Page:Pushkin - Russian Romance (King, 1875).djvu/131

Rh "What is it that makes your lordship thoughtful?"

"How am I not to be thoughtful?" I answered. "I am an officer and a nobleman; but yesterday I fought against thee, and to-day I drive with thee in the same kibitka, and the happiness of my life depends upon thee."

"Well, what then?" asked Pougatcheff. "Art thou afraid?"

I replied, that having once been spared by him, I counted, not only upon his forbearance, but upon his assistance.

"And thou art right; by God thou art right!" said the pretender. "Thou sawest that my boys looked askance at thee; and the old man has insisted, even this day, upon thy being a spy, and that thou should'st be tortured and hanged; but I would not consent," he added, lowering his voice, so as not to be overheard by Savelitch and the Tartar; "for I recollected thy glass of wine and thy touloup. Thou seest I am not yet such a bloodsucker as thy people make me out to be."

I remembered the taking of the fortress of Byĕlogorsk, but did not think it necessary to contradict him, and did not answer a word. "What do they say of me at Orenburg?" asked Pougatcheff, after a short pause.

"Why, they say that thou art difficult to manage; and in truth, thou hast given us work to do."

The pretender's face expressed that his vanity was satisfied.

"Yes!" said he with a pleased look; "I am a good one to fight. Have they heard at Orenburg of the battle of Youzeiff? Forty generals killed, four armies made captive.