I shared a room with Léon, whose window immediately overlooked the barn wherein our men were still enjoying the unexpected carousal.
Mademoiselle Petrovka, in her turn, said that she would sleep with the girls of the house, and the last I saw of her before retiring was at the moment when Master Léon blew out the candle for the purpose of wishing her good-night. Escaping from his embrace, she climbed the narrow staircase and shut the door at the head of it upon us, while we, amazed to discover beds, made haste to enjoy so unexpected a luxury.
Never before in my life, I swear, did I know the meaning of good blankets as I learned it that bitter night, when the north wind swept the dismal plain and the pines were swaying in a dirge of death. For that matter, I do not think that my nephew and myself could wholly appreciate the reality of our good fortune, and I lay for some time beneath the heavy Steppdecke wondering if we had not dreamt the whole of it. Such warmth and comfort were not to be imagined, and we found it almost impossible to believe that thousands of our comrades were then shivering and suffering upon the great high road, and many of them, I doubt not, falling to the terrible sleep from which no day should wake them.
We, on the contrary, might have been the children of this hospitable house. Well fed and warmed by wine, we fell into so profound a sleep anon that nothing but the terrible tragedy which ensued could have wakened us. Alas! that it was so very terrible! I hardly know how to tell you of it.
Some say that it was nearly four in the morning when the first alarm arose. I cannot be sure about so trivial a circumstance, nor is it of any interest. In my sleep it seemed to me that men were shouting about the house, while a great flame of crimson light burned my eyes and forbade me to open them. A man has the same sensation when he tries to look at the sun at noon, and it may be answered that he is a fool to do anything of the kind. So, in my own case, I did not open my eyes for a long time, and not until Léon's strong hand dragged me from the bed did I understand what was happening.
"Wake up, mon oncle!" says he in a sharper voice than ordinary. "Don't you see that the place is afire?"
It was a word to arouse any man, and I staggered up when I heard it, rubbing my eyes and trying to understand him.
"How?" cried I. "The farm afire? Why, then, did you not wake me before?"
"I have been trying to do so for the last five minutes, but you sleep like a Gascon, mon oncle. Get your clothes on and follow me. There will not be a man of them alive if we don't make haste."
With this he ran down the stairs, and left me groping in the fitful light for my tunic and the heavy sable coat which I had brought out of Russia.