" Tell me, nurse, how have you become so well acquainted with the intentions and movements of our lord the Prince ? "
" I learned it from Fedor. Oh, my son knows many other things besides. He is now a man — he is twenty-one years old, just a year older than you, my pretty lady. I would say, if I dare, for he is so handsome — I would say you are like each other."
" Hold thy tongue ! old doter ; how should my daughter resemble thy son ? "
" They have sucked the same milk, and even — but, no — when you are no longer our master I will tell you what I think of them."
" When I am no longer your master!" г 4
104THE HISTORY OF THELENEF.
" Certainly. My son has seen the Father" " The Emperor?"
" Yes; and the Emperor himself has sent us word that we are 2;0m¤; to be made free. It is his will; and if it depended only on him it would be done."
Thelencf shrugged his shoulders, and asked —
" How has Fedor been able to speak to the Emperor ? "
" How ? He was one of those who were sent by all
the people of the district and of the neighbouring vil
lages, to go and ask our Father"here Mother
Pacome suddenly stopped short. "To ask what?"
The old woman, who began, a little too late, to perceive her indiscretion, took refuge in obstinate silence, notwithstanding the hasty questions of the steward. This abrupt silence had something about it that was unusual, and at the same time significative.
" Once for all, what is it that you are plotting here against us ?" cried the furious Thelencf, seizing the old woman by her shoulders.
"It is easy to guess," said Xenie, advancing between her father and her nurse. " You know that
the Emperor bought, last year, the domain of,
which adjoins ours. Since then our peasants dream of nothing but the happiness of belonging to the crown. They envy their neighbours, whose condition, as they believe, has become much improved, though, before, it was similar to theirs. Do not you remember that many of the old men of our district have, under various pretexts, asked your permission to travel. I was told, after their departure, that they had been chosen as deputies by the other serfs to go and entreat the .Emperor to purchase them, as he had
THE HISTORY ОГ THELENEF.105
done their neighbours. Various of the surrounding districts united with Vologda to present a similar request to his majesty. They say that they offered him all the money necessary to buy the domain of the Prince — both the men and the land."
ÍC It is all true," said the old woman ; " and my son, Fedor, who met them at Petersburg, went with them to speak to our Father; they all came back together yesterday."
" If I did not tell you of this attempt," said Xenie, looking at her amazed father, " it was because I knew that it would end in nothing."
" You have deceived yourself, if they have seen the Father."
" The Father himself could not do what they wished; he cannot buy all Russia."
Cí Do you perceive their cunning !" continued The-lenef. " The knaves are rich enough to offer large presents to the Emperor, and yet, with us, they are beggars. They are not ashamed to say that we spoil them of every thing; whereas, if we had more sense and less mildness, we should strip them even to the very girdle with which they would strangle us."
" You will not have the time to do that, Mister Steward," said, in a very low and gentle voice, a young-man who had approached xmperceived, and who stood with his hat in his hand, before a bush of osiers, from the midst of which he seemed to come as if by enchantment. " Ah ! is it you, you villain ? " cried Thelenef.
"Fedor, you say nothing to your foster-sister," interrupted Xenie, " you had so often promised not to forget me. I have kept my word better than you, F 5
106THE HISTORY OF THELENEF.
for I have not omitted a single day to mention your name in my prayer there, in that chapel, before the image of St. Wladimir, which reminded me of your departure. Do you remember it ? It was there that you bade me adieu, now nearly a year ago."
In concluding these words, she cast on her brother a look of tenderness and reproach, the mingled softness and severity of which made a great impression.
" I forget you ! " cried the young man, lifting his eyes to heaven. Xenie was silent, awed by the religious, yet somewhat fierce expression of an eye that was generally east down.
Xenie was one of those beaiities of the north that are never seen in other lands. Scarcely did she appear to belong to earth. The purity of her features, which reminded one of the pictures of .Raphael, might have appeared cold had not a most delicate expression of sensibility softly shadowed her countenance, which, as yet, no passion had ever ruffled. At the age of twenty, which she had attained that very day, she was ignorant of all that agitates the heart. She was tall, and her slender form displayed unusual grace, although the habitual quiet of her movements concealed its natural pliancy. Her languor possessed a charm which belongs only to the women of her country, who are rather lovely than pretty, and perfectly lovely when they are so at all, which, however, they rarely are among the inferior classes, for, in Russia, there is aristocracy in beauty : the peasants are, in general, much less gifted by nature than the great ladies. Xenie had the beauty of a queen and the freshness of a village maiden. Her hair was parted in bands on a high and ivory
THE HISTORY OF THELENEF.107
forehead; her blue eyes, fringed with long black lashes, which cast a shadow on her fresh yet scarcely coloured cheeks, were transparent as a fountain of limpid water; her eyebrows, perfectly, though delicately pencilled, were of a darker shade than her hair ; her mouth, of the usual size, displayed teeth so white as to irradiate the whole countenance: her rosy lips were bright with the bloom of innocence : her face, though rather round, possessed much nobleness, and her expression embodied a delicacy of sentiment and a religious tenderness, with the charm of which it was, at the first glance, impossible not to sympathise. She needed only the silver glory to form one of the most lovely of those Byzantine madonnas, with which it is not permitted to adorn the churches.*
Her foster-brother was one of the handsomest men of a part of the empire renowned for the tall and elegant forms, the healthful appearance, and the carelessly graceful air of its inhabitants. The serfs of this portion of the empire are, unquestionably, the men who least need pity in Russia.
