by Mór Jókai
CHAPTER XXXVIII
THE TRAGI-COMEDY AT GRUSINO
The double wedding was to be celebrated. The whole of the tenantry hadbeen commanded to attend. The courtyard of the castle had been throngedwith wondering serfs from early dawn. Two couples--one handsome, theother loathsome--were to be married that day.
The preparations were on a magnificent scale. For three whole days thecastle cooks had been engaged in making the national dishes. Long floralwalks had been erected in the courtyard; the gateway had been convertedinto a triumphal arch by means of wreaths and colored transparencies. Inthe centre of the great courtyard was a stage erected, covered withgay-hued carpets of goat's hair. Upon it stood a table bearing an imageof the Virgin Mary, the covered plate in which were the wedding-rings, agoblet, bread and salt--in fine, everything required for the ceremonypreceding the marriage service. For there is much to be gone throughbefore a bridal couple reaches the church portion of the ceremony--muchto be gone through at the hands of the bystanders, the groomsmen,bridesmaids, and wedding-mother.
The wedding-mother has an important part to play. Until they arrive atthe church doors she is the principal personage.
Daimona is the wedding-mother in this instance. She is marrying one ofher serfs to her slave; she is mother to both. The high-backed chairupon the tribune is for her. At first sound of the bells the ceremonybegins. From the priest's house the bridesmaids bring the bride in herbridal array. Diabolka's dress glistens with heavy gold embroidery; acostly girdle encircles her slender waist, on her neck hangs a fivefoldnecklace of gold coins; her head-dress is of precious stones. One mightthink she was a princess. From the opposite side resounds a horn, andthe bridegroom, Schinko, is seen advancing with his supporters andgroomsmen; his coal-black, curly hair, falling on to his shoulders,betraying, despite the national costume, the bridegroom's Indiandescent.
The groomsmen welcome the approaching bride with song, and follow thebridal pair to the altar. From out the stables the second couple are nowbrought. Wild screeches and the squeak of the bagpipe accompany them intheir progress. The pomp of wedding garments only serves to make themmore ridiculous. They are received with mocking rhymes, which seem toplease them highly. Both are very drunk; they kiss every one who comesin their way; but as they near each other they cut hideous grimaces atone another; and as they go up to the altar steps the bride gives thebridegroom a good pinch on the arm, while the bridegroom deals her out asmart kick with his foot.
This couple is also placed at the table, so that bridegrooms and bridesstand one at each corner.
At the second peal of bells the wedding-mother descends with her wholeretinue from the castle. The retinue is composed of twelve femaleslaves, clad in white, who line the steps on either side. Thewedding-mother mounts the tribune alone, and takes her seat upon thethrone.
She is dressed like a queen, and wears a purple mantle; her cap ofmarten-skin is embroidered with gold and pearls; her face painted whiteand red. She begins the ceremony.
"Schinko, what do you bring the bride for your wedding present?"
And Schinko details what he brings her:
"Two gay-colored beds, a cloak of Karassia cloth lined with fox, abreastplate with silver buttons, a kokosnik set with pearls, two pair ofred boots, an embroidered linen shirt, twelve zinc plates, a dish, and agold-embroidered head-dress and veil--if she behaves well!"
All these gifts were brought round by the bridegroom's supporters, andseverally shown to the guests.
The bride, on her side, gives the bridegroom clothes, ornaments,household utensils, and, last, a bundle of birch rods, "with which he isto chastise me when I do not behave well."
Now it is the turn of the second couple.
"Well, Polyka, and what do you bring your bridegroom?"
But this well-assorted couple are not content that one should speakbefore the other; one interrupts the other, and they splutter out:
"I, a ragged cloak."
"I, a pot with a hole in it."
"I, a footless stocking in which ten cats could not catch one mouse."
"I, an empty jug that once had brandy in it."
"I, a bed sacking, with no blankets, and that lacks feathers."
The wedding guests laughed themselves ill over this dialogue of thebridal couple.
"And then twelve pair of 'dubina'!" shouted the bridegroom, with a loudlaugh.
"With two ends to them," returned the bride, with a giggle.
The word "dubina," so soft-sounding in Russian, signifies in thebarbaric English tongue--stick! The sack has found a mouth, the vinegarjar a stopper, and he his match, grinned the wedding guests.
"Now exchange rings," says Daimona to the couples. "They are in thiscovered plate. Those of the one couple are of gold and silver; the goldone is the bride's; the silver, the bridegroom's. The rings of thesecond couple are of copper and lead."
The wedding-mother, removing the silken cover from the plate, signed toDiabolka to set the example.
Diabolka, taking the gold and silver ring, placed the gold one on herown finger, and was handing the silver one to Schinko.
Daimona seized Diabolka's hand.
"Not so! You will give the silver ring to Vuk; and Schinko the copperone to Polyka. _For your bridegroom is Vuk, and Schinko's bride isPolyka._ That is the arrangement."
A burst of loud laughter followed upon these words. Now there would besome real fun. Diabolka and Vuk, Polyka and Schinko. The wedding-motherhad the right to marry her serfs as she chose. Her serfs belonged toher, hand and foot, as did her horses and her asses. She can pair herserfs as she chooses.
The laughter of the assembled guests grew louder as the two drunkenmonsters, at Daimona's words, threw themselves on the handsome preygiven over to them.
Their laughter was only stopped when Diabolka, before them all, gave Vuksuch a blow on the chest with both hands that he went backwards off thetable, and, rolling from the tribune, fell among the people.
Things were indeed going badly.
