CHAPTER XXXIV.
The snow fell so thickly that it filled the stanitsa trench altogether,and settled on the stockade wall like a mound. Outside were night and astorm; but the chief room in Hreptyoff was blazing with light. Therewere two violins, a bass-viol, a flageolet, a French horn, and twobugles. The fiddlers worked away till they were turning in their seats.The cheeks of the flageolet player and the buglers were puffed out, andtheir eyes were bloodshot. The oldest officers sat on benches at thewall, one near another,--as gray doves sit before their cotes in aroof,--and while drinking mead and wine looked at the dancers.
Basia opened the ball with Pan Mushalski, who, despite advanced years,was as great a dancer as a bowman. Basia wore a robe of silver brocadeedged with ermine, and resembled a newly blown rose in fresh snow.Young and old marvelled at her beauty, and the cry "Save us!" cameinvoluntarily from the breasts of many; for though Panna Eva and PannaZosia were somewhat younger, and beautiful beyond common measure, stillBasia surpassed all. In her eyes delight and pleasure were flashing. Asshe swept past the little knight she thanked him for the entertainmentwith a smile; through her open rosy mouth gleamed white teeth, and sheshone in her silver robe, glittering like a sun-ray or a star, andenchanted the eye and the heart with the beauty of a child, a woman,and a flower. The split sleeves of her robe fluttered after her likethe wings of a great butterfly; and when, raising her skirt, she madean obeisance before her partner, you would think that she was floatingon the earth like a vision, or one of those sprites which on brightnights in summer skip along the edges of ravines.
Outside, the soldiers pressed their stern mustached-faces against thelighted window-panes, and flattening their noses against the glasspeered into the room. It pleased them greatly that their adored ladysurpassed all others in beauty, for they held furiously to her side;they did not spare jests, therefore, and allusions to Panna Eva, orPanna Zosia, and greeted with loud hurrahs every approach that Basiamade to the window.
Pan Michael increased like bread-rising, and nodded his head, keepingtime with Basia's movements; Pan Zagloba, standing near, held a tankardin his hand, tapped with his foot and dropped liquor on the floor; butat times he and the little knight turned and looked at each other withuncommon rapture and puffing.
But Basia glittered and glittered through the whole room, ever morejoyous, ever more charming. Such for her was the Wilderness. Now abattle, now a hunt, now amusements, dancing and music, and a crowd ofsoldiers,--her husband the greatest among them, and he loving andbeloved; Basia felt that all liked and admired her, gave herhomage,--that the little knight was happy through that; and she herselffelt as happy as birds feel when spring has come, and they rejoice andsing lustily and joyously in the air of May. The second couple wereAzya and Eva Novoveski, who wore a crimson jacket. The young Tartar,completely intoxicated with the white vision glittering before him,spoke not one word to Eva; but she, thinking that emotion had stoppedthe voice in his breast, tried to give him courage by pressure of herhand, light at the beginning, and afterward stronger. Azya, on hispart, pressed her hand so powerfully that hardly could she repress acry of pain; but he did this involuntarily, for he thought only ofBasia, he saw only Basia, and in his soul he repeated a terrible vow,that if he had to burn half Russia she should be his.
At times, when consciousness came to him somewhat, he felt a desire toseize Eva by the throat, stifle her, and gloat over her, because shepressed his hand, and because she stood between him and Basia. At timeshe pierced the poor girl with his cruel, falcon glance, and her heartbegan to beat with more power; she thought that it was through lovethat he looked at her so rapaciously.
Pan Adam and Zosia formed the third couple. She looked like aforget-me-not, and tripped along at his side with downcast eyes; helooked like a wild horse, and jumped like one. From under his shodheels splinters were flying; his forelock was soaring upward; his facewas covered with ruddiness; he opened his nostrils wide like a Turkishcharger, and sweeping Zosia around, as a whirlwind does a leaf, carriedher through the air. The soul grew glad in him beyond measure, since helived on the edge of the Wilderness whole months without seeing awoman. Zosia pleased him so much at first glance, that in a moment hewas in love with her to kill. From time to time he looked at herdowncast eyes, at her blooming cheeks, and just snorted at the pleasantsight; then all the more mightily did he strike fire with his heels;with greater strength did he hold her, at the turn of the dance, to hisbroad breast, and burst into a mighty laugh from excess of delight, andboiled and loved with more power every moment.
But Zosia had fear in her dear little heart; still, that fear was notdisagreeable, for she was pleased with that whirlwind of a man who boreher along and carried her with him,--a real dragon! She had seenvarious cavaliers in Yavorov, but such a fiery one she had not met tillthat hour; and none danced like him, none swept her on so. In truth, areal dragon! What was to be done with him, since it was impossible toresist?
In the next couple, Panna Kaminski danced with a polite cavalier, andafter her came the Armenians,--Pani Kyeremovich and Pani Neresevich,who, though wives of merchants, were still invited to the company, forboth were persons of courtly manners, and very wealthy. The dignifiedNaviragh and the two Anardrats looked with growing wonder at the Polishdances; the old men at their mead cups made an increasing noise, likegrasshoppers on stubble land. But the music drowned every voice, and inthe middle of the room delight grew in all hearts.
Meanwhile Basia left her partner, ran panting to her husband, andclasped her hands before him.
