LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1686, 16 July 1879, Page 3

LITERATURE.

CZAR AND SKEPTIC, [From the “Dublin University Magazine.] It was in 1529. Government despatches affirmed that Diebltsch’s army had achieved a great success, and that Silistria was in their hands. Bat official news is not always implicitly believed when and where unofficial newsmongers are gagged. * Holy Russia for ever ! the troops are in Silistria.’ * Before it. Babushka, you mean to say.’ * Before it I inside it ; I say what I mean.’ * Inside it I outside it; under correction still.’

* Correction yon may well say ; I repeat it, inside.’ ‘ And I repeat it, out.’ ‘ I have seen the despatch. ’ ‘ What, the Government version V * The Government, to be sure,’ * Nothing less sure, I assure you ’ ‘Whatl Less sure than the Government story ?’ * All stories may he told two ways.’ ‘ But one way is true, the other false.’ 1 Precisely, and I mistrust the latter.’; * But the real truth is, the troops are in.’ ‘Thereal truth is, the troops are out.’

1 In, I Bay.’ ‘ Out, I say. ’ And so on, ad infinitum In private saloons, in clubs, in cafes, at table d'Jwtes, on ’Change and on the Per-spective-Nevskoi might such wranglings have been heai-J, In the Gastinnoi Dover, and in the vodki-ehops, there was more unanimity; the ‘ black people’s’ wish was less doubtfully father to their thought. With their unquestioning as well as unquestionable patriotic prejudice. Holy Kussia must have won, and Dlebitsoh must, for certain, be holding Silistria for the Qossudor, for our Lord, the Czar.

There was a French gentleman, Monsieur De la Jobardiere, shall I call him ? whose mistrust of official bulletins had, perhaps not unreasonably, grown with his growth. “ Russian Invalids,” •* Northern Bees,” or whatever may have been, in 1829, the accredited organs of the Imperial Government, were, to his mind, sj many miserable imitations of his native “ Moniteur,” the feebleness of whose inventions, however, as compared with those of that great Gallic organ of mendacity, consisted not in the absence of mendaciousness. Monsieur Do la Jobardiere was, himself, very mnoh split, “ trea repandu” in certain social circles in St. Petersburg, to borrow an image from his own vernacular ; and thus it cime to pass that, being gifted, as is not unusual amongst his fellow-countrymen, with a considerable flow of words, ho was able to spill the ink of degeneration far and wide upon the spotless page of these same disputed Government despatches.

‘ Hold it to yourself for said, my g'od friends,’ he would insist, ‘ your Government wishes to throw you the powder in the eyes. It is one canard, one duck ; how you say ? this great news of Silistria. That poor sir of a Diebitsch, he kicks his heel, what I outside still; and the Turks be safe snd snug inside, as one rat in a cheese, eh F” Now, De la Jobardiere had his entrees in saloons diplomatic,” as he would himself have said; and was altogether a man who, chatterbox as he was, might yet be supposed to have access to certain channels of authentic information, at which the vulgar of St. Petersburg might not easily slake their thirst for information. His constant and confident affirmations of the falsehood of the victorious intelligence were not without a certain effect within the radius of bis own social “ effusion,” and perhaps beyond it. Monsieur De la Jobardiere was a precise and somewhat ornate drerser, ho was a chilly personage in spite or because of his longish residence in the Northern Capital; he was also somewhat of a gastronome, particular as to quantity and regularity of his meals ; he was, however, a sound sleeper. Bo sound, indeed, that the heavy bootof a feldjager, that hybrid between a police officer and a Government courier, failed to break his slumbers on a certain night; nor w«s ho roussd from them until that rude functionary’s rude hand had shaken his shoulder for a third time. Thereupon he started up to a sitting posture and unclosed his eyes, which closed again -with sudden blink, at the glare of the lantern, which the feldgager’s other hand almost thrust into his face.

‘ Look sharp, sir !’ said that official, 1 and omo along. ' Come along, indeed 1 Ton are pleasanting, my good fellow,’ quoth the sleepy Frenchman.

‘Well, then, if you won’t,’ retorted the ruthless Invader of his slumbers, *my orders are positive; and he transferred his paw from the shoulder to the throat band of Monsieur De la Jobardiere’s night dress. * L isses done, grand brutal!’ exclaimed that worthy; * let mo at least get on my pantaloons,’ and he inserted his feet into the slippers by the bedside. But, by ‘fatality,’ as !• always said, ‘my Cossack of a domestic, Ivan Petrovitcb, had assisted at my dishabille, and had taken my clothes out with him to brush before I should rise ‘ of great morning ’ the next day.’ ‘ Let mo ring my domestic, at least,’ he inquired of the stolid feldjager. ‘Ring bells and resist authorities !’ he growled. ‘ Come, come, sir, none of that.’ And again his rough, red, hairy paw was busy in proximity with the white throat of the finicking Frenchman. ‘ Quick, march ! not a word, or—’

‘ But it ia unheard of; it ia an infamy, a barbarism, an indecency.’ Tho scowl darkened upon the feldjager’s unprepossessing countenance ; it was more than evident that expostulation and entreaty were alike in vain.

