"He didn't ask for our parole," Dick said, "so we shall be justified
in making a bolt if we see a chance."
Passing through the streets the sergeant led them through the town and
out into the country beyond.
"Where on earth is he taking us to?" Jack wondered. "I would bet that
he has quartered us on this Count Preskoff from pure spite. I wonder
what sort of chap he is."
After half an hour's walking they approached a large chateau,
surrounded by smaller buildings.
"He's a swell evidently," Dick said. "We ought to have comfortable
quarters here."
They entered a large courtyard, across one side of which stood the
house; and the sergeant, proceeding to the main entrance, rang the
bell. It was opened by a tall man dressed in full Russian costume.
"I have a message for the count from the commandant," the sergeant
said.
"The count is absent," the servant answered; "but the countess is in."
"I will speak to her."
Leaving them standing in the hall, the man ascended a wide staircase,
and in a minute or two returned and motioned to the sergeant to follow
him.
They ascended the stairs and entered a large and handsome room, in
which sat a lady of some forty years old, with three younger ones of
from sixteen to twenty years old.
Countess Preskoff was a very handsome woman, and her daughters had
inherited her beauty.
The sergeant advanced and handed to her the order. She glanced at it,
and an expression of displeasure passed across her face.
"The commandant's orders shall be obeyed," she said coldly; and the
sergeant, saluting, retired.
The countess turned to her daughters.
"The commandant has quartered two prisoners, English officers, upon
us," she said. "Of course he has done it to annoy us. I suppose these
are they." And she rose and approached the lads, who were standing by
the door. "Why, they are boys," she said in surprise, "and will do for
playfellows for you, Olga. Poor little fellows, how cruel to send such
boys to fight!"
Then she came up to the boys and bade them welcome with an air of
kindness which they both felt.
"Katinka," she said, turning to her eldest daughter, "you speak
French, and perhaps they do also. Assure them that we will do our best
to make them comfortable. Come here, my dears."
Then she formally, pointing to each of them, uttered their names,--
"Katinka, Paulina, Olga."
Dick, in reply, pointed to his companion,--
"Jack Archer,"--and to himself--"Dick Hawtry."
The girls smiled, and held out their hands.
"Mamma says," the eldest said in French, "that she is glad to see you,
and will do all in her power to make you comfortable."
"You're very good," Dick said. "I can speak very little French, and
cannot understand it at all unless you speak quite slow. I wish now I
hadn't been so lazy at school. But we both speak a few words of
Russian, and I hope that we shall soon be able to talk to you in your
own language."
Bad as Dick's French was, the girls understood it, and an animated
conversation in a mixed jargon of French and Russian began. The girls
inquired how they had come there, and how they had been taken, and
upon hearing they had been in Sebastopol, inquired more anxiously as
to the real state of things there, for the official bulletins were
always announcing victories, and they could not understand how it was
that the allies, although always beaten, were still in front of
Sebastopol, when such huge numbers of troops had gone south to carry
out the Czar's orders, to drive them into the sea.
The lads' combined knowledge of French and Russian proved quite
insufficient to satisfy their curiosity, but there was so much
laughing over their wonderful blunders and difficulty in finding words
to explain themselves, that at the end of half an hour the boys were
perfectly at home with their hostesses.
"You will like to see your rooms," the countess said; and touching a
hand-bell, she gave some orders to a servant who, bowing, led the way
along a corridor and showed the boys two handsomely-furnished rooms
opening out of each other, and then left them, returning in a minute
or two with hot water and towels.
"We're in clover here," Jack said, "and no mistake. The captain's
state cabin is a den by the side of our quarters; and ain't they jolly
girls?"
"And pretty, too, I believe you; and the countess, too. I call her a
stunner!" he exclaimed enthusiastically; "as stately as a queen, but
as friendly and kind as possible. I don't think we ought to go to war
with people like this."
"Oh, nonsense!" Jack said. "We've seen thousands of Russians now, and
don't think much of them; and 'tisn't likely we're going to let Russia
gobble up Turkey just because there's a nice countess with three jolly
daughters living here."
Dick laughed.
"No, I suppose not," he said. "But, Jack, what on earth are we going
to do about clothes? These uniforms are getting seedy, though it is
lucky that we had on our best when we were caught, owing to our having
had the others torn to pieces the night of the wreck. But as for other
things, we have got nothing but what we have on. We washed our flannel
shirts and stockings as well as we could whenever we halted, but we
can't well do that here; and as for money, we haven't a ha'penny
between us. It's awful, you know."
At this moment there was a knock at the door, and the servant entered,
bringing in a quantity of linen and underclothing of all kinds, which
he laid down on the bed with the words,--
"With the countess's compliments."
"Hurrah!" shouted Dick. "The countess is a brick. This is something
like. Now for a big wash, Jack, and a clean white shirt. We shan't
know ourselves. Here is a brush, too. We shall be able to make our
uniforms presentable."
It was nearly an hour before the boys again joined the ladies,
looking, it must be owned, a great deal more like British officers and
gentlemen than when they left the room. They were both good-looking
lads, and the Russian girls were struck with their bright and cheerful
faces.
Dick hastened to express their warm thanks to the countess for the
welcome supply of clothes, and said that Jack and himself were ashamed
indeed at not only trespassing on their hospitality, but being obliged
to rely upon their wardrobe.
As Dick had carefully thought out this little speech, translated it
into French, and said it over half-a-dozen times, he was able to make
himself understood, utterly defective as were his grammar and
pronunciation.
Katinka explained that the clothes had belonged to her brother, who
was now a lieutenant in a regiment stationed in Poland, and that they
had long been outgrown; he being now, as she signified by holding up
her hand, over six feet in height.
