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 Contents
Cover

Title Page

Copyright Page

Preface

Acknowledgments

Abbreviations and Symbols

Chapter 1 Introduction
References

Chapter 2 Superconductivity
2.1 The Basic Properties of Superconductors
2.2 Critical Parameters
2.3 Classification and Magnetization
2.4 Measurement Technologies of Critical Parameters
References

Chapter 3 Mechanical Properties and Anisotropy of Superconducting

Materials
3.1 Mechanical Properties
3.2 Electromagnetic Anisotropy
3.3 Critical Current Characteristics of LTS Materials
3.4 Irreversible Fields of Superconducting Materials
3.5 Critical Temperature of Several Kinds of HTS Materials
 3.6 Thermodynamic Properties of Practical Superconducting
Materials
References

Chapter 4 Stability of Superconductors

4.1 Critical States
4.2 Adiabatic Stabilization
4.3 Adiabatic Stability with Flux Jump
4.4 Self-Field Stability
4.5 Dynamic Stability
4.6 Cryostability
4.7 NPZ Velocity in Adiabatic Composite Superconductors
4.8 Stability of HTS Bulks
4.9 Mechanical Stability of Superconducting Magnets
4.10 Degradation and Training Effect of Superconducting Magnets
4.11 Quench and Protection of Superconducting Magnets
4.12 Tests of Stability
References

Chapter 5 AC Losses
5.1 AC Losses of Slab
5.2 AC Losses of Concentric Cylinder
5.3 AC Losses of Hybrid Concentric Cylinder
5.4 AC Losses of Concentric Hollow Cylinder in Longitudinal
Field
5.5 AC Losses for Large Transverse Rotating Field
5.6 AC Losses with Different Phases between AC Field and AC
Current
5.7 AC Losses for other Waves of AC Excitation Fields
5.8 AC Losses for other Critical State Models
 5.9 Other AC Losses
5.10 Measurements of AC Loss
5.11 AC Losses Introduction of Superconducting Electrical
Apparatus
References

Chapter 6 Brief Introduction to Fabricating Technologies of Practical

Superconducting Materials
6.1 NbTi Wire
6.2 Nb3Sn Wire
6.3 Nb3Al Wire
6.4 MgB2 Wire
6.5 BSCCO Tape/Wire
6.6 YBCO Tape
6.7 HTS Bulk
References

Chapter 7 Principles and Methods for Contact-Free Measurements of

HTS Critical Current and n Values
7.1 Measurement Introduction of Critical Current and n Values
7.2 Critical Current Measurements of HTS Tape by Contact-Free
Methods
7.3 n Value Measurements of HTS Tape by Contact-Free Methods
7.4 Analysis on Uniformity of Critical Current and n Values in
Practical Long HTS Tape
7.5 Next Measurements of Critical Currents and n Values by
Contact-Free Methods
References

Chapter 8 Cryogenic Insulating Materials and Performances

 8.1 Insulating Properties of Cryogenic Gas
8.2 Insulating Characteristics of Cryogenic Liquid
8.3 Insulating Properties of Organic Insulating Films
8.4 Cryogenic Insulating Paints and Cryogenic Adhesive
8.5 Structural Materials for Cryogenic Insulation
8.6 Inorganic Insulating Materials
References

Chapter 9 Refrigeration and Cryostats

9.1 Cryogens
9.2 Cryostat
9.3 Refrigeration
9.4 Cooling Technologies of Superconducting Electric Apparatus
References

Chapter 10 Power Supplying Technology in Superconducting Electrical

Apparatus
10.1 Current Leads
10.2 Superconducting Switch
10.3 Flux Pump
References

Chapter 11 Basic Structure and Principle of Superconducting Apparatus

in Power System
11.1 Cable
11.2 Fault Current Limiter
11.3 Transformer
11.4 Rotating Machine-Generator/Motor
11.5 Superconducting Magnetic Energy Storage (SMES)
11.6 Superconducting Flywheel Energy Storage (SFES)
 11.7 Other Industrial Applications
References

Chapter 12 Case Study of Superconductivity Applications in Power

System-HTS Cable
12.1 Design of AC/CD HTS Cable Conductor
12.2 Electromagnetic Design of AC/CD Cable Conductor
12.3 Analysis on AC Losses of DC HTS Cable
12.4 Design of AC WD HTS Cable Conductor
12.5 Design of DC HTS Cable Conductor
12.6 Design of Cryostat
12.7 Manufacture of CD HTS Cable Conductor
12.8 Bending of HTS Cable
12.9 Termination and Joint
12.10 Circulating Cooling System and Monitoring System
References

Appendix
A.1 Calculations of Volumetric Heat Capacity, Thermal
Conductivity and Resistivity of Composite Conductor
A.2 Eddy Current Loss of Practical HTS Coated Conductor
(YBCO CC)
A.3 Calculation of Geometrical Factor G
A.4 Derivation of Self and Mutual Inductances of CD Cable
A.5 Other Models for Hysteresis Loss Calculations of HTS Cable
A.6 Cooling Arrangements
References

Index
This edition first published 2013
© 2013 Science Press. All rights reserved.
Published by John Wiley & Sons Singapore Pte. Ltd., 1 Fusionopolis Walk, #07-01 Solaris South
Tower,
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wang, Yinshun.
Fundamental elements of applied superconductivity in electrical engineering / Yinshun Wang.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-118-45114-4 (cloth)
1. Superconductors. 2. Electric power. 3. Superconductivity. 4. Electrical engineering. I. Title.
TK454.4.S93W26 2013
621.3′5–dc23
2012049085
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 9781118451144
 Preface

