would be too bold." But in spite of this he continued to struggle desperately forward, and
from between the backs of those in front he
caught glimpses of an open space with a strip
of red cloth spread out on it; but just then the
crowd swayed back the police in front were
pushing back those who had pressed too close
to the procession: the Emperor was passing
from the palace to the Cathedral of the Assumption and Pétya unexpectedly received
such a blow on his side and ribs and was
squeezed so hard that suddenly everything
grew dim before his eyes and he lost consciousness. When he came to himself, a man of clerical appearance with a tuft of gray hair at the back of his head and wearing a shabby blue
cassock probably a church clerk and chanter
was holding him under the arm with one hand
while warding off the pressure of the crowd
with the other.
"You've crushed the young gentleman!"said the clerk. "What are you up to? Gently! . . . They've crushed him, crushed him!"
The Emperor entered the Cathedral of the Assumption. The crowd spread out again more evenly, and the clerk led Pétya pale and breathless to the Tsar-cannon.[1] Several people were sorry for Pétya, and suddenly a crowd turned toward him and pressed round him. Those who stood nearest him attended to him, unbuttoned his coat, seated him on the raised platform of the cannon, and reproached those others (whoever they might be) who had crushed him.
"One might easily get killed that way! What do they mean by it? Killing people! Poor dear, he's as white as a sheet!" various voices were heard saying.
Pétya soon came to himself, the color returned to his face, the pain had passed, and at the cost of that temporary unpleasantness he had obtained a place by the cannon from where he hoped to see the Emperor who would be returning that way. Pétya no longer thought of presenting his petition. If he could only see the Emperor he would be happy! While the service was proceeding in the Cathedral of the Assumption it was a combined service of prayer on the occasion of the Emperor's arrival and of thanksgiving for the conclusion of peace with the Turks the crowd outside spread out and hawkers appeared, selling kvas, gingerbread, and poppyseed sweets (of which Pétya was particularly fond), and ordinary conversation could again be heard. A tradesman's wife was showing a rent in her shawl and telling how much the shawl had cost; another was saying that all silk goods had now got dear. The clerk who had rescued Pétya was talking to a functionary about the priests who were officiating that day with the bishop.
The clerk several times used the word "plenary" (of the service), a word Pétya did not understand. Two young citizens were joking with some serf girls who were cracking nuts. All these conversations, especially the joking with the girls, were such as might have had a particular charm for Pétya at his age, but they did not interest him now. He sat on his elevation the pedestal of the cannon still agitated as before by the thought of the Emperor and by his love for him. The feeling of pain and fear he had experienced when he was being crushed, together with that of rapture, still further intensified his sense of the importance of the occasion.
Suddenly the sound of a firing of cannon was heard from the embankment, to celebrate the signing of peace with the Turks, and the crowd rushed impetuously toward the embankment to watch the firing. Pétya too would have run there, but the clerk who had taken the young gentleman under his protection stopped him. The firing was still proceeding when officers, generals, and gentlemen-in-waiting came running out of the cathedral, and after them others in a more leisurely manner: caps were again raised, and those who had run to look at the cannon ran back again. At last four men in uniforms and sashes emerged from the cathedral doors. "Hurrah! hurrah!" shouted the crowd again.
"Which is he? Which?" asked Pétya in a tearful voice, of those around him, but no one answered him, everybody was too excited; and Pétya, fixing on one of those four men, whom he could not clearly see for the tears of joy that filled his eyes, concentrated all his enthusiasm on him though it happened not to be the Emperor frantically shouted "Hurrah!" and resolved that tomorrow, come what might, he would join the army.
The crowd ran after the Emperor, followed him to the palace, and began to disperse. It was already late, and Pétya had not eaten anything and was drenched with perspiration, yet he did not go home but stood with that diminishing, but still considerable, crowd before the palace while the Emperor dined looking in at the palace windows, expecting he knew not
- ↑ A very large cannon cast in 1488 and preserved in the Moscow Kremlin as a curiosity. TR.
