However, when they reached the banks of the Dinka, just before Birskoe,
they stopped for a while. Michael found the place where he had buried
poor Nicholas. A cross was erected there, and Nadia prayed a last time
on the grave of the humble and heroic friend, whom neither of them
would ever forget.
At Omsk, old Marfa awaited them in the little house of
the Strogoffs. She clasped passionately in her arms the girl whom
in her heart she had already a hundred times called "daughter."
The brave old Siberian, on that day, had the right to recognize
her son and say she was proud of him.
After a few days passed at Omsk, Michael and Nadia entered
Europe, and, Wassili Fedor settling down in St. Petersburg,
neither his son nor his daughter had any occasion to leave him,
except to go and see their old mother.
The young courier was received by the Czar, who attached him specially
to his own person, and gave him the Cross of St. George. In the course
of time, Michael Strogoff reached a high station in the Empire. But it
is not the history of his success, but the history of his trials,
which deserves to be related.
End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Michael Strogoff, by Jules Verne
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