Voronezh

“ Generally speaking, the right bank is high and the left flat and low. Shallow reaches are not uncommon, and there are at least seven considerable shoals in the south-western part of the course; partly owing to this cause, and partly to the scarcity of ship-timber in the Voronezh government, the Don, although navigable as far up as Voronezh, does not attain any great importance as a means of communication till it reaches Kachalinskaya in the vicinity of the Volga. ”

“ Ralston informs us in his preface that he ‘has been able to use but little the South Russian collections of Kulish and Rudchenko, there being no complete dictionary available of the dialect, or rather language, in which they are written.’ He has, however, given a long and interesting story from the Ukraine, which I find also in Erben, the ‘Norka.’ One of Erben’s South Russian stories is too closely identical with a pretty tale from the government of Voronezh, given by Ralston (p. 63) , for me to give it a place here. ”

“ The government is divided into twelve districts, the chief towns of which are Voronezh, Biryuch, Bobrov, Boguchar, Korotoyak, Nizhne-Dyevitsk, Novo-Khopersk, Ostrogozhsk, Pavlovsk, Valuiki, Zadonsk and Zemlyansk. Agriculture is the chief occupation, and grain is exported to a considerable amount. The peasants own 67% of the land, the crown and the imperial domains 3% and private owners 30%. ”

“ A few years after he took the cowl and changed the name of Timothy for Tikhon, he was raised from his humble cell to the episcopal bench; first in Novgorod, afterwards at Voronej; the second a missionary see; the province of Voronej lying close to the Don Kozak country and the Tartar steppe.
The people of this district were lawless tribes; Kozaks, Kalmuks, Malo-Russ; a tipsy, idle, vagabond crew; the clergy worse, it may be, than their flocks. Voronej had no schools; the popes could hardly read; the services were badly sung and said. All classes of the people lived in sin. ”

“ Vorski, son of a king, Vorski, the elect of destiny, prepare yourself! Your time has come! Either you are the lowest of adventurers and the guiltiest of all the great criminals dyed in the blood of their fellow-men, or else you are really the inspired prophet whom the gods crown with glory. A superman or a highwayman: that is fate's decree. The last heart-beats of the sacred victim sacrificed to the gods are marking the supreme seconds. ”

“ Vorski stood up. Nevertheless he hesitated to approach the woman, who inspired him with ungovernable fear and respect.
“Don't come any nearer, you two,” said the ancient Druid, addressing Otto and Conrad. “When Velleda's eyes open, they must rest on no one but Vorski and behold no other sight. Well, Vorski, are you afraid?”
“No, I'm not afraid.”
“Only you're not feeling comfortable. It's easier to murder people than to bring them to life, what? Come, show yourself a man! Put aside her veil and touch her forehead. The God-Stone is within your reach. Act and you will be the master of the world.” ”

“ He turned to the three Moors:
“Pick up the Hun,” he ordered, “and carry him up to the dolmen outside. You needn't bind him: he couldn't move a limb if he tried. Oh, one minute!”
He leant over Vorski's ear:
“Before you start, have a good look at the God-Stone, between the flags in the ceiling. The ancient Druid wasn't lying to you. It is the miraculous stone which people have been seeking for centuries... and which I discovered from a distance... by correspondence. Say good-bye to it, Vorski! You will never see it again, if indeed you are ever to see anything in this world.” ”

“ For ages and ages men have sought to fathom the secret of the island and not one has succeeded. Vorski came and the God-Stone is his. So let it show itself to me and give me the promised power. There is nothing between it and Vorski, nothing but my will. And I declare my will! The prophet has risen out of the night. He is here. If there be, in this kingdom of the dead, a shade whose duty it is to lead me to the divine stone and place the golden crown upon my head, let that shade arise! Here stands Vorski. ”

“ He bent towards Veronique:
“Will you be a queen, an empress, and soar above other women even as Vorski will dominate other men? Queen by right of gold and power even as you are already queen by right of beauty? Will you?... Vorski's slave, but mistress of all those over whom Vorski holds sway? Will you?... Understand me clearly; it is not a question of your making a single decision; you have to choose between two. There is, mark you, the alternative to your refusal. ”

“ When my turn came, I wanted to surprise my brothers, and show them how well I could ride, an-d I began to spur him on to his utmost speed; but Voronok would not stir from the stable.
In spite of my redoubled blows he would not gallop, but only shied and backed. I grew angry with the horse, and pounded him with all my might with my whip and legs. I tried lashing him in the places where he was tenderest; I broke the whip, and with the broken handle I began to pound him on the head. But still Voronok would not budge. ”

