The Rebellion of the Princess

From my post at the window I could look down upon the court-yard of the palace of the Boyar Kurakin. Although it was early in May, it was a cold day in Moscow, and the sun shone obliquely into the yard, cut off as it was by the walls of two houses. The black mud of winter had not dried off the centre of the court, and there was ice in the corner by the water-butts, and ice hung, too, on the north side of the roof, under the eaves, like the ragged beard of the old man of the north, Moroz Treskun, or the Crackling Frost, as the moujik names him, while above, around the great chimney, a group of ravens were huddled together in the sun, preening their plumage and croaking now and then in a solemn fashion. The boyar's house was large, and shaped like a Greek cross, the kitchen and the servants' quarters opening on the court, which was crowded now with the serfs, for the steward of the household was giving one of the varlets a taste of the whip. The doors and windows of the kitchen gaped wide, filled with curious spectators; some, I fancied, half in sympathy with the poor rogue who squealed under the lash, and others applauding the major-domo, whether from fear or love I knew not. He was a burly fellow with a red head and a short, red-bearded, fierce-eyed countenance, and had the serf by the waistband with one giant hand and with the other he laid the whip on his bare back, leaving a long welt across the brown flesh with every cut. The slave howled and writhed, the whip cracked, the spectators applauded or jeered, as fancy seized them, and then, quite suddenly, there was a diversion. The water-butts were in the corner at the steward's back, and a dwarf darted out from behind them, quick as a wasp, and cut at the major-domo's calves with a leather thong and was back under cover before the big man could wheel around. And he, thinking that he had cut his own legs with the long end of his lash, and furious at the titter of the servants, laid it on the poor serf with redoubled venom until the blood ran. Meanwhile the dwarf executed a weird dance of triumph on the ice by the water-butts, mocking the steward in dumb show, and beating an imaginary victim, his thin cheeks blown out and his brows knotted, to the delight of his audience, thus furnished with a double entertainment. He was one of those wretched little creatures that haunted Moscow, the playthings and spies of the courtiers, and he was unusually small, even for a dwarf, with a strange pointed face, white and three-cornered, like a patch of paper, and with great ears shaped like the leaves of a linden standing out from his head as if upon stems; it was by these ears that I always knew him afterwards, even in the crowd of court midgets. Encouraged by the success and the private applause, the little wretch darted out again and repeated the performance of whipping the steward's legs, while the men and women held their sides with laughter, because the fat beast danced and swore and lashed, like one beside himself. But it was an ill jest for the rogue in his clutches, and, minded to end their sport, I shouted to him, in Russ, to look behind the water-butts for the wasp. The fat fool gaped at me in amazement, and the dwarf, darting from his covert, was running full speed for the kitchen before he spied him and made after him. But one of the men, willing to save the little beast, no doubt for the sake of the laugh, tripped the major-domo as if by accident, and down he went in the mud of the court-yard, bellowing and splashing like a whale.

Dettagli