The Russian Story Book 27

The Russian Story Book 27

So the servant maid of the rag-merchant told the servant maid of

another trader, who told the black-browed maid at the castle, only

to find that she knew all about it already, for her master had told

her two days before.

 

"Mother," said Vasily that morning, "I shall go to the feast of the

men of Novgorod."

 

"My dear child," said the old lady, "there is always room for the

guest who is bidden, but none for the guest who is unbidden." But her

gentle counsel placed no restraint upon Vasily who, when the time came,

summoned his bodyguard and walked straight into the banquet-hall,

asking no leave of the gatekeepers nor yet of the lackeys at the

doors. He strode forward to the wall-bench in the great corner by

the stove and sat down there to wait his turn to be served. No man

present dared withstand him, and he glared down the table in such

a ferocious manner that many of the citizens burnt their tongues by

forgetting to blow upon their broth.

 

"Ah, well," said one of them, as he made a brave attack upon a great

sirloin of beef, "Vasily may be here but he wasn't invited, while we

were invited,--in fact I invited myself."

 

"Ah, yes," piped the small rag-merchant, who wore a coat of greater

value than any, "we were invited but he wasn't." And with this

consolation they went on with their feasting, Vasily being served as

nobly as the rest with meat of the richest and wine of the greenest.

 

As the banquet went on the spirits of the citizens arose, and the

small rag-merchant began to think that he might some day be bold enough

to challenge even Vasily to mortal combat. As for the turbulent lord

himself, he stood up when the merriment was at its height and issued

a mighty challenge. He would go, he said, with his brave bodyguard

on the following day to the bridge over the Volkof river, and would

hold his own against all the men of Novgorod. Then he stalked from

the room and across the snow-covered streets to his own palace.

 

At the doorway he was met by his widow mother, who noticed at once

that he was aroused to turbulent anger. "Did they pass you with the

dishes," she asked, "or did they jeer at you?" Vasily was too much

moved to reply, but the bodyguard told her all the truth. Then the

widow mother put her shoes upon her bare feet, cast her mantle of

fine sables over her cold shoulders and went her way down, down into

the deep vaults below the palace. There she heaped up a bowl with

rich red gold, another with white silver, and a third with fine seed

pearls; and having called the black-browed maiden, who came from her

room with hair unbound and feet all bare, the two women crossed the

white courtyard and passed along the silent streets until they came

to the hall where the citizens were finishing their banquet.

 

The widow mother went forward to the great corner with the black-browed

maid close behind her, and holding out the glittering bowls, said to

the chief citizens:

 

"Hail, ye men of Novgorod! Forgive now the fault of Vasily my

turbulent son."

 

But the citizens were now so filled with the courage born of rich

food and green wine that they thought themselves superior to bribes,

and with drunken scorn they refused the gifts of the peace-loving

mother, and said with a great show of spirit:

 

"If we shall be able to take Vasily, we will ride his good steed,

wear his embroidered garments, and take, but not as a gift, all his

rich red gold, his white silver, and his fine seed pearls. We will

pardon him freely when we shall have cut off his turbulent head."

 

Then the widow mother went home in great grief and sadness, scattering

as she went upon the frozen snow the rich red gold, the white silver,

and the fine seed pearls, saying to herself as she went, "Not these

things are dear to me, but the turbulent head of my own dear son."

 

Now when she came once more to her own house she gave Vasily to drink

of the cup of forgetfulness, led him down into the deepest dungeon,

and locked him securely within. Then she went out into the stables

and set his wild shaggy charger free to wander over the wide steppe,

and taking his great cudgel of red elm, his sharp sword, and his coat

of mail, she hid them where she thought no one would ever be able to

find them.

 

Early the next morning Vasily's brave bodyguard took their stand at one

end of the bridge over the Volkof river, and the men of Novgorod came

against them in a great crowd. All that day they fought without pause

for refreshment, and for a second day and a night and yet a third day

without pause for taking breath. In the meantime Vasily slept and took

his ease, knowing nothing of the straits to which his brave bodyguard

was reduced. But as the black-browed maiden went to the stream for

fresh water, with her buckets fastened on a maple yoke, she saw the

fight by the bridge. Then she set down the buckets, and taking the

yoke from her white shoulders entered into the fray and cracked the

skulls of many more citizens than she could count. After that she

ran quickly home, and coming to the door of Vasily's dungeon cried out:

 

"Do you sleep, Vasily, and take your ease? Up there upon Volkof bridge

your brave bodyguard stand as prisoners of the men of Novgorod, their

feet in blood, their heads broken with whips, and their hands bound

with their own girdles."

 

"Open this pestilent door," roared Vasily, "and I will give you as much

treasure as you desire in return for the displeasure of your mistress."

 

The black-browed maiden needed no bribe to urge her to obey. With

one stout blow of her maple yoke she broke the heavy lock, whereupon

she set her white shoulder against the door, which creaked and then

gave way under her young strength. So Vasily came out once more

into the white world, and as he could not find his warlike gear he

wrenched the iron axle from a cart which stood in the empty stable,

threw it over his shoulder and said, "I thank you, maiden, that you

did not let my brave bodyguard perish. Hereafter I will repay you,

but now I must not tarry."

