Part 7

"Rouse ye, Ilya of Murom," cried Diuk; "it is time to go to royal Kiev town so as to be present at matins on Easter morn." But Ilya slept on and snored and stirred not. Again Diuk shouted, and again without result; but at his third shout the great warrior unclosed his eyes in a manner which seemed to suggest that he had been sleeping a hound's sleep and said:

"Ho, stranger, tell me your name and horde." Then Diuk told him all the truth.

"Why, then," asked Ilya, "have you roused me from my heroic sleep. Do you wish to go with me out upon the open plain and see which of us shall carry home the head of the other?"

"Nay," said Diuk in great haste. "Why should I fight with Ilya upon the open plain? Death will not come to you in battle. As there is one sun in the daylight sky and one moon in the dark blue heavens, so there is one Ilya of Murom in Holy Russia."

This speech was courteous enough and fitting for the mouth of a young hero, and it pleased Ilya mightily. He sprang at once to his nimble feet, caught Diuk by his white hands, kissed him upon his sugar lips, and swore with him eternal friendship, making the solemn exchange of the cross. And Diuk thought no more of home or of his lady mother and her tears of loneliness.

Then the young hero and the old sat down in the fair pavilion and ate and drank well but not too well; and when that memorable feast was ended, Ilya said to Diuk:

"Go now alone upon your way to Kiev town, and if any one there shall mock at you send me word of it. But do not take your part when the boasting time shall come."

With a heart full of hope and youthful expectation, Diuk rode on alone to Kiev town; and when he came there Rough-Coat leapt over the walls and flew like a whirlwind to the palace of white stone. In the courtyard Diuk leapt lightly to the ground, planted the butt end of his spear in the soil, and flung his bridle over the point. Then he looked up and saw the Princess Apraxia looking out of the window and said out loudly, "The washerwoman, I suppose." But he also bowed to her and asked, "Where is Prince Vladimir, the Fair Sun of Kiev?"

Thereupon the Princess Apraxia raised her head with a look of scorn and passed into the shadow of her apartment; and it was the serving men in the courtyard who answered the young man's question. "Royal Vladimir," they said, "is on his way to the Easter Mass." So Diuk mounted Rough-Coat once again and rode off to the Cathedral. At the great door he let his horse go free and entered the hall of the ambassadors, but he did not bow to North, South, East, and West and especially to any one, but gazed about and scanned the faces of all the congregation. When the service was over the courteous prince sent a messenger to invite the strange youth to the palace, and to this man Diuk replied lightly and by no means courteously:

"You have lately been favoured in these parts with spring weather and my embroidered garments are befouled with the mire of the plain." This he said to show his magnificence, for he was splendidly clad, as befitted his ancestry, and he knew it. So he went to the banquet-hall, his steed following after him; and when he came within the place he bowed to Prince Vladimir until his golden curls swept the red brick floor. Then he stood upright and looked about him, and having looked he shook his head doubtfully and slightingly, for to his eyes accustomed to the shining splendour of India the Glorious the palace was mean beyond compare.

But he sat down with another shake of his head, wondering upon what meal of frozen oats his fine steed was being regaled and eyeing with scorn the tables of white oak with their cloths patterned with drawn-work of white thread, the handiwork of the Princess Apraxia. He ate and drank well, however, and when he showed more contentment, Vladimir asked him courteously if it were a long journey from India the Glorious to Kiev town.

"I set out at vespers on Holy Saturday," said Diuk lightly, "and as you know, I have been at early Mass in Kiev town this Easter day."

"And can you buy such steeds as yours cheaply in India the Glorious?" asked Prince Vladimir still courteously.

"Oh," said Diuk lightly still, "we have them at a rouble, or two roubles, or six roubles, or even seven, but Rough-Coat is priceless and not to be purchased by the wealthiest trader." Then he thrust his hands into his belt and stared about the room, while a great hush fell upon the company.

