Collected Shorter Fiction, Volume 2 полностью

As soon as Hadji Murád was alone in the room allotted to him his face altered. The pleased expression, now kindly and now stately, vanished, and a look of anxiety showed itself. Vorontsóv had received him far better than Hadji Murád had expected. But the better the reception the less did Hadji Murád trust Vorontsóv and his officers. He feared everything: that he might be seized, chained, and sent to Siberia, or simply killed; and therefore he was on his guard. He asked Eldár, when the latter entered his room, where his murids had been put and whether their arms had been taken from them, and where the horses were. Eldár reported that the horses were in the prince’s stables; that the men had been placed in a barn; that they retained their arms, and that the interpreter was giving them food and tea.

Hadji Murád shook his head in doubt, and after undressing said his prayers and told Eldár to bring him his silver dagger. He then dressed, and having fastened his belt sat down on the divan with his legs tucked under him, to await what might befall him.

At four in the afternoon the interpreter came to call him to dine with the prince.

At dinner he hardly ate anything except some pilau, to which he helped himself from the very part of the dish from which Márya Vasílevna had helped herself.

‘He is afraid we shall poison him,’ Márya Vasílevna remarked to her husband. ‘He has helped himself from the place where I took my helping.’ Then instantly turning to Hadji Murád she asked him through the interpreter when he would pray again. Hadji Murád lifted five fingers and pointed to the sun. ‘Then it will soon be time,’ and Vorontsóv drew out his watch and pressed a spring. The watch struck four and one quarter. This evidently surprised Hadji Murád, and he asked to hear it again and to be allowed to look at the watch.

‘Voilá l’occasion! Donnez-lui la montre,’⁵ said the princess to her husband.

Vorontsóv at once offered the watch to Hadji Murád.

The latter placed his hand on his breast and took the watch. He touched the spring several times, listened, and nodded his head approvingly.

After dinner, Meller-Zakomélsky’s aide-de-camp was announced.

The aide-de-camp informed the prince that the general, having heard of Hadji Murád’s arrival, was highly displeased that this had not been reported to him, and required Hadji Murád to be brought to him without delay. Vorontsóv replied that the general’s command should be obeyed, and through the interpreter informed Hadji Murád of these orders and asked him to go to Meller with him.

When Márya Vasílevna heard what the aide-de-camp had come about, she at once understood that unpleasantness might arise between her husband and the general, and in spite of all her husband’s attempts to dissuade her, decided to go with him and Hadji Murád.

‘Vous feriez bien mieux de rester – c’est mon affaire, non pas la vôtre.…’

‘Vous ne pouvez pas m’empěcher d’aller voir madame la générale!’⁶

‘You could go some other time.’

‘But I wish to go now!’

There was no help for it, so Vorontsóv agreed, and they all three went.

When they entered, Meller with sombre politeness conducted Márya Vasílevna to his wife and told his aide-de-camp to show Hadji Murád into the waiting-room and not let him out till further orders.

‘Please …’ he said to Vorontsóv, opening the door of his study and letting the prince enter before him.

Having entered the study he stopped in front of Vorontsóv and, without offering him a seat, said:

‘I am in command here and therefore all negotiations with the enemy have to be carried on through me! Why did you not report to me that Hadji Murád had come over?’

‘An emissary came to me and announced his wish to capitulate only to me,’ replied Vorontsóv growing pale with excitement, expecting some rude expression from the angry general and at the same time becoming infected with his anger.

‘I ask you why I was not informed?’

‘I intended to inform you, Baron, but …’

‘You are not to address me as “Baron”, but as “Your Excellency”!’ And here the baron’s pent-up irritation suddenly broke out and he uttered all that had long been boiling in his soul.

‘I have not served my sovereign twenty-seven years in order that men who began their service yesterday, relying on family connexions, should give orders under my very nose about matters that do not concern them!’

‘Your Excellency, I request you not to say things that are incorrect!’ interrupted Vorontsóv.

‘I am saying what is correct, and I won’t allow …’ said the general, still more irritably.

But at that moment Márya Vasílevna entered, rustling with her skirts and followed by a modest-looking little lady, Meller-Zakomélsky’s wife.

‘Come, come, Baron! Simon did not wish to displease you,’ began Márya Vasílevna.

‘I am not speaking about that, Princess.…’