"The Captain's Daughter" (Alexander Pushkin)
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Passage from “The Captain’s Daughter” by Alexander Pushkin:
“THE SQUARE WAS DESERTED. I remained standing in the same place and could not gather my thoughts, thrown into disarray by all these horrifying experiences. Uncertainty about the fate of Marya Ivanovna troubled me most. Where was she? What had happened to her? Had she managed to hide? Was her hiding place safe? My head full of alarming thoughts, I went into the commandant’s house. It had been completely stripped: chairs, tables and chests were broken; crockery smashed; everything ransacked. I ran up the narrow staircase leading to the bedchambers, and for the first time ever entered Marya Ivanovna’s room. Her bed had been turned upside down; her wardrobe was broken and plundered; a sanctuary lamp was still burning in front of the empty icon-holder. A mirror on the wall between the windows had also escaped destruction. Where was the inhabitant of this humble virginal cell? A terrible thought passed through my mind: I imagined her in the hands of the marauders. My heart sank. I burst into bitter, bitter tears and loudly called out the name of my beloved. At that moment I heard a slight noise: Palasha, pale and trembling, came out from behind the wardrobe. ‘Oh, Pyotr Andreich!’ she said, clasping her hands. ‘What a day! What horrors!’ ‘And Marya Ivanovna?’ I asked impatiently. ‘What’s happened to Marya Ivanovna?’….”