The Great White Army Part 19

"The girl is well born," said I, "and this is neither the place nor the time to think of such things. Why do you allow her to go upon such an errand at all? Are there not other guides?"

He looked at me slyly.

"None so pretty, mon oncle; and besides, a man can always make a woman understand. She will get us very well to the Berezina, and there we shall send her back with a present."

"Of horseflesh," said I; and then: "The whole thing is nonsense, and you are likely to pay a high price for her company. Remember what I am saying."

He promised to do so, but immediately linked his arm in hers and began to sing one of our old marching songs. We must have gone another league before he told me that her home was in a village some few miles to the south of the route the army was taking, but really upon the old main road to the Berezina.

"You and I will give them the slip at dusk," said he, "and take our luck again. I will wager the girl's honesty against a hundred crowns.

We can stop the night at her father's house and get food. Do not look so displeased, mon oncle. We will take twenty of our fellows to see that the Cossacks do not cut our throats, and we shall be half a day's march on the road to the river before the army has left the next bivouac."

I did not like the idea of it, but when a man is making love to a pretty woman, and she has asked him to her house, there is an end of the argument.

Petrovka, for such the men would call the girl, certainly disarmed suspicion by her frank airs and the merry laughter which lighted up her eyes. She made a handsome boy enough, and it was good to see her dancing across the snow which so many trod with difficulty, and to hear the cheering words of encouragement she bestowed upon all who lagged behind.

The men had come to believe that she was quite a mascot, and soon we must have had a hundred and fifty of the Guard about our party. This was unexpected and not in accord with friend Leon's plan. I believe it had been his secret hope that he and I should go alone to her father's house, but when the sun began to sink upon the horizon, and we left the main road for one which branched towards the south, the whole company followed us immediately. Vain to tell them that our errand was private. The time had pa.s.sed when officers could have their will in such matters as this; and so it befell that exactly a hundred and fifty men set out to share Petrovka's hospitality, and were determined to enjoy it whatever the difficulties.

III

We went marching and singing, and utterly regardless of any perils that might await us upon the road.

For that matter, we saw no Cossacks, and even our old friends the wolves were silent.

The country itself had become less monotonous, and we soon found ourselves in a deep ravine, whose rugged cliffs were capped by the frozen pines.

Here there was a wonderful suggestion of remoteness and solitude; but it occurred to me, nevertheless, that it might be the very spot for an ambush, and I insisted upon a halt until our vedettes had made their reports. We even sent a man up to the heights above to be quite sure that the Cossacks were not camped in the thickets. When these had reported that no living thing moved in all that drear place, we followed Petrovka again and began to think of supper.

She had told us that it was just three leagues from the high road to her father's house, but we must have marched at least five before we came, without warning, upon a miserable village, the outstanding feature of which was the low and straggling farmhouse with a mighty barn at the southern end of it. Of a seigneur's habitation there was no sign whatever, and I found it difficult to believe that Petrovka's father could inhabit such a shabby dwelling as that to which she now led us. When we asked her if it were indeed her home, she, to our great astonishment, answered us in French, and replied that it was not.

"My father lives many, many leagues from here," she said, and laughed at the words. "This is the house of the moujik Serges. He was one of my father's servants, and he will feed you, my lords." And this she said with so pretty a grace that our anger was mollified in a moment.

"Why did you pretend not to speak French?" I asked her next.

She shook her head and said that she did not know.

"You make me laugh so much when you talk Russian," she said. I believe that to have been true.

Nevertheless, I was not easy. We had come upon a false errand, and it remained to be seen what was the end of it.

"Let every man look to his powder," said I to Leon, as we entered the precincts of the farm. "The devil and a woman are never far apart; mind that we have not caught the pair of them."

He retorted that it did not very much matter either way. Whatever befell us at the farm could be no worse than the peril of the high road and of such a bitter night as this.

Not only was it black and dark by this time, but the north wind blew intolerably, and our very bones seemed shrunken.

You will imagine, therefore, that the baying of the hounds about the farm was as music to us; and you can depict us beating heavily upon the farmer's door, while Petrovka cried aloud in Russian that we were friends.

This settled the matter, and an old and grizzled peasant appeared immediately, and stood bowing on the threshold. I disliked the look of him from the first, and shall always remember the hawk-like eyes which he turned upon our company. Yet what had we to fear from the handful of serfs who now gathered about him--we, a hundred and fifty men of the Guard, with our muskets in our hands?

And was there not Petrovka, with her laughing eyes--Petrovka, who told the old man that he would be paid for all that we had--Petrovka, who petted him and pulled his long beard as though she loved every hair of it. She stood as our hostage, and she knew it--the pretty little girl.

Well, we soon discovered that the kitchen of the farm would accommodate no more than the officers of the company, and it behoved the others to seek the shelter of the barn. This they did with a very good grace, for it was a substantial edifice, with a monstrous fireplace at one end and a well-stacked granary at the other. Soon there were flames roaring up the ancient chimney, a babel of talk, and the going to and fro of men who saw themselves supping handsomely for the first time for many a day. We, meanwhile, were ensconced in the farmer's kitchen, with nearly the half of an ox roasting in his gigantic oven and an aroma of well-warmed wine which did one good to smell.

The evening promised to be the most comfortable we had enjoyed since we left Moscow--so little did we foresee what lay beyond our present content.

IV

There were a good many bedrooms in the farmer's house, and some of these were very properly given up to the officers.

I shared a room with Leon, whose window immediately overlooked the barn wherein our men were still enjoying the unexpected carousal.

