Part 36 (2/2)

And does not give a d.a.m.n about you, You're Alexander's menial.13

11.

Toy regiment of Peter-t.i.tan, A guard of old mustachios, Whose fake protection of a tyrant Betrayed him to his deadly foes.14

12.

Russia again returned to quietness, Still more the Tsar went revelling, But sparks of quite another brightness, Perhaps a long time smouldering,15 .............................................

13.

Foregathering at private meetings, Over a Russian vodka, wine, They would, reciprocating greetings,16 .............................................

14.

Grandiloquent and trenchant pleaders, This group of friends would congregate At either turbulent Nikita's Or cautious Ilya's to debate.17 .............................................

15.

Mars, Bacchus, Venus were his pleasures: Here Lunin with audacity Put forward his decisive measures,18 And muttered in a reverie.

Noels were brought and read by Pushkin,19 While melancholical Yakushkin,20 Had silently, it seemed, laid bare A dagger meant to slay the Tsar.

With only Russia in his vision, Pursuing his ideal, the lame Turgenev21 hearkened to their aim And, hating slavery's oppression, Predicted that this n.o.ble folk Would free the peasants from their yoke.

1622.

All this on the Neva, iced over; But where much sooner s.h.i.+nes the spring On Kamenka23 in shady cover And on the hilltops of Tul'chin,24 Where Wittgenstein's detachments quartered, On plains by the Dnieper watered And on the steppeland of the Bug, These things took on a different look.

There Pestel25... for the tyrants, And a cool-headed general26 Gathered supporters to his call, And Muryavyov,27 to him inclining, Hastened with strength and boldness to See the uprising carried through.

17.

At first, these plots, initiated 'Twixt a Lafitte and a Cliquot28 Were in a friendly tone debated And the rebellious science was slow To kindle a defiant pa.s.sion, All this was mere ennui and fas.h.i.+on, The idleness of youthful minds, Games that a grown-up scamp designs, It seemed...

But gradually...

From cell to cell...

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