dress, and instantly, at a certain signal, a young man sprung from
behind the trees and cried out to me:

"Thank you, Frenchman, for your good advice! I am Wassili, the friend of
Daria!"

This sight perfectly confounded me. So close to love, and to be nothing
but a confidant after all! I blushed for shame, but Daria soon
dispelled this impulse of ill-humour. She said to me:

"Wassili, whom I have never mentioned to you, is my friend; I was
desirous of making you acquainted with him. But he was jealous because
you gave me consolation and I wished him to remain concealed from you,
that he might be convinced by your language of the worthiness of your
sentiments. Wassili will love you as I do; stranger, still give us your
advice!"

The words of Daria calmed my trouble; and I felt happy that, at a
thousand leagues from my native land, in the bosom of an enemy's
country, I was bound by no tie to a foreign soil, but could still afford
consolation to two beings in misfortune.

Wassili was handsome and amiable; he was also wealthy; but Aphanassi was
much more so, and old Michael, though formerly flattered with the
attentions of Wassili to his daughter, now rejected them with disdain.
We agreed upon a plan of attack against the Baskir. I talked to Michael
several times on the subject, and tried to arrange their differences;
but it was of no avail.

Meanwhile took place the feast of St. John, the patron saint of
Tchornaia, which assembled all the inhabitants of the neighbouring
villages.

Early in the morning of the holiday, the whole of the inhabitants,
dressed in their finest clothes, get into a number of little narrow
boats, made of a single tree, like the canoes of the South Sea savages.
A man is placed in the middle with one oar in his hands, and strikes the
water first on one side and then on the other, and makes the boat move
forward with great velocity. These frail skiffs are all in a line, race
against each other, and perform a variety of evolutions on the lake. The
women are placed at the bow and stern, and sing national songs, while
the men are engaged in a variety of exercises and amusements on the
shore. A large barge, carrying the heads of the village and the most
distinguished inhabitants, contains a band of music, whose harmony
contrasts with the songs that are heard from the other boats.

Beautiful weather usually prevails at this season, and the day closes
with dances and suppers in the open air; and th