Part 2

The gunsmiths replied: "We are touched by the gracious word of the Emperor, _batiushka_,[19] and we can never forget him, because he places reliance upon his own people; but what we must do in the present case we cannot say in one minute, because the English nation also is not stupid, but even tolerably cunning, and their art hath much sensible contrivance. With that," said they, "we must cope after due reflection, and with the blessing of God. But if thou, gracious master, like unto our gracious Sovereign, hast confidence in us, then do thou go to thy home on the quiet Don, but leave this flea with us, just as it is, in its case, and in the Imperial golden snuff-box. Take thy pleasure upon the Don, and heal the wounds which thou hast accepted for the sake of the Fatherland, and when thou returnest through Tula, halt and send for us. By that time, God granting, we shall have devised something."

Platoff was not wholly satisfied that the men of Tula should demand so much time, and moreover, that they should not say plainly just what they intended to make. He questioned them this way and that, and craftily engaged them in conversation in all sorts of manners, after the fashion of the Don; but the Tula men did not yield to him one whit in cunning, for they had suddenly caught an idea which they could not even hope that Platoff would believe in, and they desired to execute fully their daring plan, and then hand it over.

Said they: "We do not ourselves know, as yet, what thing we shall undertake; only, trust in God, and perchance the Imperial word will not be put to shame through us." And thus did Platoff use crafty mental shifts, and the men of Tula likewise.

Platoff shifted and shuffled, shifted and shuffled, and perceived, at last, that to out-shift and out-shuffle a Tula man was beyond his powers; so he gave them the snuff-box with the nymfozoria, and said: "Well, there's nothing else to be done; be it according to your will. I know you--what sort of fellows ye are--but there's nothing else to be done; I trust you, only look to it that you will not exchange the diamond, and will not spoil the delicate English work, and that you will not be long about the job, for I travel fast; two weeks will not have passed before I shall return from the quiet Don to Petrograd, and then you must, without fail, let me have something to show to the Emperor."

The gunsmiths reassured him fully.

"We will not injure the delicate work," said they, "and we will not exchange the diamond, and two weeks is time enough for us; and against that occasion of your return you shall have _something_ worthy to show to the Emperor's Magnificence." But, all the same, they did not say precisely what that _something_ was to be.

FOOTNOTE:

[19] An untranslatable word, but frequently rendered as "dear little father." Count L. N. Tolstoy said to me that there were only two genuine Russian titles--"_batiushka_" and "_matushka_." In ordinary life, nowadays, they are the special titles of priests and their wives. But the Tzar and Tzaritza are so called in ceremonious national songs, and are so addressed, by peasants, as in the olden days.

VI

Platoff departed from Tula; and three of the gunsmiths, the most skilful of them all--one a squint-eyed, left-handed smith with a birth-mark on his cheek and the hair upon his temples plucked out in the course of his apprenticeship--bade their comrades and their households farewell, and saying nothing to any one, took their wallets, placed therein the necessary food, and disappeared from the town. The only point about them which was remarked was, that they did not proceed towards the Moscow barrier, but in the opposite direction, towards Kieff; and it was supposed that they had betaken themselves to Kieff in order to do reverence to the departed Saints, or to take counsel there with some of the living holy men who are always present in Kieff, in vast abundance.

But this was only approximately true, not the truth itself. Neither the time nor the distance allowed of the Tula artisans making the three weeks' trip on foot to Kieff, and afterwards executing a piece of work which should put the English nation to shame. Better would it have been to go to Moscow, which is distant only "twice ninety versts," to pray, since departed Saints not a few repose there, also. But in the other direction, Oryol lies another "twice ninety versts," and from Oryol to Kieff is a good five hundred versts more. Such a road is not to be speedily traversed, and having traversed it, one recovers not quickly--the feet will remain like glass, and the hands will tremble for a long time thereafter.

Some persons even thought that the gunsmiths had been over-boastful in the presence of Platoff, and that afterwards, when they had bethought themselves, they had lost their courage, and had now decamped for good, carrying off with them the imperial gold snuff-box, and the diamond, and the English steel flea, which had caused them this trouble, in its case.

