we were stationed in the little town of n—. the life of an officer in the army is well known. in the morning, drill and the riding-school; dinner with the colonel or at a jewish restaurant; in the evening, punch and cards. in n—- there was not one open house, not a single marriageable girl. we used to meet in each other's rooms, where, except our uniforms, we never saw anything.
one civilian only was admitted into our society. he was about thirty-five years of age, and therefore we looked upon him as an old fellow. his experience gave him great advantage over us, and his habitual taciturnity, stern disposition, and caustic tongue produced a deep impression upon our young minds. some mystery surrounded his existence; he had the appearance of a russian, although his name was a foreign one. he had formerly served in the hussars, and with distinction. nobody knew the cause that had induced him to retire from the service and settle in a wretched little village, where he lived poorly and, at the same time, extravagantly. he always went on foot, and constantly wore a shabby black overcoat, but the officers of our regiment were ever welcome at his table. his dinners, it is true, never consisted of more than two or three dishes, prepared by a retired soldier, but the champagne flowed like water. nobody knew what his circumstances were, or what his income was, and nobody dared to question him about them. he had a collection of books, consisting chiefly of works on military matters and a few novels. he willingly lent them to us to read, and never asked for them back; on the other hand, he never returned to the owner the books that were lent to him. his principal amusement was shooting with a pistol. the walls of his room were riddled with bullets, and were as full of holes as a honeycomb. a rich collection of pistols was the only luxury in the humble cottage where he lived. the skill which he had acquired with his favorite weapon was simply incredible: and if he had offered to shoot a pear off somebody's forage-cap, not a man in our regiment would have hesitated to place the object upon his head.
our conversation often turned upon duels. silvio—so i will call him—never joined in it. when asked if he had ever fought, he dryly replied that he had; but he entered into no particulars, and it was evident that such questions were not to his liking. we came to the conclusion that he had upon his conscience the memory of some unhappy victim of his terrible skill. moreover, it never entered into the head of any of us to suspect him of anything like cowardice. there are persons whose mere look is sufficient to repel such a suspicion. but an unexpected incident occurred which astounded us all.
one day, about ten of our officers dined with silvio. they drank as usual, that is to say, a great deal. after dinner we asked our host to hold the bank for a game at faro. for a long time he refused, for he hardly ever played, but at last he ordered cards to be brought, placed half a hundred ducats upon the table, and sat down to deal. we took our places round him, and the play began. it was silvio's custom to preserve a complete silence when playing. he never disputed, and never entered into explanations. if the punter made a mistake in calculating, he immediately paid him the difference or noted down the surplus. we were acquainted with this habit of his, and we always allowed him to have his own way; but among us on this occasion was an officer who had only recently been transferred to our regiment. during the course of the game, this officer absently scored one point too many. silvio took the chalk and noted down the correct account according to his usual custom. the officer, thinking that he had made a mistake, began to enter into explanations. silvio continued dealing in silence. the officer, losing patience, took the brush and rubbed out what he considered was wrong. silvio took the chalk and corrected the score again. the officer, heated with wine, play, and the laughter of his comrades, considered himself grossly insulted, and in his rage he seized a brass candlestick from the table, and hurled it at silvio, who barely succeeded in avoiding the missile. we were filled with consternation. silvio rose, white with rage, and with gleaming eyes, said:
"my dear sir, have the goodness to withdraw, and thank god that this has happened in my house."
none of us entertained the slightest doubt as to what the result would be, and we already looked upon our new comrade as a dead man. the officer withdrew, saying that he was ready to answer for his offence in whatever way the banker liked. the play went on for a few minutes longer, but feeling that our host was no longer interested in the game, we withdrew one after the other, and repaired to our respective quarters, after having exchanged a few words upon the probability of there soon being a vacancy in the regiment.
the next day, at the riding-school, we were already asking each other if the poor lieutenant was still alive, when he himself appeared among us. we put the same question to him, and he replied that he had not yet heard from silvio. this astonished us. we went to silvio's house and found him in the courtyard shooting bullet after bullet into an ace pasted upon the gate. he received us as usual, but did not utter a word about the event of the previous evening. three days passed, and the lieutenant was still alive. we asked each other in astonishment: "can it be possible that silvio is not going to fight?"
