The twelve best short stories in the French language

by Unknown

The inhabitants of the Caucasus, although individually very brave, are incapable of a concerted attack, and consequently are not very dangerous to a troop that presents a firm front; but they are well armed and take excellent aim. Their large numbers, on this occasion, made the fight too unequal. After a fairly long fusillade, more than half of the Cossacks were killed or disabled; the rest had made for themselves, with their dead horses, a circular rampart, from behind which they fired their last cartridges. The Tchetchens, who are always accompanied in their expeditions by Russian deserters, whom they use if need arises as interpreters, made them shout to the Cossacks: “Surrender the major to us, or you will be killed to the last man.” Kaskambo, foreseeing the certain loss of his men, resolved to surrender himself to save the lives of those who were left: he entrusted his sword to the Cossacks and advanced alone towards the Tchetchens, who ceased firing immediately, their aim being only to take him alive in order to obtain a ransom. He had scarcely given himself up to his enemies, when he saw appearing in the distance the relief that was being sent to him: it was too late: the brigands rapidly withdrew.

His “denshchik” [10] had stayed behind with the mule that carried the major’s baggage. Hidden in a ravine, he was awaiting the issue of the fight, when the Cossacks found him and told him of his master’s misfortune. The worthy servant at once determined to share his fate, and set out in the direction whither the Tchetchens had retreated, leading his mule with him, and following the track of the horses. When he began to lose it in the darkness, he met a straggler of the enemy, who conducted him to the Tchetchens’ rendezvous.

One can imagine the feelings of the prisoner when he saw his denshchik come of his own accord to share his bad fortune. The Tchetchens at once divided amongst themselves the booty thus brought to them. They left to the major only a guitar which was with his baggage, and which they restored to him in mockery. Ivan (this was the denshchik’s name)[11] seized upon it and refused to throw it away, as his master advised him. “Why should we lose heart?” he said, “‘the God of the Russians is great’;[12] it is to the interest of the brigands to preserve you. They will do you no harm.”

After a halt of some hours the horde were going to continue their march, when one of their men, who had just joined them, announced that the Russians were still advancing, and that probably the troops from the other redoubts would unite to pursue them. The chiefs held a council; it was a question of concealing their retreat, not only in order to keep their prisoner, but also to turn the enemy aside from their villages, and thus avoid reprisals. The horde dispersed by various roads. Ten men on foot were told off to conduct the prisoners, while about a hundred horsemen remained together, and marched in a different direction from that which Kaskambo was to take. They took away from the latter his nail-studded boots, which might have left a recognizable track on the ground, and forced him, as well as Ivan, to walk barefoot for a part of the morning.

Coming near a stream, the little escort followed its course, on the grass, for a distance of half a verst, and climbed down the banks where they were steepest, among thorny bushes, being careful to avoid leaving any trace of their passage. The major was so weary, that, to bring him down to the stream, they had to hold him up with belts. His feet were bleeding; they decided to give him back his boots so that he might be able to finish what remained of the journey.

When they reached the first village, Kaskambo, still more ill with vexation than with fatigue, seemed to his guards so weak and exhausted, that they feared for his life, and treated him more humanely. They allowed him a short rest, and gave him a horse for the march; but to turn aside the Russians from the search they might prosecute, and to make it impossible for the prisoner himself to apprise his friends of the place where he was hidden, they carried him from village to village, and from one valley to another, taking the precaution of blindfolding him several times. They thus passed a large river, which he supposed to be the Sudja. They took great care of him during these journeys, allowing him sufficient food and such rest as he needed. But, when they had reached the distant village where he was to be kept definitely, the Tchetchens suddenly changed their conduct towards him, and subjected him to all kinds of ill treatment. They fettered his hands and feet, and put round his neck a chain, to the end of which a log of oak was fastened. The denshchik was less harshly treated, his fetters were lighter, and permitted of his rendering some services to his master.

Situated thus, at every fresh outrage he endured, a man who spoke Russian would come to see him and advise him to write to his friends to obtain his ransom, which had been fixed at ten thousand roubles. The unhappy prisoner was unable to pay such a large sum, and had no hope except in the protection of the government, which had redeemed, some years before, a colonel who had fallen like himself into the hands of the brigands. The interpreter promised to provide him with paper and to see that his letter reached its destination; but after obtaining his consent he did not reappear for several days, and during this time the major was made to suffer increased miseries. They deprived him of food, they took away from him the mat on which he had lain, and the pad of a Cossack saddle which had served him for a pillow; and, when at last the mediator returned, he announced, in confidence, that if the sum demanded was refused at the line, or if payment of it was delayed, the Tchetchens had decided to make away with him, in order to spare themselves the expense and anxiety which he caused them. The object of their cruel behaviour was to compel him to write more urgently. At last he was supplied with paper and a reed cut in the Tartar fashion; they took off the chains which bound his hands and neck, so that he might write freely; and when the letter was written it was translated to the chiefs, who undertook to see that it reached the commandant of the line.

From that time, he was treated less harshly, and was burdened with but a single chain, which bound his right hand and foot.

His host, or rather his gaoler, was an old man of sixty, of enormous stature, and with a savage appearance which his character did not belie. Two of his sons had been killed in an encounter with the Russians, which was the reason of his having been chosen, out of all the inhabitants of the village, to be the prisoner’s keeper.

The family of this man, whose name was Ibrahim, consisted of the widow of one of his sons, aged thirty-five, and a young child of seven or eight, called Mamet. The mother was as ill-natured as the old keeper, and more capricious. Kaskambo had much to suffer, but the caresses and friendship of little Mamet were in the time that followed a diversion, and even a real consolation in his misfortunes. This child conceived for him so great an affection, that the threats and ill treatment of his grandfather could not prevent him from coming and playing with the prisoner whenever he found an opportunity. He had given to the latter the name of “Kunakh,” which in the language of that country means a guest or a friend. He secretly shared with him what fruit he could obtain, and, during the forced abstinence which the major had been compelled to endure, little Mamet, touched with pity, skilfully took advantage of his relations’ momentary absence to bring him bread or potatoes cooked in the ashes.