The knout is composed of a certain number of leathern
thongs, at the end of which are attached pieces of twisted iron wire.
It is reckoned that a sentence to one hundred and twenty blows of this
whip is equivalent to a sentence of death.
Marfa knew it, but she knew also that no torture would make her speak.
She was sacrificing her life.
Marfa, seized by two soldiers, was forced on her knees
on the ground. Her dress torn off left her back bare.
A saber was placed before her breast, at a few inches' distance only.
Directly she bent beneath her suffering, her breast would
be pierced by the sharp steel.
The Tartar drew himself up. He waited. "Begin!" said Ogareff. The whip
whistled in the air.
But before it fell a powerful hand stopped the Tartar's arm.
Michael was there. He had leapt forward at this horrible scene.
If at the relay at Ichim he had restrained himself when Ogareff's whip
had struck him, here before his mother, who was about to be struck,
he could not do so. Ivan Ogareff had succeeded.
"Michael Strogoff!" cried he. Then advancing, "Ah, the man of Ichim?"
"Himself!" said Michael. And raising the knout he struck Ogareff
a sharp blow across the face. "Blow for blow!" said he.
"Well repaid!" cried a voice concealed by the tumult.
Twenty soldiers threw themselves on Michael, and in another instant
he would have been slain.
But Ogareff, who on being struck had uttered a cry of rage and pain,
stopped them.
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