Mademoiselle Petrovka, in her turn, said that she would sleep with the girls of the house, and the last I saw of her before retiring was at the moment when Master Leon blew out the candle for the purpose of wishing her good-night. Escaping from his embrace, she climbed the narrow staircase and shut the door at the head of it upon us, while we, amazed to discover beds, made haste to enjoy so unexpected a luxury.

Never before in my life, I swear, did I know the meaning of good blankets as I learned it that bitter night, when the north wind swept the dismal plain and the pines were swaying in a dirge of death. For that matter, I do not think that my nephew and myself could wholly appreciate the reality of our good fortune, and I lay for some time beneath the heavy _Steppdecke_ wondering if we had not dreamt the whole of it. Such warmth and comfort were not to be imagined, and we found it almost impossible to believe that thousands of our comrades were then shivering and suffering upon the great high road, and many of them, I doubt not, falling to the terrible sleep from which no day should wake them.

We, on the contrary, might have been the children of this hospitable house. Well fed and warmed by wine, we fell into so profound a sleep anon that nothing but the terrible tragedy which ensued could have wakened us. Alas! that it was so very terrible! I hardly know how to tell you of it.

Some say that it was nearly four in the morning when the first alarm arose. I cannot be sure about so trivial a circ.u.mstance, nor is it of any interest. In my sleep it seemed to me that men were shouting about the house, while a great flame of crimson light burned my eyes and forbade me to open them. A man has the same sensation when he tries to look at the sun at noon, and it may be answered that he is a fool to do anything of the kind. So, in my own case, I did not open my eyes for a long time, and not until Leon's strong hand dragged me from the bed did I understand what was happening.

"Wake up, mon oncle!" says he in a sharper voice than ordinary. "Don't you see that the place is afire?"

It was a word to arouse any man, and I staggered up when I heard it, rubbing my eyes and trying to understand him.

"How?" cried I. "The farm afire? Why, then, did you not wake me before?"

"I have been trying to do so for the last five minutes, but you sleep like a Gascon, mon oncle. Get your clothes on and follow me. There will not be a man of them alive if we don't make haste."

With this he ran down the stairs, and left me groping in the fitful light for my tunic and the heavy sable coat which I had brought out of Russia.

It was clear by this time that the fire had begun in the barn which harboured so many of our men, and that it had not yet reached the buildings we occupied. For all that, it promised to be a terrible conflagration, and my ears were a.s.sailed already by the woeful screams of the wretched company, themselves waking to the peril. What kept the poor fellows in the barn, I knew no more than the dead. I could see two great doors opening upon the yard, and they were wide enough to let a wagon go through. Yet no one unbarred them, and all the time flames and smoke were pouring from the thatch above, and the shrieks of the imprisoned growing louder. This perplexed me beyond words, and it was not until I had shaken the heavy sleep from my eyes that the thought of treachery occurred to me, and I began to understand much that had happened.

The monster of a farmer who had lured us here--he had done it, I said, and G.o.d knows, if I had had my hand about his throat at the moment, I would have strangled the life out of him.

Well, I bounded down the stairs at the thought, and found myself immediately amid my brother officers, who were striving like madmen to set their compatriots free. Unable to hear a word that was spoken, I nevertheless understood by their gestures that the main gates of the barn had been bolted and barred, and that, until they could be unlocked, the only chance for our fellows was the narrow window at the southern end. For this I now made, Leon at my side, and others as ready to risk their lives in the face of such a disaster.

Let me tell you that the roar of the conflagration was like that of a sea beating angrily upon a barren sh.o.r.e. Commingled with it were the sounds of rending woodwork and the screams of men already burning in the flames; while all was made worse by the intolerable north wind which swept about the building and howled dismally beneath the frozen eaves.

This paralysed the faculties, so that even the bravest found his limbs benumbed and his brain bewildered. No company of raw recruits could have worked to less purpose--some crying for hatchets, some vainly for water, yet all incapable of rendering any useful aid, and all equally terrified by the spectacle they beheld. Alas! to see those pitiful faces at the window of the barn above; to watch the flames creeping about them; to behold them fall one by one into the deadly furnace behind them; and to know that they were Frenchmen and brethren! Such was the price of the brief respite we had enjoyed; such was the hospitality that the woman Petrovka had shown us.

Someone got a ladder about this time, and others found axes in the wood-house of the farm. I was among the latter, and I remember with what fury our little party attacked the great front gates and tried to force an entrance. Could we but burst the bolt, our comrades were free in a twinkling; and you may imagine how we went at it--the blows which we struck, and the curses we uttered.

Minute by minute now the flames were creeping toward this end of the barn. We had no need of lanterns; the snow was blood-red, and the very wood stood out as though the sun were setting and the night not yet begun. Had we any longer a doubt that treachery had fired the barn, the disappearance of the Russians themselves would have clenched the argument. Not a peasant did we see, not a man or woman of those who had served us last night and welcomed us with such smiling faces. The whole farm had become a desert, and, be sure, that of them all Petrovka had been the first to go.

Such was my opinion for a long time, and it endured until, to my great astonishment, I perceived her at Leon's side, and saw that he was in close talk with her. Good G.o.d! that a man could have argued with such a woman when his comrades were perishing--that he did not strike her down where she stood! Any other but Leon would have done so; yet, when was the day that a woman's eyes could not win him?

All this went through my head in a flash as I hewed at the giant doors and called upon my comrades to redouble their efforts. The shrieks within the building were now most dreadful to hear. None but a man of iron could have remained deaf to the piercing cries which marked the approach of the fire and told us that our task must be impotent. None the less, we worked with a vigour unimaginable, while the heat became choking, and showers of glowing sparks rained down upon us. The very snow was melted far away from the barn by this time; the sky had turned blood red; the branches of the trees were burning. The great door alone stood between our comrades and salvation.