But one of the heroes of Holy Russia rose slowly to his feet and said heavily: "My lord, Prince Vladimir, I have travelled far from Kiev town and have been even to India the Glorious. And I know without hearsay that by the straight way for heroic travellers it is a journey of three months, but by the round way for merchants it is a six months' passage and more, indeed, unless on the way the traveller springs from horse to horse, making no delay."

To this speech courteous Prince Vladimir said nothing in reply. The guests looked at each other at a loss for the next event, and then feeling hungry and thirsty again fell upon the banquet with heroic strength. But Diuk sat at the board sad and silent until Vladimir spoke to him.

"What ails your sad heart, bold youth?" he asked gently. "Is the feast not to your taste? Or do you fear the boasting time which is surely coming, when you shall have nothing of which you may brag?"

"Prince Vladimir," said Diuk, "I am wealthier far than you are. For my father left me great riches, and I am used to fine white bread made from flour of Turkish wheat."

Then courteous Prince Vladimir ordered his servants to bring wine of the greenest and cakes of wheaten flour. Diuk drank one half of the wine and poured out the rest upon the table as if its value were of no account, and some of the dogs licked the drops and then lay down to sleep. He took off the top crust of the fine wheaten cakes, ate the middle, and flung the rest to the other dogs. And even yet courteous Prince Vladimir blamed him not at all.

But another Russian hero sprang to his nimble feet and cried, "What boorish fellow is this? He is not really Lord Diuk from India the Glorious, and for the first time to-day this fellow has drunk green wine and eaten fine wheaten cakes. He is a cow-herd, a fugitive serf from the castle of some nobleman, who has done his master to death, dressed himself in his embroidered garments, and stolen his goodly steed. He is not of noble birth, for as he walked I noticed that he looked not straight before him but at the shoes upon his feet. He has come here in order that you, Prince Vladimir, may feast him honourably and then give him a rich gift in accordance with your courteous custom."

"I desire no treasure which can be given to me here," cried Diuk, "for I have wealth untold at home, and rich food and green wine in abundance. I had heard tales of wonder concerning Kiev city and came here to test the truth of what I had heard. But it is not with you as it is with us in India the Glorious."

And even yet Prince Vladimir parted not from his courteous bearing but said gently:

"Why did you stare about the church at Mass this Easter morning, instead of reverently bowing your head in the company?"

"I stared about, Prince Vladimir," said the young man, "because I had heard tales of Kiev churches and of the richness of their beauty. But in this matter also, it is not with you as it is with us in India the Glorious. Your churches are of wooden beams with domes of timber, but ours are of stone with roofs of beaten gold. Our meanest houses are finer than your palaces of white stone. Your streets are foul with mire, but ours are cleanly swept and strewn with dry yellow sand.

"The steps of your royal palace," went on Diuk, "are of black stone with railings of turned wood fastened together with pegs of wood, and these rough pegs, as I know to my annoyance, catch the flowing robes of those who mount the steps. But the steps of my palace in India the Glorious are of smoothest ivory, and are spread with rugs of silk from Samarcand, while the railings are of polished ruddy gold on which no speck of dust is allowed to settle.

"The floor of this banquet-hall is of rough, uneven pine planks, and even these rough boards are a luxury for the high table and the great corner, while the rest of the hall is paved with coarse red brick. Your walls and ceiling are unpainted, your tables are of oak, and the cloths laid upon the most exalted are patterned with drawn threads. But the floors of our hall are of smooth ash timber in every part, laid with great evenness, our walls and ceiling are painted in the richest colours, while our tables are of gold when they are not of ivory. Over my lady mother's doorway are seventy pictures of holy saints shining in glorious colours, while you have only ten. From our churches to the palace are laid pavements of hard smooth wood, spread with scarlet cloth, but your pathways are so miry that they soil the embroidered garments of a Prince."

Even yet Prince Vladimir remained courteous, and all he said in reply was:

"Why did you throw away some of my green wine and a portion of my wheaten cakes?"

