IV

The dinner was very lively. The General gave us a most interesting

account of the dialects spoken in the Caucasus, some of which are Aryan,

and others Turanian, although between the different peoples there is a

remarkable uniformity in manners and customs. I had to talk of my

travels because Count Szémioth congratulated me on the way I sat a

horse, and said he had never met a minister or a professor who could

have managed so easily such a journey as the one we had taken. I

explained to him that, commissioned by the Bible Society to write a work

on the language of the _Charruas_, I had spent three and a half years in

the Republic of Uruguay, nearly always on horse-back, and living in the

pampas among the Indians. This led me to relate how, when lost for three

days in those boundless plains, without food or water, I had been

reduced, like the _gauchos_ who accompanied me, to bleed my horse and

drink his blood.

All the ladies uttered a cry of horror. The General observed that the

Kalmouks did the same in similar extremities. The Count asked me what

the drink tasted like.

"Morally, it was most repugnant," I replied, "but, physically, I found

it rather good, and it is owing to it that I have the honour of dining

here to-day. Many Europeans, I mean white men, who have lived for a long

time with the Indians, accustom themselves to it, and even get to like

the taste. My good friend Don Fructuoso Rivero, President of the

Republic, hardly ever missed a chance of gratifying it. I recollect one

day, when he was going to Congress in full uniform, he passed a _rancho_

where a young foal was being bled. He got off his horse to ask for a

_chupon_, a suck; after which he delivered one of his most eloquent

speeches."

"Your President is a hideous monster," cried Mademoiselle Iwinska.

"Pardon me, my dear Pani," I said to her, "he is a very distinguished

person, with a most enlightened mind. He speaks several very difficult

Indian dialects to perfection, specially the _Charrua_, the verbs of

which take innumerable forms, according to whether its objective is

direct or indirect, and even according to the social relations of the

persons who speak."

I was about to give some very curious instances of the construction of

the _Charrua_ verb, but the Count interrupted me to ask what part of the

horse they bled when they wanted to drink its blood.

"For goodness' sake, my dear Professor," cried Mademoiselle Iwinska,

with a comic expression of terror, "do not tell him. He is just the man

to slay his whole stable, and to eat us up ourselves when he has no more

horses left!"

Upon this sally the ladies laughingly left the table to prepare tea and

coffee whilst we smoked. In a quarter of an hour they sent from the

drawing-room for the General. We all prepared to go with him; but we

were told that the ladies only wished one man at a time. Very soon we

heard from the drawing-room loud bursts of laughter and clapping of

hands.

"Mademoiselle Ioulka is up to her pranks," said the Count.

He was sent for next; and again there followed laughter and applause. It

was my turn after his. By the time I had reached the room every face had

taken on a pretended gravity which did not bode well. I expected some

trick.

"Professor," said the General to me in his most official manner, "these

ladies maintain that we have given too kind a reception to their

champagne, and they will not admit us among them until after a test. You

must walk from the middle of the room to that wall with your eyes

bandaged, and touch it with your finger. You see how easy it is; you

have only to walk straight. Are you able to keep a straight line?"

"I think so, General."

Mademoiselle Iwinska then threw a handkerchief over my eyes and tied it

tightly behind.

"You are in the middle of the room," she said; "stretch out your

hand.... That is right! I wager that you will not touch the wall."

"Forward, march!" called out the General.

There were only five or six steps to take. I advanced very cautiously,

sure that I should encounter some cord or footstool treacherously placed

in my path to trip me up, and I could hear stifled laughter, which

increased my confusion. At length I believed I was quite close to the

wall, when my outstretched finger suddenly went into something cold and

sticky. I made a grimace and started back, which set all the onlookers

laughing. I tore off my bandage, and saw Mademoiselle Iwinska standing

near me holding a pot of honey, into which I had thrust my finger,

thinking that I touched the wall. My only consolation was to watch the

two aides-de-camp pass through the same ordeal, with no better result

than I.