But this supposition, also, was utterly without foundation, and unworthy of the clever men upon whom the hope of the nation now rested.

VII

The men of Tula, clever fellows and well versed in the art of metals, are also renowned as the finest judges in religious matters. Their fame in this respect has filled not only their native land, but even holy Mount Athos. They are not only experts at singing from the obscure ancient notes, but they also know how the holy picture of "the evening chime" should be painted; and if any one of them dedicates himself to the great service and enters the monastic life, such men have the reputation of making the best Monastery stewards, and they turn out the most capable collectors. It is well known on holy Mount Athos that the men of Tula are a most profitable race, and were it not for them, many remote corners of Russia would, assuredly, never have beheld very many of the sacred things of the Far East, and Athos would have been deprived of many useful contributions from Russian bounty and piety.

Nowadays the "Athos Tulans" carry about sacred things throughout the whole of our native land, and collect contributions in the most masterly manner, even in places where there is nothing to be got. The Tula man is full of ecclesiastical piety, and very knowing in that line; therefore those three workmen who had undertaken to uphold Platoff, and with him all Russia, committed no error in directing their course not Moscow-wards but towards the South.

They were bound not for Kieff, but for Mtzensk, a county town in the Government of Oryol, in which stands the ancient "stone-carved" holy image of Saint Nikolai, which had floated thither, in the most remote times, upon a great cross, also of stone, down the river Zusha. This is a holy image "of menacing and most terrible aspect,"--the Prelate of Myra-in-Lycia is therein depicted "full-length," all clad in vestments of silver brocade, but dark of countenance; and in one hand he holds a temple, in the other a sword--"symbolizing conquest." And precisely in this "conquest" lies the whole gist of the matter. Saint Nikolai is the Patron of mercantile and military matters in general, but the "Nikolai of Mtzensk" is so in particular, and to him the men of Tula hied them to pay their reverence. They caused a service of prayer to be celebrated before the holy image itself, and then before the stone cross, and at last they returned home, "by night," and telling no one anything about it, they set to work with direful secrecy.

All three assembled in a small house belonging to the left-handed man, locked the door, closed the shutters over the windows, lighted the sacred lamp before the holy picture of Nikolai, and set to work.

One day, two days, three days they sat, and went out nowhere, but kept tapping away with their little hammers. They were forging something--but what they were forging, no one knew.

Every one was curious, but no one could find out, because the workers said nothing and did not show themselves out of doors. Divers persons went to the cottage, and knocked at the door, under various pretexts, to ask for fire or salt; but the three artist-smiths unbolted for no questions, and it was not even known on what food they subsisted. An attempt was made to frighten them, and they were told that a house in the vicinity was on fire--to see whether they would not run out in their alarm, and then it would be revealed what they had forged; but no one could entrap these cunning artisans. On that occasion only the left-handed man did thrust himself out to the extent of his shoulders, and shout: "Burn by yourselves, but we have no time!"--and thereupon he hid his plucked pate again, clapped the shutter to, and proceeded with his business.

Only, it could be seen through tiny cracks, that a small fire was glowing in the house, and the delicate little hammers could be heard tapping away on the resonant anvils.

In a word, the whole affair was conducted with such fearful secrecy that it was impossible to find out anything at all, and, moreover, this continued up to the very moment of Cossack Platoff's return from the quiet Don to the Emperor; and during all that time these artisans saw no one and talked with no one.

VIII

Platoff travelled very swiftly, and in state: he himself sat in the calash, and on the box sat two Cossacks of the Imperial Suite[20] with _nagaikas_,[21] one on each side of the coachman, whom they belabored unmercifully, so that he should drive at a gallop. And if one of these Cossacks fell into a doze, Platoff kicked him out of the calash, and they drove on harder than ever. These means of encouragement operated so efficaciously that it was impossible to bring the horses to a halt at a single posting-station, and they always over-ran the stopping-place by a hundred leaps. Then the Suite-Cossack would work upon the coachman in the opposite quarter again, and they would return to the entrance.

