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006 - 06 Chapter 6 Pugatchef · Daughter of the Commandant

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Speaker 1: Chapter six of the Daughter of the Commandant by Alexander Pushkin,
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Speaker 1: translated by Missus Milne Home. This LibriVox recording is in
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Speaker 1: the public domain recording by Kevin Davidson Pugatchov. Before beginning
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Speaker 1: to relate those strange events to which I was witness,
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Speaker 1: I must say a few words about the state of
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Speaker 1: affairs in the district of Orenburg about the end of
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Speaker 1: the year seventeen seventy three. This rich and large province
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Speaker 1: was peopled by a crowd of half savage tribes who
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Speaker 1: had lately acknowledged the sovereignty of the Russian Tsars. Their
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Speaker 1: perpetual revolts, their impatience of all rule and civilized life,
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Speaker 1: their treachery and cruelty, obliged the authorities to keep a
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Speaker 1: sharp watch upon them. In order to reduce them to submission.
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Speaker 1: Forts had been placed at suitable points, and in most
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Speaker 1: of them troops had been permanently established, composed of Cossacks,
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Speaker 1: former possessors of the banks the river Yayik. But even
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Speaker 1: these Cossacks, who should have been a guarantee for the
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Speaker 1: peace and quiet of the country, had for some time
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Speaker 1: shown a dangerous and unruly spirit. Towards the imperial government.
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Speaker 1: In seventeen seventy two, a riot took place in the
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Speaker 1: Principal settlement. This riot was occasioned by the severe measures
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Speaker 1: taken by General Traunberg in order to quail the insubordination
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Speaker 1: of the army. The only result was the barber's murder
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Speaker 1: of Traunberg, the substitution of new chiefs, and at last
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Speaker 1: a suppression of the revolt by volleys of grape and
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Speaker 1: harsh penalties. All this befell shortly before my coming to
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Speaker 1: Fort Bielagorsk. Then all was or seemed quiet, but the
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Speaker 1: authorities had too lightly lent faith to the pretended repentance
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Speaker 1: of the rebels, who were silently brooding over their hatred
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Speaker 1: and only awaiting a favorable opportunity to reopen the struggle.
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Speaker 1: One evening, it was early in October seventeen seventy three,
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Speaker 1: I was alone in my quarters, listening to the whistling
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Speaker 1: of the autumn wind and watching the clouds passing rapidly
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Speaker 1: over the moon. A message came from the commandant that
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Speaker 1: he wished to see me at once at his house.
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Speaker 1: I found there Schwabrin, Ivan Ignatchitch and the Uguryadnik of
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Speaker 1: the Cossacks. Neither the wife nor daughter of the commandant
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Speaker 1: was in the room. He greeted me in an absent manner. Then,
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Speaker 1: closing the door, he made everybody sit down except the Yuryadnik,
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Speaker 1: who remained standing, drew a letter from his pocket and said,
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Speaker 1: to us, gentlemen, important news. Listen to what the general writes.
