The Soldier and Death 2

The Soldier and Death 2

The soldier pulled out his cards, and they played on, but it was all

the same. The devils cheated in every kind of way, but could not win a

game.

 

"Go and fetch the gold," says the oldest devil.

 

"Aye, aye, grandfather," says the little devil, and goes scuttling out

of the room. Forty times he ran out, and forty times he came staggering

back with a bushel of gold between his shoulders.

 

They played on. The soldier won every game and all the gold, asked if

they had any more money to lose, put his cards in his pocket and lit

his pipe.

 

The devils looked at all the money they had lost. It seemed a pity to

lose all that good silver and gold.

 

"Tear him to pieces, brothers," they cried, "tear him to pieces, eat

him and have done!"

 

The soldier tapped his little pipe on the table.

 

"First make sure," says he, "who eats whom." And with that he whips

out his sack, and, says he, to the devils, who were all gnashing their

teeth and making ready to fall on him, "what do you call this?"

 

"It's a sack," said the devils.

 

"Is it?" says the soldier. "Then, by the word of God, get into it!"

 

And the next minute all those devils were tumbling over each other and

getting into the sack, squeezing in one on the top of another until the

last one had got inside. Then the soldier tied up the sack with a good

double knot, hung it on a nail, and lay down to sleep.

 

In the morning the Tzar sent his servants.

 

"Go," says the Tzar, "and see what has happened to the soldier who

spent the night in the empty palace. If the unclean spirits have made

an end of him, then you must sweep up his bones and make all clean."

 

The servants came, all ready to lament for the brave soldier done to

death by the unclean, and there was the soldier walking cheerfully from

one room to another, smoking his little pipe.

 

"Well done, soldier! We never thought to see you alive. And how did you

spend the night? How did you manage against the devils?"

 

"Devils?" says the soldier. "I wish all men I have played cards against

had paid their debts so honestly. Have a look at the silver and gold I

won from them. Look at the heaps of money lying on the floor."

 

The servants looked at the silver and gold and touched it to see if it

was real. But there was no doubt about that. I wish I had more in my

pocket of the same sort.

 

"Now, brothers," said the soldier, "off with you as quick as you can,

go and fetch two blacksmiths here on the run. And let them bring with

them an iron anvil and the two heaviest hammers in the forge."

 

The servants asked no questions, but hurried to the smithy, and the two

blacksmiths came running, with anvil and hammers. Giants they were, the

strongest men in all the town.

 

"Now," says the soldier, "take that sack from the nail and lay it on

the anvil and let me see how the blacksmiths of this town can set about

their work."

 

The blacksmiths took the sack from the nail.

 

"Devil take it, what a weight," they said to each other.

 

And little voices screamed out of the sack: "We are good folk. We are

your own people."

 

"Are you?" said the blacksmiths; and they laid the sack on the anvil

and swung the great hammers, up and down, up and down, as if they were

beating out a lump of iron.

 

The devils fared badly in there, and worse and worse. The hammers came

down as if they were going through devils, anvil, earth, and all. It

was more than even devils could bear.

 

"Have mercy!" they screamed. "Have mercy, soldier! Let us out again

into the world, and we'll never forget you world without end. And as

for this palace.... No devil shall put the nail of the toe of his foot

in it. We'll tell them all. Not one shall come within a hundred miles."

 

The soldier let the blacksmiths give a few more blows, just for luck.

Then he stopped them, and untied the mouth of the sack. The moment he

opened it, the devils shot out, and fled away to hell without looking

right or left in their hurry.

 

But the soldier was no fool, and he grabbed one old devil by the leg.

And the devil hung gibbering, trying to get away. The soldier cut the

devil's hairy wrist to the bone, so that the blood flowed, took a pen,

dipped it in the blood, and gave it to the devil. But he never let go

of his leg.

 

"Write," says he, "that you will be my faithful servant."

 

The old devil screamed and wriggled, but the soldier gripped him tight.

