The Daughter of the Commandant Part 24

And Marya eagerly related all the reader already knows.

The lady listened with deep attention.

"Where do you lodge?" she asked, when the young girl concluded her story. And when she heard that it was with Anna Vla.s.siefna, she added, with a smile: "Ah! I know! Good-bye! Do not tell anyone of our meeting.

I hope you will not have to wait long for an answer to your letter."

Having said these words, she rose and went away by a covered walk.

Marya returned home full of joyful hope.

Her hostess scolded her for her early morning walk--bad, she said, in the autumn for the health of a young girl. She brought the "_samovar_,"

and over a cup of tea she was about to resume her endless discussion of the Court, when a carriage with a coat-of-arms stopped before the door.

A lackey in the Imperial livery entered the room, announcing that the Tzarina deigned to call to her presence the daughter of Captain Mironoff.

Anna Vla.s.siefna was quite upset by this news.

"Oh, good heavens!" cried she; "the Tzarina summons you to Court! How did she know of your arrival? And how will you acquit yourself before the Tzarina, my little mother? I think you do not even know how to walk Court fas.h.i.+on. I ought to take you; or, stay, should I not send for the midwife, that she might lend you her yellow gown with flounces?"

But the lackey declared that the Tzarina wanted Marya Ivanofna to come alone, and in the dress she should happen to be wearing. There was nothing for it but to obey, and Marya Ivanofna started.

She foresaw that our fate was in the balance, and her heart beat violently. After a few moments the coach stopped before the Palace, and Marya, after crossing a long suite of empty and sumptuous rooms, was ushered at last into the boudoir of the Tzarina. Some lords, who stood around there, respectfully opened a way for the young girl.

The Tzarina, in whom Marya recognized the lady of the garden, said to her, graciously--

"I am delighted to be able to accord you your prayer. I have had it all looked into. I am convinced of the innocence of your betrothed. Here is a letter which you will give your future father-in-law." Marya, all in tears, fell at the feet of the Tzarina, who raised her, and kissed her forehead. "I know," said she, "you are not rich, but I owe a debt to the daughter of Captain Mironoff. Be easy about your future."

After overwhelming the poor orphan with caresses, the Tzarina dismissed her, and Marya started the same day for my father's country house, without having even had the curiosity to take a look at Petersburg.

Here end the memoirs of Petr' Andrejtch Grineff; but family tradition a.s.serts that he was released from captivity at the end of the year 1774, that he was present at the execution of Pugatchef, and that the latter, recognizing him in the crowd, made him a farewell sign with the head which, a few moments later, was held up to the people, lifeless and bleeding.

Soon afterwards Petr' Andrejtch became the husband of Marya Ivanofna.

Their descendants still live in the district of Simbirsk.

In the ancestral home in the village of ---- is still shown the autograph letter of Catherine II., framed and glazed. It is addressed to the father of Petr' Andrejtch, and contains, with the acquittal of his son, praises of the intellect and good heart of the Commandant's daughter.

THE END.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1: Celebrated general under Petr' Alexiovitch the Great, and the Tzarina Anna Iwanofna; banished by her successor, the Tzarina Elizabeth Petrofna.]

[Footnote 2: Saveliitch, son of Saveli.]

[Footnote 3: Means pedagogue. Foreign teachers have adopted it to signify their profession.]

[Footnote 4: One who has not yet attained full age. Young gentlemen who have not yet served are so called.]

[Footnote 5: _Drorovuiye lyndi_, that is to say, courtyard people, or serfs, who inhabit the quarters.]

[Footnote 6: Eudosia, daughter of Basil.]

[Footnote 7: Diminutive of Petr', Peter.]

[Footnote 8: Anastasia, daughter of Gara.s.sim]

[Footnote 9: Orenburg, capital of the district of Orenburg, which--the most easterly one of European Russia--extends into Asia.]

[Footnote 10: _Touloup_, short pelisse, not reaching to the knee.]

[Footnote 11: John, son of John.]

[Footnote 12: One kopek=small bit of copper money.]

[Footnote 13: The rouble was then worth, as is now the silver rouble, about 3s. 4d. English money.]

[Footnote 14: "_Kva.s.s_," kind of cider; common drink in Russia.]

[Footnote 15: Whirlwind of snow.]

[Footnote 16: Curtain made of the inner bark of the limetree which covers the hood of a _kibitka_.]

[Footnote 17: Marriage G.o.dfather.]

[Footnote 18: Torch of fir or birch.]

[Footnote 19: Tributary of the River Ural.]

[Footnote 20: Tea urn.]

[Footnote 21: A short caftan.]

[Footnote 22: Russian priest.]

[Footnote 23: Russian peasants carry their axe in their belt or behind their back.]

[Footnote 24: Under Catherine II., who reigned from 1762-1796.]

[Footnote 25: _i.e._, "_palati_," usual bed of Russian peasants.]

[Footnote 26: Allusion to the rewards given by the old Tzars to their _boyars_, to whom they used to give their cloaks.]

[Footnote 27: Anne Ivanofna reigned from 1730-1740.]