THE COOLEST MAN IN RUSSIA.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 2593, 23 February 1889, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE COOLEST MAN IN RUSSIA.

"I've Keen ninny a brave man in my time sure enough, said old Ivan Starckoff," removing a short pipe to puff out a volume of smoke from beneath his long white moustache. "It was as good as a reinforcement to have Count Pavel Petrovitch among us in tho thick of a fight, and to see his grand tall figure drawn up to its full height, and hid linn face and keen grey eyes turned straight upon the smoke of tho enemy's line, as if defying them to hurt him. When tho very earth was shaking with the . cannonade, and balls were flying thick as hail, and tho hot stifling smoke closed us iu like tho shadow of death, witli a flash and a roar breaking through it; every now and then, and the whole air filled with shot like the wind sweeping through a forest in autumn, then Petrovitch would light a cigarette aud hum a snatch of song, as coolly as if he were at a dinner-party at Moscow. Aud it really seemed as if tho bullets ran away from him, for he never got shot. Why, Father Nickolai Pavlovitch himself, (the Emperor Nicholas) gave him the cross of St. Gcoi'ge at the siege of Varna in tho year '28. "Of course, everybody congratulated him, and there was a great shaking of hands aud drinking his health.

"Well, justiu the height of the talk Pavel Petrovitch takes the cross oil' his neck, aud holds it out in Iris hand and and says: " ' Well, gentlemen, you say I'm the coolest man in the regiment, but perhaps everybody wouldn't agree with you. Now, just to siiow that I want nothing but fairplay, if I ever meet my match in that way, I'll give him this cross of mine.' " Now, amongat tho officers who stood near him was a young fellow who had lately joined—a quiet, modest lad, quite a boy to look at, with light curly hair, and a face as smooth as any lady's. But when we hoard what tho Colonel said ho looked up suddenly, and there came a flash from his clear blue eyes like the sun striking a bayonet, and then I thought to myself— '"It won't be an easy thing to match Pavel Petrovitch, but if it can be done, here is a man to do it.'

"I think that campaign was the hardest I ever served in, but we drove the Turks across the Balkans at last, and got down to Yamboli, a little town at tho foot of the mountains, which commands tho highroad to Adrianopic. There the unbelievers made a stand and fought right well, for they knew quite welt that if Adrianople was lost all was over. But God fought with us, and we beat them ; though, indeed, with half our men sick, and our powder mixed with sand by those rogues of army contractors, and it was a wonder that we could fight at all. "Towards afternoon, just as the enemy were beginning to give way, I saw Pavel Petrovitch (who was General by this time) looking very hard at a mortar battery about one hundred yards to our right, and all at once he struck his knee forcibly with his hand and shouted :

''What do the fellows mean by firing like that? They might a-s well pelt the Turks with potatoes ! I'll soon settle them. Here Ivan ! "Away he went, anil I after him like a storm, and roared out : '•' Where's the bloekheud who commands this battery ?' '• A yorniy uliieer stepped forward and .diluted ; and who should this be but the iL;iiD-haired youth with the blue eyes whotnl had noticed that night at Varna. M « Well, you won't command it t>

morrow, my fine young fellow, for I'll have you turned out this very day. Do you know that not a single shell you have thrown away since I've been watching you has exploded at all ?"

" ' With your Excellency's leave,' said the young fellow respectfully, but pretty firmly too, ' the fault is none of mine. Those fuses are ill-made, and will not burn down to the powder.'

"'Fuses!' exclaimed the General. ' Don't talk to me of fuses ; I'm too old for that rubbish. Isn't it enough for you to bungle in your work but you must tell mo a falsehood into the bargain !'

'At the word ' falsehood ' tho young officer's face seemed to turn red-hot all in a moment, and I saw his hand clench as if he would drive his fingers through the flesh. He made one stride to the heap of bomb-shells, aud taking one up in his arms, he struck a match on it.

" ' Now,' said ho quietly, 'your Excellency can judge for yourself. I'm going to light this fuse : if your Excellency will please staud by and watch it burn, you will sea whether I've told you a falscheod or not.'

"The General started, as well he might. Not that he was afraid—you may be pretty sure of that—but to hear this quiet, bashful lad, who looked as if he had nothing in him, coolly propose to hold a lighted shell in his arms to see if it would go of, and ask him to stand by and watch it, was enough to startle anybody. However, he wasn't one to think twice about accepting a challenge ; so ho folded his arms and stood there like a statue. The young officer lighted the fuse, and it began to burn.

"As for me and the other men, you may fancy what we felt like. Of course, we could not run while our officers were standing their ground, but we knew that if the shell did go off it would blow every one of us to bits. I saw tho men set their teeth hard as the flame caught the fuse, and as for me I wished with all my heart and soul that if there were any good fuses in tiic heap this might turn out to be a bad one. But no, it burnt away merrily enough, and came down nearer and nearer to tho powder. The young officer never moved a muscle, but stood looking steading at the General, and the General at him. At last the red spark got close to the metal of the shell, and then I shut my eyes and prayed God to receive my soui.

" Just at that moment I heard the man next me give o quick gasp, as if he had just come up from a plunge under water ; and I opened my eyes again just in time to see the fuse go out, and the young officer letting the shell drop at the General's feet without a word.

"For a moment the General stood stock-still, looking as if he didn't quite know whether to knock the young fellow down or to hug him in his arms, but at last he held out his hand to him and

" Well,it's a true proverb that everyone meets his match same day. I met mine to-day, there's no use denying it. There's the cross of St. George for you, my boy, and right well you deserve it, for if I'm the cooicst man in the regiment, you're the coolest in all Russia.

" And so said all the rest when the story prot abroad ; and the CommanderiiVCiiicf himself, the groat Count Dichilch, sent for the lad, and said a few kind words to him thai; nude his factflush up like a young girl's. But in after days h': became onu of the best, o'iicofs the Russian army ever had. and I've hocii him with my own eyea complimented by tie Emperor himself in front of the whole army. And from that day forth the whole lot of us, officers and men alike, never spoke of him by any other name but that of ' The cold-blooded one."