I insisted that Louise should take a few hours’ rest of which she stood in great need as she had hardly recovered from her illness and the accompanying strain. Though the town is very quaint we did not stop long enough to examine it, and at eight o’clock in the morning we set out again at the same speed, so on the evening of the same day we got to Kosmodemiansk. As far as this point everything had gone like clockwork and there was nothing to show that we were on the road to Siberia. The villages were rich and all possessed several churches; the peasants seemed happy, their houses would be called mansions in other provinces, and in every house, and all were marvellously clean, we found to our astonishment a bath room and a handsome tray on which to serve tea. We were welcomed everywhere with the utmost friendliness and good nature and this must not be attributed to the order from the Emperor which we had had no occasion to use so far, but to the natural kindliness of the Russian peasants.

  Meanwhile the rains had ceased; a few squalls of cold wind, which appeared to come from the Arctic Ocean, would occasionally pass over our heads, and make us shiver; the sky looked like an immense plate of dull coloured tin and on reaching Kazan shortly, we could not rest more than two hours in spite of the strange appearance of the ancient place, betokening its Tartar origin. In any other circumstances I should have experienced much pleasure in peeping beneath the large veils which envelop the women of Kazan, who are reported to be very beautiful, but this was not the time to undertake investigations of that nature; the appearance of the sky became more and more threatening; we could scarcely hear the words of Ivan, when he told each successive post boy in a voice that admitted of no reply, to drive “Faster, faster!” so much so that we seemed to fly over the vast plain where not even a hillock opposed an easy progress. It was evident that our escort had the greatest desire to cross the Ural Mountains before the snow fell, and his energies were concentrated on obtaining this object.

  When at last we got to Perm, Louise was so fatigued that we were obliged to ask Ivan for a night’s rest; he hesitated a moment, then looking at the sky which was duller and more threatening than usual he said; “Yes, you can rest; the snow will soon fall now and it is better to be caught here than on the high road.”

  In spite of this gloomy prognostication, I revelled in a long night’s sleep; but when I woke up Ivan’s prediction had been fulfilled, the roofs of the houses and the streets of Perm were covered with two feet of snow.

  I dressed quickly and went downstairs to consult with Ivan as to our plan of action. I found him much perturbed; so heavy had been the fall of snow, that all trace of the road had disappeared and every hollow was filled up; yet it was not yet cold enough to use sleighs, while the thin sheet of ice that covered the rivers was not strong enough to bear the weight of vehicles. Ivan advised us to wait at Perm until the frost set in; I shook my head for I was certain that Louise would not consent to this.

  The next moment we saw her approaching, looking somewhat distressed; she found us arguing as to the plan we should adopt and at once settled the discussion by saying that she wanted to start; we explained to her all the difficulties to be encountered in carrying out her idea and when we had finished she said: — ” I will give you two days; God who has watched over us hitherto, will not abandon us now.”

  I was afraid of being thought more timid than a woman, and recognizing from the firm though sweet tone in which Louise had just spoken to Ivan that her remark was intended for a command, I repeated to him that we gave him two days and invited him, during the interval to make all necessary arrangements for our fresh method of travelling.

  His preparations included the abandonment of our post-chaise and the purchase of a telega, or kind of little wooden cart without springs, which we shall be able to exchange later, when the severe weather sets in, for a sleigh mounted on runners. The exchange was effected that same day and our furs and weapons transferred to our new acquisition. Ivan like a true Russian had obeyed orders without making a single remark and would have been prepared to start that very day without a murmur, no matter what danger threatened.

  At Perm we first encountered some exiles; they were Poles who had taken but an insignificant part in the conspiracy or had not disclosed it, and like the souls whom Dante met at the entrance to the Inferno, were not deemed worthy of dwelling with the absolutely lost.

  Exile in this spot, apart from banishment from one’s country and separation from family, is as bearable as exile can be. Perm must be a pleasant town in summer and in winter there is hardly ever more than 35 or 38 degrees of frost while at Tobolsk fifty degrees is said to have been registered more than once.

  After our two days’ rest we again took the road in our telega, and did not experience any discomfort from its hardness thanks to the thick layer of snow which covered the ground. On leaving Perm the novel appearance of the surrounding country depressed us. Under the white shroud, spread by the hands of God, everything had disappeared, roads, paths and rivers; it was like an immense ocean upon which a compass would have been just as necessary as upon a real sea, if it had not been for a few isolated fir trees with which the post boys were familiar. From time to time a gloomy forest of fir trees whose branches were fringed with diamonds, would come into view like islands, either to our right or left, or on ahead, and in this last event we could perceive that we had not lost our way owing to the opening cut through the trees. We traversed nearly fifty leagues of ground like this, plunging into the depths of a country which, as far as we could tell from its snowy covering, appeared increasingly wild. The further we advanced, the scarcer became the posting houses, until they were quite thirty versts apart, or about eight leagues.

