Lusnia did not know how grievous those words had made death to Azya; had he known, he would have repeated them during the whole journey.
But there was no time for regrets then; everything must give way before the execution. Lusnia stooped down, and taking Azya’s hips in both his hands to give them direction, called to the men holding the horses,—
“Move! but slowly and together!”
The horses moved; the straightened ropes pulled Azya’s legs. In a twinkle his body was drawn along the earth and met the point of the stake. Then the point commenced to sink in him, and something dreadful began,—something repugnant to nature and the feelings of man. The bones of the unfortunate moved apart from one another; his body gave way in two directions; pain indescribable, so awful that it almost bounds o