silvio did not fight. he was satisfied with a very lame explanation, and became reconciled to his assailant.
this lowered him very much in the opinion of all our young fellows. want of courage is the last thing to be pardoned by young men, who usually look upon bravery as the chief of all human virtues, and the excuse for every possible fault. but, by degrees, everything became forgotten, and silvio regained his former influence.
i alone could not approach him on the old footing. being endowed by nature with a romantic imagination, i had become attached more than all the others to the man whose life was an enigma, and who seemed to me the hero of some mysterious drama. he was fond of me; at least, with me alone did he drop his customary sarcastic tone, and converse on different subjects in a simple and unusually agreeable manner. but after this unlucky evening, the thought that his honor had been tarnished, and that the stain had been allowed to remain upon it in accordance with his own wish, was ever present in my mind, and prevented me treating him as before. i was ashamed to look at him. silvio was too intelligent and experienced not to observe this and guess the cause of it. this seemed to vex him; at least i observed once or twice a desire on his part to enter into an explanation with me, but i avoided such opportunities, and silvio gave up the attempt. from that time forward i saw him only in the presence of my comrades, and our confidential conversations came to an end.
the inhabitants of the capital, with minds occupied by so many matters of business and pleasure, have no idea of the many sensations so familiar to the inhabitants of villages and small towns, as, for instance, the awaiting the arrival of the post. on tuesdays and fridays our regimental bureau used to be filled with officers: some expecting money, some letters, and others newspapers. the packets were usually opened on the spot, items of news were communicated from one to another, and the bureau used to present a very animated picture. silvio used to have his letters addressed to our regiment, and he was generally there to receive them.
one day he received a letter, the seal of which he broke with a look of great impatience. as he read the contents, his eyes sparkled. the officers, each occupied with his own letters, did not observe anything.
"gentlemen," said silvio, "circumstances demand my immediate departure;
i leave to-night. i hope that you will not refuse to dine with me for
the last time. i shall expect you, too," he added, turning towards me.
"i shall expect you without fail."
with these words he hastily departed, and we, after agreeing to meet at
silvio's, dispersed to our various quarters.
i arrived at silvio's house at the appointed time, and found nearly the whole regiment there. all his things were already packed; nothing remained but the bare, bullet-riddled walls. we sat down to table. our host was in an excellent humor, and his gayety was quickly communicated to the rest. corks popped every moment, glasses foamed incessantly, and, with the utmost warmth, we wished our departing friend a pleasant journey and every happiness. when we rose from the table it was already late in the evening. after having wished everybody good-bye, silvio took me by the hand and detained me just at the moment when i was preparing to depart.
"i want to speak to you," he said in a low voice.
i stopped behind.
the guests had departed, and we two were left alone. sitting down opposite each other, we silently lit our pipes. silvio seemed greatly troubled; not a trace remained of his former convulsive gayety. the intense pallor of his face, his sparkling eyes, and the thick smoke issuing from his mouth, gave him a truly diabolical appearance. several minutes elapsed, and then silvio broke the silence.
"perhaps we shall never see each other again," said he; "before we part, i should like to have an explanation with you. you may have observed that i care very little for the opinion of other people, but i like you, and i feel that it would be painful to me to leave you with a wrong impression upon your mind."
he paused, and began to knock the ashes out of his pipe. i sat gazing silently at the ground.
"you thought it strange," he continued, "that i did not demand satisfaction from that drunken idiot r—-. you will admit, however, that having the choice of weapons, his life was in my hands, while my own was in no great danger. i could ascribe my forbearance to generosity alone, but i will not tell a lie. if i could have chastised r—- without the least risk to my own life, i should never have pardoned him."
i looked at silvio with astonishment. such a confession completely astounded me. silvio continued:
"exactly so: i have no right to expose myself to death. six years ago
i received a slap in the face, and my enemy still lives."
my curiosity was greatly excited.
"did you not fight with him?" i asked. "circumstances probably separated you."