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Speaker 1: He put on his spectacles and read as follows to
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Speaker 1: the commandant of Fort Belgorsk, Captain Mironov, these secret I
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Speaker 1: hereby inform you that the fugitive and schismatic Don Cossack
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Speaker 1: Emilian Pugachov, after being guilty of the unpardonable insolence of
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Speaker 1: usurping the name of our late Emperor repeated the third,
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Speaker 1: has assembled a gang of robbers, excited risings in villages
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Speaker 1: on the Yayik, and taken and even destroyed several forts,
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Speaker 1: while committing everywhere robberies and murders in consequence. When you
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Speaker 1: shall receive this, it will be your duty to take
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Speaker 1: such measures as may be necessary against the aforesaid rascally usurper,
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Speaker 1: and if possible, crush him completely should he venture to
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Speaker 1: attack the fort. Confided to your care take such measures
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Speaker 1: as may be necessary, said the commandant, taking off his
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Speaker 1: spectacles and folding up the paper. You know, it is
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Speaker 1: very easy to say that the scoundrel seems in force,
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Speaker 1: and we have but a hundred and thirty men, even
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Speaker 1: counting the Cossacks, on whom we must not count too much,
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Speaker 1: be it said, without any reproach to you, maksimitch, The
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Speaker 1: Yuryadnik smiled. Nevertheless, let us do our duty. Gentlemen, be ready,
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Speaker 1: place sentries, let there be night guards, and case of attack,
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Speaker 1: shut the gates and turn out the troops. You, maksimitch,
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Speaker 1: keep a sharp eye on the Cossacks, Look to the cannon,
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Speaker 1: and let it be well cleansed. And above all, let
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Speaker 1: everything be kept secret. Let no one in the fort
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Speaker 1: know anything until the time comes. After thus giving his orders,
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Speaker 1: Ivan Kuzmitch dismissed us. I went out with Shabrin, speculating
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Speaker 1: upon what we had just heard. What do you think
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Speaker 1: of it? How'd it all end? I asked him, God
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Speaker 1: only knows, said he. We shall see. As yet there
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Speaker 1: is evidently nothing serious if however, then he fell into
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Speaker 1: a brown study, while whistling absently a French air in
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Speaker 1: spite of all our precautions. The news of Pugatchov's appearance
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Speaker 1: spread all over the fort. Whatever was the respect in
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Speaker 1: which Ivan Kuzmitch held his wife, he would not have
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Speaker 1: revealed to her for the world a secret confided to
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Speaker 1: him on military business. After receiving the general's letter, he
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Speaker 1: had rather cleverly got rid of Vasilisa Igorovna by telling
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Speaker 1: her that Father Gharasim had heard most extraordinary news from Orenburg,
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Speaker 1: which he was keeping most profoundly dark. Vasilisa Igorovna instantly
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Speaker 1: had a great wish to go and see the Pope's wife,
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Speaker 1: and by the advice of Ivan Kuzmitch, she took Basha
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Speaker 1: lest she should be dull all alone. Left master of
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Speaker 1: the field. Ivan Kuzmich set to fetch us at once
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Speaker 1: and took care to shut up Polashka in the kitchen
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Speaker 1: so that she might not spy upon us. Vasilisa Igorovna
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Speaker 1: came home without having been able to worm anything out
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Speaker 1: of the Pope's wife. She learned upon coming in that
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Speaker 1: during her absence, Ivan Kuzmitch had held a council of
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Speaker 1: war and that Palashka had been locked up. She suspected
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Speaker 1: that her husband had deceived her, and she immediately began
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Speaker 1: overwhelming him with questions. But von Kusmitch was ready for
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Speaker 1: this onset. He did not care in the least, and
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Speaker 1: he boldly answered his curious better half. Look here, little mother,
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Speaker 1: the country women have taken it into their heads to
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Speaker 1: light fires with straw, and as that might be the
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Speaker 1: cause of a misfortune, I assembled my officers and I
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Speaker 1: ordered them to watch that the women do not make
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Speaker 1: fires with straw, but rather with faggots and brambles. And
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Speaker 1: why were you obliged to shut up Palashka, his wife
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Speaker 1: asked him. Why was the poor girl obliged to stay
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Speaker 1: in the kitchen till he came back? Ivan Kusmitch was
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Speaker 1: not prepared for such a question. He stammered some incoherent words.
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Speaker 1: Vasilisa Igorovna instantly understood that her husband had deceived her,
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Speaker 1: but as she could not at that moment get anything
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Speaker 1: out of him, she forebore questioning him and spoke of
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Speaker 1: some pickle cucumbers, which Akulina Pamfilovna knew how to prepare
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Speaker 1: in a supernative manner. All night long, Selicia Igorovna lay
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Speaker 1: awake trying to think what her husband could have in
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Speaker 1: his head that she was not permitted to know the morrow.
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Speaker 1: On her return from Mass, she saw Ivan Ignatyitch busy
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Speaker 1: clearing the cannon of the rags, small stones, bits of wood,
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Speaker 1: knuckle bones, and all kinds of rubbish that the little
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Speaker 1: boys had crammed it with. What can these warlike preparations mean?