Since its discovery, superconductivity and its applications have become one of the most active
frontiers in modern science and technology. With the progress in exploration and research of
superconductivity over nearly half a century, the practical NbTi and Nb3Sn superconducting wires
were successfully fabricated in the 1960s. Superconducting technology, especially superconducting
magnet technology, was then put into applications. However, it is difficult for superconductors to be
extensively used since they must work at a liquid helium temperature of 4.2 K.
Although the alternating current (AC) losses of superconducting windings is much lower than those
of conventional copper windings, the effect of 1 W power consumption generated at a liquid helium
temperature is at least equivalent to 500 W consumption of cooling power at room temperature.
Therefore, the AC loss is not fully compensated for by reduction in AC losses, and the operating cost
of superconducting electrical equipment is expensive, except in direct current (DC) applications.
Until the 1980s, the AC application of the Low Temperature Superconductors (LTS) in a power
system had not made substantial progress.
Since the High Temperature Superconductor (HTS) was discovered in 1986, the application of
HTS electrical equipment operating at the liquid nitrogen temperature of 77 K came into being, and
superconducting power technology was hoped to be applied in electrical power systems.
Great progress was made in development of HTS materials in the late 1990s, and practical HTS
tapes were commercially realized. Research on superconducting power technology has made
important and significant progress in many countries. At present, many superconducting equipment
prototypes, such as superconducting cable, superconducting transformer, superconducting Fault
Current Limiter (FCL), superconducting motor/generator, superconducting magnetic energy storage
and other superconducting equipment, have been developed and demonstrated. At present, several
groups of HTS cable prototypes operate in live grids. Superconducting technology has also found
important applications in information technology, traffic transportation, scientific instrument, medical
technology, national defence, large scientific projects and other fields besides the energy field.
Superconducting power technology is highly comprehensive and interdisciplinary, and related to
superconducting technology, electric power technology, cryogenic insulation, cryogenic refrigeration,
materials science and technology, etc. At the present, it is a promising research field of new science
and high technology, with important scientific significance and application prospects in power
systems. At the same time, superconducting power technology will be one of the key technologies in
the future Smart Grid. It is predicted that this technology will become a practical technology of
extensive scale and play an important role in energy saving, emission reduction, low carbon economy,
renewable energy resources, and in other fields.
This book briefly introduces the basic theory of superconductivity. According to the knowledge
structure and the order required in application of superconducting technology, electromagnetic
properties of practical superconducting materials, stability, AC losses, processing technology,
measurement of critical current and n values by contact-free methods, cryogenic insulation, cryostat
and refrigeration, current leads and flux pump, are presented respectively. The principles and
structures of various superconducting equipment are also described. Finally, high-Tc superconducting
(HTS) cables, and superconductivity applications in power systems, are systematically described to
show how the basic technologies described elsewhere in the book fit together. The content of the
book focuses on the fundamental elements of applied superconductivity in electrical engineering. A
feature of this book is that experimental technology is added to related chapters together with the
introduction of fundamental theoretical and technological principles.
There are 12 chapters in the book. The first chapter briefly introduces applications of
superconducting power technology with several superconducting apparatus used in power systems.
Chapter 2 presents the basic theories and critical parameters of superconductors. Chapter 3 describes
mechanical and electromagnetic properties of superconducting materials. Chapter 4 introduces the
stability and quench characteristics of superconducting materials and magnets, and protection
technology of superconducting magnets. Chapter 5 systematically describes various AC losses of
superconducting in commercial frequency power, which includes hysteresis loss, magnetic flux flow
loss, coupling and eddy current losses, and methods of measuring AC loss. Chapter 6 briefly lists the
preparation techniques of practical superconducting materials. Chapter 7 presents theory and
measurements of critical current and n values in practical HTS tapes by contact-free methods, and
their evaluation and calculation of non-uniformity are also included. Chapter 8 concerns the insulation
characteristics of some cryogenic gas, cryogenic liquid, organic insulation film materials, inorganic
insulating materials and cryogenic adhesive. Chapter 9 mainly shows the heat-conduction theory,
cryogenic device design and cryogenic refrigeration technology. Chapter 10 systematically introduces
the design principles and methods of various current leads, including conductor-cooled current leads,
gas-cooled lead, Peltier current lead (PCL) and the hybrid current lead, the applications of
superconducting persistent current switch (PCS) and superconducting flux pump technology. Chapter
11 presents basic structures of several superconducting apparatus in power systems. As in the case of
the application of superconductivity in a power system, Chapter 12 systematically describes the
design of HTS cable.
 Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Science Press for kindly granting permissions for all the figures and
tables obtained from the Chinese title: Bases of applied superconductivity in Electrical Engineering,
ISBN: 9787030315632, by Yinshun Wang, published by Science Press in June 2011.
When writing this book, the author referenced many worldwide research articles and books, so he
would like to express his cordial thanks and respect to these copyright owners. The author is also
indebted to undergraduates and graduates for suggesting a book based on their several years of course
work. Thanks also go to Prof. Shen Guoliu for his detailed proofreading of the book and for providing
valuable suggestions. Specifically, the author thanks his wife Ms. Yang Haiyan, who did almost all
the housework by herself in order to support his writing.
Because of my limited knowledge, it is very hard to avoid some omissions and even mistakes, so it
is my pleasure to receive your criticisms and corrections.

Yinshun Wang
State Key Laboratory for Alternate Electrical Power System with Renewable Energy Sources
Key Laboratory of HV and EMC Beijing
North China Electric Power University

Beijing, China
October 2012
 Abbreviations and Symbols

Abbreviations
Abbreviations Meanings
1D One-dimensional
3D Three-dimensional
2D Two-dimensional
1G BSCCO-2223 conductors made by PIT process
2G YBCO-123 coated conductors
AC Alternating current
ACSR Aluminium Cable Steel Reinforced
AMSC American Superconductor Corporation, MA, USA
ASTM American Society for Testing and Materials
AVR automatic voltage regulator
BCS Barden Cooper Schrieffer
BSCCO-2212 Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8
BSCC0-2223 (Bi, Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10
CAES Compressed air energy storage
CB Circuit breaker
CC Coated conductor
CCl4 Carbon tetrachloride
CD Cold dielectric
CH4 Liquid Methane
CICC cable-in-conduit conductor
CO Carbon monoxide
COV Coefficient of variance
CSC Current source converter
CSM Critical state model
CTC Continuously transposed cable
CVD Chemical vapor deposition
DC Direct current
DP Double pancake
DSC Dynamic synchronous condenser
EC Equivalent circuit
EM Electromagnetic
EMF Electromagnetic field
EMS Maglev Electromagnetic System
FACTS Flexible alternating current transmission system
FC Field cooling
FCL Fault current limiter
FDM Finite difference method
FEM Finite element method
FES Flywheel energy storage
FRP Fiber reinforced plastics
GFRP Glass fiber reinforced plastics
G-M Gilford–McMahon
GHe Gas – helium
GN2 Gas – nitrogen
GNe Gas – neon
H2 Hydrogen
He Helium
Hc Critical magnetic field
HM Hysteresis machine
HTS High temperature superconductor
HV High voltage
HVDC High voltage direct current
IBAD Ion beam assisted deposition
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission
InnoST Innova Superconductor Technology, Beijing, China
INSTEC International Superconductivity Technology Center, Tokyo, Japan
ISD Inclined substrate deposition
ITER International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor
JJ Josephson junction
kA · m Kilo-ampere current carried in 1 m length of a wire
LHe Liquid helium
LN2 Liquid nitrogen
LNe Liquid neon
LO2 Liquid oxygen
LTS Low temperature superconductor
L-type Transformer type
LV Low voltage
mol Mole
maglev Magnetic levitation
MAJ model Majoros model
MB Mono-block
MCG Magneto-cardiogram
MCP Melt cast process
MEG Magneto-encephalogram
MFC Multi-filamentary composite
MgB2 Magnesium Diboride
MHD Magneto-hydrodynamic
MJR Modified jelly roll
MLI Multi-layer super-thermal insulation
MOCVD Metal-organic chemical vapour
MOD Metal organic deposition
MPMG Melt-powder-melt-growth
MPZ Minimum propagation zone
MQE Minimum quench energy
MRI Magnetic Resonance Imaging
MTG Melt-textured growth
N2 Nitrogen
Nb3Al Niobium – aluminum
Nb3Sn Niobium – tin
NbTi Niobium – titanium
Ne Neon
NMR Nuclear magnetic resonance
NS model Norris model
Nu Nusselt number
NZP Normal zone propagation
OF Oxygen-free
Oil-filled
PCL Peltier current lead
PCS Persistent current switch
PD Partial discharge
PIT Powder-in-tube
PLD Pulse laser deposition
PSF Polysulfone
PM Permanent magnet
PMP Powder melt process
PPLP Laminated Polypropylene Paper
PSS Power system stabilizer
Pr Prandtl number
PVC Polyvinylchloride
PVD Physical vapour deposition
PWM Pulse width modulation
QMG Quench-melt growth
RABiTS Rolling-assisted biaxially textured substrate
Re Reynolds number
RF Radio frequency
RM Reluctance machine
RMS Root mean square
R-type Resistive type
RT Room temperature
RRR Residual resistivity ratio
SC Superconducting cable
SF6 Sulphur hexafluoride
SFCL Superconducting fault current limiter
SFES Superconducting flywheel energy storage
SI Super-insulation
SIS Superconducting insulator superconductor
SMES Superconducting magnetic energy storage
SNS Short section of non-superconducting
SQUID Superconducting quantum interference device
TE Thermoelectric
Teflon/PTFE Polytetrafluoroethylene
UPS Uninterrupted power supply
VSC Voltage source converter
VSM Vibrating sample magnetometer
WD Warm dielectric
XLPE Cross linked polyethylene
YBCO-123 YBa2Cu3O7
YSZ Yttria – stabilized zirconia
ZFC Zero-field cooling

