hill.
Ah, what a cottage that was! I still have the plan in my desk. Now to my
misfortune a certain petty official, who was serving on an inquest, hired
a house near by. He kept several hounds; what torture, when a petty
official and a kennel live close by! Whenever I went out into the garden
with a book to enjoy the light of the moon and the coolness of the
evening, immediately a dog would rush up and wag its tail and prick up its
ears as if it were mad. I was often terrified. My heart foreboded some
misfortune from those dogs, and so it came to pass: for when I went into
the garden on a certain morning, a hound throttled at my feet my beloved
little King Charles spaniel! Ah, he was a lovely little dog; Prince
Sukin44 gave him to me as a present to remember him by--clever, and lively
as a squirrel; I have his portrait, only I don't want to go to my desk
now. Seeing it strangled, owing to my great distress I had a fainting
spell, spasms, palpitation of the heart; perhaps my health might have
suffered even more severely. Luckily, just then there rode up on a visit
Kirilo Gavrilich Kozodusin,45 the Master of the Hunt of the Court, who
inquired the cause of so serious an attack. He had the police sergeant
pulled in by the ears; the man stood there pale, trembling, and scarcely
alive. 'How dare you,' shouted Kirilo with a voice of thunder, 'course in
spring a pregnant doe, here under the nose of the Tsar?' The amazed
sergeant in vain swore that he had not yet begun his hunting, and that
with the august permission of the Master of the Hunt, the beast coursed
seemed to him to be a dog and not a doe. 'What!' shouted Kirilo, 'do you
dare, you scoundrel, to say that you have more knowledge of hunting and
the varieties of beasts than I, Kozodusin, the Tsar's Jagermeister? The
Chief of Police shall at once pass judgment between us,' They summoned the
Chief of Police and told him to take down the evidence. 'I,' said
Kozodusin, 'hereby testify that this is a doe; he impudently alleges that
it is a domestic dog. Judge between us, which of us better understands
beasts and hunting.' The Chief of Police understood the duties of his
office, and was greatly amazed at the insolence of the sergeant; taking
him aside he gave him brotherly advice to plead guilty and thereby atone
for his offence. The Master of the Hunt was mollified and promised that he
would intercede with the Emperor and somewhat mitigate the sentence. The
matter ended by th