as he spoke
Nozdrev grasped the cherrywood shank of his pipe. Chichikov turned as
white as a sheet. He tried to say something, but his quivering lips
emitted no sound. "Thrash him!" again shouted Nozdrev as he rushed
forward in a state of heat and perspiration more proper to a warrior who
is attacking an impregnable fortress. "Thrash him!" again he shouted
in a voice like that of some half-demented lieutenant whose desperate
bravery has acquired such a reputation that orders have had to be issued
that his hands shall be held lest he attempt deeds of over-presumptuous
daring. Seized with the military spirit, however, the lieutenant's head
begins to whirl, and before his eye there flits the image of Suvorov
[21]. He advances to the great encounter, and impulsively cries,
"Forward, my sons!"--cries it without reflecting that he may be
spoiling the plan of the general attack, that millions of rifles may
be protruding their muzzles through the embrasures of the impregnable,
towering walls of the fortress, that his own impotent assault may be
destined to be dissipated like dust before the wind, and that already
there may have been launched on its whistling career the bullet which is
to close for ever his vociferous throat. However, if Nozdrev resembled
the headstrong, desperate lieutenant whom we have just pictured as
advancing upon a fortress, at least the fortress itself in no way
resembled the impregnable stronghold which I have described. As a matter
of fact, the fortress became seized with a panic which drove its spirit
into its boots. First of all, the chair with which Chichikov (the
fortress in question) sought to defend himself was wrested from his
grasp by the serfs, and then--blinking and neither alive nor dead--he
turned to parry the Circassian pipe-stem of his host. In fact, God
only knows what would have happened had not the fates been pleased by
a miracle to deliver Chichikov's elegant back and shoulders from the
onslaught. Suddenly, and as unexpectedly as though the sound had
come from the clouds, there made itself heard the tinkling notes of
a collar-bell, and then the rumble of wheels approaching the entrance
steps, and, lastly, the snorting and hard breathing of a team of horses
as a vehicle came to a standstill. Involuntarily all present glanced
through the window, and saw a man clad in a semi-military greatcoat leap
from a buggy. After making an inquiry or two in the hall, he entered the
dining-room just a