Symbols
Symbols Nomenclature Units
A Magnetic vector potential Wb/m

A Area m2
Current unit
a Half thickness m
af Size of filament m
B, B Magnetic field strength T
Bc Critical magnetic field strength T
Bc1 Lower magnetic field strength T
Bc2 Upper critical magnetic field strength T
Bdc DC magnetic field strength T
Bf Characteristic magnetic field strength T
Birr(T) Irreversible magnetic field T
Bm Amplitude and peak-to-peak value of AC magnetic field strength T
Bp Full penetration magnetic field strength T
b Normalized magnetic field strength
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 Notwithstanding his clerical dignity, a kind of intense merriment,
bordering on intoxication, trembled and flitted almost imperceptibly
across his face. He was drunk with his own intelligence, this red-
cheeked Silenus in a bishop’s robe. “O head, my head, that hast
been drunk with knowledge, where wilt thou rest now?” he used to
say in his moments of candour.
And the Tsarevitch wondered with what is called in the Book of
Revelation “a great wonder,” at the idea that this mendicant, this
runaway “Uniate,” or advocate of the Union of the Greek and Roman
Churches, who had taken Roman vows, this pupil first of Jesuits,
then of Protestants, and then of Atheistic philosophers, maybe an
atheist himself, was compiling the Spiritual ordinance on which
depended the fate of the Russian Church.
When the archdeacon of the Cathedral had pronounced the usual
anathema against all heretics and apostates, from Arius down to
Gregory Otriópieff and Mazeppa, the bishop mounted on the ambo
and gave a discourse on the power and honour of the Tsar.
The oration set forth what was to be the corner-stone of the Holy
Synod: the Sovereign as the head of the Church.
“The teacher of nations, the Apostle Paul, proclaims that ‘there is
no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of
God.’ Truly these are wonderful words! I am almost tempted to say
that Paul was sent by the Emperors themselves, so assiduously does
he exhort, repeating again and again, ‘Power comes from God, from
God alone.’ I beseech every one to consider, what more could a
faithful minister of the Tsar say? Let us add, as a crown to this
exhortation, the names and titles befitting those who have the
highest power, which are a fairer endowment to Tsar than purple
and diadems. What titles? what names are these? Autocrats are
termed gods and Christs. Because of the power given by God, they
are called gods, that is representatives of God on earth. Their other
name is Christ, which means ‘anointed,’ because of that ancient
ceremony when the Tsars are anointed with oil. Paul further says,
‘Servants, obey your Masters as ye obey Christ!’ Hence the Apostle
made the masters equal to Christ. But what is most astonishing and
clothes this truth with adamantine armour—it cannot be overlooked:
the Scriptures demand obedience, not only to good lords but also to
those who are wicked, faithless and godless. Everybody knows the
words. ‘Fear God, honour the king. Servants, be subject to your
masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle but also to the
froward.’ And David the prophet, himself a king, calls Saul, though
impious and rejected by God, ‘the anointed of the Lord.’ He says,
‘Seeing he is the anointed of the Lord.’ But you will say, Whatever
Saul may have been, nevertheless he was anointed king by God’s
special order, and therefore found worthy of that honour. Good; but
tell me who was Cyrus of Persia, who Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon?
Yet God Himself, by the prophets, calls them ‘His anointed,’ or,
according to David, ‘Christs of the Lord.’ Who was Nero, the Roman
Emperor? Yet the Apostle Peter exhorts obedience even to this cruel
persecutor of the Christians, as to the anointed, ‘The Lord’s Christ.’
One doubtful point remains: are all men bound by this obedience to
sovereigns? are not some exempt from it, especially the clergy and
monks? This is a thorn, or rather a fang—the fang of the serpent.
This is the Papal idea! The clergy has a separate rank among the
people, but not a separate kingdom. Every one to his own business;
the military, civil officers, doctors, merchants, the different artisans,
all have their duties; so also pastors and all clergy have their own
appointed duty, to serve God; but at the same time they are subject
to the rulers and powers. In the old Jewish Church the Levites were
in all things subject to the king of Israel. If this were so in the Old
Testament why should it not be the same in the New? The law about
authority is unchangeable and eternal, and has existed since the
world began.”
Then came the conclusion:—
“All ye people of Russia, not only laity, but clergy, must honour
your Autocrat, the most pious Peter Alexeyevitch, as your head,
father of your country, and Christ of the Lord!”
 The last words he uttered in a sonorous voice, looking straight at
the Tsar, and raising his hand towards the vaulted roof, where a dark
painting of the face of Christ stood out on a dim golden background.
The Tsarevitch, listening to his convenient doctrine, wondered
with a great wonder.
Since all Tsars, even the impious, are “Christs of God,” so also
presumably would be the last and the greatest of them, he who will
come, the Tsar of the world—the Antichrist?
A blasphemy had been uttered! by a prelate of the Orthodox
Church in the oldest cathedral of Moscow, in the presence of Tsar
and people; yet the earth had not opened to engulph the
blasphemer; no fire from heaven had fallen upon him!
Everything remained calm; above the slanting sheaves of
sunbeams, above the azure clouds of incense, the face of Christ in
the centre of the dome seemed to ascend to the skies, inaccessible,
remote.
The Tsarevitch glanced at his father. He was quite calm and
listened with pious attention.
Encouraged by this attention, Feofan concluded solemnly:
“Rejoice, O Russia, be proud and thankful! Let all thy cities and
frontiers be glad, for on thy horizon, like a radiant sun, rises the
flame of the Tsar’s son, the three-year-old infant, Peter Petrovitch,
the heir designed by God. May he live happily, may he reign
prosperously, Peter the Second, Peter the Blessed! Amen.”
When Feofan had ended, a voice, weak but clear, came out of the
crowd:—
“Lord, save, keep and bestow thy grace upon the only true heir to
the Russian throne, the most pious Tsarevitch, Alexis Petrovitch.”
The crowd shuddered as one man, and remained motionless,
terror-struck. Then it began to grow noisy and restless.
“Who is it? who is it?”
 “A madman, no doubt!”
“One possessed!”
“What are the guards about! How has he got in!”
“He ought to be arrested at once, else he will escape; it will be
impossible to find him in the crowd.”
At the far end of the Church, where nothing had been either seen
or heard, the wildest rumours were spreading.
“A revolt, a revolt!”
“Fire! the altar has caught fire!”
