We had another dog before Macbeth, a setter called Bertha.
When she became very ill, Bakay put her on his bed and nursed her for some weeks. Early one morning I went into the servants'
hall. Bakay tried to say something, but his voice broke and a large tear rolled down his cheek - the dog was dead. There is another fact for the student of human nature. I don't at all suppose that he hated the pantry-boys either ; but he had a surly temper which was made worse by drinking bad spirits and unconsciously affected by his surroundings.
7
Such men as Bakay hugged their chains, but there were others : there passes through my memory a sad procession of hopeless sufferers and martyrs. My uncle had a cook of remarkable skill in his business, a hard-working and sober man who made his way upwards. The Tsar had a famous French chef at the time and my uncle contrived to secure for his servant admission to the imperial kitchens. After this instruction, the man was engaged by the English Club at Moscow, made money, married, and lived like a gentleman ; but, with the noose of serfdom still round his neck, he could never sleep easy or enjoy his position.
Alexey - that was his name - at last plucked up courage, had prayers said to Our Lady of Iberia, and called on my uncle and
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offered 5 ,ooo roubles for his freedom. But his master was proud of the cook as his property - he was proud of another man, a painter, for just the same reason - and therefore he refused the money, promising the cook to give him his freedom in his will, without any payment.
This was a frightful blow to the man. He became depressed ; the expression of his features changed ; his hair turned grey, and, being a Russian, he took to the bottle. He became careless about his work, and the English Club dismissed him. Then he was engaged by the Princess Trubetskoy and she persecuted him by her petty meanness. Alexey was a lover of fine phrases ; and once, when he was insulted by her beyond bearing, he drew himself up and said in his nasal voice, 'What a stormy soul inhabits Your Serene Highness's body I ' The Princess was furious : she dismissed the man and wrote, as a Russian great lady would, to my uncle to complain of his servant. My uncle would rather have done nothing, but, out of politeness to the lady, he sent for the cook and scolded him, and told him to go and beg pardon of the Princess.
But, instead of going there, he went to the public-house. Within a year he was utterly ruined : all the money he had saved for his freedom was gone, and even his last kitchen-apron. He fought with his wife, and she with him, till at last she went into service as a nurse away from Moscow. Nothing was heard of him for a long time. At last a policeman brought him to our house. a wild and ragged figure. He had no place of abode and wandered from one drink-shop to another. The police had picked him up in the street and demanded that his master should take him in hand. My uncle was vexed and, perhaps, repentant : he received the man kindly enough and gave him a room to live in. Alexey went on drinking ; when he was drunk, he was noisy and fancied he was writing poetry ; and he really had some imaginative gift but no control over it. We were in the country at the time, and my uncle sent the man to us, fancying that my father would have some control over him. But the man was too far gone. His case revealed to me the concentrated ill-feeling and hatred which a serf cherishes in his heart against his masters : he gnashed his teeth as he spoke, and used gestures which, especially as coming from a cook, were ominous. My presence did not prevent him from speaking freely; he was fond of me, and often patted my shoulder as he said, 'This is a sound branch of a rotten tree I '
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C H I L D H O O D, Y O U T H A N D E X I L E
When m y uncle died, m y father gave Alexey his freedom at once. But this was too late : it only meant washing our hands of him, and he simply vanished from sight.
8
There was another victim of the system whom I cannot but recall together with Alexey. My uncle had a servant of thirty-five who acted as a clerk. My father's oldest brother, who died in 1813, intending to start a cottage hospital, placed this man, Tolochanov, when he was a boy, with a doctor, in order to learn the business of a dresser. The doctor got permission for him to attend lectures at the College of Medicine ; the young man showed ability, learned Latin and German, and practised with some success. When he was twenty-five, he fell in love with the daughter of an officer, concealed his position from her, and married her. The deception could not be kept up for long : my uncle died, and the wife was horrified to discover that she, as well as her husband, was a serf. The 'Senator', their new owner, put no pressure on them at all - he had a real affection for young Tolochanov - but the wife could not pardon the deception : she quarrelled with him and finally eloped with another man. Tolochanov must have been very fond of her : he fell into a state of depression which bordered on insanity ; he spent his nights in drunken carouses, and, having no money of his own, made free with what belonged to his master. Then, when he saw he could not balance his accounts, he took poison, on the last day of the year 1821.
My uncle was away from home. I was present when Tolochanov came into the room and told my father he had come to say goodbye ; he also gave me a message for my uncle, that he had spent the missing money.
'You're drunk,' said my father; 'go and sleep it off.'
'My sleep will last a long time,' said the doctor. 'I only ask you not to think ill of my memory.'
The man's composure frightened my father : he looked at him attentively and asked : 'What's the matter with you ? Are you wandering ?'
'No, Sir; I have only swallowed a dose of arsenic.'
The doctor and police were summoned, milk and emetics were administered. When the voiniting began, he tried to keep it back
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and said : 'You stop where you are ! I did not swallow you, to bring you up again.' When the poison began to work more strongly, I heard his groans and the agonised voice in which he said again and again, 'It hums, it burns like fire ! ' Someone advised that the priest should he sent for ; but he refused, and told Calot that he knew too much anatomy to believe in a life beyond the grave. At twelve at night he spoke to the doctor : he asked the time, in German, and then said, 'Time to wish you a Happy New Year ! ' and then he died.
In the morning I went hastily to the little wing, used as a bathhouse, where Tolochanov had been taken. The body was lying on a table in the attitude in which he died ; he was wearing a coat, but the necktie had been removed and the chest was bare ; the features were terribly distorted and even blackened. It was the first dead body I had ever seen ; and I ran out, nearly fainting. The toys and picture-book which I had got as New Year's presents could not comfort me : I still saw before me the blackened features of Tolochanov, and heard his cry, 'It burns like fire ! '