Page:The Complete Works of Lyof N. Tolstoi - 06 (Crowell, 1899).djvu/14

vi be generous and unselfish, and these qualities unite to form a moral timidity which the rough Cossacks despise and ridicule. It is contrasted all the time with that superb beauty, Mariana, who has no deep-seated objection to be wooed and won even for a temporary connection by a strong, passionate young officer; with the vigorous, keen Lukashka, who distrusts his friendship; with the giant hunter and drunkard Uncle Yeroshka, who thinks him only a fool for his scruples ; and, lastly, with the merry-headed young Prince Byeletsky, who believes in taking all the good the gods may give, and thus in a week's time becomes hail fellow well met with every one in the stanitsa.

Those primitive passions are portrayed on what the French would call a grandiose stage with the mountains and primeval forests for background, and the episodes—as, for instance, the scene where Lukashka shoots the Chechenets who is attempting to cross the Terek, or that where the mountaineers come from the aul to redeem the body, or that where they attempt to avenge the death of their khan—are described with masterly simplicity and vividness.

It is Count Tolstoï himself who lies down in the lair of the old stag, and, while enduring like a martyr the stings of the myriads of gnats which light on him, comes to the conclusion that his hitherto unsatisfied craving for happiness can be realized only by living for others. It is the same man who later renounces all personal property, and becomes a Christian Socialist.

In March, 1854, England and France declared war on Russia, and on the 14th of September the allies landed in the Crimea. Count Tolstoï at his own request had been transferred to the staff of his uncle, Prince Gorchakof, and had served in the Danubian principalities and had taken part in the retreat of the Russian army to Yassy. He was now sent to Sevastopol and served with a field battery through the winter campaign till May, 1855, when he was promoted as divisional commander. He was present at the battle of the Chernaya, and the storming of Sevastopol, refusing to take advantage of