Beauty and The Beast | Page 3

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BEAUTY AND THE BEAST AND TALES OF HOME
BY BAYARD TAYLOR.

CONTENTS. BEAUTY AND THE BEAST THE STRANGE FRIEND JACOB FLINT'S
JOURNEY CAN A LIFE HIDE ITSELF? TWIN-LOVE THE EXPERIENCES OF THE
A. C. FRIEND ELI'S DAUGHTER MISS BARTRAM'S TROUBLE MRS.
STRONGITHARM'S REPORT

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. A STORY OF OLD RUSSIA.
I.
We are about to relate a story of mingled fact and fancy. The facts are borrowed from the
Russian author, Petjerski; the fancy is our own. Our task will chiefly be to soften the
outlines of incidents almost too sharp and rugged for literary use, to supply them with the
necessary coloring and sentiment, and to give a coherent and proportioned shape to the
irregular fragments of an old chronicle. We know something, from other sources, of the
customs described, something of the character of the people from personal observation,
and may therefore the more freely take such liberties as we choose with the rude,
vigorous sketches of the Russian original. One who happens to have read the work of
Villebois can easily comprehend the existence of a state of society, on the banks of the
Volga, a hundred years ago, which is now impossible, and will soon become incredible.
What is strangest in our narrative has been declared to be true.

II.
We are in Kinesma, a small town on the Volga, between Kostroma and Nijni-Novgorod.
The time is about the middle of the last century, and the month October.

There was trouble one day, in the palace of Prince Alexis, of Kinesma. This edifice, with
its massive white walls, and its pyramidal roofs of green copper, stood upon a gentle
mound to the eastward of the town, overlooking it, a broad stretch of the Volga, and the
opposite shore. On a similar hill, to the westward, stood the church, glittering with its
dozen bulging, golden domes. These two establishments divided the sovereignty of
Kinesma between them.
Prince Alexis owned the bodies of the inhabitants, (with the exception of a few merchants
and tradesmen,) and the Archimandrite Sergius owned their souls. But the shadow of the
former stretched also over other villages, far beyond the ring of the wooded horizon. The
number of his serfs was ten thousand, and his rule over them was even less disputed than
theirs over their domestic animals.
The inhabitants of the place had noticed with dismay that the slumber-flag had not been
hoisted on the castle, although it was half an hour after the usual time. So rare a
circumstance betokened sudden wrath or disaster, on the part of Prince Alexis. Long
experience had prepared the people for anything that might happen, and they were
consequently not astonished at the singular event which presently transpired.
The fact is, that in the first place, the dinner had been prolonged full ten minutes beyond
its accustomed limit, owing to a discussion between the Prince, his wife, the Princess
Martha, and their son Prince Boris. The last was to leave for St. Petersburg in a fortnight,
and wished to have his departure preceded by a festival at the castle. The Princess Martha
was always ready to second the desires of her only child. Between the two they had
pressed some twenty or thirty thousand rubles out of the old Prince, for the winter
diversions of the young one. The festival, to be sure, would have been a slight
expenditure for a noble of such immense wealth as Prince Alexis; but he never liked his
wife, and he took a stubborn pleasure in thwarting her wishes. It was no satisfaction that
Boris resembled her in character. That weak successor to the sovereignty of Kinesma
preferred a game of cards to a bear hunt, and could never drink more than a quart of
vodki without becoming dizzy and sick.
"Ugh!" Prince Alexis would cry, with a shudder of disgust, "the whelp barks after the
dam!"
A state dinner he might give; but a festival, with dances, dramatic representations,
burning tar-barrels, and cannon,--no! He knitted his heavy brows and drank deeply, and
his fiery gray eyes shot such incessant glances from side to side that Boris and the
Princess Martha could not exchange a single wink of silent advice. The pet bear, Mishka,
plied with strong wines, which Prince