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Speaker 1: Thought the commandants. Why can it be that they are
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Speaker 1: afraid of an attack by the Kirgheese. But then is
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Speaker 1: it likely that Ivan Kuzmitch would hide from me such
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Speaker 1: a trifle? She called Ivan Ignatitch, determining to have out
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Speaker 1: of him the secret which was provoking her feminine curiosity.
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Speaker 1: Vasilisa igorovna I began by making to him some remarks
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Speaker 1: on household matters, like a judge who begins across examination
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Speaker 1: by questions irrelevant to the subject in hand, in order
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Speaker 1: to reassure and lull the watchfulness of the accused. Then,
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Speaker 1: after a few minutes silence, she gave a deep sigh,
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Speaker 1: and she said, shaking her head, Oh, good Lord, just
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Speaker 1: think what news? What will come of all this? Eh?
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Speaker 1: My little mother replied Ivan Ignatyitch, Lord is merciful. We
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Speaker 1: have soldiers enough and much powder. I have cleared the cannon.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps we may be able to defeat this Pugachov. If
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Speaker 1: God do not forsake us, the wolf will eat none
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Speaker 1: of us here. And what manner of man is this Pougatchov?
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Speaker 1: Questioned the commandant's wife, ivan ignatych saw plainly that he
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Speaker 1: had said too much and bid his tongue. But it
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Speaker 1: was too late. Vassilise Goorovna obliged him to tell her all.
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Speaker 1: After giving her word that she would tell no one.
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Speaker 1: She kept her promise and did not breathe a word
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Speaker 1: indeed to any one, save only the Pope's wife, and
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Speaker 1: that for the very good reason that the good lady's cow,
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Speaker 1: being still out on the step, might be lifted by
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Speaker 1: the robbers. Soon everybody was talking of Pugatchov. The rumors
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Speaker 1: abroad about him were very diverse. The commandant sent the
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Speaker 1: yuryadnik on a mission to look well into all the
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Speaker 1: neighboring village and little forts. The uryadnik came back after
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Speaker 1: an absence of two days and reported that he had
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Speaker 1: seen on the step about sixty versts from the fort
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Speaker 1: many fires, and that he had heard the Bashkirs say
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Speaker 1: that an innumerable force was approaching. He had nothing of
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Speaker 1: a more detailed or accurate nature to relate, having been
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Speaker 1: afraid of going too near. We soon began to notice
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Speaker 1: a certain stir among the Cossacks in the garrison. They
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Speaker 1: gathered in all the streets and little groups, spoke among
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Speaker 1: themselves in low voices, and dispersed directly they caught sight
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Speaker 1: of a dragoon or any other Russian soldier. They were watched. Yulai,
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Speaker 1: a baptized Kalmuk, revealed to the commandant something very serious.
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Speaker 1: According to him, the Yuryadnik had made a false report.
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Speaker 1: On his return. The perfidious cossack had told his comrades
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Speaker 1: that he had advanced upon the rebels, and that he
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Speaker 1: had been presented to their chief, and that this chief
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Speaker 1: gave him his hand to kiss, and had had a
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Speaker 1: long interview with him. At once, the Kammandant put the
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Speaker 1: Uradnik in arrest and declared Yulay his substitute. This change
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Speaker 1: was received by the Cossacks with manifest discontent. They grumbled aloud,
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Speaker 1: and ivan Ignatyitch, who executed the commandant's orders, heard them
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Speaker 1: with his own ears say, pretty clearly, only way to
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Speaker 1: bet you garrison rat. The Kommandant had intended to cross
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Speaker 1: examine his prisoner that same day, but the Yuryadnik had escaped,
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Speaker 1: doubtless with the connivance of his accomplices. Another thing occurred
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Speaker 1: to augment the commander's disquiet. Abashkir was taken bearing seditious letters.
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Speaker 1: Upon this occasion, the Kommandant decided upon assembling his officers
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Speaker 1: anew and in order to do that, he wished again
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Speaker 1: to get rid of his wife under some plausible pretext.
