SOMETHING TO DRINK.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2746, 26 February 1910, Page 2 (Supplement)

SOMETHING TO DRINK.

AN EPISODE OF 1814

(Translated from the French by FRED W. SANDBERG.)

Brandishing their lances and mounted on Tartar horses as wild as themselves, they crashed into the little village of Crouy, near Soissous. The detachment stopped a low gate which' the leaner pounded with the butt of liis lance—i&i answer. They shook and broke other doors. Only the echo which seemed to vibrate through the empty rooms answered their knocks. The village was small and appeared totally deserted. Muttering curses, tliev again swung into their saddles and continued their search from house to house. Not a human voice answered; even the birds were silent. Suddenly they halted abruptly. Before them, almost bidden, like a bird’s nest in the. luxuriant foliage of an orchard, lay a white stuccoed house. Lying as it did on the border of a meadow surrounded by trees heavy with swelling buds, it spoke of peace—the open door seemed to welcome strangers. In an instant all had dismounted; throwing their bridles over their shoulders they united in a yell of satisfaction, their red caps swung about their heads looked like so many gleaming flames and the eight men dashed x*-ll mell through the only door of the house. It was twilight, but objects could still l)c. seen with s-ome distinctness.

Tlie first room they rushed into was an empty sitting-room, the second an empty kitchen, the third an empty parlor. The soldiers looked amazed at one another, then ran upstairs. In the first room the}’ entered there were only a wooden bedstead' and a chair, in the room beyond not a bit of furniture; in 'the last room they saw a woman.

Tlie woman sat on a hassock in the middle of the room with a nursing child at her breast. She lifted her head and when siie saw their fierce eyes staring at tier she murmured: “Cossacks.”

This word, though scarcely audible, convinced them that she was alive. She sat absolutely motionless and her face was so- ghastly pale' that in the desolate surroundings she looked like a corpse. They stared at her. leaning on their lances'. The night wind crept through the rooms with a feeble breath, all was silent and sorrowful. The woman bent over the child and kissed it softly. “Something to drink j grumbled a voice; other voices repeated: “Something to drink—to drink 1” Tlie mother did not- make a motion; she saw their jaws work, their eyes glow with savagery. Quietly she took the child from her breast, laid it on her knee. “Something to drink,” growled a Cossack and stepped closer. All began to talk at once and every word rang like a trumpet blast through the empty room. They surrounded the woman like wild beasts, went from door to door,. searched through closets, pounding the walls with their big fists, their throats burned and their wiry beards; bristled with rage, f : “Something to drink ! Something to drink I” . 1 , ; j. One .qf- the, eight put bis. hand on , the woman.

; There was not .the faintest change,on .lier'ifeatures; She- only raised., her eyes l.t-owards -the man’s—eyes that were two • splendid stars, so pure, so fraught with the glowing light from her soul that lior face, her naked breast, her hands, and tho babe on her lmee seemed also to reflect its halo. Gradually the light faded and her eyes grew bedimmed. Tho soldier seized her by tho throat. “Go away, I have nothing to give.” They bent over her so close- that their breath touched her .hair and yelled while they shook their lances. “Something to drink, to drink, to drink 1”Then she rose and vanished with the child. Tho Cossacks hoard her go downstairs, down into tho cellar. Her steps sounded farther, and farther away. They began to joke roughly for a while, then became silent, and one by one went xo the window and looked over the landscajie. Tho Emperor had swept over the country—all was .a waste. The Emperor had oomo with his soldiers, his cannon, mice more to tempt the fates, to contemplate the terrible task which God had charged him to fulfill. The country was devastated, its rivers almost dry. Everything carried the imprint of this most awful of years. The barbarian hordes had trampled tho country’s life-giving power under their feet—all was at an o nd—swaying fields, lragranco of flowers, song of birds—all at an end—all.

“The wine is coming!” someone said. The woman .had returned. She put down the crock and seated herself in a corner. The Cossacks crowded together; one of them lifted the crock to his mouth, but just as the wine was about to flow he looked at the woman, went up to her, lowered the vessel, and, pointing to tho wine, said: “Drink!” She understood and brought a,glass, dipped it in'tho crock, and brought it up full of wine, which she drank, looking at the eight men. . With a yell of brutish joy that shook the whole house one alter another began to drink. The first and second drank deep, the third, while waiting his turn, suddenly walked to the woman. “Drink.” lie said to lior,. pointing to the babe.

The mother reached for the glass offered —took the babe from her breast and forced it to drink. The Cossacks had followed her every motion with the greatest curiosity, like a lot of bears looking on a butterfly. The woman’s eyes wore continually rivited on tho eight men, but she did not see them. She seemed as if contemplating some far away -mirage which passed in tho night before the eyes of her soul. Motionless, and rigid, she was inoro like a ghost ttian a human being. “Something to drink!” grinned the third.

While he drank in deep gurgling draughts the fourth stood with his hands on his Hips, and the rest, immovable as statues, watched him swallow the wine with tlie slow, voluptuous movement that bends tho drunkard’s body and dulls his eyo. The fourth and fifth drank. As! the sixth was about to drink he turned quickly toward the woman; lie had seen something like gold gleam about hor neck. With an oath lie bent towards her, pushed up her chin, and tore a small golden chain from her neck. She did not move. On tho chain was a locket. All tho Cossacks, seeing tho bit of gold, crowded round the robber and weighed til.*: jewel in their hands. The thief o] cned tho locket with his nails. It enclosed . the portrait of an officer.

“Hurrah!” roared the eight men, ar;.i wild they recognised tho Imperial i'-n'fcnn they held it toward the woman, gest’cuhiting ferociously. “My husband,” she said. This they did not understand, but yelled more while pointing at the portrait.

“Captain,” sbo said, “Captain of tho First Grenadiers.”

One of the drunken soldiers crushed the locket before her eyes and yelled sor. «tiling in a husky voice. “Dead,” said tlie woman. “Dead in one of the* first battles at Champaubert.” Then she added, in a- peculiar whisper, “Cossacks!” The sixth, a gigantic brute with wiry hair, slipped the gold chain into one of Iris boots, caught up th© crock and drank with fierce enjoyment. The seventh. who was the strongest, held the crock with one hand, resting the other on his sword hilt while he drank. In the meantime the others had thrown themselves on tho floor, helpless in drunken stupor. When the seventh had finished he joined the others. The mother looked continuously at her child.

Then the last- Cossack came up, stretched his nook, saw that the crock was almost empty, and began to stare at the woman. She was handsome as she sat quiet and immovable, her skin was so white. The man took a step forward. But it was as if she had road his thoughts, and the same radiance that awhile ago had come into her eves returned, and its lustre fell like a shimmering veil over herself and the child. The man began to drink and soon join, ed his sleeping companions on the floor. The twilight had deepened, evening had passed, through the open windows came the night, heavy and dark, like the mantle of sorrow. The mother did not coasc rocking her babe. The eight Cossacks, huddled together on tho floor like cattle, sleepily hummed some folk song from their distant mountain homes —plaintive and sad. None awoke, not one. Within an hour the mother, the babe, and the eight Cossacks had entered into the sleep of death.