And in this same fashion did they roll into Tula; at first they flew a hundred leaps beyond the Moscow barrier, and then the Cossack worked upon the coachman in the opposite quarter, with his nagaika, and fresh horses were put in at the porch.

Platoff did not alight from the calash himself, but merely commanded a Suite-Cossack to bring to him, as speedily as possible, the master-workman with whom he had left the flea.

One Suite-Cossack ran to make them fetch the work which was to put the English to shame, as quickly as possible, and his Cossack had barely departed when Platoff despatched after him courier after courier, that all possible haste might be made.

When he had sent off all the Cossacks of the Suite on the run, he began to despatch simple members of the curious public, and even thrust his own legs out of the calash in his impatience, and was on the point of rushing off himself, and fairly gnashed his teeth--everything seemed so slow to him.

Such, at that time, was the demand that everything should be very quick and exact, that not a single moment might be wasted to Russian usefulness.

FOOTNOTES:

[20] By the transposition of a letter, the old armorer contrives to call them "whistle-Cossacks."

[21] Cossack whip--really, the Tatar whip used by the Cossacks, and all mountaineers, of the Tatar and Mongolian tribes. It is a short, thick, round leather lash, all of one size, without a tapering tip.

IX

The Tula artisans, who had executed a marvellous bit of business, had only just completed their work. The Cossacks of the Suite dashed up to them breathless, and the simple members of the curious public never arrived at all, because, through lack of practice, they flung their feet widely over the road, and tumbled down, whereupon they fled homewards, and hid themselves in the first place that offered, through fear of encountering Platoff's eye.

But as soon as the Cossacks of the Suite rushed up, they instantly began to shout, and when they saw that the men did not open to them, they immediately proceeded to tear at the bolts and shutters, without ceremony. But the bolts were so stout that they did not yield in the least, and they wrenched at the door; but the door was backed up inside by oaken bars. Then the Cossacks picked up a beam in the street, fixed it under the roof-frame, after the fashion customary at conflagrations, and tipped the whole roof off the little house at one toss. But no sooner had they removed the roof than they instantly tumbled over backwards themselves, for such a spiral[22] of sweat arose from the artisans in their confined quarters, caused by their unresting toil, that it was impossible for an unaccustomed man, coming directly from the fresh air, to breathe it all at once.

The messengers shouted: "What are you doing, you scoundrels, you thus and so? And how dare you to infect us with such a spiral, to boot? After this, God is not with you!"

But they replied: "We will instantly drive in the last little nail, and when that is in place, we will bring out our work."

But the messengers said: "He'll devour us alive before that time, and leave not enough to remember our souls by."

But the gunsmiths replied: "He will not succeed in swallowing you, because, lo! while you have been speaking we have already driven in that last tiny nail. Run and say that we will bring it immediately."

The Suite-Cossacks ran, but not with confidence--they thought the gunsmiths were deceiving them; therefore, while they ran as hard as they could, they kept glancing back. But the workmen followed them, and made such extreme haste that they did not manage to get their clothes quite on, as was meet before presenting themselves to such an important personage, but fastened the hooks of their kaftans as they ran. Two of them had nothing in their hands, but the third, the left-handed man, held the Imperial casket with the English steel flea, in a green case.

FOOTNOTE:

[22] Uneducated for "stench."

X

The Suite-Cossacks dashed up to Platoff and said: "Here they are themselves!"

Platoff immediately addressed the artisans: "Ready?"

"Quite ready," they replied.

"Hand it over."

They gave it to him.

The carriage was already harnessed, and the coachman and the postillion were in their places. The Cossacks immediately seated themselves beside the coachman, and raised their whips over him, and, after executing a flourish, held them so.

Platoff tore off the green case, opened the casket, drew the golden snuff-box from the soft cotton, and from the snuff-box the diamond as big as a walnut, and beheld the English flea lying there exactly as before, and nothing else whatever.