“ Another figure looms into sight, one who is henceforth the embodiment of the whole affair and claims all our attention, an emissary dispatched by fate to solve the riddle of the centuries, to carry out the orders of the mysterious powers and to pocket the God-Stone. I am speaking of Vorski. ”

“ Who are you?"
"Who am I?" replied the old man, in a husky and bleating voice. "Who am I? By Teutatès, god of the Gauls, is it you who ask me that question? Then you don't know me? Come, try and remember . . . . Good old Ségenax—eh, do you get me now—Velléda's father, good old Ségenax, the law-giver venerated by the Rhedons of whom Chateaubriand speaks in the first volume of his Martyrs? . . . Ah, I see your memory's reviving!"
"What are you gassing about!" cried Vorski. ”

“ I am only the instrument. The order comes from a higher power than mine, it comes from destiny. For the divine will to be accomplished, Veronique d'Hergemont must die and die on the cross. This is explicitly stated. There is no remedy against fate. There is no remedy unless one is Vorski and, like Vorski, is capable of every audacity, of every form of cunning. ”

“ So long as they kept to the north, the people in the south, who are the most numerous, and also the most civilized of the Britons, took no heed of them; but now the rascals have come as far as London, and the lazy folk in these parts have had to wake up. Vortigern, the king, is useless for anything but drink or women, so he sent across to the Baltic to get over some of the North Germans, in the hope that they would come and help him. It is bad enough to have a bear in your house, but it does not seem to me to mend matters if you call in a pack of ferocious wolves as well. ”

“ You entertained for your husband no feeling save hatred and repulsion. These are things which a man like Vorski does not forgive. So many women and among them some of the proudest had given me proof of my perfect delicacy that I had no cause to reproach myself. That the little middle-class person that you were chose to be offended was not my business. Vorski is one of those who obey their instincts and their passions. ”

“ The gods have indicated the objective upon which he is to march; and he marches. True, there are a few living people in his path. So much the better; it is all part of the programme. For it is after all these living people have been killed and, moreover, killed in the manner announced by Brother Thomas that the task will be done, the God-Stone released and Vorski, the instrument of destiny, crowned king. Therefore, let's turn up our sleeves, take our trusty butcher's knife in hand, and get to work! Vorski will translate Brother Thomas' nightmare into real life! ”

“ Vorontsov took his place in the center of one side of the long table, and wife sat opposite, with the general on her right. On the prince's right sat his lady, the beautiful Orbelyani; and on his left was a graceful, dark, red-cheeked Georgian woman, glittering with jewels and incessantly smiling. ”

“ If Vorski was able, in the forest of Fontainebleau, to substitute a sham Vorski for the real one, if Vorski thus succeeded in escaping the [Pg 211] fate which condemned him, from his childhood, to die by the knife of a friend, he can certainly discover some stratagem by which the divine will is accomplished, while the woman he loves is left alive. ”

“ Northmen in Russia Origin and customs of the Varangians The early Russian princes: Rurik, Oleg, Igor Expeditions against Constantinople Olga Christianity in Russia Sviatoslaf The Danube disputed between Greeks and Russians Footnotes The Varangians: formation of Russia; the first expeditions against Constantinople (862–972) Northmen in Russia—Origin and customs of the Varangians Who were these Varangians? To what race did they belong? No questions in the early history of Russia are more eagerly debated. ”

“ And they went over the sea to the Varangians, to Rus, for so were these Varangians called: they were called Rus as others are called Svie (Swedes) , others Nurmane (Northmen, Norwegians) , others Angliane (English, or Angles of Sleswick?) , others Gote (probably the inhabitants of the island of Gothland) . The Chud, the Slavonians, the Krivichi, and the Ves said to Rus: Our land is large and rich, but there is no order in it; come ye and rule and reign over us. And three brothers were chosen with their whole clan, and they took with them all the Rus, and they came. ”

“ Don Luis unfolded the page of the note-book on which Vorski had written down the prophecy and, holding it under his eyes, continued:
"What remains to be said is not so important, once the general explanation is accepted. Nevertheless, we must go into detail to some slight extent, show the mechanism of the affair imagined and [Pg 329] built up by Vorski and lastly come to the part played by our attractive ancient Druid . ”

