A PERILOUS SLIDE.
To Boris the news that the Streltsi had gone away without him was the
best and most acceptable news in the world. To his simple, honest mind
the atmosphere of disloyalty and disaffection in which he had been
forced to live, as well as the unrest and actual physical danger which
were the unavoidable consequence of the unpopularity in which he was
held by his fellows, as one outside their own circle and therefore
dangerous--all this was intolerable. Boris was not a quarrelsome man,
yet he had been forced into several fights already; and if he had
proceeded to the Ukraine with the rest he would undoubtedly have been
drawn into many other quarrels as soon as the repressive influence
of the Tsar's presence had ceased to work upon the minds of his
comrades. The departure of the Streltsi, therefore, acted like a tonic
upon his system, and his recovery was speedy from this day onwards.
Within a week after the scene on the parade-ground Boris was up and
about attending once more upon his master, the Tsar, and learning
with astonishment the remarkable phases and contrasts of Peter's
character--a character which must ever puzzle students and analysts in
the inconsistencies and contradictions which it revealed from day to
day.
Peter was particularly busy just at this time enrolling soldiers for
certain new regiments of Guards which he designed should take the place
of the erratic Streltsi. Lefort, of whom mention has already been made,
was most energetic in this work, and proved himself a most successful
recruiting officer. Foreigners--Englishmen, Germans, and others--were
engaged as far as possible to officer these new troops; but Boris, to
his great joy, was permitted to exchange from his Streltsi regiment,
which he hated, into one of the newly-organized corps.
The Tsar was radiant and happy over the congenial work upon which he
was engaged, and worked night and day in order to accomplish the task
he had set before himself. Yet, in spite of his activity and energy,
and of the amazing amount of work he managed to get through during the
day, this remarkable young monarch found time for boisterous carousals
almost every evening. At these Boris was expected to attend the Tsar,
and did so; but he was never a lover of indoor amusements, and did not
take to card-playing and heavy drinking with the zeal infused into the
pursuit of such joys by his betters, including Peter himself.
At the court, too, Boris was out of his element. The big bear-hunter
was not used to the society of ladies; and though the manners of
Peter's court were far from being characterized by all that we in
our day understand when we speak of refinement and breeding, yet the
measure of their civilization was naturally far beyond that reached by
the good folks at Dubinka, or even at Archangel.
The ladies of the court, including the empress, were one and all
attracted by the handsome young hunter, now officer, and some made no
secret of their admiration. The empress was kind and condescending,
and occasionally preached Boris a little sermon on the iniquity of
making friends of foreigners, warning him to beware of familiarity with
those alien officers who had lately been imported into Russia. These
men, the Tsaritsa declared, would be the ruin--they and the foreign
institutions and vices which they foreshadowed--of holy Russia and her
exclusiveness. The church, she said, and all her dignitaries looked
with horror upon the many un-Russian innovations which were the ruling
spirit of the day.
Boris thought that the empress ought to know all about the church and
her opinions, if anybody did, for the palace, or her own portion of it,
was always full of priests and confessors; but he thought it a curious
circumstance, nevertheless, that the wife should speak thus of the work
upon which the husband was engaged. To his frank and simple mind it
appeared unnatural and wrong that the very person in all the world who
should have been the first to encourage and help the Tsar in his work
of reformation and progress should have neglected no opportunity of
hindering and crying it down.
In short, the ladies of the court had for Boris but little attraction;
he had not been used to the society of ladies, and did not understand
them and their mysterious ways. He was glad when Peter avoided his
wife's portion of the palace for days together; and though he did not
particularly enjoy the carouses with Lefort and Gordon, and other
kindred spirits of the Tsar, yet he preferred these noisy and rowdy
gatherings to the society of the ladies. In a word, Boris was not a
lady's man, although there were many fair damsels at court and out of
it who would fain it had been otherwise.
But Boris had a little adventure early in this first winter in Moscow
which laid the foundation of a great and momentous friendship, the
greatest and most important of any formed by him throughout his life,
even though we include that which united him with his beloved Tsar. The
circumstances were romantic, and may be given with propriety in this
place.
It has been mentioned that many foreigners were at this time being
attracted into Russia by the liberal offers made to them of lucrative
employment in the service of the Tsar. Among the officers thus
engaged by Peter to train and command his newly-levied troops of the
Guard was a certain Englishman of the name of Drury, who, with his
wife and little daughter aged twelve, had but lately arrived in the
great northern city. Boris had seen and made the acquaintance of the
English officer at Peter's palace, and had moreover met the wife and
child at the court of the Tsaritsa, where he had admired the little,
bright-eyed, flaxen-haired English maiden, and had even played ball
with her, and taught her the use of the Russian swing in the courtyard.
Nancy Drury, as she was called, possessed all the love for outdoor
amusements and exercise which is the heritage of the British race; and,
consequently, no sooner did the early northern winter bring enough
frost to cover the narrow Moscow river with a thin layer of ice, than
Miss Nancy determined to make the most of the advantages of living "up
north," by enjoying an hour's sliding at the very first opportunity.
Thus, on the second day after the appearance of the ice, though no
Russian would have thought of stepping upon it for at least another
week, the child walked fearlessly out to the centre of the stream and
commenced her sliding.
