With Martin Zadeka. In woe

She consolation thence obtained -

Inseparable they remained.

[Note 56: "Malvina," a romance by Madame Cottin.]

XXIV.

The dream left terror in its train.

Not knowing its interpretation,

Tania the meaning would obtain

Of such a dread hallucination.

Tattiana to the index flies

And alphabetically tries

The words bear, bridge, fir, darkness, bog,

Raven, snowstorm, tempest, fog,

Et cetera; but nothing showed

Her Martin Zadeka in aid,

Though the foul vision promise made

Of a most mournful episode,

And many a day thereafter laid

A load of care upon the maid.

XXV.

"But lo! forth from the valleys dun

With purple hand Aurora leads,

Swift following in her wake, the sun,"(57)

And a grand festival proceeds.

The Larinas were since sunrise

O'erwhelmed with guests; by families

The neighbours come, in sledge approach,

Britzka, kibitka, or in coach.

Crush and confusion in the hall,

Latest arrivals' salutations,

Barking, young ladies' osculations,

Shouts, laughter, jamming 'gainst the wall,

Bows and the scrape of many feet,

Nurses who scream and babes who bleat.

[Note 57: The above three lines are a parody on the turgid style of Lomonossoff, a literary man of the second Catherine's era.]

XXVI.