Says Platoff: "What's this? And where is your work, wherewith you wished to solace the Emperor?"

The gunsmiths reply: "Our work is here, also."

Platoff inquires: "Wherein does it consist?"

And the gunsmiths reply: "Why declare that? All is here, before your eyes--and you can look."

Platoff shrugged his shoulders and shouted: "Where is the key to the flea?"

"Here, also," they answered. "Where the flea is, there, also, is the key, in one and the same walnut."

Platoff tried to grasp the key, but his fingers were blunt; he fumbled and fumbled, but could not manage to get hold either of the flea, or of the key which projected from the machinery in its belly, and all at once he flew into a rage, and began to curse in words after the Cossack fashion. He shouted: "What do you mean, you rascals? You have made nothing, and have spoiled the whole thing, to boot! I'll cut your heads off!"

But the men of Tula made reply: "Without cause do you thus abuse us. We must suffer all insults from you, as from the Emperor's emissary, but just because you have doubted us and have thought that we are capable of deceiving even the Imperial name, we will not tell you our secret, but you will please to carry it to the Emperor. He will see what sort of people he has in us, and whether he will suffer shame because of us."

But Platoff roared: "Come, you are lying, you rascals! I'll not part from you, but one of you shall go to Petrograd with me, and there I will put him to the question as to the nature of your cunning devices."

Thereupon, he stretched out his hand, seized the squint-eyed, left-handed smith by the collar with his stubby fingers, so that all the hooks flew off the man's coat, and flung him at his feet in the calash.

"Sit here," says he, "in the manner of a poodle, until we get to Petrograd--you shall answer to me for all of them. And you," says he to the Cossacks of the Suite, "whip up, there! Don't dawdle! See that you get me to the Emperor in Petrograd the day after to-morrow."

The artisans merely ventured to say to him, on behalf of their comrade: "How can you take him from us thus without a tugament?[23] He will not be able to come back."

But Platoff, in place of answer, showed them his fist,--such a horrible fist,--dark red and all slashed, seemingly grown together here and there--and menacing them, he said: "Here's his tugament for you!"

And to the Cossacks he said: "Whip up, my lads!"

Cossacks, coachman, and horses all began to work simultaneously, and bore away the left-handed man without his tugament; and the next day but one, as Platoff had commanded, they whirled him up to the Emperor's palace, and even, having over-galloped as was befitting, they drove past the columns.

Platoff rose, fastened on his Orders, and went to the Emperor, commanding the Cossacks of the Suite to stand guard at the entrance over the squint-eyed, left-handed smith.

FOOTNOTE:

[23] Document--that is to say, passport; the usual peasant word is "document."

XI

Platoff was afraid to present himself before the eyes of the Emperor, because Nikolai Pavlovitch was a terribly remarkable man, with a long memory--he never forgot anything. Platoff knew that he would, infallibly, question him about the flea. And so he, who feared no enemy in all the world, lost his courage there. He entered the palace with the casket, and slily thrust it behind the stove in the hall. Having thus concealed the casket, Platoff presented himself before the Emperor in his study, and began, with all possible speed, to report the internecine conversation of the Cossacks on the quiet Don. He reasoned thus: that he would engage the Emperor's attention in this manner, and then, if the Emperor himself remembered and mentioned the flea, it would be necessary to hand it over and answer for it; but if the Emperor should not refer to it, then he would hold his own tongue: he would order the valet attached to the study to put the casket away out of sight, and would confine the left-handed Tula man in a casemate of the fortress for an indefinite period, and allow him to sit there until he was needed.

But the Emperor Nikolai Pavlovitch had forgotten nothing, and Platoff had barely terminated his internecine conversations, when he immediately inquired: "Well, and how have my Tula artisans justified themselves against the English nymfozoria?"

"The nymfozoria, Your Majesty," says he, "is still in the same space, and I have brought it back, for the Tula artisans could make nothing more marvellous."

The Emperor replied: "Thou art a valiant old man, but that which thou hast just reported to me cannot be."