Throughout the evening Mademoiselle Iwinska never ceased to give vent to

her frolicsome humour. Ever teasing, ever mischievous, she made first

one, then another, the butt of her fun. I observed, however, that she

more frequently addressed herself to the Count, who, I must say, never

took offence, and even seemed to enjoy her allurements. But when, on the

other hand, she began an attack upon one of the aides-de-camp, he

frowned, and I saw his eyes kindle with that dull fire which was almost

terrifying. "Frolicsome as a kitten and as white as cream." I thought in

writing that verse Miçkiewicz must surely have wished to draw the

portrait of the _panna_ Iwinska.

V

It was very late before we retired to bed. In many of the great houses

in Lithuania there is plenty of splendid silver plate, fine furniture,

and valuable Persian carpets; but they have not, as in our dear Germany,

comfortable feather beds to offer the tired guest. Rich or poor,

nobleman or peasant, a Slav can sleep quite soundly on a board. The

Castle of Dowghielly was no exception to this general rule. In the room

to which the Count and I were conducted there were but two couches newly

covered with morocco leather. This did not distress me much, as I had

often slept on the bare earth in my travels, and I laughed a little at

the Count's exclamations upon the barbarous customs of his compatriots.

A servant came to take off our boots and to bring us dressing-gowns and

slippers. When the Count had taken off his coat, he walked up and down

awhile in silence; then he stopped in front of the couch, upon which I

had already stretched myself.

"What do you think of Ioulka?" he said.

"I think she is bewitching."

"Yes, but such a flirt!... Do you believe she has any liking for that

fair-haired little captain?"

"The aide-de-camp?... How should I tell?"

"He is a fop!... So he ought to please women."

"I deny your conclusion, Count. Do you wish me to tell you the truth?

Mademoiselle Iwinska thinks far more how to please Count Szémioth than

to please all the aides-de-camp in the army."

He blushed without replying; but I saw that my words had given him great

pleasure. He walked about again for some time without speaking; then,

after looking at his watch, he said--

"Good gracious! we must really go to sleep; it is very late."

He took his rifle and his hunting knife, which had been placed in our

room, put them in a cupboard, and took out the key.

"Will you keep it?" he said; and to my great surprise he gave it to me.

"I might forget it. You certainly have a better memory than I have."

"The best way not to forget your weapons would be to place them on that

table near your sofa," I said.

"No.... Look here, to tell you the truth, I do not like to have arms by

me when I am asleep.... This is the reason. When I was in the Grodno

Hussars, I slept one night in a room with a companion, and my pistols

were on the chair near me. In the night I was awakened by a report. I

had a pistol in my hand; I had fired, and the bullet had passed within

two inches of my comrade's head.... I have never been able to remember

the dream I had."

I was a little disturbed by his anecdote. I was guarded against having a

bullet through my head; but, when I looked at the tall figure of my

companion, with his herculean shoulders and his muscular arms covered

with black down, I could not help recognising that he was perfectly able

to strangle me with his hands if he had a bad dream. I took care,

however, not to let him see that I felt the slightest uneasiness. I

merely put a light on a chair close to my couch, and began to read the

_Catechism_ of Lawiçki, which I had brought with me. The Count wished me

good night, and lay down on his sofa, upon which he turned over five or

six times; at last he seemed asleep, although he was doubled up like

Horace's lover, who, shut up in a chest, touched his head with his bent

knees.

" ...Turpi clausus in area,

Contractum genibus tangas caput...."

From time to time he sighed heavily, or made a kind of nervous rattle,

which I attributed to the peculiar position in which he had chosen to

sleep. An hour perhaps passed in this way, and I myself became drowsy. I

shut my book, and settled myself as comfortably as was possible on my

bed, when an odd giggling sound from my neighbour set me trembling. I

looked at the Count. His eyes were shut; his whole body shuddered; from

his half-opened lips escaped some hardly articulate words.

"So fresh!... so white!... The Professor did not know what he said....

Horse is not worth a straw.... What a delicious morsel!"

Then he began to bite the cushion, on which his head rested, with all

his might, growling at the same time so loudly that he woke himself.

I remained quite still on my couch, and pretended to be asleep.

Nevertheless, I watched him. He sat up, rubbed his eyes, sighed sadly,

and remained for nearly an hour without changing his position, absorbed

apparently in his reflections. I was, however, very ill at ease, and I

inwardly vowed never again to sleep by the side of the Count. But in the

long run weariness overcame disquiet, and when the servant came to our

room in the morning, we were both in a profound sleep.