The elegant costume of the peasants became him admirably. His light hair, gracefully parted, fell in silky ringlets on either side of the face, the form of which was a perfect oval. His large and powerful neck remained bare, owing to the locks being cut oft'
* The use of images is always forbidden to a certain point in the Greek church, in which, the true believers admit only those of a particular conventional style, covered with various gold and silver ornaments, under which the merit of the woik is entirely lost. — Note by the Author of the Travels.
108THE HISTORY OF THELENEF.
close behind; whilst a band, in the form of a diadem, was fastened across the white forehead of the young labourer, keeping his hair close and smooth on the crown of his head, which shone, in the sun, like a Christ of Guido.
He wore a species of shirt of finely-striped coloured stuíf, cut close to the neck, with an opening at the side, only just large enough for the head to pass through, and which was fastened by two buttons, between the shoulder and collar-bone. This garb of the Russian peasant, which reminds one of the Greek tunic, falls outside the pantaloon, and conceals it above the knee. It wTould somewhat resemble the French blouse, if it were not so infinitely more graceful, both as regards the manner in which it is cut, and the unstudied taste with which it is worn. Fedor possessed a naturally-elegant figure, his movements were easy, his head, finely placed on shoulders modelled like those of ancient statues, would have naturally assumed the most noble bearing, but the young man held it almost always sunk upon his breast. A secret mental dejection was painted on his beautiful countena
nce. With a Grecian profile, eyes of a bright blue, but sparkling with youth and natural intelligence, a curled and haughty mouth (like those seen on ancient medals) surmounted with a small brightly-golden moustache; with a youth-fid beard of the same colour, short curled, silky, and already thick, though scarcely changed from the down of boyhood ; with the muscular power of the gladiator combined with the agility of the Spanish matador and the fair complexion of the north — with all these and every other external endowment that could render a man proud and self-confident, Fedor, humbled by an
THE HISTORY OF THELENEF.109
education superior to the rank he occupied in his country, and perhaps also by the instinct of his natural dignity, which contrasted with his abject condition, maintained almost always the posture of a condemned man, about to receive sentence.
He had adopted tins doleful attitude when nineteen years old, on the day that he underwent the punishment commanded by Thelenef, under the pretext that the young man—the foster-brother of his daughter, and hitherto his favourite, his spoiled child, had neglected to obey I know not what unimportant order. The real and serious motive for the barbarity, which was not the effect of a simple caprice, will be seen hereafter. Xenie imagined she had guessed the nature of the fault which had become so fatal to her brother. She imagined that Fedor was in love with Catharine, a young and handsome peasant girl who lived in the neighbourhood; and, as soon as the unfortunate young man had been cured of his wounds, which was not until after some weeks, for the punishment had been cruelly severe, she busied herself with repairing the evil, so far as lay in her power. She thought that the only means to achieve this would be to marry him to the young girl with whom she believed him smitten. No sooner had the project been announced by Xenie, than the hatred of Thelenef appeared to diminish. The marriage was brought about and celebrated in all haste, to the great satisfaction of Xenie, who believed that Fedor would lose in the happiness of the heart, his feelings of profound grief and resentment. She deceived herself; nothing could console her brother. She alone was aware of the bitter sense of shame with which he was overwhelmed;
110THE HISTORY OF THELENEF.
she was his confidant, although he had confided nothing to her, for he never once complained. Indeed, the treatment of which he had been the victim was a matter of such ordinary occurrence, that no one attached any importance to it: except himself and Xenie no one thought any thing about it.
He avoided, with an admirable instinct of pride, every tiling that could remind him of the degradation he had suffered; but he fled, involuntarily and with a shudder, whenever any of his comrades were about to be beaten; and he grew pale at the sight of a reed or a wand in a man's hand.
It should be repeated that he had commenced life too happily. Favoured by the steward, and, therefore, indulgently treated by all his superiors, envied by his comrades ; talked of as the most fortunate, as well as the most handsome among the men born
on the estate of Prince; idolised by his mother,
ennobled in his own estimation by the delicate and ingenuous friendship of the lovely Xenie, an angel who called him her brother, he had not been duly prepared for the hardships of his lot; and in one day he discovered all his misery. Thenceforward he viewed the obligations of his condition as unjust: lowered in the eyes of men, and yet more in his own, from the most happy he became in a moment the most wretched of beings. What should console him for so much happiness vanished for ever under the rod of the Russian lictor! Affection for a wife ! — could that restore the peace of this haughty slave ? — No ! his past happiness pursued him everywhere, and rendered Iris sense of shame the more insupportable. His sister Xenie believed she should render him again
THE HISTORY OF THELENEF.Ill
happy by procuring his marriage: he obeyed, but this compliance only served to increase his wretchedness; for the man who seeks to become virtuous by taking upon himself additional duties, does but lay open new sources of i·emorse.
