Crop-Eared Jacquot by Alexandre Dumas (Illustrated)

By Alexandre Dumas

This eBook features the unabridged text of ‘Crop-Eared Jacquot’ from the bestselling edition of ‘The Collected Works of Alexandre Dumas’.

Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. The Delphi Classics edition of Dumas includes original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of the author, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

eBook features:
* The complete unabridged text of ‘Crop-Eared Jacquot’
* Beautifully illustrated with images related to Dumas’s works
* Individual contents table, allowing easy navigation around the eBook
* Excellent formatting of the textPlease visit www.delphiclassics.com to learn more about our wide range of titles

• Language: English
• Publisher: Publishdrive
• Release date: Jul 17, 2017
• ISBN: 9781786569134

Alexandre Dumas

Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870), one of the most universally read French authors, is best known for his extravagantly adventurous historical novels. As a young man, Dumas emerged as a successful playwright and had considerable involvement in the Parisian theater scene. It was his swashbuckling historical novels that brought worldwide fame to Dumas. Among his most loved works are The Three Musketeers (1844), and The Count of Monte Cristo (1846). He wrote more than 250 books, both Fiction and Non-Fiction, during his lifetime.

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The Works of

ALEXANDRE DUMAS

VOLUME 30 OF 43

Crop-Eared Jacquot

Parts Edition

By Delphi Classics, 2014

Version 2

COPYRIGHT

‘Crop-Eared Jacquot’

Alexandre Dumas: Parts Edition (in 43 parts)

First published in the United Kingdom in 2017 by Delphi Classics.

© Delphi Classics, 2017.

All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form other than that in which it is published.

ISBN: 978 1 78656 913 4

Delphi Classics

is an imprint of

Delphi Publishing Ltd

Hastings, East Sussex

United Kingdom

Contact: [e-mail]

www.delphiclassics.com

Alexandre Dumas: Parts Edition

This eBook is Part 30 of the Delphi Classics edition of Alexandre Dumas in 43 Parts. It features the unabridged text of Crop-Eared Jacquot from the bestselling edition of the author’s Collected Works. Having established their name as the leading publisher of classic literature and art, Delphi Classics produce publications that are individually crafted with superior formatting, while introducing many rare texts for the first time in digital print. Our Parts Editions feature original annotations and illustrations relating to the life and works of Alexandre Dumas, as well as individual tables of contents, allowing you to navigate eBooks quickly and easily.

Visit here to buy the entire Parts Edition of Alexandre Dumas or the Collected Works of Alexandre Dumas in a single eBook.

Learn more about our Parts Edition, with free downloads, via this link or browse our most popular Parts here.

ALEXANDRE DUMAS

IN 43 VOLUMES

Parts Edition Contents

The Novels

1, Acté

2, Captain Paul

3, Captain Pamphile

4, Otho the Archer

5, The Fencing Master

6, The Conspirators

7, Georges

8, Amaury

9, The Three Musketeers

10, Twenty Years After

11, The Count of Monte Cristo

12, The Regent’s Daughter

13, Marguerite de Valois

14, The Corsican Brothers

15, The Chevalier of Maison-Rouge

16, The Marriages of Père Olifus

17, Chicot the Jester

18, Joseph Balsamo

19, The Forty-Five Guardsmen

20, The Vicomte de Bragelonne

21, The Queen’s Necklace

22, The Black Tulip

23, The Mouth of Hell

24, Ange Pitou

25, The Comtesse de Charny

26, Catherine Blum

27, The Companions of Jehu

28, The Wolf Leader

29, Jane

30, Crop-Eared Jacquot

31, The Ball of Snow

32, The Neapolitan Lovers

33, Robin Hood the Outlaw

34, The Son of Monte-Cristo by Jules Lermina

The Short Stories

35, Monsieur de Chauvelin’s Will

36, Solange

37, Delaporte’s Little Presents

The Non-Fiction

38, Celebrated Crimes

39, The Juno

40, The Scourge of Naples

41, Prussian Terror

The Criticism

42, The Criticism

The Biography

43, Dumas’ Paris by Francis Miltoun

www.delphiclassics.com

Crop-Eared Jacquot

Translated by Alfred Allinson

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTORY

CHAPTER I

CHAPTER II

CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IV

CHAPTER V

CHAPTER VI

CHAPTER VII

CHAPTER VIII

CHAPTER IX

INTRODUCTORY

THE tale I am going to tell you is the life history of the Chief Huntsman of a Boyar, or great Russian Feudatory, the very last representative perhaps of the old Muscovite manners and customs of the days of Peter the Great and Riren.

True, my story will have more to say about the master and the mistress than about the man, and might be entitled The Princess Varvara or The Prince Groubenski equally as well as Crop-eared Jacquot. But what would you have? In an age when an author’s first preoccupation is to discover a name for his novel or play, even before he has found a subject, and when more than half his chance of success depends upon the title, Crop-eared Jacquot really seems to me to be startling and original enough duly to arouse my readers’ curiosity. So Crop-eared Jacquot it shall be!

