Democratic Sentinel, Volume 21, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 26 February 1897 — BY RUSSIAN BISHOP. [ARTICLE]

BY RUSSIAN BISHOP.

“Keep her steady, Mac, and tell Brown, in the engine-room, to stick to her present rate of speed. Seven knots, all things considered, is decent going, even downstream, on one of these Russian rivers; and then we are in duty bound, you know, to economize the company’s firewood, cheap as it is.” “Aye, aye, Capt. Burton,” cheerfully responded my tall, raw-boned first officer, entering with national alacrity into a question of thrift. Macgregor, chief mate, and Brown, chief engineer, were, with myself, John Burton by name, the only three Englishmen on board the Fair Helen, a fine steamer, of light draught but considerable engine-power, belonging to the Anglo-Russian Steam Navigation Company and built expressly for service on the Dnieper. We were pretty far to the north just then, in the government of Mohilew, where the great river first becomes navigable for anything bigger than a skiff or a fiatboat, and were coming down now with a string of rafts in tow.

Macgregor left me on his round of inspection, but I, who had just then no call of duty, remained idly leaning against the taffrail and gazing, now at the summer sky of greenish blue, now at the swampy and reed-grown shores, where herds of black buffalo and flecks off sickly sheep browsed on the rank grass, and once again at the brown waters of the sluggish Borysthenes, now swollen Jjy recent rain. Astern of the steamer was the long array of rafts which we were towing, composed of timber, cut down in the forests further north, which forms a valuable article of export to the more pastoral and treeless south of Russia. Most of these rafes had shells or straw-thatched hovels built upon them to screen the laborers from sun and rain; and at the edge of each some half dozen men .with long poles in their hands kept watch in case the clumsy craft should ground among the shallows and mud-banks. I had now spent over two years in Russia, and had acquired some little knowledge of the country, and, what was harder, a tolerable smattering of its very difficult language, while there were those who regarded me as singularly lucky in having been appointed, young as I was. to the command of the Fair Helen. The duties, however, incumbent on me as skipper of a river steamboat in Russia were not much to my inclination, and I believe I should long since have resigned my post and gone back to blue water and a sailor’s life had it not been that I fell in love and that my love was returned. Pretty Annie Clements, only child of the English manager of Prince Demidoff’s paper mills at Mohilew, was the enchantress whose bright eyes detained me in Russia, and only two mouths had elapsed since our troth-plight had received thp sanction of Annie’s father. Mr. Clements, who had from his youth up filled lucrative positions in the Czar’s dominion and had saved money, was a good type of a class of Englishmen who may be described as AngloRussians. His industry and business habits had given him a marked superiority over the people among whom he dwelt; but at the same time he was imbued with an almost superstitious respect for the government under which he had lqng lived and for every abuse and every freak of administrative tyranny on the part of the higher powers. “This must be Bykhow,” said I, starting from my reverie, as I caught sight of the copper-coated cupola of the Church of St. Michael overtopping the wooden roofs of the tiny town; “but what have we here!” I added, as a boat put off from the wharf and was soon alongside of 'the steamer, which had slackened speed in obedience to a signal from the shore. “Why, it is a bishop!” And, indeed, the most prominent personage of the group which presently boarded us was, to judge by his garb and mien, a prelate of the Russian Church. He wore gracefully flowing robes of almost Oriental aspect, and the quaint mitre, with its narrow edging of purple and gold, which distinguishes a Muscovite bishop. Behind him came three attendants —his chaplain, his crosier- bearer, and' another, who tinkled a little silver bell, at the sound of which our Russian sailors and deckmen dropped upon their knees and struggled with one another who should be the first to kiss the bishop’s ungloved hand, on which glistened a great amethyst ring.

I found the bishop, who was a young man, not more than two years older than myself, very urbane and affable. He spoke French and German, too, fluently, and was in tone and bearing quite a citizen of the world. The bishop’s business with me was soon stated. He wanted a pafSpige to the city of Kiew for himself and attendants, and also for a party of ecclesiastical students from the great monastery of Glinka, who were bound for the tame place to be solemnly inducted within the pale of the Russo-Greek priesthood by the Archbishop of Kiew. There were, moreover, some three or four nuns who desired to avail themselves of the same opportunity for returning to their abbey. At first I was somewhat puzzled. Truth to tell, the vessels of the AngloRussian Navigation Company did very little business in the passenger carrying line. By towing, by the transport of light goods, and so forth, we earned a decent dividend; but although we had an elaborate printed' tariff of charges, “the neat private cabins" and “saloon" for first-class passengers had come to be sadly conspicuous by their absence. However, the bishop, with his easy way, made things pleasant. Russians, he sAid with truth, needed in fine weather but scanty accommodation. Students, nuns and himself could rough it, only thankful for a speedy journey. And the payment he would leave to me to apportion. “A compliment,” added the prelate with a laugh and a shrug, “which I assure you, captain, I would not offer to my own countrymen. But you English have a conscience.” I did not forfeit the national reputation for fair dealing by charging Bis Worthiness—for such J believe to be the correct designation of a Muscovite bishop—too much for the meagre comfort which I was able on board the Fair Helen to supply to this clerical comj>Nty. We set to work with hammer

