Men who
have watched our splendid military officers in the field are apt to
think that a society which converts such generous souls into
self-seeking fribbles must be merely poisonous. The more we study the
subject the more clearly we can see that where luxury flourishes
friendship withers. In the vast suffering Russian nation friendships are
at this very moment cherished to the heroic pitch. A mighty people are
awakening, as it were, from sleep; the wicked and corrupt still sit in
high places, but among the weltering masses of the populace purity and
nobleness are spreading, and such friendships are fostered as never have
been shadowed forth in story or song. Sophie Peroffsky mounts the
scaffold with four other doomed mortals; she never thinks of her own
approaching agony--she only longs to comfort her friends and she kisses
them and greets them with cheering words until the last dread moment
arrives. Poor little Marie Soubotine--sweetest of perverted children,
noblest of rebels--refuses to purchase her own safety by uttering a word
to betray her sworn friend. For three years she lingers on in an
underground dungeon, and then she is sent on the wild road to Siberia;
she dies amid gloom and deep suffering, but no torture can unseal her
lips; she gladly gives her life to save another's.
Pages:
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108