Maximof employed an agent to do the dirty work of the estate; he rarely
came personally in contact with his people and scarcely knew the names
of any of them. Kakin, the agent, was no better liked by the peasants;
he was a bully, and rarely failed to improve when he could upon the
severity of his master's measures towards them. A week after the events
above recorded Barin and agent sat together in the estate office over
the weekly consultation, when the question of the intended marriage of a
serf came up for discussion, a man of the name of Ivan Patkin.
"He may marry whom he pleases in his own village," said the Count. "Who
is the woman?"
"Timothy Drugof's daughter Olga, in this village," said Kakin; "Ivan of
course lives at Drevno." This was a village within the boundaries of
Maximof's estate, but seven miles at least from the manor-village of
Toxova, in which Olga lived with her father.
"Tell the fool to marry a woman in Drevno or remain a bachelor," said
the Count; "you know very well and so do the peasants that I will have
no intermarrying amongst the villages."
"I will stop the proceedings then. I told the fellow of your objection,
but he was impertinent--I will not tell you what he said."
"You should have given him the knout; do I pay you wages to sit and
listen while my peasants use improper language towards their Barin?"
"I gave him the knout; but he is, as you may know, a sulky devil, and,
instead of doing him good, the flogging caused him to abuse and threaten
me to my face; I was somewhat afraid of the man; he is not one to meet
alone in the forest on a dark night."
"Afraid of a serf? You forget, my friend, that by the admission you may
endanger your position; for if you show yourself useless to me we must
part. My authority must be absolute and you are my representative. As
for this marriage," the Count ended, "I do not desire that Olga should
leave this village--she is useful at the manor-house."
"I will do my best," said the agent. He did not mention that Ivan Patkin
and his friends at Toxova had practically turned him out of the village
with contemptuous words and threats directed not only against himself
but also against the Count; nor that the peasants had interfered at the
very beginning of Ivan's flogging and had rescued him by force.
"Tell the Barin to interfere with Ivan's marriage if he dares!" one of
the peasants had said. "We would deprive him of no rights; we both are
and remain his serfs and live upon his land; he loses nothing if one of
us goes from one village to another!"
The agent's way of "doing his best" in this matter was discreet. Knowing
that the day fixed for Ivan's wedding was the following Saturday at
Drevno, this being Thursday, he contrived to be absent for two days in a
distant part of the estate; so that when a deputation of peasants from
Drevno came over to fetch the bride early on Saturday morning, he was
not in the village to prevent them.
Ninety-nine times out of a hundred the Barin would have been unaware
in such a case of the disobedience of his people; but it so happened
that the girl Olga was required that day at the manor-house in order to
act as substitute for one of the servants, who fell ill. Thus Olga's
absence was remarked and commented upon and Maximof himself happened to
be at hand and heard the fact mentioned.
"Where is the wench then?" he asked.
The woman who had been into the village to fetch Olga replied that the
peasants had told her it was Olga's wedding-day and she had gone to
Drevno to be married.
"What?" roared the outraged Barin; "married?--to whom?"
"To a peasant in that village," replied the trembling messenger, "one
Ivan Patkin."
"Where is Kakin--why has he allowed the wench to go?" asked the Count,
almost speechless with rage. Then he remembered that the agent was away
collecting fines and duties in other villages.
"Let Kiril put the horses to," he roared; "I will go myself."
Some one tremblingly reminded the lord that Kiril was dead.
"Some other fellow then," he roared.
Maximof took his knout, an ugly leathern whip of many tails, and paid
a visit--while waiting for his sledge--to the parents of Olga, who
protested with tears that the agent had never told them of the Barin's
desire that Olga should not be married out of her own village.
"As if we should dare to disobey the Barin's will," they cried. "It is
not even as though we had wished the wench married there; naturally we
would rather keep her in Toxova, near ourselves--but go she would!"
Maximof laid about him freely with his knout; he spared neither age nor
sex, and the cries which arose from the household included those of
Olga's grandparents as well as her parents, and of the children small
and large. All wept and scolded in a body when the Barin had departed,
blaming one another and the agent and the Barin himself, but principally
Olga, for bringing this trouble upon them.
"There is Peter Kuzmin in this village," they cried, "who would have had
her; but no, nothing would do but to marry Ivan Patkin, who is a devil,
not a man! If the Barin fetches her back, she shall marry Peter without
delay. Are we all to suffer again for her sins?"
Meanwhile the village of Drevno was _en fête_. The bride and bridegroom
drove hither and thither, from house to house, receiving congratulations
and presents, and drink flowed freely. The wedding ceremony would take
place early in the afternoon, if the priest condescended to turn up in
time. He was not one to put himself out, however, for a mere marriage
of serfs. Maidens walked about the village singing the dirges and
melancholy songs which are or used to be a recognised prelude to the
marriage of one of their companions. In these songs all the possible
sorrows and troubles of matrimony are reviewed, and the poor bride is
reminded again and again that she is plunging into a bottomless sea of
woe and would have done far better to keep out of the married state.