There was nothing to be done. He wrote and signed in his own blood a

promise to serve the soldier faithfully wherever and whenever there

should be need. Then the soldier let him go, and he went hopping and

screaming after the others, and had disappeared in a moment.

 

And so the devils went rushing down to hell, aching in every bone of

their hairy bodies. And they called all the other unclean spirits, old

and young, big and little, and told what had happened to them. And they

set sentinels all round hell, and guards at every gate, and ordered

them to watch well, and, whatever they did, not on any account to let

in the soldier with the flour sack.

 

The soldier went to the Tzar and told him how he had dealt with the

devils, and how henceforth no devil would set foot within a hundred

miles of the palace.

 

"If that's so," says the Tzar, "we'll move at once, and go and live

there, and you shall live with me and be honoured as my own brother."

And with that there was a great to do shifting the bedding and tables

and benches and all else from the old palace to the new, and the

soldier set up house with the Tzar, living with him as his own brother,

and wearing fine clothes with gold embroidery, and eating the same food

as the Tzar, and as much of it as he liked. Money to spend he had,

for he had won from the devils enough to last even a spending man a

thousand years. And he had nothing to spend it on. Hens don't eat gold.

No more do mice. And there the money lay in a corner till the soldier

was tired of looking at it.

 

So the soldier thought he would marry. And he took a wife, and in a

year's time God gave him a son, and he had nothing more to wish for

except to see the son grow up and turn into a general.

 

But it so happened that the little boy fell ill, and what was the

matter with him no one knew. He grew worse and worse from day to day,

and the Tzar sent for every doctor in the country, but not one of them

did him a half-pennyworth of good. The doctors grew richer and the boy

grew no better but worse, as is often the way.

 

The soldier had almost given up hope of saving his son when he

remembered the old devil who had signed a promise written in his own

blood to serve the soldier faithfully wherever and whenever there

should be need. He remembered this, and said to himself: "Where the

devil has my old devil hidden himself all this time?"

 

And he had scarcely said this when suddenly there was the little old

devil standing in front of him, dressed like a peasant in a little

shirt and breeches, trembling with fright and asking: "How can I serve

your Excellency?"

 

"See here," says the soldier. "My son is ill. Do you happen to know how

to cure him?"

 

The little old devil took a glass from his pocket and filled it with

cold water and set it on the sick child's forehead.

 

"Come here, your Excellency," says he, "and look into the glass of

water."

 

The soldier came and looked in the glass.

 

"And what does your Excellency see?" asked the little old devil, who

was so much afraid of the soldier that he trembled and could hardly

speak.

 

"I see Death, like a little old woman, standing at my son's feet."

 

"Be easy," says the little old devil, "for if Death is standing at your

son's feet he will be well again. But if Death were standing at his

head then nothing could save him."

 

And with that the little old devil lifted the glass and splashed the

cold water over the sick child, and the next minute there was the

little boy crawling about and laughing and crowing as if he had never

been sick in his life.

 

"Give me that glass," says the soldier, "and we'll cry quits."

 

The little old devil gave him the glass. And the soldier gave back

the promise which the devil had signed in his own blood. As soon as

the little old devil had that promise in his hand he gave one look at

the soldier and fled away as if the blacksmiths had only that minute

stopped beating him on the anvil.

 

And the soldier after that set up as a wise man and put all the doctors

out of business, curing the boyars and generals. He would just look in

his glass, and if Death stood at a sick man's feet, he threw the water

over him and cured him. If Death stood at the sick man's head, he said:

"It's all up with you," and the sick man died as sure as fate.

 

All went well until the Tzar himself fell ill and sent for the soldier

to cure him.

 

The soldier went in, and the Tzar greeted him as his own brother, and

prayed him to be quick, as he felt the sickness growing upon him as

he lay. The soldier poured cold water in the glass, and set it on the

Tzar's forehead, and looked and looked again, and saw Death standing at the Tzar's head.