CHAPTER XII.A PERILOUS SLIDE.
To Boris the news that the Streltsi had gone away without him was thebest and most acceptable news in the world. To his simple, honest mindthe atmosphere of disloyalty and disaffection in which he had beenforced to live, as well as the unrest and actual physical danger whichwere the unavoidable consequence of the unpopularity in which he washeld by his fellows, as one outside their own circle and thereforedangerous--all this was intolerable. Boris was not a quarrelsome man,yet he had been forced into several fights already; and if he hadproceeded to the Ukraine with the rest he would undoubtedly have beendrawn into many other quarrels as soon as the repressive influenceof the Tsar's presence had ceased to work upon the minds of hiscomrades. The departure of the Streltsi, therefore, acted like a tonicupon his system, and his recovery was speedy from this day onwards.Within a week after the scene on the parade-ground Boris was up andabout attending once more upon his master, the Tsar, and learningwith astonishment the remarkable phases and contrasts of Peter'scharacter--a character which must ever puzzle students and analysts inthe inconsistencies and contradictions which it revealed from day today.
Peter was particularly busy just at this time enrolling soldiers forcertain new regiments of Guards which he designed should take the placeof the erratic Streltsi. Lefort, of whom mention has already been made,was most energetic in this work, and proved himself a most successfulrecruiting officer. Foreigners--Englishmen, Germans, and others--wereengaged as far as possible to officer these new troops; but Boris, tohis great joy, was permitted to exchange from his Streltsi regiment,which he hated, into one of the newly-organized corps.
The Tsar was radiant and happy over the congenial work upon which hewas engaged, and worked night and day in order to accomplish the taskhe had set before himself. Yet, in spite of his activity and energy,and of the amazing amount of work he managed to get through during theday, this remarkable young monarch found time for boisterous carousalsalmost every evening. At these Boris was expected to attend the Tsar,and did so; but he was never a lover of indoor amusements, and did nottake to card-playing and heavy drinking with the zeal infused into thepursuit of such joys by his betters, including Peter himself.
At the court, too, Boris was out of his element. The big bear-hunterwas not used to the society of ladies; and though the manners ofPeter's court were far from being characterized by all that we inour day understand when we speak of refinement and breeding, yet themeasure of their civilization was naturally far beyond that reached bythe good folks at Dubinka, or even at Archangel.
The ladies of the court, including the empress, were one and allattracted by the handsome young hunter, now officer, and some made nosecret of their admiration. The empress was kind and condescending,and occasionally preached Boris a little sermon on the iniquity ofmaking friends of foreigners, warning him to beware of familiarity withthose alien officers who had lately been imported into Russia. Thesemen, the Tsaritsa declared, would be the ruin--they and the foreigninstitutions and vices which they foreshadowed--of holy Russia and herexclusiveness. The church, she said, and all her dignitaries lookedwith horror upon the many un-Russian innovations which were the rulingspirit of the day.
Boris thought that the empress ought to know all about the church andher opinions, if anybody did, for the palace, or her own portion of it,was always full of priests and confessors; but he thought it a curiouscircumstance, nevertheless, that the wife should speak thus of the workupon which the husband was engaged. To his frank and simple mind itappeared unnatural and wrong that the very person in all the world whoshould have been the first to encourage and help the Tsar in his workof reformation and progress should have neglected no opportunity ofhindering and crying it down.
In short, the ladies of the court had for Boris but little attraction;he had not been used to the society of ladies, and did not understandthem and their mysterious ways. He was glad when Peter avoided hiswife's portion of the palace for days together; and though he did notparticularly enjoy the carouses with Lefort and Gordon, and otherkindred spirits of the Tsar, yet he preferred these noisy and rowdygatherings to the society of the ladies. In a word, Boris was not alady's man, although there were many fair damsels at court and out ofit who would fain it had been otherwise.
But Boris had a little adventure early in this first winter in Moscowwhich laid the foundation of a great and momentous friendship, thegreatest and most important of any formed by him throughout his life,even though we include that which united him with his beloved Tsar. Thecircumstances were romantic, and may be given with propriety in thisplace.
It has been mentioned that many foreigners were at this time beingattracted into Russia by the liberal offers made to them of lucrativeemployment in the service of the Tsar. Among the officers thusengaged by Peter to train and command his newly-levied troops of theGuard was a certain Englishman of the name of Drury, who, with hiswife and little daughter aged twelve, had but lately arrived in thegreat northern city. Boris had seen and made the acquaintance of theEnglish officer at Peter's palace, and had moreover met the wife andchild at the court of the Tsaritsa, where he had admired the little,bright-eyed, flaxen-haired English maiden, and had even played ballwith her, and taught her the use of the Russian swing in the courtyard.
Nancy Drury, as she was called, possessed all the love for outdooramusements and exercise which is the heritage of the British race; and,consequently, no sooner did the early northern winter bring enoughfrost to cover the narrow Moscow river with a thin layer of ice, thanMiss Nancy determined to make the most of the advantages of living "upnorth," by enjoying an hour's sliding at the very first opportunity.Thus, on the second day after the appearance of the ice, though noRussian would have thought of stepping upon it for at least anotherweek, the child walked fearlessly out to the centre of the stream andcommenced her sliding.
