XI

When the whole performance was over the robe of the Duchess de Bourblanc was taken off and the dress of St. Cecilia was put on me. This was a simple white gown without sleeves, fastened only with little bows on the shoulders; we could not bear this costume. Well, and then Arkadie came to dress my hair in an innocent fashion, with a thin chaplet surrounding the head, as St. Cecilia is portrayed in pictures, and he saw six men standing outside the door of my closet. This meant, that as soon as he had made me up and returned to the door, he would be seized and taken to be tortured. And the tortures in store for us were such, that it was a hundred times better to be condemned to death. There was the strappado and the cord; the head-vices and the thumbscrews; all these and many more. The state punishments were as nothing compared to them. Under the whole of the house there were secret cellars in which living men were kept chained up like bears. When you had to pass near them it sometimes happened that you heard the sounds of chains and the groans of men in fetters. They probably desired that news of their condition should reach the world, or that the authorities should take their part – but the authorities did not even dare to think of intervening. People were made to suffer long in those cellars; some all their lives. One lay there very long and composed some lines:

“Serpents will crawl on you and suck out your eyes, Scorpions will shed poison over your face.”

This verse he would repeat to himself until he had made himself quite terrified.

Others were chained up together with bears in such a way that the man was only one inch out of reach of the bear’s claws.

But nothing of this happened to Arkadie Il’ich, because when he rushed back into my closet he seized a table and in a moment had shattered the window – more than this I cannot remember…

When I began to regain my senses, my feet were icy cold. I moved my legs and found that I was wrapped up in a large bear or wolf skin, and around me was complete darkness. The fast horses of the troika whisked along I knew not whither. Two men were alongside of me, we were all three huddled together in the broad sledge in which we were sitting – one was holding me – that was Arkadie Il’ich, the other was the driver, who hurried the horses on with all his might. The snow flew in clouds from under the horses’ hoofs, while the sledge bent over first on one side, and then on the other. If we had not been sitting in the bottom of the sledge holding on with our hands, it would have been impossible to survive.

I heard their anxious talk, as if they expected something. I could only understand:

“They’re coming! they’re coming! Hurry up! hurry up!” and nothing more.

As soon as Arkadie Il’ich noticed I was conscious he bent over me and said:

“Lyuboshka, my little dove, they are chasing us; are you willing to die, if we cannot get away?”

I answered that I would consent with joy.

He had hoped to reach the Turkish village, Khrushchuk, where many of our people had taken refuge from the Count.

Suddenly we sped across the ice of a river, and then something like a dwelling appeared dimly before us, and dogs began to bark. The driver whipped up his horses, and turned the sledge sharply to one side, so that it tilted over and Arkadie and I were thrown out into the snow, while the driver, the sledge and the horses disappeared from our sight.

“Don’t be afraid,” Arkadie said, “this might have been expected, because the Yamshchik who drove us does not know me, and I do not know him. He agreed to help me carry you off for three gold pieces, but on condition of saving his own skin. Now we are in the hands of God. This is the village of Sukhaya Orlitsa – a bold priest lives here, who marries desperate couples and has buried many of our people. We will make him a present and he will hide us until evening, and marry us too, and in the evening the yamshchik will come for us and we shall steal away.”

XII

We knocked at the door and went into the passage. The priest himself opened the door. He was old, of small stature, and had one front tooth missing. His wife, a little old woman, began to blow up the fire. We both fell at his feet.

“Save us, let us warm ourselves, and hide us until evening.”

The Reverend Father asked:

“Who are you, my dear children? Have you booty, or are you only fugitives?”

“We have taken nothing from anybody,” answered Arkadie, we are fleeing from the brutality of Count Kamensky, and want to go to the Turkish village, Khrushchuk, where many of our people are already living. They will not find us there. We have got our own money, and we will give you a piece of gold for one night’s lodging, and if you marry us three pieces of gold. Marry us if you can; if not we can be wedded in Khrushchuk.”

“No, no, why can’t I marry you?” said the priest? I can do so? What is the good of being married in Khrushchuk? Give me five pieces of gold altogether – I will marry you here.”

Arkadie handed him five gold pieces, and I took the “aquamarine ear-rings” out of my ears and gave them to the priest’s wife.

The priest took the gold and said:

“Oh, my dear children, it would be easy. I have bound together all sorts of people, but it is not well that you are the Count’s. Though I am a priest, still I fear his brutality. Well, never mind him, what God ordains, will be! Add another piece, or half a one, and hide yourselves.”

