Tales and Legends from the Land of the Tzar/The Robbers
THE ROBBERS.
There lived once a very rich Russian peasant with his wife, and a very pretty daughter, named Alyonushka.
One day the peasant and his wife were asked to a wedding in the village. They were just about to start when Alyonushka—who was to be left alone to look after the hut—said to her mother,—
"Oh, mamma! I am so much afraid of being left all by myself."
"Well, my dear," replied her mother, "go and ask your girl friends to come and spend the day with you."
When her parents had gone, Alyonushka ran to invite her friends; each girl brought with her some work to do; one sewed, another spun, a third wove, in fact they had each something to occupy their time while they talked and laughed.
But one of the girls who was sewing dropped her thimble on the ground, and it rolled away and fell into the cellar below; so she ran down the wooden stairs to find it. She at last, after some difficulty, found it, and was about to return when, to her horror and surprise, she saw—a man!—a robber emerge from a dark corner. She was about to cry for help, but the man shook his finger at her, saying,—
"Look out! don't tell any one that I am here, or—you are a dead woman."
The girl promised, and ran up the stairs trembling from head to foot, and as white as a ghost. She told one of the girls what she had heard and seen, and that girl repeated it to another, so that very soon all the girls, with the exception of Alyonushka, knew of the robber, and at once prepared to leave.
"Where are you going?" asked Alyonushka in surprise. "I asked you to spend the day with me, and now you have not been here very long and you want to go away; you might wait for my father and mother's return."
But no, the girls said they were obliged to go. One said she had to fetch home the cows out of the fields; another said she had to get some wood, and so on, till at last they all went away, leaving Alyonushka to herself.
When the robber heard all the girls go, he came up into the room where Alyonushka sat.
"Good evening, my pretty girl!" he said.
"Good evening," replied the girl in surprise.
The man looked round him, but seeing nothing that he fancied, went into the back yard to look at some goods in the cellars there.
Alyonushka, guessing who he was and what it was he wanted, flew to the back door and locked it; leaving the window—which was very high from the ground—open, and putting out the light, she waited to see what would happen.
The robber, when he found the door locked, began to knock, but finding that this was useless, he cried out,—
"Open the door! open the door! or I shall kill you."
"All right!" laughed Alyonushka, "but I am not going to open the door for you; if you want to come in, climb in at the window."
As she said this, she took up a hatchet, and went to the window where, in a very short time, the robber's head appeared; she sprang at it, and with one good blow she cut it off.
"I suppose," thought she, "that in a short time, the other robbers, his companions, will turn up. What am I to do then?"
Suddenly a thought struck her, and she wrapped the robber's head in a handkerchief, and then brought in his dead body, which she cut up in little bits and put into small bags. She had hardly done this when the other robbers arrived at the window of the hut, but saw nothing, on account of its being so dark inside.
"Have you got anything, brother?" asked one of them to Alyonushka, thinking she was the robber.
"Yes," returned Alyonushka, in the robber's voice, "here are his bags of gold, a ham, and some butter." So saying, she threw the bags, with the cut portions of the robber, and his head out to his companions.
"Well, come on then!" they cried to the supposed robber.
"Not yet," replied Alyonushka. "Go home, brothers, while I look about me, maybe there is more gold about. Go ahead!"
When the robbers had left, she stood laughing to herself until her parents came home, and asked her what it was that amused her so.
Alyonushka told them the whole story, and how she had killed the robber herself, and how she had managed to cheat his companions. Many were the praises she received from all sides.
The whole village soon got to know of her brave deed, and thought her a wonderfully clever girl.
But to return to the robbers. When they got home that night, delighted with what they thought were bags of gold, they laughed, drank, sang and danced right merrily. At last one of them proposed to open the bags and count the gold; but what was their dismay and sorrow when they beheld their dead brother robber? A shrill cry of anger, as well as of grief, arose from the once merry lips, and filled the gloomy caves with howls, like those of wolves in want of prey.
"Ah!" cried one of them, "it must be that wicked girl, the peasant's daughter, who has done this vile deed, for she did not go to the wedding with her parents, but stayed at home to take care of the house."
"The wretch!" cried all the robbers together, "we will pay her out for this; come, let some of us go to-morrow morning, dress up like young princes, and ask the peasant for his daughter in marriage."
This was agreed to, with great applause.
When morning came, two or three of the robbers dressed themselves up in rich princely clothes, and rode off to the peasant, and asked him to give them Alyonushka in marriage, and that he was welcome to choose one of them for her husband.
The peasant was delighted at the idea of such rich princes wanting to marry his daughter. But Alyonushka was by no means glad, for she knew by their voices that they were the robbers to whom she had thrown out the remains of their brother.
"Dear father," said she, "these are no princes, but the robbers, who came to steal your goods last night."
"Nonsense, girl!" cried her father angrily, "you can see by their dress that they are princes."
Still Alyonushka cried and begged her father not to give her away, but all in vain.
"If you don't marry now, and accept one of these good men," said her father, "we shall turn you out of the house."
Poor girl, what was she to do, but obey her father? So she chose one of them who was called the "Robber Fool," on account of his good-nature.
The wedding took place, and everything was as grand as it could possibly be, money seemed to be no object there.
After the wedding the robbers and the unfortunate Alyonushka rode off to the forest. No sooner were they out of sight of the villagers than they began plotting against Alyonushka.
"How shall we be revenged on her?" asked one.
"Oh! don't think of doing anything to her just yet," replied the Robber Fool; "let her live at least one day."
"All right," said the captain of the band.
They put Alyonushka into a little room, and then went down and made merry till nightfall.
"Now we had better go and kill that girl," cried one.
"No, brothers," returned the Fool, "let her live till the morning."