Platoff began to assure him, and related the whole course of the matter; and when he had reached the point where the men of Tula entreated him that the flea might be shown to the Emperor, Nikolai Pavlovitch slapped him on the back and said: "Give it here! I know that my own people cannot deceive me. Something beyond comprehension has been done here."

XII

They fetched out the casket from behind the stove, removed its cloth case, opened the golden snuff-box and the diamond walnut, and there lay the flea, just as it had lain before.

The Emperor gazed and said: "How clever!" but his faith in the Russian workmen was not diminished, and he ordered that his favorite daughter, Alexandra Nikolaevna, be summoned, and commanded her: "Thou hast delicate fingers on thy hands--take the little key and wind up the belly machine of this nymfozoria as speedily as possible."

The Princess began to turn the key, and the flea instantly began to move its feelers, but did not stir its legs. Alexandra Nikolaevna wound up the whole machinery, but still the nymfozoria neither executed its dance nor performed a single variation, as in former times.

Platoff turned all green, and cried; "Ah! the rascally dogs! Now I understand why they would not tell me anything there. 'Tis well that I fetched one of the fools along with me."

With these words, he rushed out upon the porch, seized the left-handed man by the hair, and began to hurl him about hither and thither, until the tufts flew. But when Platoff ceased to beat him, the man recovered himself and said: "My hair has already been all pulled out, during my apprenticeship, and now I do not know for what necessity such a repetition has descended."

"'Tis because I had set my hopes upon you," said Platoff, "and had gone surety for you, and you have spoiled a valuable thing."

The left-handed man replied: "We are greatly satisfied that you went surety for us, but as for spoiling--we have spoiled nothing: take and look through the very strongest melkoscope."

Platoff ran back, told about the melkoscope, and merely threatened the left-handed man.

"I'll give it to you well, yet," says he, "you thus-and-thus-and-so!" And he ordered the Cossacks of the Suite to fasten the left-handed man's elbows still more strongly behind him, and himself mounted the stairs, fuming and reciting a prayer in one breath: "Blessed Mother of the Blessed King, pure, all-pure," and so on, as is proper. And all the courtiers who were standing on the stairs turned away from him and thought: "Platoff is caught, at last, and in a few moments he will be driven from the palace,"--for they could not endure him on account of his bravery.

XIII

When Platoff reported the left-handed man's words to the Emperor, the latter instantly exclaimed with joy: "I knew that my Russian people had not betrayed me!" and he ordered a melkoscope to be brought on a cushion.

The melkoscope was brought that very minute, and the Emperor took the flea, and placed it under the glass, first with its back, then with its side, then with its belly upward,--in short, he turned it on all sides, but nothing was to be seen. But even then the Emperor did not lose faith, and said merely: "Bring hither instantly that gunsmith who is downstairs."

Platoff announced: "His clothing must be changed. I took him just as he was, and now he is in very evil plight."

But the Emperor replied: "Bring him just as he is."

Platoff said: "Here now, you thus-and-so, go yourself and make answer before the eyes of the Emperor."

And the left-handed man replied: "Assuredly I will go and will make answer."

So he goes, just as he is, in his voluminous trousers, one leg tucked into his boot, the other flapping unrestrainedly, and his old kaftan, whose hooks would not fasten because they were lost, and which had a rent on the stomach; but he took no heed of this--he felt no confusion.

"What of it?" he said to himself. "If it pleases the Emperor to see me, I must go; and if I have no tugament with me, I am not to blame, and I will tell how the matter came about."

When the left-handed man entered and made his obeisance, the Emperor immediately said to him: "What is the meaning of this, my good man, that we have examined it thus and thus, and have placed it under the melkoscope, and can descry nothing noteworthy?"

And the left-handed man replied: "Did Your Majesty deign to look at it in the right way?"

The grandees made signs to him, "Don't speak so!" but he did not understand that one must express one's self in the Court fashion, flatteringly, or with craft, and he spoke simply.

The Emperor said: "Stop your prudent interference with him; let him answer as he pleases."