  Those halting places were very different from those between St. Petersburg and Moscow where we always found a lively and merry gathering in front of the door. Here on the contrary an almost complete silence prevailed. Only one or two men lived in the huts, which were heated by one of the large stoves, the one indispensable adjunct of the humblest cottage; on hearing our approach one of them would leap on to a horse without a saddle and with a big stick in his hand, disappear into a clump of firs, from which he would emerge, driving in front of him a herd of wild horses. Then was it often necessary for our post boy or Ivan or sometimes myself to seize the horses by the mane, and drag them by main force to our telega. They started off at a terrific pace but the spurt did not last long, for since there was no frost at present, they sank up to their hocks in the snow and were quickly exhausted; thus it happened that after wasting an hour longer on each stage than we had been accustomed to, we had to lose another twenty or twenty-five minutes at each halting place where a similar performance was always enacted. In this way we passed across the country drained by the Silva and the Ouja, whose waters wash down small particles of gold, silver and platinum, and fragments of malachite, indicating the presence of these precious minerals and stones. As long as we were within the exploited area, the country we were crossing, thanks to the villages inhabited by the miners and their families, seemed comparatively populated.

  but we soon got beyond the limits of their region, and began to notice on the horizon like a great wall of snow, its top serrated by a line of black peaks, the Ural Mountains, that powerful barrier which nature has interposed between Europe and Asia.

  As we approached nearer I noticed with joy that the air became keener, raising our hopes that the snow would soon become firm enough to bear the weight of the sleighs. At last we got to the foot of the Ural Mountains and halted at a wretched hamlet of some twenty cottages, where we found no inn but only the post house. Our determination to stop here was necessitated by a sudden increase in the cold as it became necessary to exchange our telega for a sleigh. Louise made up her mind then to spend in this wretched village the time which would be lost in waiting for the snow to freeze, get hold of a sleigh and transfer our belongings into the new vehicle; we thereupon entered the building which the post boy had the effrontery to call an inn.

  The establishment must have been a very poor one, for in place of the universal stove we found a big fire burning in the middle of the room while the smoke made its escape through a hole cut in the roof; we nevertheless went in and took our places round the hearth, which we found already in the possession of a dozen carriers, who were also about to cross the Ural Mountains, and were likewise waiting until the track was fit. At first they took not the slightest notice of us; but upon my throwing aside my cloak, the sight of my uniform soon obtained us a place; they made way respectfully and left Louise and me our full share of the accommodation.

  Our most pressing need was to get warm, so we set about accomplishing this at once; and when we had got back a little heat into our bodies, I began to take an interest in another matter equally important and this was supper. I summoned the landlord of this miserable inn and made him understand what I wanted; but this desire seemed to him, so it appeared to me, a most unheard of demand, for at my request he displayed the most profound astonishment and brought me half a black loaf, giving me to understand that this was all he could offer us. I looked at Louise, who, with her sweet resigned smile, was already reaching out her hand, but I stopped her, and urged the landlord to find us something else; but the poor devil, understanding from my expressive actions that I was dissatisfied with what he had provided, and wanted something better, went and opened all the cupboards, presses and boxes in his wretched shanty and invited me to look for myself. But while watching our fellow guests, the carriers, I noticed that each of them drew from his wallet a loaf of bread and a piece of bacon with which he rubbed it and then carefully replaced the bacon in his bag, in order that this refinement of luxury might last as long as possible. I was just going to ask our friends if we might rub our bread with their bacon, when I saw Ivan come in. Guessing the fix we should be in, he had provided against it by securing some bread not quite so black and two fowls whose necks he had already wrung so as not to wound our feelings. Now it was our turn to despise our friends with the bacon, who I believe had been laughing in their sleeves at our distress while now they were overwhelmed at our extravagance.

  There was no time to lose, for our appetites which had departed at the sight of the supper offered us by our landlord now returned with redoubled force; we decided we would begin with soup and then go on to the roast. Ivan got hold of a saucepan which the post boy began to scour with all his might, while Louise and I plucked the fowls and Ivan rigged up a spit. In a very short time everything was ready; the saucepan was emitting great bubbles; while the fowl suspended by a string, was revolving to perfection in front of the fire.

  No sooner were we reassured about our supper than we began to worry about our means of departure. It had been impossible to procure a sleigh, but Ivan got over the difficulty by removing the wheels of our telega, and replacing them with runners. The local wheelwright was at the present moment busy with the job; as to the weather it appeared to be gradually freezing harder, and we were hopeful that we might be able to start the next morning; this good news served to increase our appetites; it was a long time since I had supped so well as that evening.

  As for beds, of course we had not so much as asked if there were any; but we had such splendid furs that we could easily do without them. We wrapped ourselves in our cloaks and mantles and went to sleep, uttering prayers that the favourable state of the weather might last.

  About three o’clock in the morning, I was awakened by a smart pecking on my face. I raised myself in my chair and perceived by the light of the fire which was still flickering, a hen, who had taken good care not to show herself the previous evening, but had now found her way into the room to sample the remains of our supper. Not knowing whether Ivan would be as lucky on the morrow as on the previous evening, and having learnt by experience what we must expect to find at other inns, I was careful not to frighten the estimable biped, so lay down again affording it every facility for continuing its gastronomic researches.