“A man with a knife has been arrested; he wanted to murder the
Tsar!”
The alarm increased.
Without paying any attention to what was going on, Peter
approached the prelate, kissed the crucifix, and, returning to his
place, ordered the speaker of these “frantic words” to be brought
before him.
Captain Skorniakoff-Pissareff and two sergeants led before the
Tsar a small, frail old man.
The old man handed a paper to the Tsar; it was a printed copy of
the oath of allegiance to the new heir.
At the bottom, on the space left for the signature, something was
written in a compact, florid clerk’s handwriting.
Peter glanced at the paper, then at the old man and asked:
“Who are you?”
“Larion Dokoukin, late clerk in the arsenal.”
The Tsarevitch, who stood close by, at once recognised him; it was
the same Dokoukin whom he had met at Petersburg in the spring of
1715 at St. Simon’s Church, and who had been to his house the day
of the Venus Festival in the Summer Garden.
 He had remained the same common clerk, one of those who are
termed “inky souls,” pettifoggers, hard, fossilized, dull and
colourless, like the papers over which he had pored in his office for
thirty years, at the end of which he had been dismissed for
accepting bribes. And in his eyes there gleamed, just as three years
ago, his fixed idea.
Dokoukin in his turn glanced stealthily at Alexis. The expression
which flitted across the man’s hard features, reminded the Tsarevitch
of their interview; how Dokoukin had begged him “zealously to work
for the Christian Faith,” how he had wept, embraced his knees and
called him, “Russia’s hope.”
“Do you refuse to swear allegiance?” said Peter calmly, as if
surprised.
Dokoukin, looking straight at the Tsar, in the same low clear voice,
which could be heard all over the Church, repeated by heart what he
had written on the printed paper.
“I neither recognise the Tsarevitch Peter to be the legitimate heir,
nor will I swear allegiance to him on the holy Gospels or by kissing
the crucifix, on account of the unmerited dispossession and
expulsion from the Russian throne of the only legitimate heir, Lord
Alexis Petrovitch! May God keep him! Though the Tsar’s wrath
should smite me for this, I cannot otherwise, may the will of my God
and Lord Jesus Christ be done. Amen, Amen, Amen!”
Peter looked at him with yet greater amazement. And the whole
building, crowded with the dignitaries of this world, listened in dead
silence.
“Do you know that such disobedience to our will means death!”
“I know it, Sovereign; I came with the view of suffering for Christ’s
sake,” replied Dokoukin simply.
“You are brave, old man! Let us see, however, what you will say
when you are at the gallows!”
Dokoukin crossed himself silently and deliberately.
 “Did you hear,” continued the Tsar, “what the bishop has said just
now about subjection to the higher powers? There is no power but
from God!”
“I heard it, Lord; ‘The powers that be are ordained by God, and
what is not of God, is no power.’ But it is not befitting to call impious
Tsars and Antichrists, ‘the anointed of the Lord,’ and he who says it
ought to have his tongue torn out!”
“Do you consider me Antichrist?” asked Peter, with a tinge of
sadness and a smile which was almost kind. “Speak the truth!”
The old man looked down at first, but the next moment he raised
his head and looked straight at the Tsar.
“I believe thee to be the most pious, orthodox Tsar, Autocrat of all
the Russias, the Lord’s anointed,” he declared in a firm voice.
“If so, you should do as we wish and hold your tongue.”
“Lord Tsar, your Majesty, hold my tongue, even if I would, it were
impossible; I burn inwardly like a flame; my conscience urges me
on, I cannot bear it. If we remained silent the stones would cry out.”
He fell at the Tsar’s feet.
“Lord Peter Alexeyevitch, little Father, listen to us miserable folk!
We dare not change or alter anything, but in the same way as thy
parents, forefathers and the holy patriarchs worked out their
salvation, we too want to be saved, and to reach the heavenly
Jerusalem. In the name of God, seek the truth; in the name of Jesus
seek the truth! For the sake of thy own salvation seek the truth!
Pacify the Holy Church, thy mother. Judge us without wrath and
anger! Show mercy unto thy people, show mercy to the Tsarevitch!”
At first Peter listened attentively and even with curiosity, as though
trying to understand.
But after a while he turned away, in weariness shrugging his
shoulders:—
 “Enough! Enough! It is impossible to hear all you have to say, old
man. No doubt I have hanged too few of you fools. What are you
aiming at? What do you want? Do you imagine I revere God’s
Church and believe in Christ my Saviour less than you do? And who
set you slaves to judge between Tsar and God? How dare you!”
Dokoukin rose and lifted his eyes up to the dark face in the
vaulted roof of the Church. A ray of sunshine surrounded as with an
aureola his blanched head.
“How do we dare, Tsar?” he exclaimed in a loud voice. “Listen,
your Majesty. It is said in the Holy Scriptures, ‘What is man, that
Thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that Thou visitest
him? For Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and
hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have
dominion over the works of Thy hands; thou hast put all things
under his feet.’
“Thus it is that God has ordained man to be lord of himself, self-
ruling; ordainer and arbiter of his own actions. He is to be self-
controlled! What hast thou made of him?”
Slowly, as though with an effort, Peter averted his eyes from
Dokoukin. On leaving he turned to Tolstoi, who stood close at hand,
saying:—
“Take him to the prison and keep him under strict watch until the
inquiry.”
The old man was seized; he struggled, crying that he had still
more to say. He was bound and carried off.
“O secret martyrs! fear not! neither despair!” he continued to
shout, looking at Alexis. “Bear patiently yet a little while, for the
Lord’s sake. He is coming, He will not be slow. Even so! Come, Lord
Jesus! Amen.”
The Tsarevitch, pale and trembling, stood listening and gazing at
the scene.
 “That man is, as I should be!” said he to himself, now only
understanding the whole of his past life. Something was changed,
transformed within his soul; what till now had been a weight became
wings. Well knew he that he should fall back into weakness,
melancholy, despair, but he also knew that he should forget no more
what he had just for the first time fully understood.
He, too, like Dokoukin, raised his eyes to the dark image in the
dome. And it seemed to him, in the slanting rays of the sun, and the
blue clouds of the incense, the gigantic Face was moving, no longer
receding from the earth as before, but descending, coming down
nearer from heaven; the Lord Himself was approaching at last.
With joy akin to fearfulness he repeated, “Even so! Come, Lord
Jesus! Amen.”

