Under the Red Dragon: A Novel
approaching. Moreover, I had already been at Yalta longer than I could
ever have anticipated. The love of the brother and sister for each
other was, I knew, strong and tender; could I, therefore, but persuade
her to escape--"to fly" with me, as novels have it--to our camp, now
that he was a prisoner, and probably _en route_ for England! A meagre
choice of comforts would await her in the allied camp; but in the
excess of my love, my ardour, and folly, I forgot all about that, and
even about the Cossacks who occupied the Pass of the Baidar Valley.
It was not without emotions of undefined anxiety that on the following
day I heard from Ivan Yourivitch that Colonel Tolstoff had arrived,
and would meet me at dinner. The whole of that noon and afternoon
passed, but I could nowhere see Valerie; and on entering the room when
dinner was announced--a dinner _à la Russe_, the table covered with
flowers fresh from the conservatory--I was sensible that she received
me with an air of constraint which, in her, was very remarkable; while
something akin to malicious pleasure seemed to twinkle in the little
dark beadlike eyes of Madame Tolstoff as she introduced me to her son
the Colonel; at least, by his reception of me I understood so much of
what she said, for the old lady spoke in her native Russian. He was a
tall, grim-looking man, who, after laying aside the long military
_capote_, appeared in the dark green uniform of the 26th Infantry,
with several silver medals dangling on his well-padded breast. He had
fierce keen eyes, that seemed to glare at times under their bristling
brows; and he had an enormous sandy-coloured moustache, that appeared
to retain the blue curling smoke of his _papirosse_, or to emit it
grudgingly, as if it came through closely-laid thatch; a thick beard
of the same hue, streaked with grizzled gray hair, concealed a massive
jaw and most determined chin. He was huge, heavy-looking, and
muscular; and on seeing me, held out a strong, weather-beaten hand but
coldly and dryly, as he addressed me in German; and then we
immediately recognised each other, for he was the officer who
commanded the regiment which had occupied the abattis, and who
received me when I took the flag of truce into Sebastopol. Volhonski,
I have said, was a noble of the first class--that which traces
nobility back for a single century; but Tolstoff was only of the
second, or military class, being the son of a merchant, who after
serving eight years in the ranks as a _junker_, on being made an
officer becomes an hereditary noble, with the right to purchase a
landed estate. Tolstoff was quite lame--temporarily, however--by the
bruises his left leg had suffered from the explosion of a shell. He
spoke to me in bad and broken German, though I shall render his words
here in English.
"So my friend Volhonski is taken prisoner?" said I.
"Yes; less lucky than you, Herr Captain, who have to be taken yet," he
replied, tossing the fag end of his paper cigar into the _peitchka_.
"It was in a sortie, I understand?"
"A little one; his party was led astray by their guide towards the
trenches."
"Their guide! could one be found?"
"Yes; an officer who deserted to us."
"An officer!" said I, with astonishment.
"Yes; one who was a prime favourite with the Lord Raglan. Strange that
he should desert, was it not!"
"With Lord Raglan!" I continued, more bewildered still.
"The devil! You are strangely fond of repeating my words! Anyway he
wears a diamond ring that was given him by Lord Raglan for some great
service he performed; but as he is to be here to-night, you shall see
him yourself."
Guilfoyle! The inevitable Guilfoyle and his ring!
I could have laughed, but for rage at his cowardice, villainy, and
treachery, in actually acting as guide in that affair which caused a
loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners to our 68th Foot. However,
thought I, through my clenched teeth, I shall see him to-night.
"Have you ever seen this officer?" I asked.
"No; but he comes to Yalta with certain reports for my signature. I
doubt if Prince Woronzow, who is now Governor of Tiflis in Georgia,
knows who--_all_--honour his mansion by a residence therein. You have
made a longer visit among us this time than you did under the flag of
truce!"
"Circumstances have forced me to do so, with what willingness you may
imagine," said I, justly displeased by his tone and tenor of his
speech, which seemed to class me with a rascal and a traitor like
Guilfoyle. "I was most fortunate, however, in finding my way here,
after escaping death, first at the hands of your Cossacks, and
afterwards in the sea."
"Ah, they are troublesome fellows those Cossacks, and I fear you are
not quite done with them yet."
"They, and your infantry, too, found us pretty well prepared on that
misty morning at Inkermann," said I, growing more and more displeased
by his tone and manner.
"Well prepared! By----, I should think so; when people come on
frivolous errands with flags of truce, to see what an enemy is about
behind his own lines."
I felt the blood rush to my temples, and Valerie, with a piteous
expression in her soft face, said something in Russian, and with a
tone of expostulation; to which the grim Pulkovnick made no response,
but sat silently making such a dinner as seemed to indicate that
rations had been scarce in Sebastopol, and keeping Ivan Yourivitch in
constant attendance, but chiefly on himself. I could see that the man
was a soldier, and nothing but a soldier, a Russian military tyrant in
fact, and felt assured that the sooner I was out of Yalta, and beyond
his reach--risking even the Cossacks in the Valley--the better for
myself.
