Having, as it were, finished their affair with her Excellency, the
ladies felt inclined to join the party of the gentlemen, with the view
of bringing them round to their own opinion, and they continued to
affirm that the alleged purchase of dead serfs was nothing else but
a scheme to divert attention from his real intentions, and thus more
successfully to accomplish the projected elopement.
Many of the gentlemen were even gained over, and persuaded to join the
female party, notwithstanding the bitter reproaches that were addressed
to them by their own party and comrades, who called them old women and
petticoat worshippers, which allegations, as is well known, are very
offensive to any gentleman.
But, however strong and obstinate the remaining coalition of the men
was, their party was far from being so well organised as that of the
ladies. With them all was somehow irregular, rough, loose, not well at
all; their heads were full of confusion, partiality, contradiction;
their thoughts tormented by doubts and suspicions--in a word, the,
in every respect, empty nature of the men appeared to be in the
greatest disorder, a _naturel_, at the same time rough and heavy,
unfit for household matters, nor for the more tender impressions of
the heart, suspicious, indolent, full of continual doubts and eternal
apprehensions.
They maintained most obstinately that all was stuff and nonsense, that
the elopement with his Excellency's daughter was more likely to be
undertaken by a dashing hussar, but not by a peaceable civilian; and
that Tchichikoff was not the man to carry out such a plan, so full of
madness; that the women were all silly, and had got up a false alarm;
that the real object upon which they had to turn their exclusive
attention were the dead serfs themselves, for it was with them that
the secret lay buried; but what this secret was, the devil alone knew,
at any rate in their opinion, it was something awful. Why it was so
dreadful, so awful, in' the opinion of the gentlemen, we shall know at
once.
By a decree of his Majesty the Emperor Nicholas I, another
Lord-Lieutenant, or Governor had been appointed for the province
of Smolensk, and the present one recalled to St. Petersburgh; such
an ukase causes in Russia a thorough change of administration and
appointments, and for this reason it had the most alarming effect
upon the nervous and moral system of the Imperial _employés_; Courts
of Inquiries would be held in all branches of administration, many of
them had the prospect before them of being dismissed, whilst others ran
the risk of seeing themselves utterly stripped of their little profits
under the new head of administration.
And really, some of them thought, "if the new Governor was to know
all our little trespasses, it would be quite sufficient to effect
our complete disgrace, and perhaps even banishment would be the
consequence." The Superintendent of the Imperial Hospitals grew
suddenly pale; heaven knows what thoughts flashed across his mind;
did these dead serfs mean, perhaps, that all those people who died
lately in great numbers from cholera and various fevers in the Imperial
Hospitals and other places, for want of proper and careful sanitary
measures, and was Tchichikoff, by chance, an Imperial Attorney, or
Commissioner sent by the Governor-General to hold a secret Court of
Inquiry.
He communicated this opinion to the President of the Council. The
President answered that this supposition was absurd, and then
immediately grew pale himself as he put to himself the following
question:
"But if these serfs whom Tchichikoff has been purchasing were really
dead, he has caused us all to legalise the transaction, and has
obliged me to sign the contract of sale as Pluschkin's agent, and if
the whole transaction is reported with all its particulars to the
Governor-General, how then? And if the Governor-General lays all the
particulars of this transaction before His Majesty the Emperor? I
shudder at the thought."
He communicated these apprehensions to the one and to the other, and
immediately after, the one and the other grew pale as death. Fear is
like a contagious disorder; it communicates itself in an instant.
All the Imperial _employés_ suddenly discovered in themselves such
transgressions as did not even exist in reality. The words "dead
serfs" spread fear and terror all around, which were instantaneously
communicated to all who were even in the slightest degree compromised
in the transaction; they began also to suspect that it might be an
allusion to some recent occurrences in which a few peasants died
suddenly, and were buried hurriedly without an inquest being held on
their bodies.
The first occurrence was an encounter between some tradesmen from
Great Novgorod and some men of the same calling from Little or
Nishni-Novogorod, who had come to visit the fair held at that time
in Smolensk. After having done a good business in town, the Great
Novogorodians gave a regular Russian feast to their friends the
little Novogorodians, seasoned with all the foreign improvements of
kitchen and cellar. The feast, however, ended in a regular fight The
petty jealousies existing between these two very important towns
determined the Little Novogorodians to resent an old quarrel which
had been brought again on the _tapis_ as regarded the pre-eminence
of the two towns, in a commercial sense. They rushed upon the Great
Novogorodians, determined to have their lives; but the result was, that
they got fearfully ill-used by the Great Novogorodians, who disfigured
their heads, faces and sides in a most merciless manner, and proved
that the fists of some of the defunct Great Novogorodians were of an
extraordinary size and hardness.