CHAPTER V
The Moscow inquiry ended on March 15. The verdict of the Tsar
and ministers, given in the supreme court of Preobrazhensky, sealed
the fate of the culprits.
The ex-Tsaritsa, Sister Helen, was to be sent to Old Ládoga and
there shut up in a convent, the Tsarevna Marya to Schlusselbourg;
both to be rigorously confined and closely watched. Abraham
Lapoukhin was taken to the Peter and Paul fortress at Petersburg to
await a fresh inquiry. The others were to suffer death.
The executions began that same morning on the Red Square. The
iron pikes, on which had remained for twenty years the heads of the
Streltsy, decapitated in 1698, were cleaned and made ready to
receive other heads.
Stephen Gleboff, the Tsaritsa’s lover, was impaled. He was seated
on a small board. The iron spike issued from his skull. To prevent his
freezing, and to prolong his tortures as much as possible, he was
given a fur coat and cap. There priests watched him day and night,
in the hope that he would reveal some secret before his death. One
of them reported: “From the moment that Stephen was impaled, he
confessed nothing to us; all he did was to ask the arch-monk
Marcellus to give him the communion secretly; and while receiving it
he gave up the ghost, on March 16, eight hours after midnight,
during the second watch.”
Demid, the unfrocked Bishop of Rostoff, was broken on the wheel.
It was said that the secretary, to whom the execution had been
entrusted, made a mistake. Instead of having the bishop beheaded
and his body burnt, he had him broken on the wheel.
Kikin suffered the same death. He was tortured slowly, at
intervals; his legs and arms were broken one after the other; his
torture lasted for more than twenty-four hours. His agony was
increased by the fact that he had been roped so tightly to the wheel
that he could not move in the least: he cried and moaned, praying to
be finished off. It is reported that the Tsar, passing by on horseback,
stooped down towards him and said:
“Alexander, you are an intelligent man. How came it that you
dared to take part in such an affair?”
“Intelligence loves space, and you, you stifle it!” Kikin is supposed
to have answered.
The third to suffer on the wheel was the ex-Tsaritsa’s confessor,
Theodore Poustinni, who had been an intermediary between her and
Gleboff.
Those who escaped death, had their noses and tongues slit, or
nostrils torn off. Several, who had only heard about the Tsaritsa’s
seclusion and had seen her in secular dress, were pitilessly flogged!
On the Square a white stone pillar was erected six feet high,
flanked with iron spikes; the heads of the victims were stuck on
these spikes. The pillar was crowned by a large flat slab, bodies
were laid on it, among them Gleboff’s, surrounded as it were by his
accomplices.
 The Tsarevitch was forced to be present at all these executions.
Larion Dokoukin was the last to be broken on the wheel. When
roped to it, he declared he had something to communicate to the
Tsar. He was unbound and taken to Preobrazhensky. When the Tsar
came up to him, he was already in delirium, muttering something
about the coming Christ. Then for a moment he seemed to recover
consciousness, looked steadfastly at the Tsar, and said:—
“If you put your son to death, his blood will fall on you and on all
your descendants, from father to son, to the last of the Tsars. Have
pity on your son! have pity on Russia!”
Peter said nothing, left him, and ordered his head to be cut off.
On the day after the executions, the eve of Peter’s departure for
Petersburg, a midnight orgie of the “Most Drunken Convocation” was
to be held at Preobrazhensky.
In these bloody days, just as during the Streltsy executions and all
the blackest days of his life, Peter more zealously than ever gave
himself up to buffoonery, as if trying to deafen himself with the
sound of laughter.
A new Kniaz-Pope Peter Ivanovitch Bourtourline, “Metropolitan of
St. Petersburg,” had been recently elected in place of the late Nikíta
Zotoff. The election of the “Priest, Imitator of Bacchus,” had taken
place at Petersburg, his consecration at Moscow, on the very eve of
the Tsarevitch’s arrival. Now at Preobrazhensky the enrobing of the
newly elected pope was to take place in mitre and cassock,
burlesques of the patriarchal robes.
The Tsar found time during the legal inquiry to draw up the entire
programme for this ribald ceremony.
The midnight orgie or “service” took place in a large wooden hall,
hung with red cloth, illuminated with wax tapers, close to the court
of judgment and the torture chamber. The long narrow tables were
arranged in the shape of a horse-shoe. In the centre was a raised
platform with steps on which were seated the chief cardinals,
priests, and other members of the convocation. A throne,
surmounted by a velvet canopy, was built of casks, and decorated
from top to bottom with bottles and glasses.
When all were assembled the sacristan and the cardinal
archdeacon—no other than the Tsar himself—solemnly brought in
the new pope. Before him were borne two huge flasks of “very
strong wine,” one gilt, the other silvered, and two dishes, one with
cucumbers, the other with cabbage, finally, an obscene icon, the
naked Bacchus. The Kniaz-Pope, bowing thrice to the prince-caesar
and to the cardinals, offered to his Majesty the flasks and the dishes.
The Archimage questioned the pope.
“Why have you come, and what do you require from our
Intemperance?”
“To be arrayed in the robes of our father Bacchus,” answered the
pope.
“How do you keep the laws of Bacchus, and what are your merits
in that respect?”
“O, Most Drunken Father! On rising, while yet dark, before the
break of dawn, sometimes even about midnight, I drink two, three
bumpers of wine, and during the day I employ myself in the same
way, and fill my belly with various drinks, like a barrel. So it happens
that the trembling of my hand and the darkness which fills my eyes
prevents me from finding my mouth when I try to eat. This is what I
do, and this is what I promise to teach to those entrusted to me.
And all those who think differently and wage war against drink I will
as strangers utterly deny and anathematize. Amen!”
The Archimage proclaimed:—
“May the drunkenness of Bacchus, which passeth all
understanding, in complete lack of steadiness, uprightness, and
sanity be with thee all the days of thy life!”
The cardinals led the pope on to the platform, and arrayed him in
vestments; burlesque imitations of the cassocks, omophorium, stole,
and epigonation, embroidered with dice, cards, bottles, pipes and
nude figures of Venus and Bacchus. Instead of a panagia, clay flasks
with bells were hung round the neck, the book-cask, containing
flasks of various kinds of vodka, and a cross of pipes were handed to
him. He was anointed on the head and round the eyes with strong
wine.
“So may your head go round and circles dance in various shapes
before your eyes henceforth unto the end of your life.”
Both his hands and the four fingers which held the bumper were
then anointed.
“So may your hands tremble all the days of your life.”
In conclusion the Archimage set a tin mitre on his head.
“May this crown of the mistiness of Bacchus ever remain on your
head! I a drunkard crown this toper:—