 

"Haste, oh haste," said the black-browed maid, "and give no thought

to reward for me. It is enough for me to be the handmaid of a man

who loves a fight against odds."

 

In a short time Vasily came to the Volkof bridge and found all as the

black-browed maid had told him. "Ah, my brave bodyguard," he cried,

"you have breakfasted well; now let me dine. It was not I, my band of

brothers, who betrayed you but my own mother." With a mighty forward

sweep of the iron axle he made a lane through the crowd of citizens and

with a backward stroke he made an alley. Then he loosed the bonds of

his brave bodyguard and said to them, "Go now, my brothers, and rest,

while I play with these children from Novgorod."

 

Thereupon he began to stride about upon the bridge, brandishing his

axle, and the men of Novgorod fell in great heaps about him. At this

the leaders drew off unobserved and went with the Elder at their

head to the peace-loving widow mother, begging her to calm her wild

son before he had completely wiped out all the citizens of Novgorod;

but she said, "I dare not do that, you men of Novgorod, for I did him

grievous wrong by confining him in a dungeon and sowing distrust of his

valour in the hearts of his brave bodyguard. But my son has a godfather

who is known as the Ancient Pilgrim, and who dwells in the monastery

upon the hill. He is a man of discretion--for what can a woman do

alone in such a strait? Ask him for help against my turbulent son."

 

So the men of Novgorod with the Elder at their head went to the Ancient

Pilgrim and told him all their trouble, at which he sorrowed greatly;

and he made ready at once to leave the peace of his monastery and go

with them to see what he could do. Now he was known as the Ancient

Pilgrim, but he was really a great Russian hero who was spending some

time in quiet, but who had known what it was in the earlier days to

stand up against a host. Hearing that there was stern fighting going

on, it came into his mind that he might possibly need protection,

and having no armour or helmet at hand he climbed up very nimbly for

an Ancient Pilgrim into the belfry, loosed the great service bell

and put it upon his heroic head.

 

"This will serve me in good stead," he said, "in the place where heads

are being broken." Then finding the clapper of the bell somewhat in

his way, he detached it and used it as a staff; and as he stepped

across the great drawbridge which led from the monastery it bent and

groaned beneath his weight.

 

He walked straightway to Vasily and looked him squarely in the

eyes. "My godson," he said in a coaxing voice, "curb your heroic

turbulence. Spare at least a few of these men to carry on the business

of the town."

 

These words added fuel to the fire within the breast of Vasily,

and he replied:

 

"Hail, godfather! If I gave you no white peace egg at Easter yet take

this red one from me on St. Peter's Day."

 

Then he heaved up the great axle and brought it down with a resounding

clang upon the great service bell on the heroic head of the Ancient

Pilgrim; and with that single blow the life of the hero of old time was

ended. His staff now served Vasily for a new weapon, and he continued

to strike down the men of Novgorod in dozens and twenties. The Elder

and his companions kept carefully upon the outside of the throng,

and when they saw the fall of the Ancient Pilgrim they went again

to the widow mother and asked her to make intercession for them with

her turbulent son.

 

So she dressed herself in a robe of black, threw a cloak of fine

sables about her shoulders, set a helmet from her husband's armoury

upon her aged head, and went to plead with her son. She did not,

however, as the Ancient Pilgrim had done, walk straight up to Vasily

and look him squarely in the eyes; she crept up behind him and laid

her trembling hands upon his mighty shoulders, entreating him to spare

the men of Novgorod in his wild anger. And at the sound of her gentle

voice Vasily dropped his arms, the bell clapper fell from his hands

upon the lap of moist Mother Earth, and he said in a gentle voice:

 

"Lady mother, you are a cunning old woman and a wise one too. Well

you knew how to break my power by coming at me from behind, for if you

had approached me from before I should not have spared even you in my

anger, so blinded was I with fury against these traders of Novgorod."

 

The Elder and the councillors now took heart, and having conceived a

tremendous respect for Vasily came forward and prayed that he would

be their honoured guest at a banquet, where he should sit in the

great corner and eat and drink of the best. Vasily consented to go

with them, but he felt ill at ease at the banquet, for he was the

only fighting man there and had no conversation for traders. So he

slipped away from the feast as soon as he could, and went home to

his widow mother and his brave body-guard; and he sat among them by

the stove until long past midnight, talking of many things which had

happened and of things which were to come.

 

"When our wounds are healed," said Vasily, "I will build me a red

ship with delicate sails of white linen and launch it upon the

bosom of Ilmen Lake; and with my brave bodyguard I will go to pray

in Jerusalem city, to worship at the holy of holies, to visit the

grave of the Risen Christ, and to bathe in the Jordan river."

 

In a short time the red ship was built and sailed proudly upon the

bosom of Ilmen Lake. Vasily walked the decks while his brave bodyguard

managed the sailing, and as the sun shone on the sails of white linen the heart of the hero filled with pride.