He was twice assisted by his amiable "mamma," to the _bativina_, i.e.,
soup made of roasted beef cut into small pieces, with boiled beetroot,
spring onions, carraway-seeds, purée of sorrel, with chopped eggs and
kvass. He was thrice helped to stuffed carrots with sauce, to roast
mutton with mushrooms, and compote of almonds; and he drank great
quantities of hydromel flavoured with spices, and so fermented with
hops that it foamed up in the silver tankard and over his vast
moustache. But in the intervals during dinner, and often speaking with
his mouth very full, he related for the express behoof of his mother
and Valerie, a very strange incident, which they seemed implicitly to
believe, and which the latter politely translated for me. It was to
the effect, that on the night Volhonski was taken prisoner, one of his
officers, a man of noble rank, and major of the Vladimir Regiment, was
carried into Sebastopol mortally wounded in an attempt to rescue him;
and as he was dying, the host was borne to him under a canopy by
Innocent, Bishop of Odessa, in person. As the procession passed a
tratkir, or tea-house, some soldiers and girls were dancing there to
the sound of a violin; and though they heard the voices of the
chanters, and the occasional ringing of the sanctus bell, they ceased
not their amusement, neither did they kneel, so the host passed on;
but like those who were enchanted by hearing the wonderful flute of
the German tale, they could not cease dancing, neither could the
violinist desist from playing, and for six-and-thirty hours they
continued to whirl in a wild waltz--in sorrow and tears, a ghastly
band--till, exhausted and worn nearly to skeletons, they sank gasping
and breathless on the floor, where they were still lying, paralysed in
all their limbs, and hopelessly insane!
Tolstoff seemed to hasten the ceremonies of the dinner-table to get
rid of the ladies; and the moment they rose he gave his mother some
_papirosses_, or cigarettes, to smoke, and then proceeded, leisurely,
to roll up one for himself, after pushing across the table towards me
the champagne, which he despised as very poor wine indeed.
"Hah, Yourivitch!" said he, taking up a decanter, and applying his
somewhat snub nose thereto; "what is this? corn-brandy!" he added,
draining a glassful; "as it is good, I must have a glass;" so he took
a second of the fiery fluid. "O, now I feel another man, and being
another man, require another glass;" so he took a _third_.
These additions to the hydromel did not seem to improve his temper,
and assuredly I would have preferred to follow the ladies to the
drawing-room, than to linger on with him
"In after-dinner talk
Across the walnuts and the wine,"
but that I feared to offend the man unnecessarily.
"Excuse me," said he, as he lay back in his seat, with his coat
unbuttoned, and proceeded, very coolly, to pick his teeth with one of
those small cross-hilted daggers, the slender blades of which are
about four inches long, and which are worn in secret by so many
Russian officers, and are all of the finest steel. After a pause,
during which he again dipped his long moustache in the foaming
hydromel, he said,
"Though Volhonski told me about you, I scarcely expected, Herr
Captain, to have found you here _still_."
"Where should I have gone--into the hands of the Cossacks, at Baidar?"
"Towards Kharkoff, at all events."
I coloured at this very pointed remark, as it was to that province in
the Ukraine that the Russians had transmitted many of the prisoners
taken during the war.
"Here I felt myself on a special footing."
"How, Herr Captain?"
"As the guest of the Volhonskis," said I, sternly.
"Though an enemy of Russia?"
"Politically or professionally, yes: but I have the honour to be
viewed as a friend by the Count, and also by his sister."
"Ah, indeed! I have heard as much. The Hospoza Valerie is, you see,
beautiful."
"Wondrously so," said I, with fervour, glad that I could cordially
agree with this odious fellow in one thing at least.
"Then beware," said Tolstoff, his face darkening; "for I don't believe
that much friendship can subsist between the sexes without its
assuming a warmer complexion."
"Colonel Tolstoff!"
"Besides, the Hospoza Valerie is a coquette--one who would flirt with
the tongs, if nothing better were at hand--so don't flatter yourself,
Herr Captain."
I felt inclined to fling the decanter at his head; for in his tone of
mentor he far exceeded even Volhonski.
"This is a somewhat offensive way to speak of a noble lady--the sister
of your friend," said I.
"We shall dismiss that subject; and now for another," said he. "It
must be pretty apparent to you, Herr Captain, that you cannot remain
here, unparoled, in your present anomalous position."
"I quite agree with you, and feel it most keenly; but I gave my parole
of honour to Valerie," I added, gaily and unwisely, for again the face
of Tolstoff lowered.
"To let you remain or go free were treason to Russia and the Czar; you
must therefore be sent as a prisoner of war to Kharkoff, and--"
"What then?"
"Be treated there according to the report I shall transmit with your
escort."
"What will Volhonski say?"
"Just what he pleases; the Count is a prisoner now himself."
I read some hidden meaning in his eyes, though he sat quietly cracking
walnuts and sipping his hydromel.
"An officer on duty, I fall into the hands of an enemy--" I was
beginning passionately, when he interrupted me, and his eyes gleamed
as he said,
"You had a despatch; I think you told Volhonski or his sister so?"
"Yes, Colonel--a despatch for Marshal Canrobert."
"Where is it?"
"I destroyed it."
"Bah!--I thought so," said he, scornfully.
"On my honour, I did so, Colonel Tolstoff!"
"Honour! ha, ha, you are a spy!"
"Rascal!" I exclaimed, feeling myself grow white with passion the
while; "recall this injurious epithet, or--"
"Or what? Dare you threaten me? I can pick the ace of hearts off a
card at twenty paces with a revolver, so beware; and yet I am not