In the name of all drunkards,

In the name of every bottle,
In the name of all the fools,
In the name of all buffoons,
In the name of all the grapes,
In the name of all the hops,
In the name of all the casks,
In the name of all the hogs,
In the name of all tobacco,
In the name of all pothouses,
Homes of our father Bacchus.
Amen.”

The assembly shouted:

“Axios!—He is worthy.”
The pope was then enthroned on the barrels. Just above his head
hung a small silver Bacchus astride of a cask. Bending it towards
himself the pope conveniently could draw brandy either into his glass
or straight into his mouth.
Not only the members of the convocation but all the other guests
approached His Holiness in their turn. They bowed low before him
and received, instead of a blessing, a blow on their head with a pig’s
bladder soaked in brandy, and then partook of the pepper brandy
offered in a huge wooden spoon.
The priests chanted:—
“O most honourable father Bacchus, born of the burnt Semele,
reared in Jupiter’s thigh, dispenser of the joys of the Vine! We call
on thee in the company of all this most drunken assembly. Multiply
and direct the steps of this world-wide-ruling prince-pope so that he
may walk in thy ways. And thou, most glorious Venus——”
Here followed obscene adjurations.
At last the guests sat down to table. Opposite the prince-pope sat
the real chief ecclesiastic; Feofan Prokopovitch had taken his place,
Peter next to him, then Theodosius; Alexis sat opposite the Tsar his
father.
The Tsar began talking over with Feofan the news which had just
reached them of the thousands of Raskolniks who had burnt
themselves alive in the forests of Kerjenetz and Tchernoramensk,
near the Volga. The drunken songs and shouts of the buffoons
hindered the conversation.
At a sign from Peter the priests stopped short in their chant in
honour of Bacchus; all were hushed, and in this sudden silence
Feofan’s voice was heard saying:—
“What cursed madmen, what frantic martyrs! insatiable in the
vanity of their desire for torture! They throw themselves into the
flames of their own free will, flinging themselves recklessly into the
abyss of hell, showing others the way. To call them mad were too
little; there is no adequate name for such an evil! May all disown
them and spit on them.”
 “But what can be done with them?” asked Peter.
“It ought to be explained to them, your Majesty, in an exhortation,
that not every suffering is acceptable before God, but only suffering
ordained by law. For the Lord does not simply say, ‘Blessed are the
persecuted,’ but, ‘Blessed are they who are persecuted for
righteousness’ sake.’ And such persecution for righteousness’ sake
can never threaten Russia, which is an orthodox country; it is
impossible for such a thing to happen——”
“Explain to them?” cried the superseded Theodosius, with a
malicious smile, “of what use in the world would that be? The jaws
of apostates should be broken. If in the Old Testament it was
ordained that rebels must be put to death, how much is this so in
the New Testament, where direct truth takes the places of images
and shadows? Better is it for heretics themselves, better to die; to
kill them is an act of kindness; the longer they live the more they
sin, and the more seductions they invent to mislead. There is not
much difference between killing a sinner with weapons or with
prayer.”
“That is a bad argument,” calmly replied Feofan, without looking at
Theodosius. “Cruelty is more liable to exasperate than to subdue
folks bent on being martyrs. People must be brought to the Church,
not by force and fear, but by the charity of the Gospels.”
“True, true,” agreed Peter; “we do not wish to hinder freedom of
conscience, and gladly leave each individual to work out his own
salvation. In my opinion let every man believe what he pleases; if
arguments fail to convert him, fire and sword will prove utterly
useless. And the maniacs for martyrdom neither benefit the country,
nor themselves receive the crown of glory.”
“Slow and sure, everything will settle itself by degrees,” rejoined
Feofan. “Nevertheless,” he added in a subdued voice, leaning over to
the Tsar, “it would be as well to impose a double tax on the
Raskolniks, so as to bring back to the Holy Church those who are
afraid of fines. Also, when punishment is inflicted, some obvious civil
transgression, other than their heresy, should be found, and then,
having flogged them and torn their nostrils, they should, according
to law, be sent to the galleys; yet when there is no obvious civil fault
exhortations alone should be resorted to.”
Peter acquiesced with a nod. The Tsar and the priest understood
each other.
Theodosius looked as if he would reply, but said nothing; a
sarcastic smile distorted his little face, which resembled the snout of
a bat, and he shrank back into himself, green with rage, as if he had
taken poison. Well he understood what “exhortation” meant.
Pitirime, the bishop sent to Kerjenetz to convert the Raskolniks, had
only recently reported to the Emperor: “They have been tortured
with exceeding cruelty; even their entrails came out.” And the Tsar in
his ukase forbade that father Pitirime should be blamed for his
“apostolic work.” It is easy to speak about love, but in reality, as the
Raskolniks complained, “Dumb teachers stand in the torture
chambers, in their hands they hold the knout instead of the Gospels,
and fire takes the place of Apostles to instruct them.”
This was, however, the same ecclesiastical policy of dissimulation
Theodosius himself had been preaching; but Feofan had out-run him
and he felt his reign was over.
“There is nothing to be astonished at,” continued the prelate in a
loud voice, “if uncultured peasants, in their extreme ignorance, err
from the right way and commit mad acts. What is astonishing is that
among the great nobles, among the Tsar’s servants, some are to be
found, who in their wisdom and feigned humility are worse than
Raskolniks. It has come so far that even the most worthless
insolently take part in vile actions. Already the scum of the people,
unprincipled men, born for nothing else than to be fed by the labour
of others, rise up against their Tsar, against the Lord’s Christ. When
they receive their daily bread, they ought to wonder and say,
‘Whence cometh this to us?’ The story of King David is repeating
itself; David, against whom the blind and lame rebelled. Our pious
monarch who has done so much for Russia, by whose providence all
have received security and honour, has only earned himself a bad
name, and his life is full of sorrows. Having prematurely aged
himself by hard toil, and when unmindful of his health, thinking only
of the country’s welfare, he is rushing, as it were, on to his death,
there are yet those who say, ‘He lives too long.’ O sorrow, shame on
thee, thee, O Russia! let us beware lest the whole world say of us:
‘The Tsar is worthy of such an empire, but the people are unworthy
of such a Tsar.’”
When Feofan had finished, Peter said:—
“God, who sees my heart and conscience, knows how dear to me
is my country’s welfare. But the diabolic work against me. Never has
a ruler been confronted with so many attacks and calamities as I
have. Foreigners say I govern slaves. But English freedom is out of
place here. It would do as much good as peas thrown against a
fortress wall. You must first know a people before you can decide
how to govern them. It is difficult for any one to judge me who does
not know everything. God alone knows the truth. He is my judge
——”
Nobody listened to the Tsar. All were drunk. He stopped without
having said all he meant to say, made a sign, and the priests
resumed the hymn to Bacchus, the fools began shouting. The
“Spring Chorus,” imitating the different birds, from the nightingale to
the warbler, was so piercing that the walls re-echoed with its shrill
noise.
Everything went on as usual. The guests drank and ate till they
lost their senses. The dignitaries fought, pulled one another’s hair,
and then making peace rolled together under the table. Prince
Shakhovskoi, knight of the burlesque order of Judas, received for
money, boxes on the ear. An old boyar, who refused to drink, had
brandy poured down his throat through a funnel. The Kniaz-Pope
vomited, from the height of his throne, over the wigs and coats of
those sitting under him. The drunken fool, the princess-abbess
Rjévskaya, danced skittishly, catching hold of the bottom of her
skirts, and sang in a husky voice:—
 Shin, shen shivargen!
Once, once, again!
Speed, speed, speed, round,
Burn! burn!

The guests whistled and stamped in time, making a frightful dust.

Everything was just as usual. Yet Peter felt weary of it all. He
drank as much as possible of the strongest English pepper and
brandy on purpose to get drunk. Yet he did not succeed. The more
he drank, the more weary he became. He rose, sat down, rose
again; he wandered among the bodies of drunken guests, strewn
like corpses on a battlefield, and could not find rest. His heart began
to beat in mortal anguish. Should he run away, or should he drive
away this rabble?
When the cold cheerless light of the winter morn mingled with the
stinking gloom and the dim light of candles burnt-down, the human
faces grew yet more hideous, more beast-like, monstrous, fantastic.
Peter’s gaze was arrested by his son’s face.
The Tsarevitch was drunk. His face was deadly pale. The long thin
tufts of hair stuck to his sweaty brow, his eyes had grown dim, his
lower jaw hung down. He was trying not to spill his wine, but the
fingers which held the glass trembled like those of an inveterate
drunkard.
“Wine is not like grain, once spilt it can’t be picked up,” he
muttered raising his glass. He drank it, made a face, cleared his
throat, and wanting to take the taste away by a salted mushroom,
vainly sought to catch one with the fork. He did not succeed, gave it
up, took a piece of black bread and began to chew it slowly.
“Dear friend, am I drunk? tell me the truth, am I drunk?” he
repeatedly asked Tolstoi who was sitting close by.
“Drunk, quite,” asserted Tolstoi.
 “Now that’s all right,” continued the Tsarevitch, hardly able to
move his thick tongue. “What does it matter to me? As long as I
don’t taste wine, I have no craving whatever for it; but once I taste
it, were it only a glass, I am lost. I can’t refuse whenever it is
offered. It’s well I am not violent when drunk.”
He laughed a low drunken laugh and suddenly turned to his father.
“Daddy, daddy, why are you so sad? Come here, let us have a
drink together! I will sing to you a song. You will be more cheerful,
really!”
He smiled at his father, and there was something familiar, sweet
and child-like in that smile.
“An imbecile, a simpleton! How is it possible to kill such a one!”
thought Peter, and suddenly a wild, terrible pity clutched his heart
like a beast.
He turned away, pretending to be listening to Feofan, who was
telling him about the establishment of his Holy Synod, yet heard
nothing. At last he called an orderly and told him to get horses ready
to start at once for Petersburg; meanwhile he again began striding
up and down, weary and sober, among the drunkards.
Unconsciously, as though drawn by some magnet, he approached
the Tsarevitch and sat down next to him, but turned his head,
pretending to be engrossed in a conversation with Prince James
Dolgorúki.
“Daddy, daddy,” the Tsarevitch gently touched his father’s hand.
“Why are you so sad? Does he offend you! Ram a pike down his
throat! that’ll finish him.”
“Who is he?” Peter turned to his son.
“How do I know, who he is?” answered Alexis with a smile which
made even Peter shudder. “All I know is that now you are yourself
again, and that other, the devil knows who he is, a mere pretender, a
beast, a were-wolf——”
 “Alexis, Alexis, what’s the matter with you?” Peter looked closely
at him. “You should drink less.”
“Whether I drink or not, die I must! Better, then, drink and die!
For you also it will be better if I die; it will save you killing me,” and
again he grinned, quite like a fool, and suddenly began singing in a
low, scarcely audible voice, which seemed to come from a distance:
—