"For a good reason," returned the young lord; "I could not eat your cakes, for the upper crust has a flavour of pine wood, while the lower tastes of clay, so that I knew at once that your ovens are built of brick and your oven brooms are made of pine twigs. But in our palace in India the Glorious the ovens of my lady mother, which are under her own care, are made of hard glazed tiles, while her oven brooms are of silk dipped in honey dew. If a man eats one of my mother's cakes he leaves no crumb behind, and his whole desire is to eat more. Your wines taste of damp and their flavour is foul. But my mother's wine-cellars and their contents are the wonder of India the Glorious. She has wines which saw the dawn of history, and these are kept in casks of silver with hoops of gold, which are hung on chains of brass in bricked-out caves of forty fathoms' depth; and from these great caves run open pipes underground to let in the fresh sweet air from the plain; and when the strong winds play about the open ends of these pipes the silver casks swing to and fro and make a murmur like that of snowy birds playing upon the bosom of a peaceful lake. So we have wine which cannot be described but must be tasted, and if a man drinks one cup thereof he leaves no drop behind, for there are no dregs in this liquor, and his whole desire is to drink more.

"As for the embroidered garments of my lady mother, the store in her presses and cupboards cannot be valued. At all times the sewing women are busy, stitching, stitching, stitching, and when one group grows weary, another takes up the work. My lady mother's under-robe is set with precious stones, while the bodice is of cloth of gold; her cap is covered with fair seed pearls with jewels of marvellous lustre and priceless value set in front, and as for myself I wear a dress one day, but woe unto my body-servant if I see it again. Your horses are fed on frozen oats, but ours are regaled on fine Turkish wheat. Beneath our palace are twelve deep cellars filled with ruddy gold, white silver, and fine seed pearls, and the contents of one cellar alone would be sufficient to buy up the whole of Kiev town and Chernigof as well."

At last Vladimir was a little moved. "I wish that Churilo the Exquisite were here, for he would know how to reply to your boasting." Even as he spoke the white oaken doors of the banquet-hall were flung open, and Churilo the Exquisite entered with a graceful bow to North, South, East, and West, and especially to Prince Vladimir, but not at all to Diuk from India the Glorious. But that young man was not thereby abashed.

"I have heard," he said, "even in far-away India, the fame of Churilo's beauty, and truly Rumour was no lying wench, for his face is like the rosebud for redness and his neck like the driven snow for whiteness. But Rumour lied when she praised his courtesy; for he has not learnt how to salute his betters."

Then the face of Churilo grew redder than the full-blown rose, and he cried in anger: "Braggart and boaster, son of a slave. Let us lay a wager of roubles, a wager of thirty thousand. For the space of three years you and I shall live in Kiev, and upon every single day of the year each shall wear fresh clothes of the richest, and upon every single day ride a horse of a different hue. And the wager shall pass to him whom all men acclaim as the most glorious. This can I do to uphold the honour of the court of Prince Vladimir, the Fair Sun of Kiev."

"It is easy for you to wager such a sum and to propose such a test," said Diuk somewhat wearily, "for you live at home where your clothes presses and your stables are full; but I am far from home and have only one travelling suit which is foul from the mire of the dirty ways of Kiev town. But I accept your wager."

Then the young lord sat down at the oaken table and called for a parchment scroll on which he wrote a letter and a list, a letter and a list for his lady mother far away in India the Glorious. Having rolled the scroll and sealed it he went out into the court where Rough-Coat stood pawing the ground impatiently, and placed it in one of the saddle-bags. "Haste thee home," he said in the quivering ear of the faithful steed, "home to India the Glorious, and when you reach the palace of my lady mother neigh loudly so that all may hear."

They saw the good steed while Diuk spoke in his quivering ear, but they did not see him when he had finished speaking--there was only a wreath of smoke on the open boundless plain, and he was gone. And when the good steed came to the palace of his master he neighed loudly, and the lady mother came out upon the ivory steps holding the railing of ruddy gold with her right hand and her own heart with her left, for she saw the empty saddle of Rough-Coat, and thought instantly of the worst. But the horse neighed again with a joyful note, and when the grooms felt in the saddle-bag they found the scroll which they gave to their mistress on bended knee.

