"Let every man look to his powder," said I to Léon, as we entered the precincts of the farm. "The devil and a woman are never far apart; mind that we have not caught the pair of them."
He retorted that it did not very much matter either way. Whatever befell us at the farm could be no worse than the peril of the high road and of such a bitter night as this.
Not only was it black and dark by this time, but the north wind blew intolerably, and our very bones seemed shrunken.
You will imagine, therefore, that the baying of the hounds about the farm was as music to us; and you can depict us beating heavily upon the farmer's door, while Petrovka cried aloud in Russian that we were friends.
This settled the matter, and an old and grizzled peasant appeared immediately, and stood bowing on the threshold. I disliked the look of him from the first, and shall always remember the hawk-like eyes which he turned upon our company. Yet what had we to fear from the handful of serfs who now gathered about him—we, a hundred and fifty men of the Guard, with our muskets in our hands?
And was there not Petrovka, with her laughing eyes—Petrovka, who told the old man that he would be paid for all that we had—Petrovka, who petted him and pulled his long beard as though she loved every hair of it. She stood as our hostage, and she knew it—the pretty little girl.
Well, we soon discovered that the kitchen of the farm would accommodate no more than the officers of the company, and it behoved the others to seek the shelter of the barn. This they did with a very good grace, for it was a substantial edifice, with a monstrous fireplace at one end and a well-stacked granary at the other. Soon there were flames roaring up the ancient chimney, a babel of talk, and the going to and fro of men who saw themselves supping handsomely for the first time for many a day. We, meanwhile, were ensconced in the farmer's kitchen, with nearly the half of an ox roasting in his gigantic oven and an aroma of well-warmed wine which did one good to smell.
The evening promised to be the most comfortable we had enjoyed since we left Moscow—so little did we foresee what lay beyond our present content.
IV
There were a good many bedrooms in the farmer's house, and some of these were very properly given up to the officers.