The Soldier and Death 3

The Soldier and Death 3

"O Tzar," says the soldier, "it's all up with you. Death is waiting by

your head, and you have but a few minutes left to live."

 

"What?" cries the Tzar, "you cure my boyars and generals and you will

not cure me who am Tzar, and have treated you as my own born brother.

If I've only a few minutes to live I've time enough to give orders for

you to be beheaded."

 

The soldier thought and thought, and he begged Death: "O Death," says

he, "give my life to the Tzar and kill me instead. Better to die so

than to end by being shamefully beheaded!"

 

He looked once more in the glass, and saw that the little old woman

Death had shifted from the Tzar's head and was now standing at his

feet. He picked up the glass and splashed the water over the Tzar, and

there was the Tzar as well and healthy as ever he had been.

 

"You are my own true brother after all," says the Tzar. "Let us go and

feast together."

 

But the soldier shook in all his limbs and could hardly stand, and he

knew that his time was come. He prayed Death: "O Death, give me just

one hour to say good-bye to my wife and my little son."

 

"Hurry up!" says Death.

 

And the soldier hurried to his room in the palace, said good-bye to his

wife, told his son to grow up and be a general, lay down on his bed and

grew iller every minute.

 

He looked, and there was Death, a little old woman, standing by his

bedside.

 

"Well, soldier," says Death, "you have only two minutes left to live!"

 

The soldier groaned, and, turning in bed, pulled the flour sack from

under his pillow and opened it.

 

"Do you know what this is?" says he to Death.

 

"A sack," says Death.

 

"Well, if it is a sack, get into it!" says the soldier.

 

Death was into the sack in a moment, and the soldier leapt from his

bed well and strong, tied up the sack with two double knots, flung it

over his shoulder and set out for the deep forest of Brian, which is

the thickest in all the world. He came to the forest and made his way

into the middle of it, hung the sack from the topmost branches of a

high poplar tree, left it there and came home singing songs at the top

of his voice and full of all kinds of merriment.

 

From that time on there was no dying in the world. There were births

every day, and plenty of them, but nobody died. It was a poor time for

doctors. And so it was for many years. Death had come to an end, and it

was as if all men would live for ever. And all the time the little old

woman, Death, tied up in a sack, unable to get about her business, was

hanging from the top of a tall poplar tree away in Brian forest.

 

And then, one day, the soldier was walking out to take the air, and he

met an ancient old crone, so old and so ancient that she was like to

fall whichever way the wind blew. She tottered along, blown this way

and that, like a blade of withered grass.

 

"What an old hag," said the soldier to himself. "It was time for her to

die a many years ago."

 

"Yes," says the old crone, with her toothless gums numbling and

grumbling over her words. "Long ago it was time for me to die. When you

shut up Death in the sack I had only an hour left to live. I had done

with the world, and the world had done with me, and I would have been

glad to be at peace. Long ago my place in heaven was made ready, and it

is empty to this day for I cannot die. You, soldier, have sinned before

God and before man. You have sinned a sin that God will not forgive. I

am not the only soul in the world who is tortured as I am. Mine is not

the only place that is growing dusty in heaven. Hundreds and thousands

of us who should have died drag on in misery about the world. And but

for you we should now be resting in peace."

 

The soldier began to think. And he thought of all the other old men

and women he had kept from the rest that God had made ready for them.

"There is no doubt about it," thinks he; "I had better let Death loose

again. No matter if I am the first of whom she makes an end. I have

sinned many sins, not counting this one. Better go to the other world

now and bear my punishment while I am strong, for when I am very old it

will come worse to me to be tortured."

 

So he set off to the forest of Brian, which is the thickest in all the

world. He found the poplar tree, and saw the sack hanging from the

topmost branches, swinging this way and that as wind blew.

 

"Well, Death, are you alive up there?" the soldier shouted against the

wind.

 

And a little voice, hardly to be heard, answered from the sack: "Alive,

little father!"

