Michael Strogoff; Or, The Courier of the Czar

by Jules Verne

  Before anyone could get out of the carriages, the inspectors of policepresented themselves at the doors and examined the passengers.

  Michael Strogoff showed his podorojna, made out in the name of NicholasKorpanoff. He had consequently no difficulty. As to the other travelersin the compartment, all bound for Nijni-Novgorod, their appearance,happily for them, was in nowise suspicious.

  The young girl in her turn, exhibited, not a passport, since passportsare no longer required in Russia, but a permit indorsed with a privateseal, and which seemed to be of a special character. The inspector readthe permit with attention. Then, having attentively examined the personwhose description it contained:

  "You are from Riga?" he said.

  "Yes," replied the young girl.

  "You are going to Irkutsk?"

  "Yes."

  "By what route?"

  "By Perm."

  "Good!" replied the inspector. "Take care to have your permit vised, atthe police station of Nijni-Novgorod."

  The young girl bent her head in token of assent.

  Hearing these questions and replies, Michael Strogoff experienced amingled sentiment both of surprise and pity. What! this young girl,alone, journeying to that far-off Siberia, and at a time when, to itsordinary dangers, were added all the perils of an invaded country andone in a state of insurrection! How would she reach it? What wouldbecome of her?

  The inspection ended, the doors of the carriages were then opened, but,before Michael Strogoff could move towards her, the young Livonian,who had been the first to descend, had disappeared in the crowd whichthronged the platforms of the railway station.

  CHAPTER V THE TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS

  NIJNI-NOVGOROD, Lower Novgorod, situate at the junction of the Volga andthe Oka, is the chief town in the district of the same name. It was herethat Michael Strogoff was obliged to leave the railway, which at thetime did not go beyond that town. Thus, as he advanced, his travelingwould become first less speedy and then less safe.

  Nijni-Novgorod, the fixed population of which is only from thirty tothirty-five thousand inhabitants, contained at that time more than threehundred thousand; that is to say, the population was increased tenfold.This addition was in consequence of the celebrated fair, which was heldwithin the walls for three weeks. Formerly Makariew had the benefit ofthis concourse of traders, but since 1817 the fair had been removed toNijni-Novgorod.

  Even at the late hour at which Michael Strogoff left the platform, therewas still a large number of people in the two towns, separated by thestream of the Volga, which compose Nijni-Novgorod. The highest ofthese is built on a steep rock, and defended by a fort called in Russia"kreml."

  Michael Strogoff expected some trouble in finding a hotel, or even aninn, to suit him. As he had not to start immediately, for he was goingto take a steamer, he was compelled to look out for some lodging;but, before doing so, he wished to know exactly the hour at which thesteamboat would start. He went to the office of the company whose boatsplied between Nijni-Novgorod and Perm. There, to his great annoyance,he found that no boat started for Perm till the following day at twelveo'clock. Seventeen hours to wait! It was very vexatious to a man sopressed for time. However, he never senselessly murmured. Besides, thefact was that no other conveyance could take him so quickly either toPerm or Kasan. It would be better, then, to wait for the steamer, whichwould enable him to regain lost time.

  Here, then, was Michael Strogoff, strolling through the town andquietly looking out for some inn in which to pass the night. However, hetroubled himself little on this score, and, but that hunger pressedhim, he would probably have wandered on till morning in the streetsof Nijni-Novgorod. He was looking for supper rather than a bed. Buthe found both at the sign of the City of Constantinople. There, thelandlord offered him a fairly comfortable room, with little furniture,it is true, but not without an image of the Virgin, and a few saintsframed in yellow gauze.

  A goose filled with sour stuffing swimming in thick cream, barley bread,some curds, powdered sugar mixed with cinnamon, and a jug of kwass, theordinary Russian beer, were placed before him, and sufficed to satisfyhis hunger. He did justice to the meal, which was more than could besaid of his neighbor at table, who, having, in his character of "oldbeliever" of the sect of Raskalniks, made the vow of abstinence,rejected the potatoes in front of him, and carefully refrained fromputting sugar in his tea.