In some cases the bride accompanies this cheerful band, taking part
with the maidens in foretelling her own troubles by singing the solo
verses, which consist of a repetition of the dismal prophecies with her
own acquiescence thrown in. But Olga preferred to drive around with
Ivan of whom she was extremely fond; for this--strange to say--was a
love-match, a rare thing indeed in those days and among the serfs, whose
marriages were usually arranged for them by their manor-lord with a view
to the particular needs of any portion of his estate in the matter of
population.
Olga was merry this day and happy. She knew very well that there might
be trouble; that the Barin would be displeased and would cause old
Kakin to threaten all manner of pains and penalties. But in Drevno the
peasants were not afraid of Kakin; they knew well enough that he dared
not fulfil his threats, and that he would prefer to report to his master
that certain floggings had been inflicted than actually inflict them.
As for the Barin himself, he rarely came to the village. The people of
Toxova lived, as it were, under his eye; but at Drevno it was different,
and the peasants consequently enjoyed a certain measure of independence,
won for themselves and by themselves out of Kakin, the agent, whom they
had successfully intimidated.
Even the Barin, Olga knew, could not unmarry her, once the church had
performed the rite; neither could he separate husband and wife, though
he might compel Ivan to transfer himself to Toxova.
It was a quarter to two when the Barin came swinging into the village
at a hand-gallop, his three-horsed sledge--or _troika_--travelling at
a splendid pace over the hard snow road. The wedding was to take place
at two and Olga was now being dressed by her maidens at the house of
Ivan's parents. The melancholy songs were in full chant; the bride and
chorus were all, as the occasion demanded, in tears; every girl wailing
and sobbing and singing as they decked their companion for the solemn
rite.
Count Maximof drove straight to the Starost's house; this was the
elected chief-peasant of the village, and the Barin put up his trap
here, leaving with Gavril, the driver, a message for the Starost that if
he were too late and the marriage should have taken place against his
wishes and commands, the entire population should be not only fined but
flogged also.
The Starost sent over for Ivan Patkin, the bridegroom, and communicated
to him the disturbing news: the Barin had arrived to stop the wedding.
The Starost was a sturdy independent man, like the rest of the Drevno
villagers; he was entirely on Ivan's side in the matter.
"But the Barin is the Barin," he observed, "and the priest will obey
him. He has gone straight to Father Michael's. What is to be done?"
Ivan Patkin stood and cursed and fingered the axe which hung at his
belt. He was anxious to marry Olga, to whom he was sincerely attached.
This fatal-looking hitch at the last moment was maddening. His eyes
seemed to grow red in a sudden access of rage and of hatred for the
Barin.
"I will kill the devil," he said. "The old men tell us that the peasants
of the next estate rose against their Barin, who oppressed them, and
slew him, and that the Tsaritsa Catherine closed her eyes. Let us do the
same."
"No," said the Starost; "that is going too far, Ivan. The Tsar Paul is
not like his mother and the laws are different also. Disappear in the
forest with Olga, if you will, and be married to-morrow, or to-night
after the Barin has gone. You will be knouted, no doubt, and fined, but
you will have Olga."
Ivan was too wild with rage to argue quietly. "I see there is no help
to be got from you," he said, and he withdrew hastily to take counsel
with others. On his way through the village he met the Barin himself
returning from his visit to the priest whom he had abused and threatened
and browbeaten until the unfortunate cleric began to fear that the
furious man would end by knouting him, but Maximof dared not raise his
hand to beat the priest, though his fingers itched to flog some one. It
was at this moment that he met Ivan.
Ivan, though furious, nevertheless removed his cap upon encountering
his master. The peasant in him was too strong. Away from the Barin he
would have told himself that he would not only not salute the Count if
he should meet him, but that he would fall upon him and strangle the
tyrant. In the Barin's presence he was cowed and his independence and
courage vanished, though not his hatred.
"Who are you?" said the angry Count.
"Ivan Patkin," replied the man.
Then the Barin fell upon him, raining abuses and curses and knout-blows;
and in a moment the wretched peasant was upon his knees blubbering
and beseeching, rage in his heart, but in his veins the craven blood
distilled by generations of oppression.
"Come to Toxova for a flogging once a month for a year," said the Barin,
panting with his exertions; "and when you come Olga shall come also. I
will show you both, and the rest of the village too, that I am to be
obeyed. As for marrying, you shall marry the oldest hag in your own
village, since you will have a wife."
Count Maximof felt somewhat relieved, but he continued his walk to the
house wherein the bride had been dressed for her marriage. He found her
alone, deserted by her maidens--who had fled from the wrath to come--and
he flogged her without pity and without regard for her shrieks and her
appeals for mercy.
Then, his anger somewhat appeased, he repaired to his estate office and
bade them bring him tea, sending a message to Gavril, the driver, that
he would return as soon as the horses should be sufficiently rested.
Olga might return in his sledge, he added, with fine generosity; she
deserved to be made to walk through the forest night or no night, but he
would let her drive in mercy.