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Speaker 1: But as ivan Kuzmitch was one of the most upright
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Speaker 1: and sincere of men, he could not think of any
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Speaker 1: other way than that which he had already employed on
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Speaker 1: a previous occasion. Do you know, vasilissi guovna, he said
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Speaker 1: to her, while clearing his throat. Once or twice it
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Speaker 1: is said that unfather Gerasim has received from the town.
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Speaker 1: Hold your tongue, interrupted his wife. You want again to
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Speaker 1: call a council of war and talk without me by
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Speaker 1: Emilyan Pugutchov, But you will not deceive me this time.
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Speaker 1: Ivan Kuzmitch opened his eyes wide. Well, little mother, said he.
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Speaker 1: If you know all, stay, there is nothing more to
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Speaker 1: be done. We will talk before you. Yes, you are
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Speaker 1: quite right, my little father, rejoined She it is of
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Speaker 1: no use your trying to play the sly fox. Send
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Speaker 1: for the officers. We met again, Ivan Kuzmitch read to
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Speaker 1: us before his wife Pugachov's proclamation, drawn up by some
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Speaker 1: illiterate Cossack. The robber proclaimed his intention of marching directly
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Speaker 1: upon our fort, inviting the Cossacks and the soldiers to
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Speaker 1: join him, and counseling the chiefs not to withstand him,
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Speaker 1: threatening them should they do so, with the utmost torture.
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Speaker 1: The proclamation was written in coarse but emphatic terms, and
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Speaker 1: was likely to produce a great impression on the minds
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Speaker 1: of simple people. What a rascal, cried the combidant's wife.
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Speaker 1: Just look what he dares to propose to us. Go
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Speaker 1: out to meet him and lay our colors at his feet. Oh,
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Speaker 1: the son of a dog. He doesn't then know that
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Speaker 1: we have been forty years in the service, and that,
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Speaker 1: thank Heaven, we have had a taste of all sorts.
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Speaker 1: Is it possible that there can have been commandants base
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Speaker 1: and cowardly enough to obey this robber? Such a thing
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Speaker 1: should not be possible. Rejoined ivan Kuzmitch. Nevertheless, they say
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Speaker 1: the scoundrel has already got possession of several It appears
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Speaker 1: he is in strength. Indeed, observed Shrablin, we shall know
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Speaker 1: directly the amount of his strength. Resumed the commandant Vasilisiagorovna,
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Speaker 1: give me the key of the barn. Ivan Ignantzyitch, bring
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Speaker 1: up the bashkir and tell you lie to fetch the rods.
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Speaker 1: Wait about ivan Kuzmitch, said the commandant's wife, rising, let
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Speaker 1: me take Masha out of the house. Without I do show,
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Speaker 1: she would hear the cries and they would frighten her.
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Speaker 1: And as for me to tell the truth, I am
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Speaker 1: not over curious about such matters, so hoping to see
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Speaker 1: you again. Torture was then so rooted in the practice
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Speaker 1: of justice, but the beneficial ukaz ordaining its abolition, remained
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Speaker 1: a long time of none effect. It was thought that
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Speaker 1: the confession of the accused was indispensable to condemnation, an
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Speaker 1: idea not merely unreasonable, but contrary to the dictates of
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Speaker 1: the simplest good sense in legal matters. For if the
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Speaker 1: denial of the accused be not accepted as proof of
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Speaker 1: his innocence, the extorted confession should still less serve as
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Speaker 1: proof of his guilt. Yet even now I still hear
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Speaker 1: old judges sometimes regret the abolition of this barbarous custom.
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Speaker 1: But in those days, no one ever doubted the necessity
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Speaker 1: for torture, neither the judges nor the accused themselves. That
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Speaker 1: is why the commandant's order did not arouse any surprise
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Speaker 1: or emotion among us. Ivan Ignatchitz went off to seek
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Speaker 1: the Bashkir, who was under lock and key in the
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Speaker 1: commandant's barn, and in a few minutes he was brought
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Speaker 1: into the ante room. The commandant ordered him to be
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Speaker 1: brought before him. The Bashkir crossed the sill with difficulty,
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Speaker 1: owing to the wooden shackles he had on his feet.