I had often heard talk both at St. Petersburg and Moscow, and still more at Nijni-Novgorod, of the Prince Alexis Ivanovitch Groubenski. The most incrediblc eccentricities were related of him; but these eccentricities, pronounced enough to shock the maddest of Englishmen, were, even as pieces of rough humour, over-shadowed by a sinister cloud of gloom and horror, that seemed to brood over all this nobleman’s strange life. You felt that, albeit half effaced by time and by the efforts of interested persons whose wish it was to remove the stain altogether, the life of the Last of the Boyars, as he was generally called in the Government of Nijni-Novgorod, was disfigured by one of those grim blotches of dark red,

such as they show dyeing the floor of the Galérie aux Cerfs at Fontainebleau and the Royal Closet at Blois — the signs-manual of ancient bloodshed.

Everywhere I had been advised, If ever you happen to stop at Makarieff, remember to pay a visit to the ruins facing the Monastery, on the opposite bank of the Volga — the ruins of the Castle of Groubenski. Above all, people invariably added, do not forget to ask to sec the Portrait Gallery.

None but such as have been my travelling companions can properly appreciate the degree of obstinacy I am capable of under circumstances of this sort. Once I nose a legend, a tradition, a bit of history, no objection or opposition whatsoever will turn me from the scent, once the hunt is up.

Accordingly, I had not failed to exact a promise from the skipper of the steamer I had boarded to convey me from Nijni to Kasan, to stop under any circumstances at Makarieff, whether the boat passed that place by day or by night. And, as a matter of fact, the instant we hove in sight — I will not say of Makarieff, for Makarieff is not actually visible from the surface of the Volga — but of the battlemented walls of the old Monastery, which oomes down to the banks of the stream there, the Captain was as good as his word, and sought me out to tell me—You must be getting ready, sir, if you still mean to get off at Makarieff; we shall be there in ten minutes. Ten minutes more and we were there; and in obedience to my beckoning, a boatman put off from the left bank of the Volga and struck out for the steamer, to put me ashore.

Then, and not till then, I noticed a young Russian officer, with whom I had exchanged a few words of casual talk during my passage down the river, to be engaged in the same preparations as myself.

Are you by any chance getting off at Makarieff, sir? I asked him.

Alas I yes, sir; I am on garrison duty there.

Your ‘alas!’ is not over and above flattering to Makarielï.

’Tis an abominable hole, and I cannot help asking you however you come, without exterior compulsion, to be stopping there. What in Heaven’s name have you to do at Makarieff?

Two most important things. I am going to buy a carved chest, and I am going to pay a visit to the Castle of Groubenski. Indeed, I am bound to confess that, when I saw you were getting your baggage together, I congratulated myself on the very thing that occasions your despair. Knowing your kindness and courtesy, I said to myself, ‘Ha, ha I here’s a cicerone ready found to help me make my bargain and make my visit. ‘

As far as that goes, the young officer assured me, you are not mistaken, and it is I shall be obliged to you for filling up my time. Distractions are few and far between at Makarieff; you offer me that of your society, and I accept it gratefully. It is the honey nurses put on the rim of the cup, when they want to get children to lake medicine. Now, you must permit me to lay down some conditions to our bargain.

Out with them; I agree to them beforehand.

You understand this, that since the removal of the great fair to Nijni-Novgorod, nobody ever stops at Makarieff nowadays.

Except people coming to buy a chest and visit the Castle of Groubenski!

True; but such people are extremely rare. Anyhow, the fact remains, there is no inn at Makarieff, or if there is, it is of such a sort as to make it worse than there being none.

Ah, I see what you are driving at. You are going to offer me board and lodging. I am used to these little Russian peculiarities.

Yes, that is precisely what I am going to do.

Another man might hesitate about accepting your kindness, but I say’ Yes ‘right out; and, so saying, I gave him my hand.

‘Faith, said he, I was far from expecting such luck. Let’s get into our boat at once; for the shore-boat that was to convey us to land had just ranged alongside the steamer.

I said good-bye to the skipper and sundry persons with whom I had scraped acquaintance during my three days’ sail on the Volga, and proceeded to take my seat in the skiff, whither my young companion followed me.

Ah! so here you are, Count? the boatman exclaimed on recognising him. Why, the carriage has been wailing for you ever since yesterday evening.

Yes, replied the young man, I fully expected to have arrived yesterday; but these wretched boats are as slow as tortoises.... And is all well at Makarieff?

Yes, Count, praise God, all is well.

"Now, I hoped he was going to inform me that the town had been burnt down, that not a house was left standing and that the garrison had been recalled to St. Petersburg, or, at any rate, moved on to Kasan.