Ivan the Terrible; or, Dark Deeds of Night — page 116: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

112 he fifth stroke some drops of blood reached the young officer, Shatner back, tookout his handkerchief, and wiped his face. De- metrius profited by the opportunity to count seven instead of six and the captain made no observation. x At the ninth stroke, Demetrius interrupted himself to change the lash; and then, in the hope that a second fraud would succeed as well as the first, he counted eleven instead often. At this moment a window opposite to that of Vaninka opened ; a man verging upon fifty years of age, in a general’s uniform, appeared, and, briefly saying, ‘‘ Enough!” reclosed the window. : The moment the general appeared the young aide-de-camp turned towards him, with his left hand glued to the seam of his pantaloons and his right hand to his hat, and was motionless during the few seconds that the apparition remained; then, on the closing of the window, he repeated the general’s word, and the raised whip fell without touching the culprit. ; : ‘‘Thank his high excellency, Gregory,’’ said Demetrius, rolling the lash ot the knout round its handle, ‘‘ for he has forgiven you two strokes, which,” he added, as he stooped, in order to release the culprit’s hands, ‘‘ with the two that I slipped, make only a total of eight instead of twelve.” But poor Gregory was not in a state to thank anybody. Almost fainting with pain, he could hardly hold himself up. Two of his comrades took him by the arms and led him, followed by Demetrius, to the quarters of the slaves. On arriving at the door, however, he stopped, turned his head, and perceiving the aide-de-camp, whose eyes followed him with an air of pity, he said, ‘‘ Mr, Foedor, thank his high excellency the general for me. As for the Lady Vaninka,”’ he added, in a low voice, “I will thank her myself.” ‘‘ What are you muttering between your teeth ?” cried the young officer, with an angry gesture, for he thought he could distinguish in the tone of Gregory an accent of menace. * Nothing, your lordship,” said Demetrius; ‘‘the poor fellow thanks you, Mr. Foedor, for the trouble you have taken in assist- ing at his punishment, and says it is a great honour for him, that’s all.’’ ‘© Well, well,” rejoined the young man, not doubting that Deme- trius had changed something of the original text, but evidently not wishing to know more, ‘‘if Gregory wants to save me further trouble of the kind, he will drink a little less spirits; or, if he will get drunk, he must at least remember to be more respectful.” Demetrius made a sign of profound submission, and followed his comrades. Foedor re-entered the house, and the crowd retired, much discontented with the bad faith of Demetrius and the gene- rosity of the general, which had defrauded them of enjoying the sight of four blows of the knout, that is to say, one third of the punishment. . And now that we have made our readers acquainted with some of the personages of this history they will permit us to put them in more direct relation with those who have as yet merely appeared on the scene, or who have remained concealed behind the curtain. General Count Tehermayloff, after having, as we have said, had the government of one of the most important cities in the neigh- bourhood of Pultava, had been recalled to St. Petersburg by the Emperor Paul, who honoured him with a particular friendship. He had remained a widower, with one daughter, who inherited the fortune, the beauty, and the pride of her mother, who pre- tended to descend in a direct line from one of the chieftains of that race of Tartars, who, under the conduct of Gengis, invaded Russia in the thirteenth century. By a fatal chance this haughty disposition on the part of the mother had been still augmented in the young Vaninka, by the education she had received. > Having lost his wife, and not being enabled to occupy himself with the care of his daughter, General Tehermayloff ite choice of ‘an English governess, who, instead of combating the disdainful inclinations of her pupil, had given them a new development by - fortifying her natural aristocratic notions with principles which render the English nobility the proudest in the world. Amongst the different studies to which Vaninka was devoted there was one to which she was especially attached, and that was, if one may so speak, the science of her position in society. Thus she knew perfectly the degree of station, and the power of every family belonging to the nobility—those who were a step above her, and those of whom she took precedence, and (what, however, is not easy in Russia) she could call each by the title to which his rank had rightful claim. She had the most profound contempt, therefore, for all who might not be designated ‘* Your Excellency,” and as for the serfs and slaves, we may conceive, with such a character as we have given of Vaninka, that she made no account of their existence. She had more feeling for her horse and her dog, and, certainly, she would not for an instant have put in the balance the life of a slave with that of either the one or the other of those interesting animals. 