Holding herself proudly erect, she read the words which Diuk had written, and the colour came back to her face and the light of love to her eyes. "The foolish boy has boasted as I warned him that he must not do, for there is no need for one to boast whose splendour is beyond doubt or rival. But I must do what I can to redeem his pledged word--and it may be that his precious life is endangered." Then she unbound her golden keys and taking with her a band of sewing maidens, she unlocked the doors of spacious wardrobes, and packed changes of lawn and silken raiment sufficient for three years and three days, and so as to afford three changes for each day; and though the number of garments was so great the weight of the bales were not too heavy a burden for Rough-Coat, so fine was the texture of lawn and silk, each garment having stood the test of being drawn through a finger ring before it was embroidered with gold or silver or fine seed pearls.

When Rough-Coat was duly loaded, the lady mother threw an old and much-worn garment over all and said:

"Haste to my precious son, good Rough-Coat, and warn him of your coming with a neigh."

Before long the young Lord Diuk and Churilo the Exquisite began their strange contest, riding about Kiev town in new garments and upon a fresh horse every day. Churilo ordered great herds of horses to be driven into Kiev from Chernigof, and took much pains to select one of different hue every morning; but Diuk anointed Rough-Coat each morning with dew and so changed the colour of its coat. For three years this peaceful warfare lasted, and then on Easter morning the two combatants went to early Mass and stood in the porch of the cathedral side by side, but not too close together.

The garments of Churilo the Exquisite were slashed with ruddy burning gold and with white gleaming silver. In place of buttons he had clasps made in the likeness of handsome youths with loops fashioned in the semblance of lovely maidens. So high were the insteps of his slippers of green morocco that swallows swooping to the earth might easily pass under them, while their tips were as sharp as the shoemaker's awl. His cap was of softest down overshadowing his eyes in front and his white neck behind. His over-mantle flung back in youthful vanity was of sables of the richest gloss.

But his opponent stood by his side in the worn garment which his lady mother had placed on the back of Rough-Coat to protect the bales from the weather; only, beneath this beggar's robe shone jewels on his footgear of value greater than that of all Kiev, except for the gems upon the statues of the Virgin and the Saints in the great cathedral.

Vladimir came and looked at the young men, while Churilo fingered his clasps and loops as if to draw attention to their exquisite fashioning; but Diuk looked straight ahead as if he saw right across the open steppe to the palace of his lady mother in India the Glorious.

Then the Prince spoke in tones of quiet judgment:

"To our mind," he said, "the young Lord Diuk from India the Glorious has forfeited his wager; for such inventions as these clasps and loops have never been equalled in the eyes of men."

"The value of the wager," cried Diuk, "is nothing to me, but for my renown I am jealous enough." Then he threw his worn garment aside and stood forth in apparel so wondrous that all the watchers fell to the earth, stunned with the sight of its shining beauty. At the fore peak of his cap shone the sun like ruddy gold; at the back was the moon with shining silver rays; between the two points shone a light as from pearls heaped up in the darkness.

Then he fingered the clasps in front of his embroidered doublet which were fashioned in the shape of singing birds, and at the touch of his caressing fingers the birds began to sing. He pulled the loops at the edges of his coat which were fashioned in the shape of lions and dragons, and at the touch of his caressing fingers they began to crawl and leap and hiss and roar. When he had finished the whole of the company, including Churilo the Exquisite, lay prone upon the floor.

Vladimir was the first to rise, and he gasped out with his hand to his forehead: "The wager and the renown are yours, goodly youth. Now cover up your birds and beasts with a garment to which my people are more accustomed." And Diuk did so; whereupon the people recovered from their stupefied astonishment and began to praise Diuk for having outdone Churilo the Exquisite in the ingenuity and richness of his apparel. And the victor spent the thirty thousand roubles on green wine for the applauding crowds, which made them applaud him still more loudly.

Now Churilo the Exquisite was a young man of determination, and even this defeat did not quench his spirit or his ingenuity. As soon as he had recovered himself he approached Diuk once again and said with great respect:

"My Lord Diuk, let us make another wager of another kind. Let us prove whose horse can leap the broad stream of Mother Dnieper, which measures two miles across, and let our heads be the stake; the winner to cut off the head of the loser."

