"Begin."
"One," sang out the soldiers in unison, and they simultaneously
performed in slow time the order to bend the knees till the whole
division found itself on its haunches.
Bobyliev, who likewise performed the same movement, scrutinized the
soldiers with severe, critical, and aggressive eyes. Immediately beside
him cried the little spasmodic corporal, Syeroshtán, in his sharp,
squeaky voice that reminded one of a cockerel squabbling for food--
"Stretch your arms to the right--and left--salute. Begin, one, two, one,
two," and directly afterwards ten smart young fellows were heard yelling
at the top of their voices the regulation--
"_Haú, haú, haú._"
"Halt," shouted Syeroshtán, red of face from rage and over-exertion.
"La-apschin, you great ass, you toss about, give yourself airs, and
twist your arm like some old woman from Riasan--_choú_, _choú_. Do the
movements properly, or by all that's unholy I'll----"
After this the subalterns led their respective divisions at quick march
to the gymnastic apparatus, which had been set up in different parts of
the parade-ground. Sub-lieutenant Lbov--young, strong, and agile, and
also an expert gymnast--threw down his sabre and cap, and ran before the
others to one of the bars. Grasping the bar with both his hands, after
three violent efforts he made a somersault in the air, threw himself
forward and finally landed himself on all fours two yards and a half
from the bar.
"Sub-lieutenant Lbov, at your everlasting circus tricks again," shrieked
Captain Sliva in a tone meant to be severe. In his heart the old warrior
cherished a sneaking affection for Lbov, who was a thoroughly efficient
soldier, and, by his brave bearing, invaluable at parades. "Be good
enough to observe the regulation, and keep the other thing till Carnival
comes round."
"Right, Captain!" yelled Lbov in reply; "but I shan't obey," he
whispered to Romashov with a wink.
The 4th platoon exercised on the inclined ladder. The soldiers walked in
turn to the ladder, gripped hold of the steps, and climbed up them with
arms bent. Shapovalenko stood below and made remarks--
"Keep your feet still. Up with your soles."
The turn now came to a little soldier in the left wing, whose name was
Khliabnikov, who served as a butt to the entire company. Whenever
Romashov caught sight of him, he wondered how this emaciated, sorry
figure, in height almost a dwarf, whose dirty little beardless face was
but a little larger than a man's fist, could have been admitted into the
army. And when he met Khliabnikov's soulless eyes, which looked as if
they had expressed nothing but a dull submissive fear ever since he was
born, he felt in his heart a heavy, oppressive feeling of disgust and
prick of conscience.
Khliabnikov hung motionless on the ladder like a dead, shapeless mass.
"Take a grip and raise yourself on your arms, you miserable dog!"
shrieked the sergeant. "Up with you, I say."
Khliabnikov made a violent effort to show his obedience, but in vain. He
remained in the same position, and his legs swung from side to side. For
the space of a second he turned downwards and sideways his ashen grey
face, in which the dirty little turned-up nose obstinately turned
upwards. Suddenly he let go of the ladder and fell like a sack to the
ground.
"Ho, ho, you refuse to obey orders, to make the movement you were
ordered to do," roared the sergeant; "but a scoundrel like you shall not
destroy discipline. Now you shall----"
"Shapovalenko, don't touch him!" shouted Romashov, beside himself with
anger and shame. "I forbid you to strike him now and always." Romashov
rushed up and pulled the sergeant's arm.
Shapovalenko instantaneously became stiff and erect, and raised his hand
to his cap. In his eyes, which at once resumed their ordinary lifeless
expression, and on his lips there gleamed a faint mocking smile.
"I will obey, your Honour, but permit me to report that that fellow is
utterly impossible."
Khliabnikov took his place once more in the ranks. He looked lazily out
of the corner of his eyes at the young officer, and stroked his nose
with the back of his hand. Romashov turned his back on him and went off,
meditating painfully over this fruitless pity, to inspect the 3rd
platoon.
After the gymnastics the soldiers had ten minutes' rest. The officers
forgathered at the bars, almost in the middle of the exercise-ground.
