Russia in 1839 -Empire of the Czar: A Journey Through Eternal Russia

know him.'

' How ! What! —the prince our master ?' then checking himself, ' doubtless,' exclaimed Thelenef, much sm`prised, but not wishing to seem ignorant of what a peasant appeared to know, ' doubtless I will protect you ; but he will not be here so soon as you think: the report of his coming is current every year at tins season.'

' Pardon me, sir, he will be here shortly.'

The steward longed to question the nurse more closely, but his dignity restrained him. Xenie saw his embarrassment, and came to his help.

' 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.'

IC 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.'

Ci 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

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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