Part 18 (1/2)

XLIV

She fears she cannot.--Cannot? Why?-- She promised Eugene, or she would With great delight.--O G.o.d on high!

Heard he the truth? And thus she could-- And can it be? But late a child And now a fickle flirt and wild, Cunning already to display And well-instructed to betray!

Lenski the stroke could not sustain, At womankind he growled a curse, Departed, ordered out his horse And galloped home. But pistols twain, A pair of bullets--nought beside-- His fate shall presently decide.

END OF CANTO THE FIFTH

CANTO THE SIXTH

The Duel

'La, sotto giorni nubilosi e brevi, Nasce una gente a cui 'l morir non duole.'

Petrarch

Canto The Sixth

[Mikhailovskoe, 1826: the two final stanzas were, however, written at Moscow.]

I

Having remarked Vladimir's flight, Oneguine, bored to death again, By Olga stood, dejected quite And satisfied with vengeance ta'en.

Olga began to long likewise For Lenski, sought him with her eyes, And endless the cotillon seemed As if some troubled dream she dreamed.

'Tis done. To supper they proceed.

Bedding is laid out and to all a.s.signed a lodging, from the hall(61) Up to the attic, and all need Tranquil repose. Eugene alone To pa.s.s the night at home hath gone.

[Note 61: Hospitality is a national virtue of the Russians. On festal occasions in the country the whole party is usually accommodated for the night, or indeed for as many nights as desired, within the house of the entertainer. This of course is rendered necessary by the great distances which separate the residences of the gentry. Still, the alacrity with which a Russian hostess will turn her house topsy-turvy for the accommodation of forty or fifty guests would somewhat astonish the mistress of a modern Belgravian mansion.]

II

All slumber. In the drawing-room Loud snores the c.u.mbrous Poustiakoff With better half as c.u.mbersome; Gvozdine, Bouyanoff, Petoushkoff And Flianoff, somewhat indisposed, On chairs in the saloon reposed, Whilst on the floor Monsieur Triquet In jersey and in nightcap lay.

In Olga's and Tattiana's rooms Lay all the girls by sleep embraced, Except one by the window placed Whom pale Diana's ray illumes-- My poor Tattiana cannot sleep But stares into the darkness deep.

III

His visit she had not awaited, His momentary loving glance Her inmost soul had penetrated, And his strange conduct at the dance With Olga; nor of this appeared An explanation: she was scared, Alarmed by jealous agonies: A hand of ice appeared to seize(62) Her heart: it seemed a darksome pit Beneath her roaring opened wide: ”I shall expire,” Tattiana cried, ”But death from him will be delight.

I murmur not! Why mournfulness?

He _cannot_ give me happiness.”

[Note 62: There must be a peculiar appropriateness in this expression as descriptive of the sensation of extreme cold. Mr. Wallace makes use of an identical phrase in describing an occasion when he was frostbitten whilst sledging in Russia. He says (vol. i. p. 33): ”My fur cloak flew open, the cold seemed to _grasp me in the region of the heart_, and I fell insensible.”]

IV

Haste, haste thy lagging pace, my story!

A new acquaintance we must scan.

There dwells five versts from Krasnogory, Vladimir's property, a man Who thrives this moment as I write, A philosophic anchorite: Zaretski, once a bully bold, A gambling troop when he controlled, Chief rascal, pot-house president, Now of a family the head, Simple and kindly and unwed, True friend, landlord benevolent, Yea! and a man of honour, lo!

How perfect doth our epoch grow!

V

Time was the flattering voice of fame, His ruffian bravery adored, And true, his pistol's faultless aim An ace at fifteen paces bored.