The ice was smooth and very elastic, and Nancy found the slidingexcellent; but, as might have been expected, at the third or fourthslide the ice gave way beneath even her light feet, and in went Nancy,sprawling forwards as her footing played her false, and thus breakingup a large hole for herself to splash into. Luckily Nancy was a bravechild, and did not struggle and choke and go straight to the bottom, orunder the ice. She supported herself as best she could upon the soundice which surrounded the hole she had made, and shouted for assistance.
The streets were full of people; but that circumstance was of littlecomfort to poor Nancy, had she known it. For if she had found herselfin this fix on ninety-nine out of a hundred occasions, she would havereceived no doubt the deepest sympathy from those on shore, evidencedby much weeping and wailing from the women, and running about andshouting of conflicting instructions and advice on the part of the men;but as for solid assistance, she would have gone to the bottom longbefore the one man in a hundred or a thousand who could render it toher had arrived upon the scene. Luckily again for Nancy, however, thatone man chanced to pass by on this occasion, in the shape of our bravebear-hunter, and in the very nick of time.
Boris grasped the situation at a glance, though without as yetrecognizing the child. Kicking off his heavy Russian boots, he rannimbly over the intervening ice, which lay in broken, floating piecesbehind him as he crushed it beneath his feet at each quick step, andreached the child in a twinkling, seizing her in his arms and floatingwith her for a moment as he reflected upon the best way to get back.
During that moment Nancy recognized her preserver and clung to him,shivering and crying a little, but with an assurance of safety in hisstrong arms which she did her best to express by burying her face inhis breast and half drowning him with her clinging arms about his neck.
A wonderfully tender spirit fell over the rough hunter as he felt theconfiding hugs of this little English girl, and he realized that shemust be saved at all hazards. But it was exceedingly difficult to swimwith her in his arms, as those who have tried it will know, especiallyas his course was impeded by floating ice of sufficient strength andthickness to
offer an awkward obstacle to a burdened swimmer. Boriswas aware that little Nancy had picked up but little Russian as yet;nevertheless he succeeded in conveying to her that she must not clasphis neck so tightly, or both would presently go to the bottom; alsothat he intended to help her to climb back upon the ice, but that hewould be near if it should break again and let her through. Then,finding a sound edge which looked strong enough for his purpose, withan effort he raised the child sufficiently high to slide her out uponunbroken ice, where Nancy quickly regained her feet and ran lightly tothe shore. As for Boris, relieved of his burden, he easily swam toshore, where he found his little friend awaiting him.
To the immense amusement of the onlookers, of whom there was aconsiderable gathering, Nancy, having first with her little hand helpedhim out of the water, sprang up into the arms of her big preserverand covered his wet face with kisses. Then the tall hunter and hislittle English friend walked off together, amid the admiring commentsof the crowd, who were unanimous in their opinion that the officer wasa _molodyets_, or, as a British schoolboy would call it, "a rare goodchap;" and that the little _Anglichanka_ was very sweet to look upon,and wore very nice clothes.
From this day commenced a firm friendship between these two persons,which strengthened and ripened from week to week and from month tomonth. They were in some respects an oddly-assorted couple; and yetthere was much in common between them, as for instance the intense lovewhich both bore towards the open air and all that appertains to lifein the country. Nancy had lived, while still in her English home, faraway from the town; her sympathies were all for the fields, the woods,birds, and rabbits, and wild fowl, and the sights and sounds of thecountry.
Neither Drury nor his wife had the slightest objection to the greatfriendship existing between their little daughter and this fine youngofficer of the Tsar; as indeed why should they? On the contrary, theywere glad enough to intrust her to one who could be so thoroughlytrusted to take good care of her under any and every circumstance andemergency which could arise, whether in the forest or in the streetsof the city. Consequently the two were often together; and Boris lovednothing better than to set his little friend in a _kibitka_, or coveredsledge drawn by two horses, and drive out with her into the country,far away beyond the smoke and din of Moscow.
There he would spend a few happy hours in teaching the child the artof tracking and trapping hares, foxes, and larger game, an art inwhich Nancy proved an apt pupil; while his skill in calling birds andbeasts to him proved a source of unfailing delight and amusement toher. Concealed in a tiny conical hut made of fir boughs, and builtto represent as far as possible a snow-laden pine tree, the pairwould sit for an hour or two and watch the effects of Boris's skilfulimitation of the various voices of the forest. Many a time did Nancyenjoy the excitement of hearing and even occasionally of seeing a wolf,as he came inquisitively peering and listening close up to the hut,wondering where in the world his talkative friend had hidden himself,and evidently half beginning to fear that he had been the victim ofa hoax. On such occasions a loud report from Boris's old-fashionedmatchlock quickly assured the poor wolf that he had indeed been deludedto his destruction, and that this hoax was the very last he should liveto be the victim of.
Rare, indeed, was the day when the hunter and his little Englishfriend returned to Moscow without something to show as the result oftheir drive out into the forest. Whether it was a hare, or a braceof tree-partridges, or the pretty red overcoat of a fox, or the grayhide of a wolf--something was sure to accompany little Nancy when shereturned to her father's apartments; for Boris was a hunter whose skillnever failed.
Thus the winter passed and the summer came, and another winter, andthe Tsar was ever busy with his recruiting, and his drilling, and hisrevellings, and his designing of ships and fleets. And Boris was busyalso with his duty and his pleasure--his duty with his regiment andwith his Tsar, and his chief pleasure in the company of the littleEnglish girl who had found for herself a place so close to his heart.And Boris was happy both in his pleasure and in his duties, as shouldbe the case with every right-minded person, and is, I trust, with everyreader of these lines.