  His supper finished, Michael Strogoff, instead of going up to hisbedroom, again strolled out into the town. But, although the longtwilight yet lingered, the crowd was already dispersing, the streetswere gradually becoming empty, and at length everyone retired to hisdwelling.

  Why did not Michael Strogoff go quietly to bed, as would have seemedmore reasonable after a long railway journey? Was he thinking of theyoung Livonian girl who had been his traveling companion? Having nothingbetter to do, he WAS thinking of her. Did he fear that, lost in thisbusy city, she might be exposed to insult? He feared so, and withgood reason. Did he hope to meet her, and, if need were, to afford herprotection? No. To meet would be difficult. As to protection--what righthad he--

  "Alone," he said to himself, "alone, in the midst of these wanderingtribes! And yet the present dangers are nothing compared to those shemust undergo. Siberia! Irkutsk! I am about to dare all risks for Russia,for the Czar, while she is about to do so--For whom? For what? She isauthorized to cross the frontier! The country beyond is in revolt! Thesteppes are full of Tartar bands!"

  Michael Strogoff stopped for an instant, and reflected.

  "Without doubt," thought he, "she must have determined on undertakingher journey before the invasion. Perhaps she is even now ignorant ofwhat is happening. But no, that cannot be; the merchants discussedbefore her the disturbances in Siberia--and she did not seem surprised.She did not even ask an explanation. She must have known it then, andknowing it, is still resolute. Poor girl! Her motive for the journeymust be urgent indeed! But though she may be brave--and she certainlyis so--her strength must fail her, and, to say nothing of dangers andobstacles, she will be unable to endure the fatigue of such a journey.Never can she reach Irkutsk!"

  Indulging in such reflections, Michael Strogoff wandered on as chanceled him; being well acquainted with the town, he knew that he couldeasily retrace his steps.

  Having strolled on for about an hour, he seated himself on a benchagainst the wall of a large wooden cottage, which stood, with manyothers, on a vast open space. He had scarcely been there five minuteswhen a hand was laid heavily on his shoulder.

  "What are you doing here?" roughly demanded a tall and powerful man, whohad approached unperceived.

  "I am resting," replied Michael Strogoff.

  "Do you mean to stay all night on the bench?"

  "Yes, if I feel inclined to do so," answered Michael Strogoff, in a tonesomewhat too sharp for the simple merchant he wished to personate.

  "Come forward, then, so I can see you," said the man.

  Michael Strogoff, remembering that, above all, prudence was requisite,instinctively drew back. "It is not necessary," he replied, and calmlystepped back ten paces.

  The man seemed, as Michael observed him well, to have the look ofa Bohemian, such as are met at fairs, and with whom contact, eitherphysical or moral, is unpleasant. Then, as he looked more attentivelythrough the dusk, he perceived, near the cottage, a large caravan, theusual traveling dwelling of the Zingaris or gypsies, who swarm in Russiawherever a few copecks can be obtained.

  As the gypsy took two or three steps forward, and was about tointerrogate Michael Strogoff more closely, the door of the cottageopened. He could just see a woman, who spoke quickly in a language whichMichael Strogoff knew to be a mixture of Mongol and Siberian.

  "Another spy! Let him alone, and come to supper. The papluka is waitingfor you."

  Michael Strogoff could not help smiling at the epithet bestowed on him,dreading spies as he did above all else.

  In the same dialect, although his accent was very different, theBohemian replied
in words which signify, "You are right, Sangarre!Besides, we start to-morrow."

  "To-morrow?" repeated the woman in surprise.

  "Yes, Sangarre," replied the Bohemian; "to-morrow, and the Fatherhimself sends us--where we are going!"

  Thereupon the man and woman entered the cottage, and carefully closedthe door.

  "Good!" said Michael Strogoff, to himself; "if these gipsies do not wishto be understood when they speak before me, they had better use someother language."

  From his Siberian origin, and because he had passed his childhood in theSteppes, Michael Strogoff, it has been said, understood almost allthe languages in usage from Tartary to the Sea of Ice. As to the exactsignification of the words he had heard, he did not trouble his head.For why should it interest him?