and saw, and as all sailors, even Russian fresh-water mariners, are handy fellows, we soon knocked up some sough cabins for the nuns, while I gave up my own quarters to the bishop. As for the *tudents, the weather was fine, and a set of hardy young fellows might surely make shift to keep the deck. There were, as It turned out, four nuns, two of them being tall, burly Tsvorniks, of that she-grenadier aspect so common among the Russian peasant women who take the vows, and the other two slight, delicate in manners and apearance, and unmistakably ladies. There were twenty-three students, well-grown lads enough, but apparently shy and ill at ease, and who huddled together in a mob when brought on board, and shunned conversation. Nor were the nuns very communicative; but the bishop, who was a fluent and agreeable talker, made amends for the taciturnity of the rest. At Stostitza, where we stopped to take in firewood, and where the overseers of the rafts went ashore to hire fresh laborers In the room of a dozen fever-stricken wretches on whom the miasma of the muddy river had done its work, and who had been left behind it at Bykhow, a sad procession went by the wharf alongside of which the steamer lay. This consisted of some thirty political prisoners, Poles, as we were told, inrnlicated in an abortive revolt near Minsk, and now on their way to Siberia. They were of all ranks and ages; some with delicate hands and faces that told of culture and refinement; others who showed the marks of honest toil; bqt all bore themselves with a certain air bf quiet dignity which seemed to impress even the half savage Cossacks who guarded them. There was something in the proud endurance of the captives which touched me. They were in chains, their clothes were worn and ragged. Their faces were wan with the pr.vations of a Russian prison, and all were footsore and weary. Yet it was impossible not to admire the patient courage of their demeanor.

“Bah! They are not of our century, these Poles,” said the bishop, taking a pinch of snuff and offering to me the gilt box with suave courtesy. "They sacrifice themselves for a dream.” We were a long time at Stostitza, for the overseer’s new hands were hard to coax away from the vodka shops,, though when they did arrive they certainly turned out to be fifteen as strapping fellows as I had ever seen; men, too, wno walked with the steady step of old soldiere. Of .this .however, since conscription passes half the peasantry through the ranks, 1 thought little, but gave orders to cast off the moorings, get up a fuller head of steam to make up for lost time, and push on to Rogaczew, our next halting place. Four versts down the river I caught the gleam among the tall reeds of the bank of Cossack lance points, and soon, rounding a head-land, descried the kafila of prisoners. These latter marched but slowly, and their mounted guards, under the orders of an officer in green uniform—a major, as I guessed by his medals and the glitter of his epaulettes— driving them on with blows and threats. Just as we came abreast of the captives I heard the overseer of the rafts shouting hoarsely orders which seemed worse than useless, for by some mismanagement of the poles the raftsmen had grounded one of the cumbrous structures on a sand bank. The tough towrope jerked and creaked. “Stop her, there below —reverse engines!” I called out; but scarcely had I done so before, to my utter amazement, the travelling bishop drew from beneath his purple-hemmed cassock a silver whistle and blew a long, shrill note. The effect of this signal-call was magical in its rapidity. Wading waist-deep in the water, the raft-workers whom we had taken in at Stostitza hurried to shore, scrambled up the slippery bank and rushed like so many tigers upon the escort that guarded the prisoners. “Ha, traitors! Cut the villains down!” thundered the Russian major, whisking cut his saber and aiming a heavy stroke at the first assailant who reached him; but a cudgel parried the blow, and in less time than it takes to tell it the officer was disarmed and dragged from his saddle. Of the nine Cossacks eight were dismounted and bound without any serious resistance, but the ninth eluded the hands that clutched at his bridle, fired, wounding the man nearest to him, and, wheeling his shaggy steed, rode off at a gallop, pursued by a storm of pistol balls and curses. “Help, Captain! Cap” gurgled in choking accents a well-known voice, and I looked round, to see Macgregor vainly struggling in the grasp of three ecclesiastical students, one of whom held him by the throat. Another of these interesting neophytes was pressing the muzzle of a revolver to the forehead of the scared helmsman, while five or six had found their way to the en-gine-room, to Judge by the sounds of scuffling that proceeded from the hatchway.