Their conversation turned on the great May parade, which was
approaching.
"Well, it now remains for us to guess where the shoe pinches," began
Sliva, as he swung his arms, and opened wide his watery blue eyes, "for
I'll tell you one thing, every General has his special little hobby. I
remember we once had a Lieutenant-General Lvovich for the commander of
our corps. He came to us direct from the Engineers. The natural
consequence was we never did anything except dig and root up earth.
Drill, marching, and keeping time--all such were thrown on the
dust-heap. From morning to night we built cottages and quarters--in
summer, of earth; in winter, of snow. The whole regiment looked like a
collection of clodhoppers, dirty beyond recognition. Captain Aleinikov,
the commander of the 10th Company--God rest his soul!--became a Knight
of St. Anne, because he had somehow constructed a little redoubt in two
hours."
"That was clever of him," observed Lbov.
"Wait, I have more to remind you of. You remember, Pavel Pavlich,
General Aragonski and his everlasting gunnery instructions?"
"And the story of Pontius Pilate," laughed Viätkin.
"What was that?" asked Romashov.
Captain Sliva made a contemptuous gesture with his hand.
"At that time we did nothing but read Aragonski's 'Instructions in
Shooting.' One day it so happened that one of the men had to pass an
examination in the Creed. When the soldier got to the clause 'suffered
under Pontius Pilatus,' there was a full stop. But the fellow did not
lose his head, but went boldly on with a lot of appropriate excerpts
from Aragonski's 'Instructions in Shooting,' and came out with flying
colours. Ah, you may well believe, those were grand times for idiocy.
Things went so far that the first finger was not allowed to retain its
good old name, but was called the 'trigger finger,' etc., etc."
"Do you remember, Athanasi Kirillich, what cramming and
theorizing--'range,' elevation, etc.--went on from morning to night? If
you gave the soldier a rifle and said to him: 'Look down the barrel.
What do you see there?' you got for an answer: 'I see a tense line which
is the gun's axis,' etc. And what practice in shooting there was in
those days, you remember, Athanasi Kirillich!"
"_Do_ I remember! The shooting in our division was the talk of the whole
country, ah, even the foreign newspapers had stories about it. At the
shooting competitions regiments borrowed 'crack' shots from each other.
Down at the butts stood young officers hidden behind a screen, who
helped the scoring by their revolvers. On another occasion it so
happened that a certain company made more hits in the target than could
be accounted for by the shots fired, whereupon the ensign who was
marking got severely 'called over the coals.'"
"Do you recollect the Schreiberovsky gymnastics in Slesarev's time?"
"Rather! It was like a ballet. Ah, may the devil take all those old
Generals with their hobbies and eccentricities. And yet, gentlemen, all
that sort of thing--all the old-time absurdities, were as nothing
compared with what is done in our days. It might be well said that
discipline has received its quietus. The soldier, if you please, is now
to be treated 'humanely.' He is our 'fellow-creature,' our 'brother';
his 'mind is to be developed,' he is to be taught 'to think,' etc., etc.
What absolute madness! No, he shall have a thrashing, the scoundrel. And
oh, my saintly Suvorov, tell me if a single individual nowadays knows
how a soldier ought to be treated, and what one should teach him.
Nothing but new-fangled arts and rubbish. That invention in regard to
cavalry charges, for instance."
"Yes, one might have something more amusing," Viätkin chimed in.
"There you stand," continued Sliva, "in the middle of the field, like a
decoy-bird, and the Cossacks rush at you in full pelt. Naturally, like a
sensible man, you make room for them in good time. Directly after comes:
'You have bad nerves, Captain; one should not behave in that way in the
army. Be good enough to recollect that,' etc., etc., in the same style."
"The General in command of the K---- Regiment," interrupted Viätkin,
"once had a brilliant idea. He had a company marched to the edge of an
awful cesspool, and then ordered the Captain to order the men to lie
down. The latter hesitated for an instant, but obeyed the command. The
soldiers were chapfallen, gazing at one another in a questioning way.