A quarter of an hour later the dinner was announced, and the countess
in a stately way took Dick's arm, and Jack, not without blushing,
offered his to the eldest of the girls. The dinner was, in the boys'
eyes, magnificent. Several domestics stood behind the chairs and
anticipated their wants. The girls continued their Russian lessons by
telling them the names of everything on the table, and making them
repeat them after them, and there was so much laughter and merriment,
that long as the meal was, it was by no means formal or ceremonious.
They learnt that the Count Preskoff was absent at some estates in the
north of Russia, and that he was not likely to return for some little
time.
After dinner Dick asked Katinka to tell the countess that they did not
wish to be troublesome, and that they would be out and about the
place, and would not intrude upon them except when they wished to have
them. The countess replied through her daughter that they would be
always glad to have them in the room.
"You will really be a great amusement to us. We were very dull before,
and instead of being a trouble, as Count Smerskoff no doubt intended
when he quartered you upon us, you will make a very pleasant break. It
is dreadfully dull here now," she said. "There is no longer any
gayety, many of our neighbors are away, and nobody talks of anything
but that horrid war. Count Smerskoff is almost the only person we see,
and," and she shrugged her pretty shoulders, "he's worse than nothing.
And now, mamma says, would you like to ride or to go out in a sledge?
If you would like some shooting, there is plenty in the neighborhood.
But of course for that you will want a whole day, and it must be
arranged beforehand. I wish my brother Orloff had been at home. He
could have looked after you nicely."
Delighted at the prospect, the boys said that they should like a
drive, and a few minutes later, descending to the courtyard, they
found a sledge with three horses at the door.
"What a stunning turn-out!" Jack exclaimed, delighted. "We shall fancy
we are princes, Dick, and get spoiled altogether for a midshipman's
berth."
The sledge was of graceful form, painted deep blue. The seats were
covered with furs, while an apron of silver fox-skin was wrapped round
their legs. The driver sat perched up on a high seat in front. He was
a tall, stately figure, with an immense beard. On his head was the cap
of black sheep-skin, which may be considered the national head-dress.
He wore a long fur-lined coat of dark blue, fitting somewhat tightly,
and reaching to his ankles. It was bound by a scarlet sash round his
waist. It had a great fur collar and cuffs. His feet were encased in
untanned leather boots, reaching above the knees.
The horses were harnessed in a manner quite different to anything the
lads had before seen. They were three abreast; the middle one was in
shafts, those on either side ran free in traces, and by dint, as the
boys supposed, of long training, each carried his head curved round
outwards, so that he seemed to be looking half-backwards, giving them
a most peculiar effect, exactly similar to that which may be seen in
ancient Greek bas-reliefs, and sculptures of horses in ancient
chariots. This mode of harnessing and training the horses is
peculiarly Russian, and is rigidly adhered to by all the old Russian
families. Over each horse was a blue netting reaching almost to the
ground, its object being to prevent snow or dirt being thrown up in
the faces of those sitting in the low sledge.
Cracking his whip with a report as loud as that of a pistol, the
driver set the horses in motion, and in a minute the sledge was
darting across the plain at a tremendous pace; the centre horse
trotting, the flankers going at a canter, each keeping the leg next to
the horse in the shafts in front. The light snow rose in a cloud from
the runners as the sledge darted along, and as the wind blew keenly in
their faces, and their spirits rose, the boys declared to each other
that sledging was the most glorious fun they had ever had.
They had been furnished with fur-lined coats, whose turned-up collars
reached far above their ears, and both felt as warm as toast, in spite
of the fact that the thermometer was down at zero.
The country here differed in its appearance from that over which they
had been travelling, and great forests extended to within two or three
miles of the town.
"I suppose," Dick said, "that's where the shooting is, for I can't
fancy any birds being fools enough to stop out on these plains, and if
they did, there would be no chance of getting a shot at them. How
pretty those sledge-bells are, to be sure! I wonder they don't have
them in England."
"I've seen wagons down in the country with them," Jack said, "and very
pretty the bells sounded on a still night. But the bells were not so
clear-toned as these."
From one shaft to another, in a bow, high over the horses' necks,
extended an arch of light wood, and from this hung a score of little
bells, which tinkled merrily as the sledge glided along.
"It's a delicious motion," Jack said; "no bumping or jolting, and yet,
even when one shuts one's eyes, he feels that he is going at a
tremendous pace."
The boys were amused at the driver, who frequently cracked his whip,
but never touched the horses, to whom, however, he was constantly
talking, addressing them in encouraging tones, which, as Jack said,
they seemed to understand just like Christians.
After an hour-and-a-half's drive, in which they must have traversed
some eighteen miles, they returned to the chateau. The servant at the
door relieved them of their warm cloaks and of the loose, fur-lined
boots, with which they had also been furnished, and then, evidently in
accordance with orders, conducted them upstairs to the room where the
countess and two of her daughters were working, while the third was
reading aloud. It was already getting dusk, and lighted lamps burned
on the tables, and the room, heated by a great stove in the corner,
felt pleasantly warm and comfortable.
CHAPTER XIII.
A NOMINAL IMPRISONMENT
The evening passed pleasantly. There was some music, and the three
girls and their mother sang together, and Jack (who had learnt
part-singing at home, for his family were very musical, and every
night were accustomed to sing glees and catches) also, at their
request, joined in, taking the part which their brother, when at home,
had been accustomed to fill.
In the course of the evening the boys explained that they had said
nothing to the commandant about their having picked up a little
Russian, as they had thought that it was better to allow him to remain
in ignorance of it, as they had had some idea of making their escape.
