THE GRAVE OF .THE RUSSIAN SOLDIER.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 716, 8 September 1870, Page 4

THE GRAVE OF .THE RUSSIAN SOLDIER.

& {From Chambers' Journal.) '] A sharp tapping Bound breaks in? meditations in the graveyard of the Russian Tillage df.Tcherkeeaovo, and,. looking up, I perceive an old.man endearouring .to. restore the.halfdecay edside-piece.pf. one of tbq^mpre-xjecent crosses. IHe is dreased:like,a common peasant, and his long whitehair.and. beard soften the granite firmness of his features. ,As, l approach, the hammer slips from his hand, and rolls among the long grass. In a moment I sprang forward and. picked it up. " Tha.uk you," says ; the , patriarch, ' *' I'm not quite so active as I used-to be> God knows. One doesn't lire, to : eighty<eigbt without feeling it a little." - "Are you really ,so old ?" ..asked. I in amazement, looking, at-his fineiup.right'figure and almost unwrinkled^face. ■ '* Indeed, lam^morethan a month since: Who would have thought, ten y,eara>ag<>, ,thafr L should ever lire to trim the grave of my youngest eon, I" > My eye falls on the front of the cross,and catches the following inscription, rudely painted in .-white on .the dark surface.:—" Beneath this cross lies >tlie body of 'Alexey ■Eeodorovitch llitrophanoff, who died on the Ist May, 1856, of a wound received at Sevastopol .for the emperor and -his fatherland. His life was. 23. years and 2,mouths." "TwentyTthree -years!" ,1 repeat; "poor fellow.;, he wasiudJeed takencarly !"' i "Ah,,,y.ou may, say that i" ; answeri the old man; "I thought he, at • least, would have litjCd to have closed my«-eyos^>and. Jay; me in the.gr^vo. ,• ,Jt was God'ajw.ill^adds bo, crossing himself devoutly, ; ",:but it wasjore to part ■with. him. Such, a manias he was.* too..! ;If you liad only- B^nbitn run, I— you might as well o try.;totkeep.np ,with.*a horse ; and . one blow , -from hipv<with;axe or ■ hammer vras worthvthr«e of. another oianX „ How.heretood up, Uko a stoae^piUar, 'in -his new-, uniform, the.day he -earner to«bid me ; fare well!;. And after ithat ;Lney c? saw. h iqi again til I. heloame home vto. die. r i{owev£r,>GGd^a:ad the Czar iliad nccd.,of him; ; iatid. af4or:«lj," .he.contioued, with stern satisfaction,, .<'; he .paid more.tii^nu?Be of, thps^»ccursed Frenchmen ihßyjStruck hini dowa. »Abi myiboy 1 there was. npne iljko r y,ou 1 .gewaS' struck .dowji by-/* •buliet»4n-i the 'side, when the Zouaves came ipiypontuaftt .Inkermann (he killed ;t wo of nthemiflrflt-, tliough, praise be to God !),.andit was/Uiat woundtbat.caused ■Wa death. When he came back- to. vs Tve hardly knew him, he was so pnle,. and Masted ; ; and sad it was to see hipvwhO'thad. stood up line a tower, drooping like an ear of .corn beaten down by the rain. And so be. pine I and piued all through the autumn and winter of

'55. —LaLways hoped the- summer -rmight Revive him; but he never lived to soeit; for on the first day of May, just when the trees were coming out fresh and green, and the bright sunshine made everything lo >k happy, he died." " Have you any children still living ?" I asked. "Yes; there's Iran, who's out in Bokhara with General Kaufmann's army; and there's Praseovia, who's at home with me, and a good lass she is; but it's a pity she's not a man, ■for then she might have been a soldier to." " Why, would you risk all your children in the same way ?" exclaimed I in astonishment. " Why not, if it's for the sake of holy Hussia ?" replies the old hero simply; "we are the emperor's children, and must come forward when he needs us. I didn't grudge my own life, when Father Nikolai Pavlovitch [that is, the late Emperor Nicholas] bade us go upon the Turks at Shumla, intrenched as they were behind their cannon ; and I didn't grudge it when Graf Diebitch marched us down to Adrianople, marking our way with the bodies of those who died of sickness, the vultures picking at them before they were cold; and I wouldn't grudge my sons either, if they were needed. I would not wish that God should say to me hereafter, ' Where are the sons whom I gave you, that they might fight for their country and for the true faith ?" At these last words, his expression becomes really sublime; and as I look upon him at parting, I am again impressed with what has often struck me before— the immense power givon to the sovereign of Russia by the blending of loyalty and religion in the feeling with which his people regard him; a feeling which calls forth all the deepest and strongest passions of man's nature, the native valour of the soldier, the pure zeal of the patriot, the fierce enthusiasm of the fanatic, the loyalty of the subject to his sovereign, the reverence of the Christian for his God.