The unhappy Fedor felt when it was too late, that, notwithstanding her friendship, Xenie had done nothing for him. Unable to bear life in the scenes that had witnessed his degradation, he abandoned his native village, his wife, and his guardian angel.
His wife felt herself humbled, but from another cause. A wife blushes for shame when her husband is not happy. Under this feeling she forebore telling him that she was enceinte. She did not wish to employ such a means for retaining near her, a husband to whose happiness she could not minister,
At length, after a year's absence, he returned. He
again beheld his mother and his wife, and found also
an infant in the cradle, a little angel who resembled
him, but who could not cure the sorrow which preyed
upon his heart. He remained motionless and silent
even before his sister Xenie, whom now he only
dared to call mademoiselle. **
Their noble forms, which, according to the saying of the nurse, had, as well as their characters, some traits of resemblance, shone in the morning sun among the scattered groups of animals, of whom they schemed the sovereigns. One might have imagined the picture, an Adam and Eve, painted by Albert Durer. Xenie was calm, though joyful; but the countenance of the young man betrayed violent emotions, ill-disguised under an affected impassibility.
Xenie, in spite „of her unerring womanly instinct,
112THE HISTORY OF THELENEF.
was deceived this time by the silence of Fedor. She attributed the chagrin of her brother to painful recollections, and fancied that the sight of the scenes where he had suffered, tended to revive his grief; but she still depended on love and fricndslñp to complete the cure of his wound.
On parting with her brother she promised often to come and see him in the cabin of her nurse.
Nevertheless, the last look of Fedor terrified the young maiden; there was something more than grief in this glance; there was the expression of a ferocious joy, blended with some unaccountable solicitude. A fear crossed her mind that he had become mad.
Madness had always inspired her with a terror which appeared to her supernatural, and as she attributed this fear to a presentiment, her superstition augmented her inquietude. When fears assume the shape of prophetic intimations, their influence becomes * indomitable, a vague and fugitive presentiment takes the aspect of an impending destiny, and imagination, thus acted upon, creates what it fears, and by its influence upon intermediate events, realises its own clrimeras.
Several days passed on, during which Thelenef frequently absented himself. Xenie, entirely absorbed in the grief which was caused by the incurable melancholy of Fedor, thought only of him, and saw only her nurse.
One evening, she was sitting reading in the castle, which her father had left in the morning, saying that she was not to expect his return before the morrow : Xenie was accustomed to these journeyings ; for the extent of the domains which her father superintended
THE HISTORY OF THELENEF.113
often obliged him to be absent for a considerable
о
time. While thus alone, the nurse of the young girl suddenly appeared before her.
" What can you want with me so late ? " asked Xenie.
" Come and take your tea with us ; I have made it ready for you," replied the nurse.*
" I am not accustomed to go out at such an hour."
" You must, however, to-day. Come, what should you fear with me ? "
Xenie, accustomed to the taciturnity of the Russian peasants, imagined that her nurse had prepared some surprise for her. She therefore rose and followed the old woman.
The village was deserted. At first Xenie believed that it only slept. The night was perfectly calm, and not dark: not a breath of wind disturbed the willows of the marsh, nor bent the long grass of the meadows; not a cloud veiled the stars of heaven. Neither the distant barking of the dog, nor the bleating of the sheep was to be heard; the cattle had ceased to low in the stall; the herdsman was no longer hea
rd to chaunt his melancholy song, similar to the low trill which precedes the cadence of the nightingale; a silence more profound than the usual silence of the night, brooded over the plain, and weighed upon the heart of Xenie, who began to experience indefinable
* The poorest Russians possess a teapot and a copper kettle,
and drink tea morning and evening in log huts, whose crevices
are stuffed with moss, and whose extremely rude appearance
contrasts strangely with the elegance and delicacy of the
beverage ou which they regale. — Note of the Author of the
Travels.i уv
114THE HISTORY OF THELENEF.
sensations of terror, though she did not dare to hazard a question. Has the angel of death passed over Vologda ? Sueh was the silent thought of the trembling girl.
Suddenly a blaze of light appeared on the horizon.
" What is that ? " cried Xenie, struck with terror.
" I eannot tell," replied the nurse, " it is perhaps the last beams of day."
"No," replied Xenie, "it is a burning village!"
" A eastle," responded Elizabeth, in a hollow voice; " it is the nobles' turn полу."
" What do you mean ? " cried Xenie, seizing in her terror, her nurse's arm, " are the dreadful predictions of my father going to be fulfilled ? "
" Let us make haste; I have to conduct you further than our cabin."
" Where are you going to take me ? "
" To a place of safety ; there is no longer one for you in Vologda."
" But my father ! — what has become of him ? I have nothing to fear for myself; but where is my father ? "
" He is saved."
" Saved ! From what danger ? By whom ? What is it that you know ? You are trying to soothe me to make me comply with your wishes ! "
Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia Page 40