Daimona, springing towards the table like a fury, struck her fistviolently upon it. At that sound the spectators' laughter suddenlyceased. The grin was still on their faces, but every sound died away ontheir laughing lips.
It was fun no longer.
"You will not take the husband I have chosen for you?" shrieked Daimona,in fury.
"No," returned the girl, stamping her foot, "no!"
"Dog! gypsy devil! You dare to oppose me--me, who raised you from adung-heap!"
"Then let me go back to the dung-heap."
"So you shall! If you will not have the bridegroom I have given you,then take off the bridal dress I gave you, and be off in the gypsy ragsyou came in. But they want something to complete them--the addition of athrashing for your audacity. Schinko! Here!"
He himself, her elder brother, her lover, her bridegroom!
Schinko was wearing, as bridegroom, the symbol of his office hangingfrom his girdle--the short-handled whip. At his mistress's command heraised the whip.
"Strike!" ordered Daimona.
The girl, white with fear, held her face between her hands.
"Brother, can you strike me?"
She had even got so far as to fear the lash. Or was it the thought thatit was Schinko's hand which was to strike that made her shrink back? Thegypsy's heart was not hard enough to let him strike the blow. He threwthe whip away.
"Dog, pick up that whip; or shall I have you and her tied together tothe tail of a wild horse? Go on. Slash away until I say enough; fiftylashes for me, fifty for Junker Jevgen."
Schinko picked up the whip.
Despairing, the girl, flinging herself at Daimona's feet, clasped herknees, and, sobbing, implored for mercy.
"Ah, you abomination, that's the place for you!" cried Daimona throughher clinched teeth; and seizing the girl at her feet by her long plaits,she shrieked to Schinko, "Now, have at her!"
With one spring the gypsy, like a panther, was upon them, and, seizingDaimona by the throat
with his left hand, with his right he whipped outhis dagger. Terrified, Daimona released her hold of Diabolka anddefended herself with one arm; the serf's dagger had pierced hershoulder, the blood spouted high from it.
"Heh! varlets! seize him! help!" stormed the woman.
But not a person stirred among the crowd. Daimona saw that she was leftto herself. She was a powerful woman who knew how to fight; so, freeingherself from the gypsy's grasp, she pushed him from her, sprang off thetribune, and rushed towards the castle steps, Schinko after her.
Nor did a hand stir to hinder the serf. The crowd, the whole body ofservants, looked on, and saw Schinko dash after the mistress and woundher afresh. The woman, turning upon him, began to wrestle with herpursuer; his dagger was plunged again and again into her breast. Oncemore she succeeded in pushing back her adversary, and, darting into themidst of her women servants, shouted, "Help! protect me!" The women puttheir hands to their ears that they might not hear her cries. They allhated her. Then she was seen flying down the long corridor, screamingand shrieking, her murderer close upon her heels. Still no one went tothe rescue.
At the extreme end of the corridor was the picture of a saint. Thithershe fled, and fell down before it in beseeching attitude. But the saintdid not stir a hand to protect her. Then rushing to the parapet of thebalcony, she attempted in vain to spring from it.
The murderer slowly comes down the stone steps into the courtyard. Apath is made for him. He ascends the bridal tribune. There, her face tothe ground, lies a girl motionless with terror, shame, and despair.Close to her the wedding garments. The murderer wipes the blood off hisdagger with the bridal veil, and, taking the girl by the hand, raisesher to her feet. They look each other in the eyes. One look, like acouple of wild wolves. No need for speech! Then they run, hand in hand,into the steppe, into the woods--anywhere. No one seeks to hold themback. They were never seen again.
Who would attempt to find two wolves escaped from captivity, in theirnative lair, amid the dwellers of the endless steppes, whether in forestor jungle? Only once did the two call a halt, where Diabolka, havingreached her gypsy encampment, wrote the letter to Jakuskin, in which sherelated the tragi-comedy of Grusino, and of which a copy fell into thehands of the Czar's favorite, acquainting him with the horrors that hadtaken place. The starosts of Grusino had not had the courage to givehim the tidings.
Zeneida acted wisely in having personally related the events to theCzar; for those who later informed him of what had occurred at Grusinomade a point of causing it to appear that this murder was in connectionwith St. Petersburg secret societies. Many were set upon finding themotive for the deed in high circles, where it was a matter of interestto keep the favorite from the person of the Czar, and where it washoped, by the banishment of the son, to have effected a rupture of theclose bond uniting Czar and favorite. Schinko and Diabolka were hired bythe conspirators.
Was there any truth in this? No one has ever cleared up the mystery. Butif any hand had prepared the blow, it had struck home.
Araktseieff was to be seen tearing through the streets of St.Petersburg, hatless, with hair wildly streaming. Your orthodox Russian,when he mourns, goes in sun and snow with head uncovered.
On the day of his flight two great wagon-loads of state papers weredespatched from the favorite's palace to the Hermitage. His orders, hissword, his keys of office, he sent by his house-porter to the LordChamberlain. And, at the moment of his departure, the thunder of "HolyChristopher" startled the inhabitants of St. Petersburg out of theirrest. This father among cannons is only fired when a general dies. Thecourt favorite had himself gone to the commandant of the fortress andordered the cannon to be fired. The commandant had no choice but toobey. Araktseieff was commander-in-chief of the artillery. When thefiring was over the commandant asked:
"What was the name of the deceased general?"
"Alexis Andreovitch Araktseieff!"
Some days later the Czar had terrible news of Araktseieff. His reasonhad entirely left him.