All thought they had heard incorrectly; but they got their information
right enough. The General thundered away at the poor Captain in the
presence of all. 'What training do you give your company? Miserable lot
of weaklings. Pretty heroes to take into the field. No, you are cravens,
every one of you, and you, Captain, not the least among them. March to
arrest.'"
"That 'takes the cake,'" laughed Lbov.
"And what's the use of it? First one insults the officers in the
presence of the men, and then complaints are made of lack of discipline.
But to give a scamp his deserts is a thing one dare not do. He is, if
you please, a 'human being,' a 'personage'; but in the good old times
there were no 'personages' in the army. Then the cattle got what they
needed, and then there was the Italian Campaign, Sebastopol, and several
other trifles. Well, all the same thing, so far as I am concerned. I'll
do my duty even if it costs me my commission, and as far as my arm
reaches every scoundrel shall get his deserts."
"There's no honour in striking a soldier," exclaimed Romashov, in a
muffled voice. Up to this he had been merely a silent listener. "One
can't hit a man who is not allowed to raise a hand in self-defence. It
is as cowardly as it is cruel."
Captain Sliva bestowed on Romashov an annihilating look, pressed his
underlip against his little grey, bristling moustache, and at length
exclaimed, with an expression of the deepest contempt--
"Wha-at's that?"
Romashov stood as white as a corpse, his pulse beat violently, and a
cold shudder ran through his body.
"I said that such a method of treatment was cruel and cowardly, and
I--retain my opinion," answered Romashov nervously, but without
flinching.
"You don't say so!" twittered Sliva. "Listen to my young cockerel.
Should you, against all likelihood, be another year with the regiment,
you shall be provided with a muzzle. That you may rely on. Thank God, I
know how to deal with such germs of evil. Don't worry yourself about
that."
Romashov fearlessly directed at him a glance of hatred, straight in his
eyes, and said, almost in a whisper--
"If ever I see you maltreat a soldier I will report it at once to the
commander of the regiment."
"What, do you dare?" shrieked Sliva in a threatening voice, but checked
himself instantly. "Enough of this," he went on to say dryly; "you
ensigns are a little too young to teach veterans who have smelt powder,
and who have, for more than a quarter of a century, served their Tsar
without incurring punishment. Officers, return to your respective
posts."
Captain Sliva turned his back sharply on the officers and went away.
"Why do you poke your nose into all that?" asked Viätkin as he took
Romashov by the arm and left the place. "As you know, that old plum[16]
isn't one of the sweetest; besides, you don't know him yet as well as I
do. Be careful what you are about; he is not to be played with, and some
fine day he'll put you in the lock-up in earnest."
"Listen, Pavel Pavlich," cried Romashov, with tears of rage in his
voice. "Do you think views such as Captain Sliva's are worthy of an
officer? And is it not revolting that such old bags of bones should be
suffered to insult their subordinates with impunity? Who can put up with
it in the long run?"
"Well, yes--to a certain extent you are right," replied Viätkin, in a
tone of indifference. The rest of what he thought of saying died away in
a gape, and Romashov continued, in increasing excitement--
"Tell me, what is the use of all this shouting and yelling at the men? I
never could imagine when I became an officer that such barbarism was
tolerated in our time in a Russian regiment. Ah! never shall I forget my
first impressions and experiences here. One incident remains very
clearly graven in my memory. It was the third day after my arrival here.
I was sitting at mess in company with that red-haired libertine,
Artschakovski. I addressed him in conversation as 'lieutenant,' because
he called me 'sub-lieutenant.' Suddenly he began showering insults and
abuse on me. Although we sat at the same table and drank ale together,
he shouted at me: 'In the first place, I am not lieutenant to you, but
_Mr._ Lieutenant, and, secondly, be good enough to stand up when you are
speaking to your superior.' And there I stood in the room, like a
schoolboy under punishment, until Lieutenant-Colonel Liech came and sat
between us. No, no, pray don't say anything, Pavel Pavlich. I am just
sick of all that goes on here."