21 Moo THE RED HOUSE AT ST. PETERSBURGH. For the rest, like all other ladies of distinction in her country, she was a good musician, and spoke equally well the French, Italian, German, and English languages. The features of her coantenance were in harmony with her character ; the result to be drawn from them was, that Vaninka was beautiful, but of a beauty, perhaps, with which a little too much resolution was blended. , In fact, her large black eyes, straight nose, and lips raised at the corners by a disdainful expression, produced at first a strange im- pression en those who approached her, unless they were either her equals or superiors, to whom she became like another woman ; while to her inferiors, she was proud and inaccessible as a goddess. At the age of seventeen, the education of Vaninka being termi- nated, her instructress, whose health the rude climate of St. Petersburg had already affected, requested her dismissal. It was granted with that ostentatious gratitude of which the Russian lords of the present day in Europe are the last representatives ; and Vaninka then found herself alone, with nothing to direct her but the blind love of her father, of whom she was, as we have inferred, the only daughter, and who, in his rude admiration of her, regarded her as a compound of all human perfections. . Things were in this state in the household of the general when he received a letter from one of the friends of his infancy, written on his death-bed. - Exiled to his estates, in consequence of some dispute with Potempkin, the Count Romayloff’s prospects had been destroyed ; and, not having been enabled to regain the power lost, he went to die of grief at a distance of four hundred leagues from St. Peters- burg ; less, perhaps, on account of his own exile and misfortunes, than the effect he apprehended they would have on the future career of his only son, Foedor. The count, feeling that he was going to leave that ‘son alone, and without support in the world, recommended, in the name of their ancient friendship, the young man to the general ; desiring that, through the favour he enjoyed with the Emperor, Paal the First, he would obtain for him a lieutenancy in aregiment. The general immediately replied to the count, that his son should findin him a second father ; but, when the consoling messenger arrived, Romayloff was no more, and it was Foeder that received the letter, and carried it back to the general, in coming to an- nounce the loss he had sustained, and to claim the protection promised. Whatever diligence he had used, however, the general had already anticipated him ; and Paul, at his request, had granted the young man a sub-lieutenancy in the regiment Semonowski; so that Foedor entered arrival. . Although the young man had only to pass, asit were, from the house of the general to the barracks situated in the quarter of the Litenoi, le remained there long enough to see Vaninka, and to carry away a profound remembrance of her. - Besides, Foedor’s heart being full of primitive and generous passions, his gratitude to the protector who had opened such prospects to him was great in the extreme ; and this feeling, he ‘considered, should of right extend toall connected with the general ; so that, perhaps, he exaggerated the beauty of Vaninka, who was introduced to him as his sister, and who, without regard for-this title, received him with the coldness and the pride of a queen. This apparition, however, allcold and frozen as it had been, had not the less left its traces in the young man’s heart ; and his arrival at St. Petersburg had been marked by an impression new and unknown to him at any former period of his life, As for Vaninka, she had scarcely noticed Foedor. In fact, what was @ young sub-lieutenant, without fortune or prospects, to her ? What she dreamed of was, some princely union that would make her one of the most powerful dames of Russia ; and » unless he could realise some of the enchantments described in the ‘ Thousand and Se Sy Foedor was unable to promise her anything of the Some days after their first interview, Fuedor returned to tak leave of the general, his regiment having been made part of the sone tingent which Field-Marshal Suvarow was to take with him into Italy ; and Foedor was going to die in battle, or render himself worthy of the protector who had answered for his character. (To be continued.) ; Order No, 1 of the’ ; ‘BOY PIRATE; or, LIFE ON THE OCEAN,” GRATIS, No, 2 & A LARGE ENGRAVING, PRINTED IN SEVEN COLOURS. GCoOmMmIcbooks com 7 on his duties the very next day after his