"I have only my travelling nag with me," said Diuk, "but I accept the challenge." Then he went to Rough-Coat in the stable and told the good horse in what danger he stood of losing his head.

"That is well," said Rough-Coat, in the speech of Holy Russia, "for not only will I leap over Mother Dnieper, but I will carry you an even distance upon the farther shore. I belong to a heroic family, and my eldest brother is Cloudfall, the shaggy bay steed ridden by Ilya of Murom the Old Cossáck, while my second brother bears Nikitich upon his adventures, but my youngest brother is the steed of Churilo the Exquisite."

Without loss of time Diuk saddled Rough-Coat and rode far out across the open plain with Churilo by his side, riding step by step but not too near. Behind them flocked a great crowd of mighty heroes of Holy Russia, as well as of the townsfolk of Kiev, who had come to watch the manly contest, which was much more to their taste than an exhibition of clothing and decoration, however ingenious and splendid they might be.

At last they came to the shore of broad Mother Dnieper, and both the combatants stood for a moment with their hands to their foreheads gazing out across the deep water to discover a possible landing-place on the farther bank. Then said Churilo the Exquisite:

"Do thou leap first, Lord Diuk."

"Nay," answered the other, "do thou leap first, and when we leap together in India, then will I take the lead."

So Churilo put his horse to the stream. The younger brother of Rough-Coat left the shore with a courageous leap, but came down with a great splash in mid-stream. Then Diuk put his horse to the stream. The younger brother of Cloudfall left the shore with a courageous leap, cleared the river and an even space on the farther shore, and then turning quickly leapt back again; and as Rough-Coat soared across the broad bosom of Mother Dnieper, Diuk stooped and caught Churilo by his yellow curls.

On the banks of the stream the victor prepared to cut off the head of the Exquisite; but all the ladies, young and not quite so young, lovely and not quite so lovely, who had come out from Kiev, implored him to spare the life of the young man. So Diuk merely gave him a mighty kick and said:

"Go, Exquisite, to the women to whom you owe your life, and stay with them; for the men of Holy Russia, to say naught of India the Glorious, have no need of such as you."

Churilo the Exquisite had not yet parted with the whole of his ingenuity, and he turned to Prince Vladimir:

"My Lord," he said, "if this young man is a truth-teller, let us send talesmen who can compute and count to India the Glorious, to make lists of all his boasted possessions in treasure and goods and herds and flocks."

"Whom shall we send?" asked Prince Vladimir.

"Let Alyosha go," answered Churilo.

"Nay," said Diuk quickly, "Alyosha shall not go; for he hath greedy eyes and pilfering fingers, and he will never, I assure you, come back again to Kiev town." Then he sat down at the table of the banquet hall, where the whole company was now gathered, and wrote a message upon a parchment and fastened it to one of his flaming arrows. To this he whispered a word of direction, and then, fitting it to his bow, he shot it forth from the open window across the boundless plain. The winged messenger found Ilya of Murom near the door of his pavilion where he was resting with Nikitich, and as soon as he had read the scroll the Old Cossáck said to his wise companion:

"Go thou to Diuk in Kiev town and tell him that, if Nikitich is not an army in himself, then Ilya will come who is a host."

As soon as he saw Nikitich, Diuk's eyes shone with welcoming pleasure. "Ah, Nikitich," he said, "you shall go as talesman with two others to India the Glorious, to make lists of all my possessions in treasure and goods and herds and flocks.

"Take parchment sufficient for three years and three days," the young man went on, "and I promise you in prophecy that you will do homage to my servant-maids, mistaking each of them in turn for my lady mother." Then he laughed gently as one who wins a fight by putting aside with naked arm the ponderous mace of his adversary.

The three talesmen set out at once, followed by three waggons heaped with parchment; and after many wanderings and not a few adventures Nikitich came to India the Glorious, on the verge of which they climbed a lofty mountain, from whence they beheld the land lying before them.