  Scarcely had I settled down quietly when the hen emboldened by the success of her first attack, came again with a delightful familiarity and hopped from my feet on to my knees, and from my knees on to my chest; but there its journey ended, with one hand I seized its legs and with the other its head, and before it had time to utter a cry I wrung its neck.

  It may be supposed that after such a programme, which brought all my faculties into play, I was not greatly inclined for more sleep. Even if I had desired it, the matter would have been almost impossible, thanks to a brace of cocks, which began to salute the approaching dawn at intervals of a few minutes. So I got up and went outside to have a look at the weather; it was just what we had hoped for and the snow was sufficiently firm to allow the sleigh runners to slide over it.

  On returning to the hearth, I found I was not the only person the cock-crowing had aroused. Louise was seated there, enveloped in her furs, smiling as if she had just spent the night in a luxurious bed, and did not appear to have a thought for the dangers which probably awaited us in the gorges of the Ural Mountains; and now the carriers were beginning to show signs of life. Ivan was still sleeping the sleep of the just. Although under ordinary circumstances I am a pious devotee of the God of sleep, the situation was too serious for me to pay my respects to him now. The carriers had gradually collected about the threshold and were holding a discussion; I saw that they were arguing for and against a start. I therefore woke Ivan that he might take a share in the discussion and gain information from the experience of these good fellows whose normal occupation is the going to and fro between Europe and Asia and making, summer and winter the very journey we were about to undertake.

  I was not mistaken; there were divided counsels. Some, who numbered among them the oldest and most experienced, wanted to wait a day or two longer; but the others, who were younger and more enterprising, were anxious to make a start, and Louise who had caught a few words of their patois agreed with the latter.

  Whether Ivan was susceptible to the entreaties which fell from a pretty mouth, or whether the indications really seemed to him to betoken fine weather, he ranged himself among the advocates for an immediate start; and it is quite likely that the influence which his military dress naturally exercised, in a country where uniform is everything, caused some of those who were opposed to his opinions to veer round and agree with him; so the question being settled by the votes of the majority everyone set about his preparations. The fact is Ivan was afraid that, whatever decision the carters came to, we should follow our original plan, and he preferred to travel in company rather than alone.

  As it was Ivan’s duty to settle the bills I told him to add on to the total presented by the landlord the price of his fowl and I handed it over to him as something on account for our supper, telling him to get hold of some more food and particularly some bread not so brown. He went off to explore and presently returned with another fowl, an uncooked ham, some eatable bread, and a few bottles of a kind of red brandy, which is made, I believe, from the bark of the birch tree.

  All this while the carriers were harnessing their horses, and I went myself to the stables to choose ours.

  But, as usual, they were in the neighbouring forest. Our landlord thereupon woke up a lad of about thirteen or fourteen years of age who was asleep in the corner and ordered him to go and bring them in. The poor little beggar got up without a murmur, then with the passive obedience of the Russian peasant, he took a large stick, jumped on to one of the carters’ horses and galloped off.

  Meanwhile the carriers had chosen a captain to take command of the caravan; when the leader has been once elected, everyone was bound to submit to his experience and plan of action and obey him as a private obeys his superior officer; their choice fell on a carter called George.

  He was an old carter of about seventy or seventy-five though he looked barely forty-five, with powerful limbs, black eyes concealed beneath thick greyish eyebrows and a long white beard. He was dressed in a woollen shirt bound round the waist with a leather belt, trousers of striped swan skin, a fur cap and a sheep skin with the wool inside. He carried at his side, slung on to his belt, two or three horse shoes, which clinked against each other, a pewter spoon and fork and a long knife which was something between a dagger and a hunting knife; and on the other side a short handled axe and a bag into which were jumbled a screw driver, a gimlet, a pipe, some tobacco, some tinder, a tinder box, two flints, some nails, a pair of pincers and some money.

  The costume of the other carters was almost identical. George had no sooner assumed the rank of chief guide than he began to make use of his privilege by ordering everyone to put his horses in at once, in order that they might reach, in time to spend the night, a small shelter situated about a third of the way; but in spite of his haste to make a start, I begged him to wait for the arrival of our horses, so that we might all set out together. My request was acceded to with the utmost politeness. The carters entered the house and the landlord having thrown a few armfuls of fir and birch branches on to the hearth, the flames leaped up and we could the better appreciate their value, when we wore on the point of leaving them. We had scarcely seated ourselves round the fire, when we hoard the galloping of the horses coming from the forest, the next moment the door opened and the wretched lad who had fetched them burst into the room uttering piercing cries; then breaking into the circle, he threw himself on his knees in front of the fire and stretched out his arms almost into the flames as if he wanted to devour them. Then all the faculties of his being seemed to expand under the impressions of the happiness he felt. He remained thus for a moment, motionless, silent and eager; then his eyes closed, he sank down, uttered a groan and collapsed. I tried to raise him and seized him by the hand; but I felt with horror my fingers sink into his flesh as if it had been cooked meat. I uttered a cry; Louise wanted to take the child into her arms, but I stopped her. Then George stooped down and looked at him and said coldly: — ’’ He is lost.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35