Arkadie gave him a sixth gold piece, and then he said to his wife:

“Why are you standing there, old woman? Give the fugitive a petticoat and some sort of jacket; one is ashamed to look at her, she is almost naked.” Then he wanted to take us to the church and hide us in the trunk among the vestments. The priest’s wife took me behind the partition, and was just about to clothe me, when we heard a jingling outside the door and somebody knocked.

XIII

Our hearts sank within us, and the Reverend Father whispered to Arkadie:

“It is evident, my dear child, you are not to be hidden in the trunk with the vestments. Get quickly under the feather-bed.”

And he said to me:

“You, my dear child, get in here,” saying which he locked me up in the clock-case, put the key in his pocket and then went to open the door to the new arrivals. One could hear that there were many people outside. Some stood at the door, and two men were already looking in at the windows.

Seven men entered the room, all beaters from the Count’s hunt, with their iron balls and straps, long whips in their hands and rope leashes in their girdles. The eighth who followed them was the Count’s steward, in a long wolfskin coat and high fur cap.

The clock-case I was hidden in had a grating in front with a thin old muslin curtain behind it, through which I was able to see all that was going on in the room.

The old priest lost courage, perhaps, because he thought it a bad case. He trembled at sight of the steward, crossed himself and cried hastily:

“Ah, my dear children. Oh, my dear children, I know; I know what you are looking for, but I am inno way in fault towards the most serene Count, indeed I’m not in fault, in truth I’m not in fault!”

And each time he crossed himself, he pointed with his finger over his left shoulder at the clock-case in which I was hidden.

“All is lost,” I thought, when I saw this extraordinary behaviour.

The stewart noticed this too, and said:

“We know everything. Give me the key of this clock-case.”

But the priest only crossed himself all the more.

“Indeed, my children, truly, my dear children. Pardon me, do not punish me! I have forgotten where I put the key. Verily, I have forgotten; in truth I have forgotten!”

And all the time with the other hand he stroked his pocket.

The steward too saw his incredible action, and took the key from the pocket and opened the clock-case.

“Crawl out, my pretty falcon – now I have caught you, your mate will soon appear.”

Indeed, Arkadie had already shown himself; he had thrown off the priest’s feather-bed and stood before us.

“Yes, there is nothing more to be done,” said he. “You have won; you can take me to the torture, but she is in no way to blame. I carried her off by force.”

Then he turned to the priest, and all he did was to spit in his face.

“My dear children,” said the priest, “do you see how my sacred office and faithfulness are outraged? Report this to the most serene Count.”

The steward answered him:

“Never mind, you need not fear, he will have to answer for all this.” And then he ordered Arkadie and me to be led away.

We were all placed in three sledges: in the first Arkadie, with arms and legs bound fast, was seated with the huntsmen, and I with a similar guard was driven off in the last sledge while the rest of the party were in the middle one.

All the people we met made way for us; perhaps they thought it was a wedding.

XIV

We soon arrived, and when we entered the Count’s yard I lost sight of the sledge in which Arkadie had been brought. I was taken to my former room, and questioned by one after another:

“How long had I been alone with Arkadie?”

I told every one:

“Oh, not at all!”

Then I did not escape the fate for which I had probably been destined from my birth; not with love, but with aversion, and when I came to afterwards, in my little room, and buried my head in the pillow, to weep over my misfortune, I suddenly heard terrible groans under the floor.

We girls lived in the second story of a wooden building, and below there was a large lofty room, where we learned to sing and dance. From thence every sound could be heard in our rooms. The hellish King Satan had suggested the cruel idea that they should torture Arkadie under my room.

When I realized they were torturing him, I rushed to the door to go to him, but the door was locked… I don’t know what I wanted to do… I fell down… on the floor the sounds were still more distinct… there was neither a knife nor a nail at hand… there was nothing with which to end it… I took my own plait, wound it round my neck – wound it round… tighter and tighter, till I only heard ringing in my ears and saw circles before my eyes, then everything ceased… When I came to myself again I felt I was in a strange place in a large light hut. There were many calves round me – more than ten – such caressing little calves; they came up and licked me with their cool tongues – they thought they were sucking their mother – I awoke because they tickled. I looked round and thought, “Where am I?” Then I saw a woman come into the room, a tall, elderly woman dressed in striped blue linen with a striped linen kerchief on her head. She had a kind face.

The woman noticed I had come to my senses and began caressing me and told me I was still on the Count’s estate, but in the calves’ house.

“It was there,” explained Lyubov Onisimovna, pointing with her hand to the very furthest corner of the grey half-ruined fence.