 

So the soldier climbed up the tree, took down the sack, and carried it

home over his shoulder. He said good-bye to his wife and his son, who

was now a fine young lad. Then he went into his own room, opened the

bag, lay down upon the bed, and begged Death to make an end of him.

 

And Death, in the form of a little old woman, crept trembling out of

the sack, looking this way and that, for she was very much afraid. As

soon as she saw the soldier she bolted through the door, and ran away

as fast as her little old legs could carry her. "The devils can make an

end of you if they like," she shrieked, "but you don't catch me taking

a hand in it."

 

The soldier sat up on the bed and knew that he was alive and well.

Troubled he was as to what to do next. Thinks he: "I'd better get

straight along to hell, and let the devils throw me into the boiling

pitch, and stew me until all my sins are stewed out of me."

 

So he said good-bye to everybody, took his sack in his hands and set

off to hell by the best road he could find.

 

Well, he walked on and on, over hill and valley and through the deep

forest, until he came at last to the kingdom of the unclean. There were

the walls of hell and the gates of hell, and as he looked he saw that

sentinels were standing at every gate.

 

As soon as he came near a gate the devil doing sentry go calls out:

 

"Who goes there?"

 

"A sinful soul come to you to be stewed in the boiling pitch."

 

"And what is that you've got in your hand?"

 

"A sack."

 

And the devil yelled out at the top of his voice and gave the alarm.

From all sides the unclean rushed up and began closing every gate and

window in hell with strong bolts and bars.

 

And the soldier walked round hell outside the walls, unable to get in.

 

He cried out to the Prince of Hell:

 

"Let me into hell, I beg you. I have come to you to be tormented,

because I have sinned before God and before man."

 

"No," shouted the Prince of Hell, "I won't let you in. Go away. Go

away, I tell you. Go away, anywhere you like. There's no place for you

here."

 

The soldier was more troubled than ever.

 

"Well," says he, "if you won't let me in, you won't. I'll go away if

you will give me two hundred sinful souls. I will take them to God, and

perhaps, when he sees them, he will forgive me and let me into heaven."

 

"I'll throw in another fifty," says the Prince of Hell, "if only you'll

get away from here."

 

And he told the lesser devils to count out two hundred and fifty sinful

souls and to let them out quickly at one of the back doors of hell,

while he held the soldier in talk, so that the soldier should not slip

in while the sinful souls were going out.

 

It was done, and the soldier set off for heaven with two hundred and

fifty sinful souls behind him, marching in column of route, as the

soldier made them for the sake of order and decency.

 

Well, they marched on and on, and in the end they came to heaven, and

stopped before the very gates of Paradise.

 

And the holy apostles, standing in the gateway of Paradise, said: "Who

are you?"

 

"I am the soldier who hung Death in a sack, and I have brought two

hundred and fifty sinful souls from hell in hope that God will pardon

my sins and let me into Paradise."

 

And the apostles went to the Lord, and told him that the soldier had

come, and brought with him two hundred and fifty sinful souls.

 

And God said: "Let in the sinful souls, but do not let in the soldier."

 

The apostles went back to the gateway, and opened the gates and told

the souls they might come in. But when the soldier tried to march in

at the head of his company they stopped him, and said: "No, soldier!

There's no place for you here."

 

So the soldier took one of the sinful souls aside and gave that soul

his sack, and told him: "As soon as you are through the gates of

Paradise, open the sack and shout out "Into the sack, soldier!" You

will do this because I brought you here from hell."

 

And the sinful soul promised to do this for the soldier.

 

But when that sinful soul went through the gates into Paradise,

for very joy it forgot about the soldier, and threw away the sack

somewhere in Paradise, where it may be lying to this day.

 

And so the soldier, after waiting a long time, went slowly back to earth. Death would not take him. There was no place for him in Paradise and no place for him in Hell. For all I know he may be living yet.