The sun had travelled half its course, and was pouring down through
the glowing atmosphere its fierce rays upon the parched earth. The
dark blue sky was absolutely clear; only the bases of the snow-capped
mountains began to clothe themselves in pale lilac clouds. The
motionless atmosphere seemed to be full of some impalpable dust; it
became intolerably hot.
When the army came to a small brook that had overflowed half the road,
a halt was called. The soldiers, stacking their arms, plunged into
the stream. The commander of the battalion sat down in the shade,
on a drum, and, showing by his broad countenance the degree of his
rank, made ready, in company with a few officers, to take lunch. The
captain lay on the grass under the company's transport-wagon; the
gallant lieutenant Rosenkranz and some other young officers, spreading
out their Caucasian mantles, or _burki,_ threw themselves down, and
began to carouse as was manifest by the flasks and bottles scattered
around them and by the extraordinary liveliness of their singers, who,
standing in a half-circle behind them, gave an accompaniment to the
Caucasian dance-song sung by a Lesghian girl:--
Shamyl resolved to make a league
In the years gone by,
Traï-raï, rattat-taï,
In the years gone by.
Among these officers was also the young ensign who had passed us in the
morning. He was very entertaining: his eyes gleamed, his tongue never
grew weary. He wanted to greet every one, and show his good-will to
them all. Poor lad! he did not know that in acting this way he might be
ridiculous, that his frankness and the gentleness which he showed to
every one might win for him, not the love which he so much desired, but
ridicule; he did not know this either, that when at last, thoroughly
heated, he threw himself down on his _burka,_ and leaned his head
on his hand, letting his thick black curls fall over, he was a very
picture of beauty.
Two officers crouched under a wagon, and were playing cards on a hamper.
I listened with curiosity to the talk of the soldiers and officers,
and attentively watched the expression of their faces; but, to tell
the truth, in not one could I discover a shadow of that anxiety which
I myself felt; jokes, laughter, anecdotes, expressed the universal
carelessness, and indifference to the coming peril. How impossible to
suppose that it was not fated for some never again to pass that road!