‘ Happily that I lose not my presence of mind in this terrible crisis, and draping myself hastily in the sheets and blanket, and eiderdown quilt, I yield to destiny and follow that coquin of a foldjager downstairs, gentlemen; my faith ! yes, downstairs to tho potro coohere. There what do wo find ? A telega kibitka, tarantass, what do I know ? Some carriage of misfortune at the door, oh ?’ It was even so. The night was very dark and foggy; the raya from tho carriage lamps, added to tho gleam of t v e feldjager’s lantern, gave a dim I: eht after all ; but such as it was, its scintillations were reflected from the steel scabbards, spurs, and horsebits of mounted Cossack on either side, and dark amidst tho darkness tho open carriage door yawned after the fashion of a tomb.

‘ Oh 1 by example,’ once more did F e la Jobardiere attempt to remonstrate, turning round, ‘here is what is a little strong. Do you figure yourself that I ’ Ho had one foot upon the carriage-steps already, and one hand on the handle by the doorway ; a muscular grip seized his other elbow. In an Instant he was hoisted and pushed forward in, and the tail of the quilt was bundled in after him ; and ha felt that some one had vaulted’on the front seat outside.

‘ Houp, la!’ cried a hoarse voice; and throe cracks of whips like pistol-shots made answer ; and with a plunge and a bound the carriage darted onward. He could hear the splashing gallop, through the slush and mud, of tho mounted trooper, on tho right hrud and on the left.

‘ I try the windows, on this side, on that, in front, and I am quits of it for my pain. No means I I scream, I howl, I cry, I threaten that pig of feldjager that must hear iu front. Tho Embassy French shall have reason of this outrage! When I tell you there that I am not one of your Nationals, but a Frrrench 1 Hear you ? AFnrench! Animal that you are ! Imbecile of a Cossack, go ! A Frrrench, then, I tell you, eh ? Unless—l pass to entreaty. Hear, then, Ivan, Stephens. Nicholas, Sergius 1 My Corporal, my Sergeant, my Lieutenant of Police ! Here ia one billet of bank—that is to say, not here, but there ; in tho pocket of that pantaloons, at home on the Morskaai, you comprehend. A billet of twenty-five rubles; of fifty, of a hundred, say, how ! ‘ Again useless. Not a word ; not a sign ; ho makes tho deaf ear, that pvlisson de la police, outside. ‘lt is stronger than me. I am transported again of rage, of despair. I strike of the fist; of the foot, of the head, at last against the panels of that carriage atrocious. Derision ! My efforts desperating abut to nothing. That minion of a despotism brutal mocks himself well of this agony. I have disarranged my drapery ; and currents of air from underneath of doors give my legs trances of colds.

‘ Thera is. no remedy. I envelop myself once more of my eiderdown and resign myself to destiny. I comprehended at last; all is lost for me. I see the Beulevarda and the Champs Elysees no more. Adieu, heße Franco ! I share the fate of the Moskowa, the destiny •‘•igrr jo of the Olds of Old. No means now to mistake one’s self ; I am en route for the Siberia. Unhappy that lam ! If at least I could have come in pantaloons.’

Even those that have travelled them under more auspicious circumstances than the luckless De la Jobardiere'have borne witness to the terrible condition of the Rue si an roads between late Autumn aud early Winter. Bolt and bump, and thump and crash, swing to this side and swaying to that; with ono wheel churning the liquid mud in a rut as deep as to the felloe, and the other apparently revolving in the empty air ,; ko the windward paddle-wheel of a seagoing steampacket in the trough of a rolling wave. Then a pitch and toss, fairly up and down, stem aud stern, as if over a chopping sea, but petrified. Endless were the miseries endured by the victim inside the enclosed carriage, on cushions of which ths hardness did not fail to make itself felt, even through such fields of cider down as could bo spared from the protection of the lower limbs from the penknife-like currents of air which came through the door-chinks. How the feldjager kept his hard perch outside was a n awe’ to the man in his custody. ‘ They must have strapped him with a leather, or corded him to the bench for sure, that detestable Cossack,’ thought DelaJobardiere, when ha could spare a (thought from his on a deplorable condition. How long this voyage lasted he never was able to calculate. He lost all account of days in his excitement of agony aud despair. The same chinks which let in the aerial current did indeed tell sometimes of diurnal revolutions ; for at one time they could be seen to admit eomo lightgiving days, at another time only felt, thanks to those keen draughts which they admitted. There were no stoppages, except such momentary delays, fabulous in the shortness of their duration, as were necessary for the busy fingers of experienced post boys to harness the horses, which were always to be heard neighing and snorting in readiness as they dashed up to tho relays. Ho le continued .)