Short Fiction, Xavier de Maistre [books to read in your 20s txt] 📗

that surrounded him. He remembered then the sorrowful presentiments of his mother, when he last parted from her, but he remembered also her fervent blessings, and reanimated by this latter recollection, he exclaimed: “Almighty God! grant me the felicity of seeing her once more.” He had scarce finished his short but devout prayer, when Ivan was already again near him. He had found the descent far less difficult than he expected. After groping down some distance between the crags, they had to go by the side of a narrow and inclined bank of rock, covered with slippery snow, below which the mountain terminated in a precipice. Ivan having hewn the frozen ground before him, to avoid falling, set out anew, guiding his master through the dangerous passage. Both in starting crossed themselves, and the Major, impelled by his pious emotions, said: “No, if I must perish, it shall not be for a want of courage, but the result of my ill-health; I will now walk as long as God will give me strength.” They got in safety through the perilous passage, and did not stop in their journey. At length the pathway began to be more and more beaten, and the snow disappeared, except towards the north or in deep hollows. They did not meet with any human being until daybreak. Discovering then, at a distance, two travellers who advanced towards them, they hastened to stretch themselves on the ground, in the hope of escaping their observations.

In emerging from the mountains in that direction, the traveller finds himself in an uncultivated country totally without trees, except some few on the banks of the large rivers, though the soil is very fertile. When our fugitives resumed their journey, they followed for some time the course of the Sonja, which they must cross in order to reach Mosdok, and looked about for some place where they might ford the river without much peril. They were yet engaged in that search, when they saw a person on horseback advancing towards them. There was neither tree nor shrub, behind which they could have concealed themselves, and they were obliged to keep close to the bank. The traveller was approaching. They determined not to attack, but, if necessary, to stand upon the defensive. Ivan drew his poniard, and gave the pistol to the Major. But, upon discovering that the traveller was a boy of twelve or thirteen years of age, Ivan rushed upon him, seized him by his leg, and dragged him to the ground. The lad attempted to defend himself, but when the Major joined the assailant, the boy took to his heels and ran off. Master and servant then mounted the horse, and, by the depth of the channel, were made sensible how impossible it would have been for them to ford it. The pony, with his two riders, was near being carried away by the rush of the current. They, however, reached the opposite shore without accident, but found it so steep that the horse could gain no footing upon it. They therefore alighted, and Ivan strove to draw the panting and terrified animal after him, but it soon left the halter in his hands, and he saw it, after some ineffectual struggles to mount the bank, disappear under the water.

This accident would have been more distressing to them, had they not already crossed the river: after some exclamations of pity for the poor animal, they bent their way towards an eminence covered with detached rocks, behind which they hoped to find a shelter, and a place of rest. In calculating the time they had been journeying, they concluded that the district of the pacific Tchetchengs could not be very distant. They had little confidence in these pretended friends of the Russians. Kascambo, however, was too much enfeebled, to expect to reach the banks of the Terec, unless they should procure some assistance, their little stock of provisions being now exhausted.

They spent the rest of that day in mournful silence, averse to increase their sufferings by an interchange of the reflections which their situation suggested. Towards evening, the Major observed his servant striking his forehead and uttering a deep groan. Astonished at this sudden fit of despair, in his stouthearted companion, he asked him the reason of it. “Master,” replied Ivan, “I am a miserable wretch!”

“God forgive thee,” said the Major.

“Oh, I have committed a great folly. I have forgotten the musket which hung over little Mamet’s bed. Your moaning was the cause of it. Faith, sir, I see no reason to laugh. It was the best musket in the whole village: if I had it, we could hope to prevail on some traveller, whom we may chance to meet, to assist us; but, pennyless and wretched as we are, I really don’t know how we shall reach the Terec.”

To the still greater discomfiture of our travellers, the weather became very bad. A cold wind, accompanied with hail, blew directly in their faces. They, notwithstanding, jogged on heavily, without having yet made up their minds, though the night had already set in, whether it would be better for them to gain some village, or avoid the danger they might incur by so doing. But a new accident that happened to them, towards dawn of day, greatly contributed to resolve that question. In passing a swamp covered with ice, they plunged up to their knees in the water, and the Major became so wet, that in a short time, wholly overcome by this new cause of tribulation, joined to his weariness and long suffering, he again repined bitterly at his unhappy lot, and determined not to move a step farther; but solicitous to preserve his servant for a better fate than that to which he now resigned himself, he said to him: “Ivan, hear me: heaven is my witness that I have done my utmost, to bear the weight of my misfortunes. But you see that my efforts are as unavailing as thy