A maiden, I will wander

Through the fields of peace.
And there blue flowers I’ll gather,
For the blue flowers are his:
And coming back towards the river,
Into a wreath my spoil I’ll twine,
And throw this little wreath of mine
To the stream, remembering my lover.

“I had a dream lately, daddy; Afrossinia was sitting at night on a

snow-covered field; naked and sad to look at, as though dead, and
she was rocking a babe which also seemed dead. She was singing
with tears in her voice this very song:

It sinks, it sinks, does my blue wreath!

It sinks, sinks, does my heart’s breath!
The flowers have gone to their death
With him, who was my light!”

Peter listened, and pity, wild, terrible, cruel pity, gnawed at his
heart like some fierce beast.
The Tsarevitch sang and wept. Then he laid his head on the table,
knocking over the wine glass. A blood-red stain spread on the
tablecloth. He put his hand under his head, closed his eyes, and fell
asleep.
Peter gazed for a long time at this pale lifeless face resting on the
blood-red stain.
 The orderly entered and announced that the horses were ready.
Peter got up, he glanced for the last time at his son, bent over him
and kissed his brow. The Tsarevitch did not open his eyes, yet in his
sleep he smiled at his father with just that tender smile, as when a
child the father used to take him in his arms asleep.
The Tsar left the hall unnoticed. The orgie continued. He took his
place in the carriage and started off for Petersburg.
 Book IX
THE RED DEATH

CHAPTER I
In the forest along the Vetlouga there stood a Raskolnik
settlement of the “Old Believers” called “the Bank of Mosses.” The
roads leading to it were impassable on account of the swamps. It
was not an easy task to get there in summer, along the narrow
raised paths, which led through thickets quite dark even in the day
time. In winter it was accessible on snow shoes.
According to the legend of its origin, three monks from the forests
of Olonetz, near the lake Tolveoye, had come here after the
destruction of their monastery by the Nikonians; they had followed
the lead of a miraculous icon of the Virgin, which had gone before
them, suspended in the air. On the spot where the icon descended
to the earth they built a hut, and began to live the austere life of
hermit monks. They tilled the ground and, burning down the wood
along the ridges, sowed rye-corn among the ashes. Disciples
collected around them. When the three old men died, they did so on
the same day, at the same hour, saying to their disciples: “Children,
continue living in this blessed retreat. You may roam far and wide
but you will not come across another refuge like it. It has been
predestined for the foundation of a large and glorious monastery.”
The prophecy was fulfilled; the settlement grew in the thickly
wooded dale, like a lily of Paradise under the protection of the
Virgin.
 “A miracle!” cried the settlers. “Holy Russia has grown dark while
the gloomy regions of the Vetlouga have become radiant; the desert
has been peopled with saints who have assembled there like the six-
winged seraphim.” It was here that, after long roaming in the forests
of Kerjenetz and Tchernoramensk, Father Cornelius, the prophet of
the Red Death, and his disciple the runaway Tichon Zapólsky, son, as
the reader will remember, of a Streletz rebel, had taken up their
abode.
One night in June, not far from the settlement, on a steep rock
overhanging the river, a fire was burning. The flames lit up the lower
branches of a pine to whose trunk an old Raskolnik’s brass icon was
nailed. Two persons were sitting near the fire; the young girl-novice
Sophia, and the lay brother Tichon. Sophia had been in the wood
searching for a young calf which had strayed; Tichon was returning
from a distant hermitage, whither Cornelius had sent him with a
letter. They had met by chance at the crossing of the two paths, late
at night, when the gates of the monastery were closed; and they
decided to await the dawn together near the fire. Sophia watching
the flames was singing in a low voice:—

Christ Himself, the blessed King of Heaven,

Speaks to us His children, thus:
“Let not yourselves be conquered
By the seven-headed snake, the Evil One.
Rather flee and hide in caves and mountains,
Where build up large piles of faggots—
Pour burning sulphur over them—
And burn thereon your earthly bodies
For your glorious faith in Me!
Short your suffering, My beloved!
To reward you I will open
All my Father’s Heavenly Mansions;
I will take you into Heaven,
Where we all shall dwell together.”
 “So it shall be, brother,” concluded the young girl, fixing on Tichon
a long steady look, “he who will be burned shall be saved. It is well
to burn for the love of Christ!”
Tichon remained silent. He watched the moths fluttering round the
fire till they perished in the flames, and remembered Cornelius’
words: “Like gnats and midgets, the more you try to kill them the
more in numbers come! So the sons of Russia shall cast themselves
by thousands into the Red Death!”
“What are you thinking about, brother?” the girl asked. “Are you
afraid of the furnace? Courage! Despise it! fear not! The pain won’t
last a moment! and quick! the body will release the soul! The fear
lasts only while waiting, but once in it all is forgotten. When it begins
to burn, you will see Christ, with legions of angels, drawing the soul
out of the body; and Christ our Hope blesses the soul, endows it
with a divine power, and no longer heavy, but as on wings, it flutters
about with the angels, like a bird, rejoiced to have escaped its
prison! Long it had cried unto the Lord; ‘Bring my soul out of prison,
that I may praise Thy name.’ And now what it asked for has been
granted. The prison is burning in the furnace, and the soul like a
pearl, like pure gold, is soaring up to the Lord!”
Such joy shone in her eyes, that she might have been already
beholding what she was describing.
“Tichon, Tichon dear, don’t you wish for the Red Death, or do you
dread it?” she repeated with a caressing whisper.
“I am afraid to do wrong, Sophia. Surely it cannot be God’s will
that men should perish so? Are you certain that it is not the lure of
Satan?”
“What are we to do, then? We are driven to it by necessity!” She
clasped her thin, pale hands, the hands of a child.
“We cannot escape, we cannot hide ourselves from the dragon,
neither in the mountains nor in caverns, nor in the chasms of the
earth; he hath empoisoned the earth, the water, the air. Everything
is defiled, and accursed.”
 The night was still. The stars shone like the innocent eyes of
children; the crescent of the waning moon rested upon the black tips
of the fir trees. The soothing cry of the night-jar rose through the
mist from the bog below. The pine forest exhaled a dry, warm,
resinous perfume. Near the fire a lilac harebell, lit up by the red
glare of the flames, bent on its stalk as if nodding its delicate,
drowsy little head.
The moths continued to flutter round the fire and perish in the
flames.
Tichon closed his eyes, wearied by the fire-glow. He remembered
one summer’s noon, that scent of the pines, in which the fresh smell
of apples seemed mingled with the aroma of myrrh; a glade,
sunshine, bees buzzing round clover, snail-trefoil, and pink silene; in
the middle of the fine glade stood a weather-beaten, half-rotten,
wooden cross, probably indicating the last resting-place of a saintly
hermit. “Fair Mother Solitude”—he began to repeat his favourite
poem. God had answered his prayers. He had brought him to this
quiet resting-place. He knelt, and burying his head in the tall grass,
kissed the ground and prayed:—

Oh, wondrous Queen, Mother of God!