"But, Fool," said they, "she may run away."
"No, brothers, I shall look after her."
The robbers agreed to this, and fell fast asleep. While the Fool went up to the little room in which Alyonushka was kept prisoner.
"Let me go out into the forest," begged Alyonushka of her husband, "or I shall die for want of fresh air."
"Impossible! Suppose my brothers were to hear or to see you?"
"Oh, no! I shall be so careful not to make any noise; you might let me down through this window."
"How am I to know that you would not run away?"
"No, I won't; you can tie a rope round my waist and let me down. When I pull, you can draw me up again, do you see?"
The Fool tied the rope round her, and let her down through the window.
Now Alyonushka was a very cunning young person; so as soon as she reached the ground, she untied the rope from round her waist, and seeing a goat quite close, she tied the unfortunate animal by the horns, and pulling the rope gently, called out in a low voice,—
"Pull me up!"
And away she ran as fast as ever her legs could carry her.
The Fool meanwhile began pulling at the rope, while the goat, which evidently did not like the position it was placed in, cried out,—
"Me-ke-ke! Me-ke-ke! Me-ke-ke!" as loud as ever it could.
"What on earth are you making all that row about?" asked the Fool, thinking it was Alyonushka whom he was drawing up. "My brothers will be sure to hear you if you keep going on like that, and will murder you."
But the goat cared little for what the Fool said, and went on crying all the louder—"Me-ke-ke! Me-ke-ke!"
The Fool at last pulled up the rope, but what was his fright at beholding the goat and not his wife.
"Oh! the bad girl," he cried, "she has run away, and cheated me after all."
When morning came the robbers went up to the little room to fetch Alyonushka.
"Where is your young wife?" they asked.
"Gone!" said the Fool.
"We told you so, we said she would be sure to run away if we did not kill her at once, but you would save her. O, you Fool, you Fool! you really are a Fool. But we must lose no time, we must chase her and catch her."
So they mounted their horses, and rode off with their dogs, after Alyonushka.
Meanwhile the girl had run a good way, when she suddenly heard the barking of the dogs, and the galloping of horses behind her.
She quickly climbed up an old oak-tree, and sat down on one of its branches, where she was completely hidden.
As the horsemen came riding along, Alyonushka saw they were the robbers, and began trembling, especially when all the dogs made a sudden rush at the tree, and stood barking round it.
"It seems as though she is hidden in this old tree, but no one can see anything, it is so thick," said one of them.
"We shall soon find out," said the captain, as he threw his sharp javelin up into the oak. It flew right to where Alyonushka sat, and wounded her in the knee. But she was as brave as she was cunning; and before the javelin could fall on the ground she seized it, and wiping the blood off it with her handkerchief, threw it back to the robbers, who looked at it carefully, but finding that there was no blood on it, they rode away.
Alyonushka jumped down from the tree and ran on as fast as her wounded knee would let her, till she again heard the robbers galloping in her direction; just then she noticed a poor old peasant with a cart full of boats for sale.
"Hide me, little father," she cried, "hide me under the last boat in your cart."
The man looked at her in surprise, and said,—
"But a maiden so beautifully dressed as you would soil her clothes under those boats."
"Never mind, little father; hide me for goodness' sake, as some robbers are chasing me, and I want to get away from them; please hide me."
The man, full of pity for so charming a girl, threw off his boats, and putting her under the very last one, threw the boats on again.
He had hardly finished when up rode the robbers, who asked him,—
"Have you seen any richly-dressed maiden come this way?"
"No, gentlemen, I have not."
"You lie! Throw off your boats at once, and let us see; she may be hidden under them."
The peasant threw them off one by one, as slowly as he could, till he came to the two or three last ones, then he said,—
"You see, gentlemen, there is nothing here!"
Off went the robbers, while Alyonushka asked the old peasant to let her out.
She ran and ran until she heard the robbers galloping at some distance behind her; just at that moment she saw another old peasant with a cart full of leather.
"Hide me, little father," she said, "under the last bit of leather in your cart, for there are some robbers coming after me, and I don't want them to find me."
The peasant hid her, and up came the robbers, who asked as before,—
"Have you seen a richly-dressed maiden come this way?"
"No, I have not."
"You lie! Throw off your leather, she may be hidden in your cart."
The peasant threw off all the leather with the exception of the two last pieces.
"You see there is nothing here," said he.
Away rode the robbers, while Alyonushka, as soon as she got out of the cart, ran on again until, to her great delight, she beheld her home. As it was midnight by the time she reached the hut, she naturally found it in darkness, so she climbed into the back yard, and lay down and hid herself in some hay, and soon fell fast asleep.
Alyonushka did not wake from her peaceful slumbers until she felt a very uncomfortable grab with a hay-rake. She caught hold of it lightly, as she did not wish to get hurt, nor would she get out of the hay until she heard the voice of the raker.
"Whoever is in this hay?" she at last heard her father exclaim. "Get out, whoever it is!"
Up sprang Alyonushka and embraced her much astonished parent.
"Upon my word!" cried the old man, "how on earth did you get here?"
Alyonushka told her father the whole story in a few words, and said that she thought the robbers would be coming to the hut presently.
The peasant at once called in some policemen, and made several other small preparations to welcome the robbers in case they arrived, while Alyonushka took care to hide herself.
They had not to wait long before the robbers made their appearance. They rode up to the hut, and walked in; the peasant received them with great kindness, and asked them how his daughter was getting on.
"Oh, she is all right," they answered; "she is at home keeping house."
"Indeed!" said the peasant.
He then left the room and brought in Alyonushka, "Who is this?" he asked them.
The robbers looked foolish, but said not a word. They were immediately seized and marched off to prison. But what became of the Robber Fool I don't know; however, I hope he is quite well.