  It was already late when he thought of returning to his inn to take somerepose. He followed, as he did so, the course of the Volga, whose waterswere almost hidden under the countless number of boats floating on itsbosom.

  An hour after, Michael Strogoff was sleeping soundly on one of thoseRussian beds which always seem so hard to strangers, and on the morrow,the 17th of July, he awoke at break of day.

  He had still five hours to pass in Nijni-Novgorod; it seemed to him anage. How was he to spend the morning unless in wandering, as he had donethe evening before, through the streets? By the time he had finishedhis breakfast, strapped up his bag, had his podorojna inspected at thepolice office, he would have nothing to do but start. But he was not aman to lie in bed after the sun had risen; so he rose, dressed himself,placed the letter with the imperial arms on it carefully at the bottomof its usual pocket within the lining of his coat, over which hefastened his belt; he then closed his bag and threw it over hisshoulder. This done, he had no wish to return to the City ofConstantinople, and intending to breakfast on the bank of the Volga nearthe wharf, he settled his bill and left the inn. By way of precaution,Michael Strogoff went first to the office of the steam-packet company,and there made sure that the Caucasus would start at the appointed hour.As he did so, the thought for the first time struck him that, since theyoung Livonian girl was going to Perm, it was very possible that herintention was also to embark in the Caucasus, in which case he shouldaccompany her.

  The town above with its kremlin, whose circumference measures twoversts, and which resembles that of Moscow, was altogether abandoned.Even the governor did not reside there. But if the town above was like acity of the dead, the town below, at all events, was alive.

  Michael Strogoff, having crossed the Volga on a bridge of boats, guardedby mounted Cossacks, reached the square where the evening before he hadfallen in with the gipsy camp. This was somewhat outside the town, wherethe fair of Nijni-Novgorod was held. In a vast plain rose the temporarypalace of the governor-general, where by imperial orders that greatfunctionary resided during the whole of the fair, which, thanks to thepeople who composed it, required an ever-watchful surveillance.

  This plain was now covered with booths symmetrically arranged in sucha manner as to leave avenues broad enough to allow the crowd to passwithout a crush.

  Each group of these booths, of all sizes and shapes, formed a separatequarter particularly dedicated to some special branch of commerce. Therewas the iron quarter, the furriers' quarter, the woolen quarter, thequarter of the wood merchants, the weavers' quarter, the dried fishquarter, etc. Some booths were even built of fancy materials, some ofbricks of tea, others of masses of salt meat--that is to say, ofsamples of the goods which the owners thus announced were there to thepurchasers--a singular, and somewhat American, mode of advertisement.

  In the avenues and long alleys there was already a large assemblage ofpeople--the sun, which had risen at four o'clock, being well above thehorizon--an extraordinary mixture of Europeans and Asiatics, talking,wrangling, haranguing, and bargaining. Everything which can be boughtor sold seemed to be heaped up in this square. Furs, precious stones,silks, Cashmere shawls, Turkey carpets, weapons from the Caucasus,gauzes from Smyrna and Ispahan. Tiflis armor, caravan teas. Europeanbronzes, Swiss clocks, velvets and silks from Lyons, English cottons,harness, fruits, vegetables, minerals from the Ural, malachite,lapis-lazuli, spices, perfumes, medicinal herbs, wood, tar, rope, horn,pumpkins, water-melons, etc--all the products of India, China, Persia,from the shores of the Caspian and the Black Sea, from America andEurope, were united at this corner of the globe.

  It is scarcely possible truly to portray the moving mass of human beingssurging here and there, the excitement, the confusion, the hubbub;demonstrative as were the natives and the inferior classes, they werecompletely outdone by their visitors. There were merchants from CentralAsia, who had occupied a year in escorting their merchandise across itsvast plains, and who would not again see their shops and counting-housesfor another year to come. In short, of such importance is this fair ofNijni-Novgorod, that the sum total of its transactions amounts yearly tonearly a hundred million dollars.