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Speaker 1: I glanced at him and involuntarily shuddered. He lifted his
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Speaker 1: high cap and remained near the door. I shall never
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Speaker 1: forget that man. He seemed to be at least seventy
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Speaker 1: years old, and he had neither nose nor ears. His
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Speaker 1: head was shaven, and his beard could s desisted of
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Speaker 1: a few gray hairs. He was little of stature, thin
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Speaker 1: and bent, but his Tatar eyes still sparkled. Ah, said
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Speaker 1: the commandant, who recognized by those terrible marks, one of
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Speaker 1: the rebels punished in seventeen forty one. You are an
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Speaker 1: old wolf. By what I see, you have already been
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Speaker 1: caught in our traps. Tis not the first time you
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Speaker 1: have rebelled, since you have been so well cropped. Come
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Speaker 1: near and tell me who sent you. The old Bashkir
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Speaker 1: remained silent and looked at the commandant with a look
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Speaker 1: of complete idiocy. Well, why don't you speak, continued ivan Kuzmitch.
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Speaker 1: Don't you understand russ You lie? Ask him in your
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Speaker 1: language who sent him to our fort? You lie? Repeated
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Speaker 1: ivan Kuzmitch's question in the Tatar language. But the Bashkir
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Speaker 1: looked at him with the same expression and spoke never
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Speaker 1: a word. Djatschki. The commandant rapped out a tartar oath.
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Speaker 1: I'll make you speak here, you lie, Strip him of
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Speaker 1: his striped dressing, gown his idiot's dress, and stripe his shoulders. Now,
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Speaker 1: then you lie, touch him up properly. Two pensioners began
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Speaker 1: undressing the Bashkir. Great uneasiness then overspread the countenance of
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Speaker 1: the unhappy man. He began looking all round like a
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Speaker 1: poor little animal in the hands of children. But when
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Speaker 1: one of the pensioners seized his hands in order to
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Speaker 1: twine them around his neck, and, stooping upraised the old
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Speaker 1: man on his shoulders. When you lie took the rods
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Speaker 1: and lifted his hands to strike. Then the Bashkir gave
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Speaker 1: a long, deep moan, and, throwing back his head, opened
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Speaker 1: his mouth, wherein instead of a tongue, was moving a
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Speaker 1: short stump. We were all horrified, Well, said the commandant,
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Speaker 1: I see we can get nothing out of him, you lie,
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Speaker 1: take the Bashkir back to the barn, and as for us, gentlemen,
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Speaker 1: we have still to deliberate. We were continuing to discuss
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Speaker 1: our situation when Vasilisa Igorovna burst into the room, breathless
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Speaker 1: and looking afron What has happened to you, asked the Kammandant,
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Speaker 1: surprised Misery. Misery, replied Vassilisa Igorovna. Fort nizhnya Zern was
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Speaker 1: taken this morning. Father Kharasim's boys just come back. He
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Speaker 1: saw how it was taken. A commandant and all the
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Speaker 1: officers have been hanged, and all the soldiers are prisoners.