One of the defeated combatants had fared very badly indeed, and
narrowly escaped losing his life; however, he had got off only after
having had his nose flattened like a crumpet, so much so indeed that
there remained but a vestige of a nose on his face. The merchants
confessed to the authorities that they had been only jesting; but it
was rumoured about that in this serious conflict, four of the Imperial
peacemongers had lost their lives. However, the real loss of life
was kept in the dark, and the inquiries that were held by the proper
authorities went to show that the deceased Novogorodians had died from
the effects of suffocation and they were at once buried as suffocated
people.
The other occurrence, which happened nearly at the same time, was
the following: Some crown serfs (property of the Emperor) of the not
unimportant village of Vladomirsk, had joined their brethren and
neighbours in the adjoining village of Volkonsk, for the purpose of
taking revenge upon an imperial steward, who resided between the two
villages, and who not only ill-treated them in the most barbarous
manner, but even seduced by threats and intimidation, their wives and
daughters. This same imperial steward, Drobriaschkin by name, had
been observed to pay too frequent visits in both villages, and at
unusual hours, which was thought highly improper by the peasants for an
imperial manager, and head of the country police. It, therefore, seemed
to them that their magistrate had too many weaknesses for their wives
and daughters.
However, nothing positive could be proved against him, although the
imperial serfs had stated in their depositions, that they had seen
their magistrate roaming about in the neighbourhood like a cat, and
that they had more than once given him fair warning, and that on one
occasion they had even beaten and driven him out of the hut of one of
their worthiest elders, where he had stealthily entered, Heaven knows
for what purpose. The magistrate merited, of course, chastisement for
the weaknesses of his heart, and ought not to have imagined, that
because he was an imperial manager, he could presume to trample upon
the affections of imperial serfs; on the other hand again, the peasants
of the imperial villages of Vladomirsk and Volkonsk, could also not
have been justified in murdering their magistrate for his weaknesses of
the heart, provided the charge could have been proved against one or
all of them.
However, this occurrence also remained in the dark, because all matters
in which the police and people of high rank are interested, remain
in Russia usually enveloped in darkness; nevertheless, the country
magistrate, the imperial manager, was found murdered on the high road,
his official coat was torn into rags, and as for his face and body, it
was perfectly impossible to identify them as having once harboured the
haughty and tyrannical soul of a Dobriaschkin.
The whole occurrence, with all its particulars, was thrown into the
proper courts of justice, and ultimately transmitted to Smolensk, where
the high justices of the Crown came to the following conclusion:
"Whereas it cannot be proved who of the imperial serfs are the actual
murderers of the dead man, and as there are many peasants compromised
in the crime, and whereas Dobriaschkin was now a dead man, there could
arise not the least advantage to him, in having judgement given in his
favour.
"And, whereas all the peasants compromised in the deed were still
alive, it was of the greatest importance to them, that judgment should
be given in their favour; it was therefore decided that the following
judgment or verdict should be returned;
"That the imperial manager and magistrate, Dobriaschkin, was himself
the cause of his death, in making unjustifiable pretensions upon the
imperial serfs of the villages of Vladomirsk and Volkonsk, and that he
died suddenly from an apoplectic stroke, whilst returning home in his
sledge."
The imperial men who had thus settled these and similar occurrences,
thought at the time that their decisions were just and right, but
now, and it is incomprehensible why, they thought that the present
dead souls had some reference to these past occurrences. To these
past events which seemed to them now more serious than ever before,
additional difficulties could arise, for, if it was to happen, that
just at this time when all the _employés_ of the Crown seemed so
seriously embarrassed, the new Governor-General was to receive at once
two more informations in the shape of the following documents.
The first, containing a report of investigations and proofs that a
manufacturer of false bank-notes was residing in Smolensk, hiding
himself under different assumed names, and that a strict investigation
should be made at once to bring the culprit to light; the greatest
discredit would be thrown at once upon the _employés_ whose duty it
would have been to prevent the occurrence.
The other document, again might contain the following communication
from the Governor-General of the adjoining province; whereas a
murderer has escaped the hands of justice, and taken refuge in the
Government of Smolensk, It devolves upon the Imperial _employés_ of
the Province of Smolensk to take at once the necessary steps for his
immediate apprehension, and stop all such persons who cannot legitimate
themselves with the necessary documents and passports.
These two imaginary, or perhaps, true documents, completely bewildered
all. Their former apprehensions were completely lost sight of. Of
course, it was perfectly impossible for them to suspect for a moment
that these documents could have any reference, whatever, to their
friend Tchichikoff, however, as they at last began to reason a little
each for himself, it struck them at last that they could not positively
tell, who and what Tchichikoff really was, and that he had given them
a very indistinct account of himself, though he had told them, that he
had suffered much for the just cause whilst in active service.
