The Vermont transcript. [volume] (St. Albans, Vt.) 1864-1870, 1864-04-22


usual with the peasants; was thrust in
his belt behind Athought Of sell-prc-
scryation, surely sent straight from
Heaven, flashed through my brain. /
stopped and drew out the AK.
"Alalo way there, on ] cut down the
first man who stops me lcried ont
in broken Russian.
/ half fought, half persuaded, few
to give way, until l reached the bottom
of the stairs, and had the bare plank
wall of the outer enclosure OF the the
alter before me.
81 will save you ALL ] cried. Eff
you will let me free my arm
The old woman still chung to me,
but as | advanced to strike my first
blow at the plank partition that arose
between life and death, there came a
rush which for moment separated us.
/ had no time or room to turn, but
next moment felt her grasp still firm
en- and closer One blow, and the splin-
/ ters few; n second blow, q plank gave;
n third blow, ana the blessd daylight
poured in on us; q fourth glow, and
chasm yawned,' wide enough for the
passage Of myself and my charge AZ
ter us, hundreds passed out rapidly.
1 found myself among q crowd Of
shrieking women, who were calling on
an officer standing ina barouche drawn
I by six horses, to save their husbands,
sons, brothers. Suddenly a man with
a scorched beard, his eyes streaming
with tears, came and took from me the
woman l had saved. was so blinded
with smoke and feyered with excite
ment, that l had scarcely given her a
4 thought. All l knew was, that l had
saved an old woman, and, by Gods
grace, opened n door Of escape for
some hundreds of otherwise doomed
creatures. When ] looked round, ]
found the merchant whom had before
seen-he was the scorched and weep
ing man-shedding tears Of Joy over a
beautiful girl who had tainted The
old woman had been divided from me
in the tumult The merchant daugh-
ter it was who had then clasped me-
( it was her whom | had saved. Beau
tiful she looked as / bent over her and
received her fathers blessings.
The tall officer was the emperor
MY children" he kept saying to the
mob, 81 will save all | can. Bring that
brave man to me-"
/ am not ashamed to repeat those
words, though l did not deserve them.
'Englishman, he said to me in
French, "the Russian nation owes you
a debt of gratitude; it is for me to re-
pay it; come to me tomorrow at the
palace"
] bowed my thanks, and handed my
card to one of the emperors staff.
When the fire was subdued, and they
: began to dig for the bodies, the scene
was agonising. Heaps Of charred and
trampled corpses lay under the smok-
, ing beams some stifed, others trod-
den or beaten to death. Some were
5 chamcd. others half roasted, many only
T burnt in the chest and head, the holt
day clothes still bright and gay In
j the galleries, women were found sufto-
Gated and leaning over the front boxes.
, In one passage they discovered a crowd
: of dead all erect, ike so many shad-
, ows marshalled from the other world.
e More than hundred were found still
i alive, but dangerously burnt. Most Of
these afterwards died in the hospitals.
One little boy was discovered COVER
5 ing unhurt under a bench; he had
crept there when the burning roof be-
gan to break up and drop among the
Z struggling multitude. The beams and
5 dead bodies had so fallen as to form a
Z shelter over his head, and there he re-
NAMED till we disinterred him.
3 The official returns set down the
: number OF the dead as three hundred;
: but my agent told me that while he
> himself stood there, he counted fifty
{ wagons pass, each laden with from ten
? to fifteen corpses; and many people
made much higher estimate.
e need not say much about my visit
Y to the palace; suffice it to mention that
the emperor rewarded me with an or
der that l highly prize. On the same
, day the priests offered up public
r prayers for the souls Of the sufferers,
r ON the site of the burnt theater 1t
was a solemn spectacle, and as ] rose
: from those prayers, full of gratitude to
@ God for my dehyerance, a rough hand
a grasped mine.
1t was the merchant whose daughter
r I had saved. Tears STEAMED from his
r eyes as he embraced nae and kissed my
, forehead and nay cheek in the Oriental
e. manner of his nation.
MY little father, said he, Il would
rather have found thee than have
, cleared thousand red rouble notes.
Little Catharine, whom you saved, has
been praying for you ever since Come,
You must dine with us. l will take no
denial, for do / not owe you more than
l my life Come, droshky there
quick to the Fontanka; Catherine will
a leap for Joy when she sees you.
That visit was an eventful one to me,
) for on my third voyage from that date
: ! married Catherine Masloyitch, and a
loving and devoted wife found her.
) She is kissing my cheek as pen these
words.
S But it is not to dwell upon my own
3 personal good fortune and happiness,
Y that have written this plain remem-
z brance. Ii is, that | may do what lit