“Secure him!” cried the false bishop, pointing tp me, and three young fellows, all well armed and all With their black robes disordered and revealing the very secular garb which they wore beneath, rushed upon me. Bewildered as I was, the English Instinct of giving as good as I got prompted me. One antagonist, stunned by a well-directed blow, dropped like an ox beneath the pole-axe; a second was tripped up and the pistol wrested from his grasp; but then a flash of blinding fire glared before my eyes, and next all grew black and hushed and quiet, and the very world seemed to swim away from me as I fainted.

When I regained my senses it was night. The stars were twinkling above us and the wash and ripple of the river were the first sounds which reached my dulled ear. How my head ached! The throbbing pains it occasioned me made me try to lift my hands to my brow, but I could not stir. I was bound and helpless, and I groaned aloud. “Is it you, Capt. Burton?” said a lugubrious voice near me. “ ’Deed, then, but I’m glad to hear ye speak, though it is that way, for I thocht ye were dead.”

“What has happened, Mac?” I asked feebly. “Can you not help me get up? Who boarded us—pirates, or”: “Nae pirates, captain,” interrupted the mate. “The job’s a poleetical one, nae doubt, and Sharpe himself was a saint to you fause-tongued loon o’ a bishop, as he ca’ed himself, the ringleader o’ the gang. And as for helping ye, laddie, how can I do it, seeing I lie here, tied neck and heels, like a calf for the shambles? Brown and the fireman and the rest of the crew are all in irons below, with the hatches battened down over them. The overseer and the raft laborers have run off, frightened, puir chiels, out o’ their bits o’ wits, and the major and his Cossack reivers are about as comfortable, Capt. Burton, as oursel’s. Our best hope is in the coming o’ the police.” But, alas) when the polioe and military, in the gray dawn, caihe lagging up in obedience to the summons of the solitary Cossack who had ridden off unharmed, we found that from the Polish frying-pan we had been promoted to the Russian fire. The major, who had passed some hours in impatient durance tied to a willow tree, with a gag between his teeth and ’ a cord around his wrists, actually foamed with rage When we were hustled into hts presence. “But for your help, English houuda,"

he reiterated, "yonder rebel scum coott not have interfered with the Emperor’s Justice. Prisoners have been rescued, loyal soldiers have been bruised, disarmed and deprived of their horses. I myself Here, corporal, take the scoundrels away. They shall suffer for the success of their rascally accomplices.”

Macgregor and Brown, being able to I walk, were sent off to Kiew. each with : hts right wrist chained to the stirrupleather of a mounted policeman, while I I ,on account of the weakness caused by ! a severe blow on the head inflicted with I the butt end of a pistol, was conveyed i in a jolting country cart to Tchernigov, where I was duly lodged in prison. Very bitter were my reflections as I lay on my hard pallet bed watching the ' scanty sunbeams that played upon the i barred window of my cell and listening j to the shrill squeaks and pattering feet | of rats distressingly tame that haunted ; the jail. What was I to do? My emI ployers would probably supersede me as commander of the Pair Helen. Of Siberia I bad no serious fear, but a long imprisonment might end only in expulsion from Russia. Annie was lost to me. I knew the rooted prejudices of her father too well to believe that he would ever accept a son-in-law who had conspired against the imperial authorities. And who was to persuade Mr. Clements that I was blameless in the I matter? I could fancy him in his armchair stolidly declaring, in reply to Ann|e’s pleadings on my behalf, that there was no smoke without fire, and that as I had made my bed so I must lie. And so weeks went by. “Mr. Burton, or Capt. Burton, you are free!” It was an officer of rank who spoke, pleasantly enough, tapping his boots with his gold-mounted riding whip as he stood on the damp stone floor of my cell, with the door open behind him, admitting welcome air and daylight. “Your innocence and that of the other British subjects confined at Kiew has been at last fully proved by the confession of the principal rebel, Count Demetrius Sobieskl, wounded and taken at Wilna. Ah, I see you do not know of whom I talk. Well, he was your passenger.”

“The bishop?” I asked, half stupefied. “Yes, the bishop,” replied the general with a laugh. “The students and the last batch of raft laborers being, all of them, disbanded Polish soldiers who were willing to risk their lives for the rescue of the Minsk prisoners; an exploit in which they succeeded only too •completely. As for the nuns, two of them were men in female apparel and the others were simply Polish ladies of noble birth whose husbands were among the exiles, and who were resolved to aid in their deliverance or to follow them to Irkutsk. Your vessel, the Fair Helen, you will find at Kiew, with your mate and engineer on board of her. And now, Mr. Burton, it only remains for me, on the part of the government, to express our regrets, &c.” Annie and I are married, years since, and I command a ship of which I am part owner, but we do not live within the range of green-and-white frontier posts that mark the Czar’s dominions.