"Michael," said she, "it is so cold outside the windows for thesoldiers, give command to let them have a keg of gorailka."
He, being unusually jovial, fell to kissing her hands, and cried,--
"I would not spare blood to please you!"
Then he hurried out himself to tell the soldiers at whose instance theywere to have the keg; for he wished them to thank Basia, and love herthe more.
In answer, they raised such a shout that the snow began to fall fromthe roof; the little knight cried in addition, "Let the muskets roarthere as a vivat to the Pani!" Upon his return to the room he foundBasia dancing with Azya. When the Tartar embraced, that sweet figurewith his arm, when he felt the warmth coming from her and her breath onhis face, his pupils went up almost into his skull, and the whole worldturned before his eyes; in his soul he gave up paradise, eternity, andfor all the houris he wanted only this one.
Then Basia, when she noticed in passing the crimson jacket of Eva,curious to know if Azya had proposed yet, inquired,--
"Have you told her?"
"No."
"Why?"
"It is not time yet," said he, with a strange expression.
"But are you greatly in love?"
"To the death, to the death!" answered the Tartar, with a low buthoarse voice, like the croaking of a raven.
And they danced on, immediately after Pan Adam, who had pushed to thefront. Others had changed partners, but Pan Adam did not let Zosia go;only at times he seated her on a bench to rest and recover breath, thenhe revelled again. At last he stopped before the orchestra, and holdingZosia with one arm, cried to the musicians,--
"Play the krakoviak! on with it!"
Obedient to command, they played at once. Pan Adam kept time with hisfoot, and sang with an immense voice,--
"Lost are crystal torrents, In the Dniester River; Lost in thee, my heart is, Lost in thee, O maiden! U-ha!"
And that "U-ha" he roared out in such Cossack fashion that Zosia wasdrooping from fear. The dignified Naviragh, standing near, wasfrightened, the two learned Anardrats were frightened; but Pan Adam ledthe dance farther. Twice he made the circle of the room, and stoppingbefore the musicians, sang of his heart again,--
"Lost, but not to perish, Though the current snatch it; In the depth 'twill seek out
And bear back a gold ring. U-ha!"
"Very pretty rhymes," cried Zagloba; "I am skilled in the matter, for Ihave made many such. Bark away, cavalier, bark away; and when you findthe ring I will continue in this sense,--
"Flint are all the maidens, Steel are all the young men; You'll have sparks in plenty If you strike with will. U-ha!"
"Vivat! vivat Pan Zagloba!" cried the officers, with a mighty voice, sothat the dignified Naviragh was frightened, and the two learnedAnardrats were frightened, and began to look at one another withexceeding amazement.
But Pan Adam went around twice more, and seated his partner at last onthe bench, panting, and astonished at the boldness of her cavalier. Hewas very agreeable to her, so valiant and honest, a regularconflagration; but just because she had not met such a man hitherto,great confusion seized her,--therefore, dropping her eyes still lower,she sat in silence, like a little innocent.
"Why are you silent; are you grieving for something?" asked Pan Adam.
"I am; my father is in captivity," answered Zosia, with a thin voice.
"Never mind that," said the young man; "it is proper to dance! Look atthis room; here are some tens of officers, and most likely no oneof them will die his own death, but from arrows of Pagans or inbonds,--this one to-day, that to-morrow. Each man on these frontiershas lost some one, and we make merry lest God might think that wemurmur at our service. That is it. It is proper to dance. Laugh, younglady! show your eyes, for I think that you hate me!"
Zosia did not raise her eyes, it is true; but she began to raise thecorners of her mouth, and two dimples were formed in her rosy cheeks.
"Do you love me a little bit?" asked he.
And Zosia, in a still lower voice, said, "Yes; but--"
When he heard this. Pan Adam started up, and seizing Zosia's hands,began to cover them with kisses, and cry,--
"Lost! No use in talking; I love you to death! I don't want any one butyou, my dearest beauty! Oh, save me, how I love you! In the morningI'll fall at your mother's feet. What?--in the morning! I'll fallto-night, so as to be sure that you are mine!"
A tremendous roar of musketry outside the window drowned Zosia'sanswer. The delighted soldiers were firing, as a vivat for Basia; thewindow-panes rattled, the walls trembled. The dignified Naviragh wasfrightened a third time; the two learned Anardrats were frightened; butZagloba, standing near, began to pacify them.
"With the Poles," said he to them, "there is never rejoicing withoutoutcry and clamor."
In truth, it came out that all were just waiting for that firing frommuskets to revel in the highest degree. The usual ceremony of noblesbegan now to give way to the wildness of the steppe. Music thunderedagain; dances burst out anew, like a storm; eyes were flashing andfiery; mist rose from the forelocks. Even the oldest went into thedance; loud shouts were heard every moment; and they drank andfrolicked,--drank healths from Basia's slipper; fired from pistols atEva's boot-heels. Hreptyoff shouted and roared and sang till daybreak,so that the beasts in the neighboring wilds hid from fear in thedeepest thickets.
Since that was almost on the eve of a terrible war with the Turkishpower, and over all these people terror and destruction were hanging,the dignified Naviragh wondered beyond measure at those Polishsoldiers, and the two learned Anardrats wondered no less.