“Probably for actions little becoming an officer of the Guards?” resumed
the persistent questioner.
“Will you stop your stupidities?” said the Captain’s wife to him. “You
see the young man is fatigued by the journey; he has something else to
do besides answering you. Hold your hands better! And you my dear sir,”
continued she, turning to me, “do not be too much afflicted that you are
thrust into our little town; you are not the first, and will not be the
last. Now, there is Alexis Chabrine, who has been transferred to us for
a term of four years for murder. God knows what provocation he had. He
and a lieutenant went outside the city with their swords, and before two
witnesses Alexis killed the lieutenant. Ah! misfortune has no master.”
Just then the Corporal entered, a young and handsome Cossack. “Maxim,”
said the Captain’s wife, “give this officer a clean lodging.”
“I obey, Basilia,” replied the Cossack; “shall I lodge him with Ivan
Pologoff?”
“You are doting, Maxim, he has too little space now; besides, he is
my child’s godfather; and, moreover, he never forgets that we are his
chiefs. What is your name, my dear sir?”
“Peter Grineff.”
“Then conduct Peter Grineff to the quarters of Simeon Kieff. That rascal
let his horse into my vegetable garden. Is all right, Maxim?”
“Thank God, all is quiet, except that Corporal Kourzoff quarreled with
the woman Augustina about a pail of warm water.”
“Ignatius,” said the Captain’s wife to the one-eyed man, “judge between
the two--decide which one is guilty, and punish both. Go, Maxim, God be
with you. Peter Grineff, Maxim will conduct you to your lodgings.”
I took my leave; the Corporal led me to a cabin placed on the high bank
near the river’s edge, at the end of the fortress. Half of the cabin was
occupied by the family of Simeon Kieff, the other was given up to me.
My half of the cabin was a large apartment divided by a partition.
Saveliitch began at once to install us, whilst I looked out of the
narrow window. Before me stretched the bleak and barren steppe; nearer
rose some cabins; at the threshold of one stood a woman with a bowl in
her hand calling the pigs to feed; no other objects met my sight, save
a few chickens scratching for stray kernels of corn in the street. And
this was the country to which I was condemned to pass my youth! I turned
from the window, seized by bitter sadness, and went to bed without
supper, notwithstanding the supplications of Saveliitch, who with
anguish cried aloud: “Oh! he will not deign to eat! O Lord! what will my
mistress say, if the child should fall ill!”
The next morning I had scarcely begun to dress, when a young officer
entered my room. He was of small size, with irregular features, but his
sun-burned face had remarkable vivacity. “Pardon me,” said he in French,
“that I come so unceremoniously to make your acquaintance. I learned
yesterday of your arrival, and the desire of seeing at last a human
face so took possession of me that I could wait no longer. You will
understand this when you shall have lived here some time!”
I easily guessed that he was the officer dismissed from the Guards for
the affair of the duel--Alexis Chabrine. He was very intelligent; his
conversation was sprightly and interesting. He described with impulse
and gayety the Commandant’s family, society, and in general the whole
country round. I was laughing heartily, when Ignatius, the same
old pensioner whom I had seen mending his uniform in the Captain’s
waiting-room, entered, and gave me an invitation to dinner from Basilia
Mironoff, the Captain’s wife. Alexis declared that he would accompany
me.
Approaching the Commandant’s house we saw on the square some twenty
little old pensioners, with long queues and three-cornered hats.
These old men were drawn up in line of battle. Before them stood
the Commandant, a fresh and vigorous old man of high stature, in
dressing-gown and cotton cap. As soon as he saw us, he approached,
addressed me a few affable words, and then resumed his drill. We
were going to stay to see the manoeuvering, but he begged us to go on
immediately to the house, promising to join us at once; “for,” said he,
“there is really nothing to be seen here.”
Basilia received us kindly, and with simplicity, treating me like an
old acquaintance. The pensioner and the maid Polacca were laying the
table-cloth.
“What is the matter with my dear Ivan Mironoff, today, that he is so
long instructing his troops?” said the mistress. “Polacca, go and
bring him to dinner. And where is my child, Marie?” Scarcely had she
pronounced this name, than a young girl about sixteen entered the
room;--a rosy, round-faced girl, wearing her hair in smooth bandeaux
caught behind her ears, which were red with modesty and shyness. She did
not please me very much at the first glance; I was prejudiced against
her by Alexis, who had described the Captain’s daughter to me as a fool.
Marie seated herself in a corner and began to sew. The soup was brought
on the table. Basilia, not seeing her husband coming, sent the maid a
second time to call him.
“Tell the master that his inspection can wait; the soup is cooling.
Thank God! the drills need not be lost; there will be time enough yet to
use his voice at his leisure.”
The captain soon appeared with his one-eyed officer.
“What’s this, my dear,” said Basilia; “the table has been served some
time, and no one could make you come.”
“You see, Basilia, I was busy with the service, instructing my good
soldiers.”
“Come, come, Ivan Mironoff, that’s boasting. The service does not suit
them, and as for you, you know nothing about it. You should have stayed
at home and prayed God, that suits you much better. My dear guests, to
table.”
We took our places for dinner. Basilia was not silent a moment; she
overwhelmed me with questions: Who were my parents? Were they living?
Where did they reside? What was their fortune? When she learned that my
father owned three hundred serfs, she exclaimed:
“You see there are some rich people in the world--and we, my dear sir,
in point of souls, we possess only the maid Polacca. Yet, thank God, we
live, somehow or other. We have but one care, that is Marie, a girl that
must be married off. And what fortune has she? The price of two baths
per annum. If only she could find a worthy husband. If not, there she
is, eternally a maid.”
I glanced at Marie; she blushed, tears were dropping into her soup. I
pitied her, and hastened to change the conversation. “I have heard that
the Bashkirs intend to attack your fortress?”
“Who said so,” replied Ivan Mironoff.
“I heard it at Orenbourg.”
“All nonsense,” said Ivan, “we have not heard the least word about it;
the Bashkirs are an intimidated people; and the Kirghis have also had
some good lessons. They dare not attack us, and if they should even
dream of it, I would give them so great a fright that they would not
move again for ten years.”
“Do you not fear,” I continued, addressing Basilia, “to stay in a
fortress exposed to these dangers?”
“A matter of habit, my dear,” she replied, “twenty years ago, when we
were transferred here from the regiment, you could not believe how I
feared the pagans. If I chanced to see their fur caps, if I heard their
shouts, believe me, my heart was ready to faint; but now I am so used
to this life, that if told that the brigands were prowling around us, I
would not stir from the fortress.”
“Basilia is a very brave lady,” observed Alexis, gravely. “Ivan Mironoff
knows some thing about it.”
“Oh, you see,” said Ivan, “she does not belong to the regiment of
poltroons.”
“And Marie,” I asked of her mother “is she as bold as you?”
“Marie?” said the lady. “No! Marie is a coward. Up to the present she
has not heard the report of a gun without trembling in every limb.
Two years ago Ivan had a pleasant fancy to fire off his cannon on my
birthday; the poor pigeon was so frightened that she almost went into
the next world. Since that day the miserable cannon has not spoken.”
We rose from the table. The captain and his wife went to take their
siesta. I went with Alexis to his room, where we passed the evening
together.