The Daughter of the Commandant: Ch. 12 - The Orphan

Ch. 12 - The Orphan

The "_kibitka"_ stopped before the door of the Commandant's house. The
inhabitants had recognized the little bell of Pugatch�f's team, and had
assembled in a crowd. Chvabrine came to meet the usurper; he was dressed
as a Cossack, and had allowed his beard to grow.

The traitor helped Pugatch�f to get out of the carriage, expressing by
obsequious words his zeal and joy.

Seeing me he became uneasy, but soon recovered himself.

"You are one of us," said he; "it should have been long ago."

I turned away my head without answering him. My heart failed me when we
entered the little room I knew so well, where could still be seen on the
wall the commission of the late deceased Commandant, as a sad memorial.

Pugatch�f sat down on the same sofa where ofttimes Iv�n Kouzmitch had
dozed to the sound of his wife's scolding.

Chvabrine himself brought brandy to his chief. Pugatch�f drank a glass
of it, and said to him, pointing to me--

"Offer one to his lordship."

Chvabrine approached me with his tray. I turned away my head for the
second time. He seemed beside himself. With his usual sharpness he had
doubtless guessed that Pugatch�f was not pleased with me. He regarded
him with alarm and me with mistrust. Pugatch�f asked him some questions
on the condition of the fort, on what was said concerning the Tzarina's
troops, and other similar subjects. Then suddenly and in an unexpected
manner--

"Tell me, brother," asked he, "who is this young girl you are keeping
under watch and ward? Show me her."

Chvabrine became pale as death.

"Tzar," he said, in a trembling voice, "Tzar, she is not under
restraint; she is in bed in her room."

"Take me to her," said the usurper, rising.

It was impossible to hesitate. Chvabrine led Pugatch�f to Marya
Iv�nofna's room. I followed them. Chvabrine stopped on the stairs.

"Tzar," said he, "you can constrain me to do as you list, but do not
permit a stranger to enter my wife's room."

"You are married!" cried I, ready to tear him in pieces.

"Hush!" interrupted Pugatch�f, "it is my concern. And you," continued
he, turning towards Chvabrine, "do not swagger; whether she be your wife
or no, I take whomsoever I please to see her. Your lordship, follow me."

At the door of the room Chvabrine again stopped, and said, in a broken
voice--

"Tzar, I warn you she is feverish, and for three days she has been
delirious."

"Open!" said Pugatch�f.

Chvabrine began to fumble in his pockets, and ended by declaring he had
forgotten the key.

Pugatch�f gave a push to the door with his foot, the lock gave way, the
door opened, and we went in. I cast a rapid glance round the room and
nearly fainted. Upon the floor, in a coarse peasant's dress, sat Marya,
pale and thin, with her hair unbound. Before her stood a jug of water
and a bit of bread. At the sight of me she trembled and gave a piercing
cry. I cannot say what I felt. Pugatch�f looked sidelong at Chvabrine,
and said to him with a bitter smile--

"Your hospital is well-ordered!" Then, approaching Marya, "Tell me, my
little dove, why your husband punishes you thus?"

"My husband!" rejoined she; "he is not my husband. Never will I be his
wife. I am resolved rather to die, and I shall die if I be not
delivered."

Pugatch�f cast a furious glance upon Chvabrine.

"You dared deceive me," cried he. "Do you know, villain, what you
deserve?"

Chvabrine dropped on his knees. Then contempt overpowered in me all
feelings of hatred and revenge. I looked with disgust upon a gentleman
at the feet of a Cossack deserter. Pugatch�f allowed himself to be
moved.

"I pardon you this time," he said, to Chvabrine; "but next offence I
will remember this one." Then, addressing Marya, he said to her, gently,
"Come out, pretty one; I give you your liberty. I am the Tzar."

Marya Iv�nofna threw a quick look at him, and divined that the murderer
of her parents was before her eyes. She covered her face with her hands,
and fell unconscious.

I was rushing to help her, when my old acquaintance, Polashka, came very
boldly into the room, and took charge of her mistress.

Pugatch�f withdrew, and we all three returned to the parlour.

"Well, your lordship," Pugatch�f said to me, laughing, "we have
delivered the pretty girl; what do you say to it? Ought we not to send
for the pope and get him to marry his niece? If you like I will be your
_marriage godfather_, Chvabrine best man; then we will set to and drink
with closed doors."

What I feared came to pass.

No sooner had he heard Pugatch�f's proposal than Chvabrine lost his
head.

"Tzar," said he, furiously, "I am guilty, I have lied to you; but
Grineff also deceives you. This young girl is not the pope's niece; she
is the daughter of Iv�n Mironoff, who was executed when the fort was
taken."

Pugatch�f turned his flashing eyes on me.

"What does all this mean?" cried he, with indignant surprise.

But I made answer boldly--

"Chvabrine has told you the truth."

"You had not told me that," rejoined Pugatch�f, whose brow had suddenly
darkened.

"But judge yourself," replied I; "could I declare before all your
people that she was Mironoff's daughter? They would have torn her in
pieces, nothing could have saved her."

"Well, you are right," said Pugatch�f. "My drunkards would not have
spared the poor girl; my gossip, the pope's wife, did right to deceive
them."

"Listen," I resumed, seeing how well disposed he was towards me, "I do
not know what to call you, nor do I seek to know. But God knows I stand
ready to give my life for what you have done for me. Only do not ask of
me anything opposed to my honour and my conscience as a Christian. You
are my benefactor; end as you have begun. Let me go with the poor orphan
whither God shall direct, and whatever befall and wherever you be we
will pray God every day that He watch over the safety of your soul."

I seemed to have touched Pugatch�f's fierce heart.

