CHAPTER XVIII.HOW BORIS THREW A BIG DUTCHMAN OVERBOARD.
But busy as the Tsar was during the daytime, visiting and inspectingthe ships and trade, and examining the skippers and sailors of allnationalities as to maritime affairs and other matters connected withthe various countries from which they hailed, he nevertheless foundtime at night for much conviviality and jollification. Menshikoffwas always at hand to bear his master company, but Boris, being nowpractically a teetotaller, was allowed to go to bed instead of takinghis share of drinking and revelling. There were generally guests atthese entertainments--skippers from English and Dutch ships, or Englishfriends of low or high degree who had been fortunate enough to scrapeacquaintance with the big Russian Tsar.
One night there was a guest present, the mate of a Dutch vessel thenlying in the Thames, to whom the Tsar was much attracted by reason ofhis great size, of which the man was exceedingly proud. He was almost,if not quite, as tall as Peter himself, who, according to Russianchroniclers, measured six feet seven inches in height. This person, byname Otto Koog, had taken his full share of the good cheer provided byhis royal host, and his tongue was freed so that it spoke many vainthings, both of his own prowess and of the feebleness of other people.There was no man on this earth, the fellow boasted, whom he could notput down in fifteen seconds. The Tsar expressed a great desire towitness an exhibition of Koog's strength, whereupon Koog said that,with his Majesty's permission, he would carry Peter and Menshikofftogether three times round the room, like two babies, one upon eacharm. This feat he performed with ease, though he declared the Tsar tobe one of the finest babies he had ever lifted. Then Peter said thatthis was all very well, but could he carry in his arms a strongish manwho was unwilling to be so carried? To this Koog replied that therebreathed not a man whom he could not lift and carry, whether willing orunwilling, as easily as a four days' puppy.
"That being so, mynheer," said Peter, "there is one asleep in theroom above us in this very house whom I should like to see broughtdownstairs in your arms. You shall wake him first and pull him out ofbed. Tell him I sent you to bring him down in your hands as you wouldcarry a baby."
Nothing loath, the big Dutchman left the room, and soon the Tsarand his guests could hear him blundering up the wooden stairs. Thencame the sound of his heavy feet upon the floor above, after which aponderous bump, as of a great body falling upon the ground, this beingfollowed by the noise of talking.
Next began rushings to and fro, bumpings and thumpings on the floor,crashing of glass, and smashing of crockery and furniture; then morejumping and tumbling, with occasional loud shouts. Then came thebanging open of a door, and the stumbling and sliding footfall asof one descending the stairs with difficulty. Next there was muchstruggling at the door of the room, with kickings at the panels ofthe door; and presently the hinges flew asunder and a big Russianboot appeared through the panels, and into the chamber walked Boris,carrying in his arms Mynheer Otto Koog, whose kickings and strugglingsscattered many bottles as the young Russian deposited his burden uponthe supper-table before the Tsar in the centre of a large dish of stew.
Then the Tsar and his guests began to laugh and applaud, and laughagain when Boris wiped his brow with his hand, and with mock gravitysaid, "Supper is served, your Majesty."
Koog declared that he must have drunk more than was good for him, or noman on earth could have done what Boris had done this night. But theTsar laughed, and maintained that drunk or sober Koog would find hisbold bear-eater a pretty tough customer.
Then Koog, in the smart of defeat, challenged Boris to a wrestlingmatch on board his own ship, the match to take place on the followingmorning, and the victory to belong to him who should first succeed inpitching the other overboard into the water. The Tsar did not wait forBoris to express any opinion on this matter, but immediately acceptedthe challenge in his name for ten o'clock on board the _Zuyder Zee_.
When the morning came rain was falling heavily, which made the deck ofthe Dutch ship, upon which this wrestling match was to take place, verywet and slippery. Koog had put on his string slippers, which wouldgive him a far better hold of the wet deck than would be afforded bythe thick Russian boots which Boris wore. Nevertheless, the hunter madeno objection, and took his stand opposite to his antagonist, both beingstripped to the waist.
The Dutchman was by far the taller and heavier man, but what Borislacked in weight he made up in the spring and agility of his movements.At the word to commence, given by the Tsar himself, the big Dutchmansprang at Boris, and clasping him by the waist raised him some inchesfrom the ground, and actually made as though he would end the battle inits earliest stage by carrying the Russian to the side of the ship, andfairly hoisting him over the bulwark. But the hunter had no intentionof allowing the fight to close before it had fairly begun. He struggledin Koog's arms until his feet were once more upon the ground, when he,in his turn, clasped his antagonist by neck and waist, and the wrestlebegan in earnest. For full half-a-minute neither Dutchman nor Russianobtained any advantage; if Otto succeeded in pushing Boris a few inchesnearer to the ship's side, Boris quickly recovered his lost ground.Then, of a sudden, the hunter's foot slipped on the wet deck, and inan instant he was prone at the feet of the other. Koog was all readyto take advantage of this misfortune, and before the Russian championcould recover himself he seized him in his arms, as though he carried ababy, and sprang with him to the side of the vessel.
"Boris lifted his kicking legs and slid them over thebulwark."_Page 210._ ]
For a moment Peter and the crowd of spectators thought that it was allup with the chances of poor Boris, and looked over the side to see himgo splashing into the water beneath.
