"Oh,these young men!Always taking fire at the wrong moment!The shot rang out and the bullet broke one of the horse's hind legs.It gave a few fiery leaps forward,stumbled,and fell to its knees.Kazbich sprang off,and then we perceived that it was a woman he was holding in his arms --a woman wrapped in a veil.It was Bela --poor Bela!He shouted something to us in his own language and raised his dagger over her...Delay was useless;I fired in my turn,at haphazard.Probably the bullet struck him in the shoulder,because he dropped his hand suddenly.When the smoke cleared off,we could see the wounded horse lying on the ground and Bela beside it;but Kazbich,his gun flung away,was clambering like a cat up the cliff,through the brushwood.I should have liked to have brought him down from there --but Ihadn't a charge ready.We jumped off our horses and rushed to Bela.Poor girl!She was lying motionless,and the blood was pouring in streams from her wound.The villain!If he had struck her to the heart --well and good,everything would at least have been finished there and then;but to stab her in the back like that --the scoundrel!She was unconscious.We tore the veil into strips and bound up the wound as tightly as we could.In vain Pechorin kissed her cold lips --it was impossible to bring her to.
"Pechorin mounted;I lifted Bela from the ground and somehow managed to place her before him on his saddle;he put his arm round her and we rode back.
"'Look here,Maksim Maksimych,'said Grigori Aleksandrovich,after a few moments of silence.'We will never bring her in alive like this.'
"'True!'I said,and we put our horses to a full gallop.
CHAPTER XI
"A CROWD was awaiting us at the fortress gate.Carefully we carried the wounded girl to Pechorin's quarters,and then we sent for the doctor.The latter was drunk,but he came,examined the wound,and announced that she could not live more than a day.He was mistaken,though.""She recovered?"I asked the staff-captain,seizing him by the arm,and involuntarily re-joicing.
"No,"he replied,"but the doctor was so far mistaken that she lived two days longer.""Explain,though,how Kazbich made off with her!""It was like this:in spite of Pechorin's pro-hibition,she went out of the fortress and down to the river.It was a very hot day,you know,and she sat on a rock and dipped her feet in the water.Up crept Kazbich,pounced upon her,silenced her,and dragged her into the bushes.
Then he sprang on his horse and made off.
In the meantime she succeeded in crying out,the sentries took the alarm,fired,but wide of the mark;and thereupon we arrived on the scene.""But what did Kazbich want to carry her off for?""Good gracious!Why,everyone knows these Circassians are a race of thieves;they can't keep their hands off anything that is left lying about!
They may not want a thing,but they will steal it,for all that.Still,you mustn't be too hard on them.And,besides,he had been in love with her for a long time.""And Bela died?"
"Yes,she died,but she suffered for a long time,and we were fairly knocked up with her,I can tell you.About ten o'clock in the evening she came to herself.We were sitting by her bed.
As soon as ever she opened her eyes she began to call Pechorin.
"'I am here beside you,my janechka'(that is,'my darling'),he answered,taking her by the hand.
"'I shall die,'she said.
"We began to comfort her,telling her that the doctor had promised infallibly to cure her.
She shook her little head and turned to the wall --she did not want to die!...
"At night she became delirious,her head burned,at times a feverish paroxysm convulsed her whole body.She talked incoherently about her father,her brother;she yearned for the mountains,for her home...Then she spoke of Pechorin also,called him various fond names,or reproached him for having ceased to love his janechka.
He listened to her in silence,his head sunk in his hands;but yet,during the whole time,Idid not notice a single tear-drop on his lashes.Ido not know whether he was actually unable to weep or was mastering himself;but for my part I have never seen anything more pitiful.
"Towards morning the delirium passed off.
For an hour or so she lay motionless,pale,and so weak that it was hardly possible to observe that she was breathing.After that she grew better and began to talk:only about what,think you?
Such thoughts come only to the dying!...
She lamented that she was not a Christian,that in the other world her soul would never meet the soul of Grigori Aleksandrovich,and that in Paradise another woman would be his companion.The thought occurred to me to baptize her before her death.I told her my idea;she looked at me undecidedly,and for a long time was unable to utter a word.Finally she answered that she would die in the faith in which she had been born.A whole day passed thus.What a change that day made in her!
Her pale cheeks fell in,her eyes grew ever so large,her lips burned.She felt a consuming heat within her,as though a red-hot blade was piercing her breast.