"Be it even as you wish," said he. "Either entirely punish or entirely
pardon; that is my motto. Take your pretty one, take her away wherever
you like, and may God grant you love and wisdom."

He turned towards Chvabrine, and bid him write me a safe conduct pass
for all the gates and forts under his command. Chvabrine remained still,
and as if petrified.

Pugatch�f went to inspect the fort; Chvabrine followed him, and I stayed
behind under the pretext of packing up. I ran to Marya's room. The door
was shut; I knocked.

"Who is there?" asked Polashka.

I gave my name. Marya's gentle voice was then heard through the door.

"Wait, Petr' Andr�j�tch," said she, "I am changing my dress. Go to
Akoulina Pamphilovna's; I shall be there in a minute."

I obeyed and went to Father Garasim's house.

The pope and his wife hastened to meet me. Sav�liitch had already told
them all that had happened.

"Good-day, Petr' Andr�j�tch," the pope's wife said to me; "here has God
so ruled that we meet again. How are you? We have talked about you every
day. And Marya Iv�nofna, what has she not suffered anent you, my pigeon?
But tell me, my father, how did you get out of the difficulty with
Pugatch�f? How was it that he did not kill you? Well, for _that_, thanks
be to the villain."

"There, hush, old woman," interrupted Father Garasim; "don't gossip
about all you know; too much talk, no salvation. Come in, Petr'
Andr�j�tch, and welcome. It is long since we have seen each other."

The pope's wife did me honour with everything she had at hand, without
ceasing a moment to talk.

She told me how Chvabrine had obliged them to deliver up Marya Iv�nofna
to him; how the poor girl cried, and would not be parted from them; how
she had had continual intercourse with them through the medium of
Polashka, a resolute, sharp girl who made the _"ouriadnik"_ himself
dance (as they say) to the sound of her flageolet; how she had
counselled Marya Iv�nofna to write me a letter, etc. As for me, in a few
words I told my story.

The pope and his wife crossed themselves when they heard that Pugatch�f
was aware they had deceived him.

"May the power of the cross be with us!" Akoulina Pamphilovna said. "May
God turn aside this cloud. Very well, Alexey Iv�nytch, we shall see! Oh!
the sly fox!"

At this moment the door opened, and Marya Iv�nofna appeared, with a
smile on her pale face. She had changed her peasant dress, and was
dressed as usual, simply and suitably. I seized her hand, and could not
for a while say a single word. We were both silent, our hearts were too
full.

Our hosts felt we had other things to do than to talk to them; they left
us. We remained alone. Marya told me all that had befallen her since the
taking of the fort; painted me the horrors of her position, all the
torment the infamous Chvabrine had made her suffer. We recalled to each
other the happy past, both of us shedding tears the while.

At last I could tell her my plans. It was impossible for her to stay in
a fort which had submitted to Pugatch�f, and where Chvabrine was in
command. Neither could I dream of taking refuge with her in Orenburg,
where at this juncture all the miseries of a siege were being undergone.
Marya had no longer a single relation in the world. Therefore I proposed
to her that she should go to my parents' country house.

She was very much surprised at such a proposal. The displeasure my
father had shown on her account frightened her. But I soothed her. I
knew my father would deem it a duty and an honour to shelter in his
house the daughter of a veteran who had died for his country.

"Dear Marya," I said, at last, "I look upon you as my wife. These
strange events have irrevocably united us. Nothing in the whole world
can part us any more."

Marya heard me in dignified silence, without misplaced affectation. She
felt as I did, that her destiny was irrevocably linked with mine; still,
she repeated that she would only be my wife with my parents' consent. I
had nothing to answer. We fell in each other's arms, and my project
became our mutual decision.

An hour afterwards the "_ouriadnik_" brought me my safe-conduct pass,
with the scrawl which did duty as Pugatch�f's signature, and told me the
Tzar awaited me in his house.

I found him ready to start.

How express what I felt in the presence of this man, awful and cruel for
all, myself only excepted? And why not tell the whole truth? At this
moment I felt a strong sympathy with him. I wished earnestly to draw him
from the band of robbers of which he was the chief, and save his head
ere it should be too late.

The presence of Chvabrine and of the crowd around us prevented me from
expressing to him all the feelings which filled my heart.

We parted friends.

Pugatch�f saw in the crowd Akoulina Pamphilovna, and amicably threatened
her with his finger, with a meaning wink. Then he seated himself in his
_"kibitka"_ and gave the word to return to Berd. When the horses
started, he leaned out of his carriage and shouted to me--

"Farewell, your lordship; it may be we shall yet meet again!"

We did, indeed, see one another once again; but under what
circumstances!

Pugatch�f was gone.

I long watched the steppe over which his _"kibitka"_ was rapidly
gliding.

The crowd dwindled away; Chvabrine disappeared. I went back to the
pope's house, where all was being made ready for our departure. Our
little luggage had been put in the old vehicle of the Commandant. In a
moment the horses were harnessed.

Marya went to bid a last farewell to the tomb of her parents, buried
behind the church.

I wished to escort her there, but she begged me to let her go alone, and
soon came back, weeping quiet tears.

Father Garasim and his wife came to the door to see us off. We took our
seats, three abreast, inside the "_kibitka_," and Sav�liitch again
perched in front.

"Good-bye, Marya Iv�nofna, our dear dove; good-bye, Petr' Andr�j�tch,
our gay goshawk!" the pope's wife cried to us. "A lucky journey to you,
and may God give you abundant happiness!"

We started. At the Commandant's window I saw Chvabrine standing, with a
face of dark hatred.

I did not wish to triumph meanly over a humbled enemy, and looked away
from him.

At last we passed the principal gate, and for ever left Fort B�logorsk.

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