But Boris was far from being beaten yet. He laid hold of a rope whichformed part of the rigging of the ship, and to this he clung so tightlythat all the efforts of the mighty Dutchman could not compel him torelax his hold. Suddenly, however, he did relax his hold, and this justas Koog gave so violent a pull that when the resistance unexpectedlyfailed, he staggered backwards. At the same moment, Boris twisted inhis arms, and feeling the ground once more with his feet, pushed sovigorously at his antagonist that Otto fell violently backwards withBoris on the top of him. They both rolled about for many minutes, firstone being uppermost and then the other, until by mutual consent theyboth rose to their feet in order to start fair once more; and thusended the first round.
Then began the final stage of the contest. Three times Boris forcedKoog to the bulwark, but could get him no further; and twice thebear-hunter was himself well-nigh hoisted over the side. Then, at hisfourth attempt, Boris drove Koog backwards till his back touched thebulwark; there, closing with him, with a desperate effort he liftedthe ponderous Dutchman till Koog sat upon the rail. Then Otto, indesperation, hitched one foot around an iron stay which stood upagainst the bulwark, and pressed forward with all his weight andstrength upon the champion of Russia, who, in his turn, did all thatlay in his power to force the Dutchman backwards; and so the pairremained for upwards of a minute, straining, and hissing, and panting,and sweating, while the fate of Koog hung in the balance.
Then suddenly Boris relaxed, for an instant, his pressure upon Otto'sshoulders, though without losing his grip. The strain removed, Koog'sbody fell forwards, while his leg flew up, having released itself fromthe stay. Instantly Boris stooped, and with one hand laid hold of theDutchman's baggy trouser leg, while with the other he continued hispressure upon the shoulder. Backwards went the Netherlander, slowly butsurely; his balance was lost, and so, for him, was the fight. DeftlyBoris lifted his kicking legs and slid them over the bulwark, bendingthem back over the body, which was now in full retreat towards thewater, and in an instant the big man splashed into the waves and themuddy Thames closed over his head. So fatigued was the Dutchman withhis exertions that he could barely keep afloat, and was quite unable toswim a stroke; he floated away gasping and sputtering, and the crew ofa neighbouring vessel fished him out with a boat-hook and ropes.
Great was the joy
of the Tsar over this victory of his champion. Peterhoisted Boris upon his own shoulders, and carried him round and roundthe ship, amid the cheers and laughter of many spectators, not only onboard the _Zuyder Zee_, but also upon many other vessels anchored nearher.
After this triumph, the Tsar was still more anxious to pit his Russianchampion against those of other nationalities, and involved poor Borisin many defeats by reason of this passion. As an instance, a coal minerfrom Cumberland, and a champion wrestler of that county, was hunted upby the Tsar and pitted against Boris for a match. In the skilled handsof this man, poor, untutored Boris was as a child in arms. The Cumbrianthrew him again and again, adopting at each attempt a new device of themany known to him, and every one of them sufficient to topple overthe Russian like a nine-pin. Boris, and Peter also, were to learn thatmere strength and activity were insufficient to cope with equal, oreven inferior strength, scientifically exercised. But in spite of this,Boris, after having fallen heavily six times, ended the fight in amanner unexpected by his adversary, and little to his taste. The matchtook place on the deck of a collier, and at the seventh round Boris,suddenly bending before his antagonist could lay hold of him, caughtthe Cumbrian champion by the knees, and lifting him by a tremendouseffort, sent him flying over his shoulder, and over the side of theship also, into mid-river, where the poor man would have been drownedhad not Boris himself gone to his assistance.
Peter gave the Cumbrian champion a present in money, and offered himhandsome wages to come over to his country and teach the Russians towrestle. But the man of Cumberland looked knowingly at the Tsar, andrefused the offer; he would rather stay, he said, in a country "wheremen did not eat their own kind," even though at a lower rate of wages.In vain the Tsar assured him that in Russia men are not cannibals;the sturdy north countryman only looked the more knowing, and thenegotiations ended where they began.
Then, again, Boris was required to run races with sundry champions, whoeasily defeated him, as was natural; though he held his own in jumping.At swimming, however, even the best of his English competitors wereobliged to take a second place, for Boris excelled any who were pittedagainst him, especially in the longer races.
In the noble science of self-defence Boris, though untutored, surprisedevery one by his aptitude. It was not that he was skilled either indefence or in attack; but his eye was good and his natural guardexcellent, while his enemies, or rather antagonists, declared that itwas one of the most disagreeable things in the world to receive a blowstraight from the Russian's shoulder.
Thus, though often worsted in the competitions wherein, by the desireof the Tsar, he tried his strength and agility against the best foreignexponents, Boris on the whole held his own against all comers, and theTsar declared himself well satisfied with his faithful bear-hunter, whohad upheld, to the best of his ability, the claim of far-away Muscovyto compete with the rest of the world in trials of strength and pluckand endurance. It was, indeed, a matter of no little pleasure andencouragement to Peter to find that he was able to produce a pickedman who had proved himself as good as, and sometimes better than, thepicked men of other nationalities. The circumstance led him to hopethat his Russians, when instructed by qualified tutors, would showthemselves worthy to take their proper place in Europe, and to holdtheir own whether on the battle-field or on board ship, as he wouldassuredly call upon them to do ere many years were past.
Besides all this, Peter saw and did much, during his stay in London,with which our bear-hunter was not so immediately connected; but fora short account of his doings and seeings among our forefathers inthis merry land of England, I must refer my readers to the followingchapter.