Vietnam or Thailand ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
Updated: June 15, 2025
Monsieur," Dumay remarked after a pause, "you are a great poet, and I am only a poor soldier. For fifteen years I served my country in the ranks; I have had the wind of many a bullet in my face; I have crossed Siberia and been a prisoner there; the Russians flung me on a kibitka, and God knows what I suffered.
This passage was much easier; no whirlpools broke the course of the river in this second bed; but the current was so rapid that the kibitka only reached the opposite side five versts below. They had drifted eleven versts in all. These great Siberian rivers across which no bridges have as yet been thrown, are serious obstacles to the facility of communication.
A dozen horsemen dashed forward, and the kibitka was surrounded. Before they knew where they were, Michael, Nadia, and Nicholas were prisoners, and were being dragged rapidly towards Nijni-Oudinsk. Michael, in this second attack, had lost none of his presence of mind. Being unable to see his enemies, he had not thought of defending himself.
Consequently, it was impossible to increase his horse's pace, though in other hands, the journey would not have taken sixty hours. Happily, there was no longer any fear of Tartars. Not a scout had appeared on the road over which the kibitka had just traveled. This was strange enough, and evidently some serious cause had prevented the Emir's troops from marching without delay upon Irkutsk.
It has a door at each side and glass windows and is long enough for one to lie at full length. Three persons with limited baggage can find plenty of room in a vashok. A kibitka is shaped much like a tarantass, or like a New England chaise stretched to about seven feet long by four in width.
All at once I saw a little village I knew well, with a palisade and a belfry, on the rugged bank of the Yaïk. A quarter of an hour afterwards we were entering Fort Bélogorsk. The "kibitka" stopped before the door of the Commandant's house. The inhabitants had recognized the little bell of Pugatchéf's team, and had assembled in a crowd.
Then he seated himself in his "kibitka" and gave the word to return to Berd. When the horses started, he leaned out of his carriage and shouted to me "Farewell, your lordship; it may be we shall yet meet again!" We did, indeed, see one another once again; but under what circumstances! Pugatchéf was gone. I long watched the steppe over which his "kibitka" was rapidly gliding.
On leaving Biriousinsk, a hare ran across the road, in front of the kibitka. "Ah!" exclaimed Nicholas. "What is the matter, friend?" asked Michael quickly, like a blind man whom the least sound arouses. "Did you not see?" said Nicholas, whose bright face had become suddenly clouded. Then he added, "Ah! no! you could not see, and it's lucky for you, little father!" "But I saw nothing," said Nadia.
He ushered me to my kibitka, and saying, with a low bow, "Thanks, your excellency; may Heaven reward you for your goodness; I shall never forget, as long as I live, your kindnesses," went his way, and I went mine, without paying any attention to Savéliitch's sulkiness. I soon forgot the snowstorm, the guide, and my hareskin touloup. Upon arrival at Orenburg I immediately waited on the General.
Two ladies of our acquaintance were going thither, and I gladly waited a few hours for the pleasure of their company. When my preparations were completed, I drove to the house of Madame Rodstvenny whence we were to set out. The madame and her daughter were to travel in a large kibitka, and had bestowed two servants with much baggage and provisions in a vashok.
Word Of The Day
Others Looking