Peter lay insensible on the bench, and did not observe the newcomer.

Slowly he rose, and looked about him.

Suddenly he trembled in every limb, as though he were on the scaffold: his hair rose upon his head, and he laughed a laugh that filled Pidorka's heart with fear.
"I have remembered, remembered!" he cried, in terrible joy; and, swinging a hatchet round his head, he struck at the old woman with all his might.

The hatchet penetrated the oaken door nearly four inches.

The old woman disappeared; and a child of seven, covered in a white sheet, stood in the middle of the cottage....