Marya Ivanovna listened to me simply, without affected shyness, without contrived reservations. She felt that her fate was united with mine. But she repeated that she would not marry me otherwise than with my parents’ consent. I did not contradict her. We kissed warmly, sincerely—and thus everything was decided between us.
An hour later the sergeant brought me a pass, signed with Pugachev’s scrawl, and told me he wished to see me. I found him ready to set out. I cannot express what I felt, parting with this terrible man, a monster, a villain for everyone but me alone. Why not tell the truth? At that moment strong compassion drew me to him. I ardently wished to snatch him away from the midst of the villains whose chief he was, and to save his head while there was still time. Shvabrin and the people crowding around us prevented me from saying all that filled my heart.
We parted friends. Pugachev, seeing Akulina Pamfilovna in the crowd, shook his finger at her and winked significantly; then he got into the kibitka, gave orders to drive to Berda, and as the horses started, stuck his head out of the kibitka once more and called to me:
“Farewell, Your Honor! Maybe we’ll see each other again sometime.”
And indeed we did see each other again, but in what circumstances!…
Pugachev was gone. I gazed for a long time at the white steppe over which his troika was racing. The people dispersed. Shvabrin disappeared. I returned to the priest’s house. Everything was ready for our departure; I did not want to tarry any longer. Our belongings were all packed in the commandant’s old wagon. The drivers hitched up the horses in an instant. Marya Ivanovna went to take leave of the graves of her parents, who had been buried behind the church. I wanted to accompany her, but she begged me to let her go alone. After a few minutes she came back, silently pouring out gentle tears. The wagon was ready. Father Gerasim and his wife came out to the porch. The three of us got into the kibitka: Marya Ivanovna, Palasha, and I. Savelyich climbed up on the box.
“Farewell, Marya Ivanovna, my little dove! Farewell, Pyotr Andreich, our bright falcon!” said the priest’s kindly wife. “Have a good journey, and God grant you both happiness!”
We drove off. I saw Shvabrin standing at the window of the commandant’s house. Dark malice was written on his face. I had no wish to triumph over a crushed enemy and turned my eyes the other way. At last we drove through the fortress gates and left the Belogorsk fortress forever.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN The Arrest
“Do not be angry, sir: my duty doth compel
That at this very hour I lock you in a cell.”
“As you please, I’m ready; but ere you take me out
I hope I may explain what this is all about.”
KNYAZHNIN37
United so unexpectedly with the dear girl about whom I had been so painfully worried that same morning, I did not believe my own self and wondered whether all that had happened to me was not an empty dream. Marya Ivanovna gazed pensively now at me, now at the road, and, it seemed, had not yet managed to recover and come to her senses. We were silent. Our hearts were too weary. In some imperceptible way, after about two hours we found ourselves in the neighboring fortress, also subject to Pugachev. Here we changed horses. By the speed with which they were harnessed, by the bustling servility of the bewhiskered Cossack Pugachev had installed as commandant, I saw that, owing to the garrulousness of the driver who had brought us, I was taken for a court favorite.
We drove on. It was getting dark. We were nearing a little town, where, according to the bearded commandant, there was a strong detachment on its way to join the impostor. We were stopped by the sentries. To the question “Who goes there?” the driver answered in a loud voice: “A friend of the sovereign and his little missis.” Suddenly a crowd of hussars surrounded us with terrible curses.
“Get out, you friend of the devil!” a moustached sergeant said to me. “You’re going to get it hot now, you and your little missis!”
I got out of the kibitka and demanded that they take me to their commander. Seeing an officer, the soldiers stopped cursing. The sergeant took me to the major. Savelyich came along behind me, muttering to himself:
“There’s a friend of the sovereign for you! Out of the frying pan into the fire…Lord God! where will it all end?”
The kibitka followed us at a walking pace.
In five minutes we came to a little house, brightly lit. The sergeant left me with the sentry and went to announce me. He came back at once and told me that his honor had no time to receive me, and that he ordered me to be taken to jail, and my little missis to himself.
“What’s the meaning of this?” I cried in fury. “Is he out of his mind?”
“It’s not for me to know, Your Honor,” the sergeant replied. “It’s just that his high honor ordered that Your Honor be taken to jail and her honor be taken to his high honor, Your Honor!”
