Lenski the stroke could not sustain,

At womankind he growled a curse,

Departed, ordered out his horse

And galloped home. But pistols twain,

A pair of bullets - nought beside -

His fate shall presently decide.

CANTO THE SIXTH.

The Duel 'La, sotto giorni nubilosi e brevi,

Nasce una gente a cui 'l morir non duole.'

Petrarch

Canto The Sixth [Mikhailovskoe, 1826: the two final stanzas were, however, written at Moscow.]

I.

Having remarked Vladimir's flight,

Oneguine, bored to death again,

By Olga stood, dejected quite

And satisfied with vengeance ta'en.

Olga began to long likewise

For Lenski, sought him with her eyes,

And endless the cotillon seemed

As if some troubled dream she dreamed.

'Tis done. To supper they proceed.

Bedding is laid out and to all

Assigned a lodging, from the hall(61)

Up to the attic, and all need

Tranquil repose. Eugene alone

To pass the night at home hath gone.

[Note 61: Hospitality is a national virtue of the Russians. On festal occasions in the country the whole party is usually accommodated for the night, or indeed for as many nights as desired, within the house of the entertainer. This of course is rendered necessary by the great distances which separate the residences of the gentry. Still, the alacrity with which a Russian hostess will turn her house topsy-turvy for the accommodation of forty or fifty guests would somewhat astonish the mistress of a modern Belgravian mansion.]

II.

All slumber. In the drawing-room

Loud snores the cumbrous Poustiakoff

With better half as cumbersome;

Gvozdine, Bouyanoff, Petoushkoff

And Flianoff, somewhat indisposed,

On chairs in the saloon reposed,

Whilst on the floor Monsieur Triquet

In jersey and in nightcap lay.

In Olga's and Tattiana's rooms