in no fear of having our heads blown
off, may just as well take a peep inside.

Beneath the hood of the carriage sat an aged man wrapped up to the
throat in a wolfskin _bunda_, and with a large astrachan cap on his head
drawn down over his eyes. Inside it one could make out nothing but the
face. It was a peculiar face, with eyes that looked strangely at you. An
errant spirit seemed to dwell in them; they spoke of a mind that had
been destined for great, for amazing things. But fate, environment, and
neglect had here been too much for destiny, and the man had grown
content to be extraordinary in mere trifles, and seemed quite surprised
at the wonderful expression of his own eyes. The whole face was fat but
colourless, the features were noble but puckered up in bizarre wrinkles.
This, with the heavy eyebrows and the neglected moustache, caused
repulsion at the first glance; but if the man looked at you long enough,
you gradually got reconciled to all his features. Especially when he
shut his eyes and sleep had smoothed out all the lines and creases of
his face, he wore such a patriarchal expression that one involuntarily
thought of one's own father. But what made him look still more
remarkable was the peculiar circumstance, that crouching up close beside
him sat two peasant girls; two chubby little wenches, from the
seriousness, not to say anxiety, of whose faces it was possible to
conclude that no mere idle freak had lodged them there by the side of
the old gentleman. The cold wet night froze the blood in the veins of
the aged man, his wolfskin _bunda_ could not keep him warm enough, and,
therefore, they placed close beside him two young peasant girls that his
dilapidated organism might borrow warmth from their life-giving
magnetism.

All night long he had been unable to get any rest, any pastime in his
distant castle, so at last he had hit upon the idea of knocking up the
landlord of the "Break-'em-tear-'em" _csarda_, and picking a quarrel
with him at any price. The insult would be all the more venomous if he
woke him in the middle of the night, and demanded something to eat and
drink immediately. If the fellow cursed and swore, as he was pretty sure
to do, he should have a good hiding from the heydukes. As the innkeeper
was himself a gentleman, the whole joke would possibly cost about a
couple of thousand of florins or so, but the fun was quite worth that.

So he called up his serving-men, and made them harness horse