  On one of the open spaces between the quarters of this temporary citywere numbers of mountebanks of every description; gypsies from themountains, telling fortunes to the credulous fools who are ever tobe found in such assemblies; Zingaris or Tsiganes--a name which theRussians give to the gypsies who are the descendants of the ancientCopts--singing their wildest melodies and dancing their most originaldances; comedians of foreign theaters, acting Shakespeare, adapted tothe taste of spectators who crowded to witness them. In the long avenuesthe bear showmen accompanied their four-footed dancers, menageriesresounded with the hoarse cries of animals under the influence of thestinging whip or red-hot irons of the tamer; and, besides all thesenumberless performers, in the middle of the central square, surroundedby a circle four deep of enthusiastic amateurs, was a band of "marinersof the Volga," sitting on the ground, as on the deck of their vessel,imitating the action of rowing, guided by the stick of the master of theorchestra, the veritable helmsman of this imaginary vessel! A whimsicaland pleasing custom!

  Suddenly, according to a time-honored observance in the fair ofNijni-Novgorod, above the heads of the vast concourse a flock of birdswas allowed to escape from the cages in which they had been brought tothe spot. In return for a few copecks charitably offered by some goodpeople, the bird-fanciers opened the prison doors of their captives, whoflew out in hundreds, uttering their joyous notes.

  It should be mentioned that England and France, at all events, were thisyear represented at the great fair of Nijni-Novgorod by two of the mostdistinguished products of modern civilization, Messrs. Harry Blountand Alcide Jolivet. Jolivet, an optimist by nature, found everythingagreeable, and as by chance both lodging and food were to his taste,he jotted down in his book some memoranda particularly favorable to thetown of Nijni-Novgorod. Blount, on the contrary, having in vain huntedfor a supper, had been obliged to find a resting-place in the openair. He therefore looked at it all from another point of view, and waspreparing an article of the most withering character against a town inwhich the landlords of the inns refused to receive travelers who onlybegged leave to be flayed, "morally and physically."

  Michael Strogoff, one hand in his pocket, the other holding hischerry-stemmed pipe, appeared the most indifferent and least impatientof men; yet, from a certain contraction of his eyebrows every now andthen, a careful observer would have seen that he was burning to be off.

  For two hours he kept walking about the streets, only to find himselfinvariably at the fair again. As he passed among the groups of buyersand sellers he discovered that those who came from countries on theconfines of Asia manifested great uneasiness. Their trade was visiblysuffering. Another symptom also was marked. In Russia military uniformsappear on every occasion. Soldiers are wont to mix freely with thecrowd, the police agents being almost invariably aided by a numberof Cossacks, who, lance on shoulder, keep order in the crowd of threehundred thousand strangers. But on this occasion the soldiers, Cossacksand the rest, did not put in an appearance at the great market.Doubtless, a sudden order to move having been foreseen, they wereres
tricted to their barracks.

  Moreover, while no soldiers were to be seen, it was not so with theirofficers. Since the evening before, aides-decamp, leaving the governor'spalace, galloped in every direction. An unusual movement was goingforward which a serious state of affairs could alone account for. Therewere innumerable couriers on the roads both to Wladimir and to theUral Mountains. The exchange of telegraphic dispatches with Moscow wasincessant.

  Michael Strogoff found himself in the central square when the reportspread that the head of police had been summoned by a courier to thepalace of the governor-general. An important dispatch from Moscow, itwas said, was the cause of it.

  "The fair is to be closed," said one.

  "The regiment of Nijni-Novgorod has received the route," declaredanother.

  "They say that the Tartars menace Tomsk!"

  "Here is the head of police!" was shouted on every side. A loud clappingof hands was suddenly raised, which subsided by degrees, and finally wassucceeded by absolute silence. The head of police arrived in the middleof the central square, and it was seen by all that he held in his hand adispatch.

  Then, in a loud voice, he read the following announcements: "By order ofthe Governor of Nijni-Novgorod.

  "1st. All Russian subjects are forbidden to quit the province upon anypretext whatsoever.

  "2nd. All strangers of Asiatic origin are commanded to leave theprovince within twenty-four hours."