The Poacher; Or, Joseph Rushbrook. Фредерик Марриет
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of thick paper, some coloured red, some blue, and others of a dirty white.
“Is this money?” said McShane, with astonishment.
“Yes, that’s roubles.”
“Roubles, are they? I wonder what they’d call them in Ireland; they look like soup-tickets.”
“Never mind. And now, McShane, there are two words which the consul has told me to make use of: one is Scoro, and when you say that, it means ‘Go fast,’ and you hold up a small bit of money at the same time.”
“Scoro! well, that’s a word I sha’n’t forget.”
“But, then, there’s another, which is Scorae.”
“And what may be the English of that?”
“Why, that means ‘Go faster,’ and with that you hold up a larger piece of money.”
“Why, then, it’s no use remembering Scoro at all, for Scorae will do much better; so we need not burden ourselves with the first at all. Suppose we try the effect of that last word upon our bear-skin friend who is driving!”
McShane held up a rouble, and called out to the driver—“Scorae!” The fellow turned his head, smiled, and lashed his horses until they were at the full speed, and then looked back at them for approval.
“By the powers, that’s no fool of a word! it will take us all the way to Saint Petersburg as fast as we wish.”
“We do not sleep on the road, but travel night and day,” said O’Donahue, “for there is no place worth sleeping at.”
“And the ’ating, O’Donahue?”
“We must get that by signs, for we have no other means.”
On that point they soon found they had no difficulty; and thus they proceeded, without speaking a word of the language, day and night, until they arrived at the capital.
At the entrance their passports were demanded, and the officer at the guard-house came out and told them that a Cossack would accompany them. A Cossack, with a spear as long as a fir-tree, and a beard not quite so long, then took them in charge, and trotted before the carriage, the driver following him at a slow pace.
“An’t we prisoners?” inquired McShane.
“I don’t know, but it looks very like it,” replied O’Donahue.
This, however, was not the case. The carriage drove to a splendid street called the Neffsky Perspective, and as soon as it stopped at the entrance of an hotel, the Cossack, after speaking to the landlord, who came out, took his departure.
A journey of four hundred miles, day and night, is no joke: our travellers fell fast asleep in their spacious apartment, and it was not till the next day that they found themselves clean and comfortable, Joey being dressed in a rich livery, as a sort of page, and McShane doing duty as valet when others were present, and when sitting alone with O’Donahue, taking his fair share of the bottle.
Two days after their arrival, the landlord procured for O’Donahue a courier who could speak both English and French as well as Russian, and almost every other language. It was resolved by O’Donahue and McShane, in council, to dress him up in a splendid uniform; and a carriage having been hired for the month, O’Donahue felt that he was in a position to present his credentials to the English ambassador and the other parties for whom he had received letters of introduction.
Chapter Thirteen.
In which there is some Information Relative to the City of St. Petersburg.
For 300 roubles a month, O’Donahue had procured a drosky, very handsomely fitted up; the shaft horse was a splendid trotter, and the other, a beautiful-shaped animal, capered about curving his neck, until his nose almost touched his knee, and prancing, so as to be the admiration of the passers-by. His coachman, whose name was Athenasis, had the largest beard in Saint Petersburg; Joey was the smallest tiger; Dimitri, one of the tallest and handsomest yägers. Altogether, Captain O’Donahue had laid out his money well; and on a fine, sunny day he set off to present his letters to the English ambassador and other parties. Although the letters were very short, it was quite sufficient that they were written by so distinguished and so universally beloved a person as his Royal Highness. The ambassador, Lord Saint H, immediately desired O’Donahue to consider his house open to him, requesting the pleasure of his company to dinner on the following day, and offered to present him to the Emperor at the first levee. O’Donahue took his leave, delighted with his success, and then drove to the hotel of the Princess Woronzoff, Count Nesselrode, and Prince Gallitzin, where he found himself equally well received. After his visits were all paid, O’Donahue sported his handsome equipage on the English and Russian quays, and up and down the Neffsky Perspective for an hour or two, and then returned to the hotel.
“I am very sorry,” said O’Donahue, after he had narrated to McShane all that had taken place, “that I permitted you to put yourself down on the passport as valet in the foolish way you have. You would have enjoyed yourself as much as I probably shall, and have been in your proper position in society.”
“Then I’m not sorry at all, O’Donahue, and I’ll tell you why. I should have enjoyed myself, I do not doubt—but I should have enjoyed myself too much; and, after dining with ambassadors, and princes, and counts, and all that thing—should I ever have gone back comfortable and contented to Mrs. McShane, and the cook’s shop? No, no—I’m not exactly reconciled, as it is; and if I were to be drinking champagne, and ’ating French kickshaws with the Russian nobility for three or four months, dancing perhaps with princesses, and whispering in the ears of duchesses, wouldn’t my nose turn up with contempt at the beefsteak pie, and poor Mrs. McShane, with all her kind smiles, look twice as corpulent as ever? No, no, I’m better here, and I’m a wise man, although I say it myself.”
“Well, perhaps you are, McShane; but still I do not like that I should be spending your money in this way without your having your share of it at least.”
“My share of it—now, O’Donahue, suppose I had come over here on my own account, where should I have been? I could not have mustered up the amiable impudence you did, to persuade the commander-in-chief to give me letters to the ambassador: nor could I have got up such a turn-out, nor have fitted the turn-out so well as you do. I should have been as stupid as an owl, just doing what I have done the whole of the blessed morning for want of your company—looking after one of the floating bridges across the river, and spitting into the stream, just to add my mite to the Baltic Sea.”
“I’m sorry you were not better amused.”
“I was amused; for I was thinking of the good-humoured face of Mrs. McShane, which was much better than being in high company, and forgetting her entirely. Let me alone for amusing myself after my own fashion, O’Donahue, and that’s all I wish. I suppose you have heard nothing in your travels about your Powlish princess?”
“Of course not; it will require some tact to bring in her name—I must do it as if by mere accident.”
“Shall I ask the courier if she is an acquaintance of his?”
“An acquaintance, McShane?”
“I don’t mean on visiting terms; but if he knows anything about the family, or where they live?”
“No, McShane, I think you had better not; we do not know much of him at present. I shall dine at the ambassador’s tomorrow, and there will be a large party.”
During the day invitations for evening parties were brought in from the Prince Gallitzin and Princess Woronzoff.
“The plot thickens fast, as the saying is,”