"i did fight with him," replied silvio; "and here is a souvenir of our duel."
silvio rose and took from a cardboard box a red cap with a gold tassel and embroidery (what the french call a bonnet de police); he put it on—a bullet had passed through it about an inch above the forehead.
"you know," continued silvio, "that i served in one of the hussar regiments. my character is well known to you: i am accustomed to taking the lead. from my youth this has been my passion. in our time dissoluteness was the fashion, and i was the most outrageous man in the army. we used to boast of our drunkenness; i beat in a drinking bout the famous bourtsoff [footnote: a cavalry officer, notorious for his drunken escapades], of whom denis davidoff [footnote: a military poet who flourished in the reign of alexander i] has sung. duels in our regiment were constantly taking place, and in all of them i was either second or principal. my comrades adored me, while the regimental commanders, who were constantly being changed, looked upon me as a necessary evil.
"i was calmly enjoying my reputation, when a young man belonging to a wealthy and distinguished family—i will not mention his name—joined our regiment. never in my life have i met with such a fortunate fellow! imagine to yourself youth, wit, beauty, unbounded gayety, the most reckless bravery, a famous name, untold wealth—imagine all these, and you can form some idea of the effect that he would be sure to produce among us. my supremacy was shaken. dazzled by my reputation, he began to seek my friendship, but i received him coldly, and without the least regret he held aloof from me. i took a hatred to him. his success in the regiment and in the society of ladies brought me to the verge of despair. i began to seek a quarrel with him; to my epigrams he replied with epigrams which always seemed to me more spontaneous and more cutting than mine, and which were decidedly more amusing, for he joked while i fumed. at last, at a ball given by a polish landed proprietor, seeing him the object of the attention of all the ladies, and especially of the mistress of the house, with whom i was upon very good terms, i whispered some grossly insulting remark in his ear. he flamed up and gave me a slap in the face. we grasped our swords; the ladies fainted; we were separated; and that same night we set out to fight.
"the dawn was just breaking. i was standing at the appointed place with my three seconds. with inexplicable impatience i awaited my opponent. the spring sun rose, and it was already growing hot. i saw him coming in the distance. he was walking on foot, accompanied by one second. we advanced to meet him. he approached, holding his cap filled with black cherries. the seconds measured twelve paces for us. i had to fire first, but my agitation was so great, that i could not depend upon the steadiness of my hand; and in order to give myself time to become calm, i ceded to him the first shot. my adversary would not agree to this. it was decided that we should cast lots. the first number fell to him, the constant favorite of fortune. he took aim, and his bullet went through my cap. it was now my turn. his life at last was in my hands; i looked at him eagerly, endeavoring to detect if only the faintest shadow of uneasiness. but he stood in front of my pistol, picking out the ripest cherries from his cap and spitting out the stones, which flew almost as far as my feet. his indifference annoyed me beyond measure. 'what is the use,' thought i, 'of depriving him of life, when he attaches no value whatever to it?' a malicious thought flashed through my mind. i lowered my pistol.
"'you don't seem to be ready for death just at present,' i said to him: 'you wish to have your breakfast; i do not wish to hinder you.'
"'you are not hindering me in the least,' replied he. 'have the goodness to fire, or just as you please—the shot remains yours; i shall always be ready at your service.'
"i turned to the seconds, informing them that i had no intention of firing that day, and with that the duel came to an end.
"i resigned my commission and retired to this little place. since then not a day has passed that i have not thought of revenge. and now my hour has arrived."
silvio took from his pocket the letter that he had received that morning, and gave it to me to read. some one (it seemed to be his business agent) wrote to him from moscow, that a certain person was going to be married to a young and beautiful girl.
"you can guess," said silvio, "who the certain person is. i am going to moscow. we shall see if he will look death in the face with as much indifference now, when he is on the eve of being married, as he did once with his cherries!"
with these words, silvio rose, threw his cap upon the floor, and began pacing up and down the room like a tiger in his cage. i had listened to him in silence; strange conflicting feelings agitated me.
the servant entered and announced that the horses were ready. silvio grasped my hand tightly, and we embraced each other. he seated himself in his telega, in which lay two trunks, one containing his pistols, the other his effects. we said good-bye once more, and the horses galloped off.
