"
I well knew it was not possible to contradict Saveliitch, and I allowed
him to make ready for our departure.
I well knew it was not possible to contradict Saveliitch, and I allowed
him to make ready for our departure.
Pushkin - Daughter of the Commandant
"
My resolution was fixed.
"It is too late to reflect," I said to the old man. "I must go; it is
impossible for me not to go. Do not make yourself wretched, Saveliitch.
God is good; we shall perhaps meet again. Mind you be not ashamed to
spend my money; do not be a miser. Buy all you have need of, even if you
pay three times the value of things. I make you a present of the money
if in three days' time I be not back. "
"What's that you're saying, sir? " broke in Saveliitch; "that I shall
consent to let you go alone? Why, don't dream of asking me to do so. If
you have resolved to go I will e'en go along with you, were it on foot;
but I will not forsake you. That I should stay snugly behind a stone
wall! Why, I should be mad! Do as you please, sir, but I do not leave
you.
"
I well knew it was not possible to contradict Saveliitch, and I allowed
him to make ready for our departure.
In half-an-hour I was in the saddle on my horse, and Saveliitch on a
thin and lame "_garron_," which a townsman had given him for nothing,
having no longer anything wherewith to feed it. We gained the town
gates; the sentries let us pass, and at last we were out of Orenburg.
Night was beginning to fall. The road I had to follow passed before the
little village of Berd, held by Pugatchef. This road was deep in snow,
and nearly hidden; but across the steppe were to be seen tracks of
horses each day renewed.
I was trotting. Saveliitch could hardly keep up with me, and cried to me
every minute--
"Not so fast, sir, in heaven's name not so fast! My confounded
'_garron_' cannot catch up your long-legged devil. Why are you in such a
hurry? Are we bound to a feast? Rather have we our necks under the axe.
Petr' Andrejitch! Oh! my father, Petr' Andrejitch! Oh, Lord!
My resolution was fixed.
"It is too late to reflect," I said to the old man. "I must go; it is
impossible for me not to go. Do not make yourself wretched, Saveliitch.
God is good; we shall perhaps meet again. Mind you be not ashamed to
spend my money; do not be a miser. Buy all you have need of, even if you
pay three times the value of things. I make you a present of the money
if in three days' time I be not back. "
"What's that you're saying, sir? " broke in Saveliitch; "that I shall
consent to let you go alone? Why, don't dream of asking me to do so. If
you have resolved to go I will e'en go along with you, were it on foot;
but I will not forsake you. That I should stay snugly behind a stone
wall! Why, I should be mad! Do as you please, sir, but I do not leave
you.
"
I well knew it was not possible to contradict Saveliitch, and I allowed
him to make ready for our departure.
In half-an-hour I was in the saddle on my horse, and Saveliitch on a
thin and lame "_garron_," which a townsman had given him for nothing,
having no longer anything wherewith to feed it. We gained the town
gates; the sentries let us pass, and at last we were out of Orenburg.
Night was beginning to fall. The road I had to follow passed before the
little village of Berd, held by Pugatchef. This road was deep in snow,
and nearly hidden; but across the steppe were to be seen tracks of
horses each day renewed.
I was trotting. Saveliitch could hardly keep up with me, and cried to me
every minute--
"Not so fast, sir, in heaven's name not so fast! My confounded
'_garron_' cannot catch up your long-legged devil. Why are you in such a
hurry? Are we bound to a feast? Rather have we our necks under the axe.
Petr' Andrejitch! Oh! my father, Petr' Andrejitch! Oh, Lord!
