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"Au revoir, your Grace," he cried, "You have seen me before and you will see me again, to-night, if this arm of mine recovers " He laughed: "I am Velasco." As he spoke the horses leaped forward and the troïka, darting across the moonlight of the Square, disappeared into the shadows behind the Mariínski. The Duke gazed after it petrified: "Velasco!" he said, "And I all but twisted his wrist!
It is wonderful, and the exhilaration of it is like driving through an air charged with champagne, like the wine-caves of Rintz. Our troika was like a chariot in comparison with these sledges. It was gorgeously upholstered in red velvet, and held six three on each seat. The robes also were red velvet, bordered and lined with black bear fur. There were three horses driven abreast.
A well-turned-out troika with three really good horses, which get over the ground at the rate of twelve miles an hour, is a pretty sight to witness, particularly if the team has been properly trained, and the outside animals never attempt to break into a trot, while the one in the shafts steps forward with high action; but the constrained position in which the horses are kept must be highly uncomfortable to them, and one not calculated to enable a driver to get as much pace out of his animals as they could give him if harnessed in another manner.
In the world beyond our borders, steady progress has been made in building a world of order. The people of West Berlin remain both free and secure. A settlement, though still precarious, has been reached in Laos. The spearpoint of aggression has been blunted in Viet-Nam. The end of agony may be in sight in the Congo. The doctrine of troika is dead.
It is proper to explain that a troika is a team of three horses abreast, the douga is the yoke above the shaft-horse's neck, and Valdai is the town on the Moscow and St. Petersburg road where the best and most famous bells of Russia are made. Away, away, along the road The fiery troika bounds, While 'neath the douga, sadly sweet, The Valdai bell resounds.
I saw that the wind was blowing the candles out. Then came a breathless pause, and then she said, "Now!" A little click. It was done; I had photographed Nicholas II., the Tzar of all the Russias! Yesterday we had our first Russian experience in the shape of a troika ride. Russians, as a rule, do not troika except at night.
Merely flourishing his whip, Selifan spoke to the team no word of instruction, although the skewbald was as ready as usual to listen to conversation of a didactic nature, seeing that at such times the reins hung loosely in the hands of the loquacious driver, and the whip wandered merely as a matter of form over the backs of the troika.
And those who preferred or predicted its demise, envisioning a troika in the seat of Hammarskjold or Red China inside the Assembly have seen instead a new vigor, under a new Secretary General and a fully independent Secretariat.
There was but one troika to spare and only one telyaga. We required two vehicles for ourselves and baggage, but the smotretal could not accommodate us. We ordered the samovar, and debated over our tea. I urged my friend to try the effect of my special passport, which had always been successful in Paul's hands.
He used to ask: "Dost thou remember, Iván, how unpleasant was thy first meeting with me? I think thou hast got rid of thy folly?" But to these words Iván never made any reply. So, then, one day, just before the Epiphany, the master set out for the town with Iván in his tróika with bells, in a broad sledge lined with rugs.
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