The ice was smooth and very elastic, and Nancy found the sliding
excellent; but, as might have been expected, at the third or fourth
slide the ice gave way beneath even her light feet, and in went Nancy,
sprawling forwards as her footing played her false, and thus breaking
up a large hole for herself to splash into. Luckily Nancy was a brave
child, and did not struggle and choke and go straight to the bottom, or
under the ice. She supported herself as best she could upon the sound
ice which surrounded the hole she had made, and shouted for assistance.
The streets were full of people; but that circumstance was of little
comfort to poor Nancy, had she known it. For if she had found herself
in this fix on ninety-nine out of a hundred occasions, she would have
received no doubt the deepest sympathy from those on shore, evidenced
by much weeping and wailing from the women, and running about and
shouting of conflicting instructions and advice on the part of the men;
but as for solid assistance, she would have gone to the bottom long
before the one man in a hundred or a thousand who could render it to
her had arrived upon the scene. Luckily again for Nancy, however, that
one man chanced to pass by on this occasion, in the shape of our brave
bear-hunter, and in the very nick of time.
Boris grasped the situation at a glance, though without as yet
recognizing the child. Kicking off his heavy Russian boots, he ran
nimbly over the intervening ice, which lay in broken, floating pieces
behind him as he crushed it beneath his feet at each quick step, and
reached the child in a twinkling, seizing her in his arms and floating
with her for a moment as he reflected upon the best way to get back.
During that moment Nancy recognized her preserver and clung to him,
shivering and crying a little, but with an assurance of safety in his
strong arms which she did her best to express by burying her face in
his breast and half drowning him with her clinging arms about his neck.
A wonderfully tender spirit fell over the rough hunter as he felt the
confiding hugs of this little English girl, and he realized that she
must be saved at all hazards. But it was exceedingly difficult to swim
with her in his arms, as those who have tried it will know, especially
as his course was impeded by floating ice of sufficient strength and
thickness to offer an awkward obstacle to a burdened swimmer. Boris
was aware that little Nancy had picked up but little Russian as yet;
nevertheless he succeeded in conveying to her that she must not clasp
his neck so tightly, or both would presently go to the bottom; also
that he intended to help her to climb back upon the ice, but that he
would be near if it should break again and let her through. Then,
finding a sound edge which looked strong enough for his purpose, with
an effort he raised the child sufficiently high to slide her out upon
unbroken ice, where Nancy quickly regained her feet and ran lightly to
the shore. As for Boris, relieved of his burden, he easily swam to
shore, where he found his little friend awaiting him.
To the immense amusement of the onlookers, of whom there was a
considerable gathering, Nancy, having first with her little hand helped
him out of the water, sprang up into the arms of her big preserver
and covered his wet face with kisses. Then the tall hunter and his
little English friend walked off together, amid the admiring comments
of the crowd, who were unanimous in their opinion that the officer was
a _molodyets_, or, as a British schoolboy would call it, "a rare good
chap;" and that the little _Anglichanka_ was very sweet to look upon,
and wore very nice clothes.
From this day commenced a firm friendship between these two persons,
which strengthened and ripened from week to week and from month to
month. They were in some respects an oddly-assorted couple; and yet
there was much in common between them, as for instance the intense love
which both bore towards the open air and all that appertains to life
in the country. Nancy had lived, while still in her English home, far
away from the town; her sympathies were all for the fields, the woods,
birds, and rabbits, and wild fowl, and the sights and sounds of the
country.
Neither Drury nor his wife had the slightest objection to the great
friendship existing between their little daughter and this fine young
officer of the Tsar; as indeed why should they? On the contrary, they
were glad enough to intrust her to one who could be so thoroughly
trusted to take good care of her under any and every circumstance and
emergency which could arise, whether in the forest or in the streets
of the city. Consequently the two were often together; and Boris loved
nothing better than to set his little friend in a _kibitka_, or covered
sledge drawn by two horses, and drive out with her into the country,
far away beyond the smoke and din of Moscow.
There he would spend a few happy hours in teaching the child the art
of tracking and trapping hares, foxes, and larger game, an art in
which Nancy proved an apt pupil; while his skill in calling birds and
beasts to him proved a source of unfailing delight and amusement to
her. Concealed in a tiny conical hut made of fir boughs, and built
to represent as far as possible a snow-laden pine tree, the pair
would sit for an hour or two and watch the effects of Boris's skilful
imitation of the various voices of the forest. Many a time did Nancy
enjoy the excitement of hearing and even occasionally of seeing a wolf,
as he came inquisitively peering and listening close up to the hut,
wondering where in the world his talkative friend had hidden himself,
and evidently half beginning to fear that he had been the victim of
a hoax. On such occasions a loud report from Boris's old-fashioned
matchlock quickly assured the poor wolf that he had indeed been deluded
to his destruction, and that this hoax was the very last he should live
to be the victim of.
Rare, indeed, was the day when the hunter and his little English
friend returned to Moscow without something to show as the result of
their drive out into the forest. Whether it was a hare, or a brace
of tree-partridges, or the pretty red overcoat of a fox, or the gray
hide of a wolf--something was sure to accompany little Nancy when she
returned to her father's apartments; for Boris was a hunter whose skill
never failed.
Thus the winter passed and the summer came, and another winter, and
the Tsar was ever busy with his recruiting, and his drilling, and his
revellings, and his designing of ships and fleets. And Boris was busy
also with his duty and his pleasure--his duty with his regiment and
with his Tsar, and his chief pleasure in the company of the little
English girl who had found for herself a place so close to his heart.
And Boris was happy both in his pleasure and in his duties, as should
be the case with every right-minded person, and is, I trust, with every
reader of these lines.