All this seemed to them now, not at all dear, or explicit at all, and
especially when they recollected that he had told them also, that
he had many enemies ready to feed on his very life's blood, it was
then that they became still more thoughtful and pre-occupied; it must
therefore be that his life was in danger, consequently he must have
been doing something to put himself into such a jeopardy--and now the
question arose among them, who was Tchichikoff really?
Of course, he could not be a manufacturer of false bank notes, nor
could he be a murderer, because his appearance was in every respect
that of a gentleman; nevertheless, who and what is he? And now only it
was that the imperial _employés_ of Smolensk addressed themselves the
question, which they ought to have asked immediately in the beginning
of their acquaintance with our hero. It was resolved upon, that some
more inquiries should be made about him, from those persons from whom
he had bought those dead serfs, thus to ascertain, if possible, what
the nearer particulars of these purchases were, and what they would
have to understand by the term of dead serfs, to know whether he had
not inadvertently perhaps allowed a few remarks, or hints to slip
from his tongue, of what his real intentions were, and if some of the
contracting parties did not know something more positive about him.
First of all they applied to Lady Korobotchka, but from her they did
not learn much; he had purchased her dead serfs for the paltry sum of
fifteen silver roubles, had promised to buy some feathers and honey
from her, and had stated that he was a contractor for the supply of
tallow and grease, and for that reason was no doubt an impostor, for
she had had already dealings with a man, who bought feathers and honey,
and contracted for the supply of tallow and grease, and that that man
had taken them in one and all, and cheated the wife of the proto-pope
of two hundred silver roubles. Whatever else she said on the subject,
was nothing but a repetition of her first statement, and the _employés_
came to the conclusion that Lady Korobotchka, was nothing but a stupid,
gossiping old woman.
Maniloff declared, that for his friend, Pavel Ivanovitch, he was ready
to be as responsible as for himself, that he would sacrifice all
his property if he could but possess the hundredth part of the good
qualities of his friend Pavel Ivanovitch, in fact, he spoke of him in
the most flattering terms, adding a few of his opinions on friendship
and intimacy; this he did of course while shutting gently his sweet
eyes. These expressions, of course, convinced the _employés_ of the
tenderness of Maniloff's heart, but were not at all calculated to
enlighten them on the subject in question.
Sobakevitch affirmed, that Tchichikoff was a honest man, and that the
serfs he had sold him were picked men, and in every respect perfectly
alive; but that he could not be held responsible for what might happen
in the course of time, that if they were to die in consequence of their
emigration, which would be fraught with difficulties and dangers, that
this would not be his fault, but the decrees of Providence; and as
for fever and other mortal diseases, they were prevalent all over the
world, and he knew of instances where such diseases had devastated a
whole village in three days.
The imperial gentlemen had recourse to one last resource, though, we
must confess, not a very gentlemanly act; though there are instances
when it is done through the medium of an acquaintance with the servants
of the persons interested; they, therefore, hit upon the idea of
questioning Tchichikoff's attendants, asking them indirectly what they
know of the former life, habits, and fortune, of their lord and master;
but even with them they found themselves disappointed.
Petruschka communicated to them only the peculiar perfume of his
bed-chamber; as for Selifan, he confided to them that his master had
been in the imperial service, and had done his duty in the excise; but
this is all they could learn from him. This latter class of people,
namely, servants, have very peculiar habits, and might, in some
degrees, stand a comparison with Irishmen. If you ask them a direct
question, they are sure to give an indirect answer--never recollect
anything--their mind is so much confused that they will simply answer,
'that they knows nothing about anything;' but if you happen to deviate
from your original question, and speak of something else, they are sure
to return to the original question; and, whether you like it or not,
they will give you all the desired particulars, even such as you do not
care to listen to.
All the researches and inquiries of the imperial men, proved in
the end, that they had no positive information about Tchichikoff;
nevertheless, they came to the conclusion that he must be something.
They decided, at last, upon talking the matter over once more, and
settle, definitely, how to act in this very complicated affair--what
measures they would have to take in order to ascertain, positively,
who Tchichikoff really was; whether he was a man who ought to be
apprehended at once as a malefactor, or whether he was a man who had
the power and authority to seize and apprehend them as malefactors.
For this purpose it was agreed upon, that they should assemble all the
next day at the house of the Commissioner of the Police, who, as is
well known to our readers, was the father and benefactor of all the
inhabitants of the town of Smolensk.