the ruins without
mortal wounds. Koupriane had a hand badly burned,
Athanase Georgevitch had his nose and cheeks seriously
hurt, Ivan Petrovitch lost an ear; the most seriously
injured was Thaddeus Tchitchnikoff, both of whose
legs were broken. Extraordinarily enough, the
first person who appeared, rising from the midst of
the wreckage, was Matrena Petrovna, still holding
Feodor in her arms. She had escaped with a few
burns and the general, saved again by the luck of