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Speaker 1: The rascals are coming here. This unexpected news made a
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Speaker 1: great impression upon me. The commandant of Fort nizhnyazern A
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Speaker 1: gentle and quiet young man, was known to me two
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Speaker 1: months previously. He had passed on his way from Orrenburg
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Speaker 1: with his young wife, and he had stayed with Ivan
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Speaker 1: kuzmitch The Nizhnya Tzernaya was only twenty five years away
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Speaker 1: from our fort. From hour to hour we might expect
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Speaker 1: to be attacked by Pugachov. The probable fate of Marya
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Speaker 1: Ivanovna rose vividly before my imagination, and my heart failed
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Speaker 1: me as I thought of it. Listen, Ivan kuzmitch I
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Speaker 1: said to the commandant, it is our duty to defend
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Speaker 1: the fort to the last gasp. That is understood. But
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Speaker 1: we must think of the women's safety. Send them to Orenburg,
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Speaker 1: if the road still be open, or to some fort
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Speaker 1: farther off and safer, which the rascals have not yet
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Speaker 1: had time to reach. Ivan kuzmitch turned to his wife,
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Speaker 1: Look here, mother, really, had we not better send you
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Speaker 1: away to some more distant place till the rebels be
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Speaker 1: put down? What nonsense, replied his wife. Show me the
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Speaker 1: fortress that bullets cannot reach. In what respect is Beeligorskaya
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Speaker 1: not safe? Thank heaven. We have now lived here more
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Speaker 1: than twenty one years. We have seen the Maashkirs and
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Speaker 1: the Kirghis. Perhaps we may weary out Pugatchov here, well,
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Speaker 1: little mother, rejoined Ivan Kuzmitch, stay if you like, since
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Speaker 1: you reckoned so much on our fort. But what are
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Speaker 1: we to do with Marsha. It is all right if
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Speaker 1: we weary him out, or if we be succored. But
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Speaker 1: if the robbers take the fort, well, then but here
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Speaker 1: Besilisha Igorovna could only stammer and become silent, choked by emotion.
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Speaker 1: No Vasilissi Goorovna, resumed the commandant, who remarked that his
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Speaker 1: words had made a great impression on his wife, perhaps
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Speaker 1: for the first time in her life. It is not
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Speaker 1: proper for Masha to stay here. Let us send her
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Speaker 1: to Orenburg, to her godmother. There are enough soldiers and
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Speaker 1: cannon there, and the walls are stone. And I should
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Speaker 1: even advise you to go away thither, for though you
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Speaker 1: be old, yet think of what will befall you if
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Speaker 1: the fort be taken by assault. Well, well said the wife.
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Speaker 1: We will send away Masha, But don't ask me to
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Speaker 1: go away, and don't think to persuade me, for I
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Speaker 1: will do no such thing. It will not suit me
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Speaker 1: either in my old age, to part from you and
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Speaker 1: go to seek a lonely grave in a strange land.
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Speaker 1: We have lived together, we will die together, And you
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Speaker 1: are right, said the commandant. Let us see, there is
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Speaker 1: no time to lose. Go and get Masha ready for
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Speaker 1: her journey. Tomorrow. We will start her off at day break,
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Speaker 1: and we will even give her an escort. Though to
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Speaker 1: tell the truth, we have none too many people here.
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Speaker 1: But where is she? A da Kolada Panfilovna's answered his wife.
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Speaker 1: She turned sick when she heard of the taking of
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Speaker 1: knees years erne. I dread lest she should fall. Ill,
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Speaker 1: O God in heaven, that we should have lived to
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Speaker 1: see this Vasilisea Igorovna went away to make ready for
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Speaker 1: her daughter's departure. The counsel of the commandants still continued,
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Speaker 1: but I no longer took any part in it. Martya
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Speaker 1: Ivanovna reappeared for supper, pale and her eyes red. We
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Speaker 1: supped in silence, and we rose from table earlier than usual.
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Speaker 1: Each of us returned to his quarters. After bidding good
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Speaker 1: bye to the whole family. I purposely forgot my sword
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Speaker 1: and came back to fetch it. I felt I should
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Speaker 1: find Marya alone. In fact, she met me on the
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Speaker 1: porch and handed me my sword. Good Bye, Piotr Androvitch,
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Speaker 1: she said to me. Crying there said me to Orenburg,
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Speaker 1: keep well and happy. Mayhap God will allow us to
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Speaker 1: see one another again. If not, she began to sob.
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Speaker 1: I pressed her in my arms. God be with you,
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Speaker 1: my angel, I said to her, my darling, my beloved one,
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Speaker 1: whatever befall me, rest assured that my last thought and
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Speaker 1: my last prayer will be for you. Masha still wept,
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Speaker 1: sheltered on my breast. I kissed her passionately, and abruptly
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Speaker 1: went out. End of Chapter six. Recording by Kevin Davidson
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Speaker 1: w w W dot Blog or die dot com