“ Vorski bent forward and suddenly, from the top of the ladder, shouted:
“Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani! The gods have forsaken her. Death has done its work. The last of the four women is dead. Veronique is dead!” ”

“ The shock produced by excitement has no effect on the watch of the man who experiences the excitement. Nevertheless, Vorski involuntarily took out his watch: it marked eight minutes to twelve. He tried to wind it up: it was broken.
The ancient Druid, without giving him time to recover his breath and reply, went on:
“That staggers you, eh? And yet there's nothing simpler for a Druid who knows his business. A Druid sees the invisible. He does more: he makes anyone else see it if he wants to. Vorski, would you like to see something that doesn't exist? ”

“ Where, further up, the Arzon flows into the Loire is Vorey, lapped in a fold of the mountains, facing Gerbison, which is striated with rills descending in small cascades.
On June 16th, annually, is celebrated at Vorey a Mass "de la Lepreuse," which is attended by the people of the hamlets of Vertaure and Eyravazet. Once upon [Pg 68] a time a ragged leper woman arrived at the latter cluster of houses and begged for food. No one would give her even a crust of bread or a bowl of milk. ”

“ It alone can save you. Vorski knows neither pity nor fear. But he loves you; and his love will stop at nothing. Take advantage of it, Veronique. Appeal to the past. Become the child that you once were; and perhaps one day I shall drag myself at your feet. Veronique, do not repel me; a man like me is not to be repelled. One who loves as I love you, Veronique, as I love you, is not to be defied. ”

“ Vorski ended by making a fresh attack on the shoulder of the stranger, who turned on his couch, stretched himself, yawned, seemed to fall asleep again, and, suddenly admitting himself defeated, half sat up and shouted:
“When you've quite finished, please! Can't a man have a quiet snooze these days, in this beastly hole?” ”

“ Vorski had drawn himself up and was now facing the ancient Druid. His features, fashioned for hatred and fury, had surely never expressed more of either than at this moment. The ancient Druid was not merely the man who for an hour had been toying with him as with a child. He was the man who had performed the most extraordinary feat and who suddenly appeared to him as the most ruthless and dangerous foe. A man like that must be got rid of on the spot, since the opportunity presented itself. ”

“ Vora, the ninth goddess, listens to the oaths that men take, and particularly to the troth plighted between man and woman, and punishes those who keep not their promises. She is wise and prudent, and so penetrating that nothing remains hidden from her. Syn, the tenth, keeps the door in the hall, and shuts it against those who ought not to enter. ”

“ The ancient Druid, in fact, appeared to be asleep. Only, why on earth was he sleeping in that attitude, flat on his stomach, with his arms stretched out on either side and his face to the floor? No man on his guard, or at least aware that he was in some sort of danger, would expose himself in this way to the enemy's attack. Moreover — Vorski's eyes were gradually growing accustomed to the half-darkness of the end crypt — moreover the white robe was marked with stains which looked red, which undoubtedly were red. ”

“ Once again, Vorski is not cruel. He obeys a higher power; and destiny is against you. Your tears? Nonsense! You've got to shed a thousand times as many as another. Your death? Fudge! You've got to die a thousand deaths before you die for good. Your poor heart must bleed as never woman's and mother's poor heart bled before. Are you ready, Veronique? You shall hear really cruel words, to be followed perhaps by words more cruel still. Oh, fate is not spoiling you, my pretty one!... ”

“ Vraunon is seated at the edge of the plain, on the roots of Pentelicus. The village of Marathon is at a little distance up a valley which opens into the plain. Near Vraunon we are shewn two tumuli, which have been imagined to contain the bones of the Athenians and Platæans who fell in the conflict, but they are so nearly obliterated, that I should have passed them without notice, had they not been particularly pointed out to me. ”

“ Enter Catagrinus, Hengist, and Horsus, with Saxon troops, in grand procession.
Cata. Here halt we then, and let the trumpet sound. [Trumpet sounds. Officer appears on the walls.
Off. Say, be ye friends or foes?
Cata. My father sent us hence to Saxony;
Go, say our embassy is now fulfill’d. [Trumpet sounds.
Yet soft, that sound proclaims his quick approach.
Heng. Throughout the ranks let each man be prepar’d,
To hail our new ally, King Vortigern.
[Pg 31]
SCENE IV.—GATES OPEN.
Vortigern appears in robes of majesty, followed by the Barons and British troops.
Catagrinus kneels to Vortigern. ”