Earth, thou bountiful mother of all.

and, looking up towards the sky, he continued:—

Descend, thou glorious Mother, from thy hall,

Thou wondrous Queen, mother of God.

The earth and the sky had become one. In the heavenly
countenance, radiant as the sun, the countenance of the woman
with glowing eyes and fiery wings, Saint Sophia, the Wisdom of God,
he saw a countenance familiar to him upon earth, one he longed yet
feared to recognise. He rose and went further into the wood. How
long and how far he no longer remembered. At last he saw a small
round lake; the steep banks covered with firs were reflected in the
water like one uninterrupted green wall. The water, thick as resin,
green as the pine needles, was so still it was hardly noticeable, and
seemed an opening into Hades. On a stone, close to the water, sat
the young novice Sophia. He recognised, and yet saw she was a
stranger. She had a wreath of white flowers on her flowing hair, the
black habit was a little raised, her bare white feet were dipping in
the water, her eyes had a drunken look in them. And gently swaying
to and fro, looking at the underground kingdom of the water, she
sang a gentle song, one of those which are sung on St. John’s eve at
the old revels among the bonfires:—

Loved sun, so fair and bright,

Old, old Lado! Old, old Lado!
Dear flowers bursting in the night,
Old, old Lado! Old, old Lado!
Earth, earth, fertile Mother of all.

There was something ancient and wild in this song, which recalled
the sad plaintive notes of a yellow-hammer in the lifeless hush of
noon before a storm. “A water nymph!” thought he, daring neither to
move nor breathe. A twig snapped under his foot. The young girl
turned round, shrieked, jumped off the stone and fled back to the
wood. Nothing remained save the ever widening circles round the
wreath which had fallen into the water. He felt terrified as if he had
really witnessed a sylvan apparition, an infernal mystery. And
remembering the human likeness in the heavenly countenance, he
recognised Sister Sophia, and the prayer to the “Mother of all”
seemed a mockery. He never confided to anybody what he had seen
near the Round Lake, but the vision often returned to his mind, and
in spite of all his struggles against this temptation he could not
overcome it; at times even in his purest prayers he would see the
human face as it were through the heavenly countenance.
And now Sophia, continuing to look at the flames with a fixed and
wistful gaze, was singing about St. Cyros, the child martyr, whom
the infidel king Maximian had cast into a glowing furnace.
 Fair Cyros in the furnace stands,
Chanting the song of cherubim.
Green grass is growing at his feet,
Bestarred with florets blue and sweet.
He feels no fire, but with them plays,
His garment like the sun ablaze.

Tichon too was gazing at the fire, and it seemed to him he

recognised the song’s celestial flowers in the blue heart of the
flames. Blue as the sky they seemed to promise an inexpressible
blessedness; yet to reach that heaven the red flame had to be
passed through.
Suddenly Sophia turned to him, laid her hand on his, brought her
face so close to his that he felt her breath come and go, ardent and
passionate, like a kiss, and began to whisper in a persuasive
murmur:—
“Together, together, we will burn, my brother, my beloved! Alone I
fear it; with you it will be easy! Together we will go to the marriage
feast of the Lamb.”
She repeated with infinite tenderness in her voice, “We will burn,
we will burn!” Across her pale face, and in her black eyes, which
reflected the glow of the flames, again there flitted that ancient, wild
expression, which he had felt in her song near the Round Lake.
“We will burn, Sophia!” he murmured with terror. She drew him as
the flame draws a moth.
The sound of footsteps was heard on the path which led along the
precipice below.
“Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy upon us sinners,” said a
voice.
“Amen,” responded Tichon and Sophia.
The newcomers were pilgrims. They had lost their way in the
wood, and narrowly escaped being engulfed in the bog; perceiving
the light of the fire, they had after considerable difficulty found their
way to it.
They sat down round the fire.
“Is it far to the monastery, friends?”
“’Tis just here at the foot of the hill,” answered Tichon, and
looking steadfastly at the woman who put the question, he
recognised Vitalia, the same who led the life of a migrant bird,
roaming, flying everywhere, whom he had met two years ago in
Petersburg on the oak-rafts of the Tsarevitch Alexis, on the night of
the Venus festival. She too recognised Tichon and was delighted.
With her was her inseparable companion Kilikeya the possessed; the
runaway recruit Petka Gisla, whose hand, branded with the
government stamp, the mark of the Beast, had withered; and the
old boatman, Simple John, who, waiting for Christ’s coming, sang
every night the song of the coffin-liers.
“Whence come ye, Orthodox folk?” asked Sophia.
“We are pilgrims,” answered Vitalia, “we wander everywhere,
persecuted by the heretics; we have no abiding city, we are waiting
for the New Jerusalem. We are now coming from Kerjensk. Cruel
persecutions are going on there now. Peterin, the fierce wolf, the
vampire of the church, has destroyed seventy-seven monasteries
and cast out the holy monks.”
They began telling about the persecutions.
One old father had been flogged in three torture chambers, his
ribs had been broken with iron tongues, he was dragged by the
navel, and then (it was a very cold winter) he was stripped and ice-
water was poured over him until icicles reached from his beard to
the ground; at last he found death in the flames.
Others were tormented in iron collars, collars which draw head,
hands and feet all together; with the result that the spine and the
limbs were dislocated, and blood spurted from the mouth, nose,
eyes and ears of the martyrs.
 Others were forced to partake of the Lord’s supper by having a
gag put into their mouths. The soldiers dragged a youth to church,
laid him on the bench, the priest and deacon approached with the
vessel. He was held down, his mouth was opened and the wine
poured in. He spat it out. Then the deacon dealt him such a blow
with his fist, that his lower jaw was broken. The lad died from this
blow.
One woman to escape the persecutions made a hole in the ice,
pushed her seven small children under, and then drowned herself.
A pious husband had his pregnant wife and three children
baptized and killed them that very night in their sleep. In the
morning he came to the authorities and said:—
“I was the executor of my family, you will be my torturers; they
suffered from me, I shall suffer from you, and together we martyrs
of the Old Faith will be in heaven.”
Many escaping from Antichrist sought death in the flames.
“They do well. This self-immolation is acceptable to the Lord. Even
God cannot save those who fall into the hands of Antichrist. The
pains are unbearable, no one can resist him. Better burn here than
be cast into the eternal flames,” concluded Vitalia. “Yes; there is no
means of escape but by fire or water.”
The stars grew dim. Pale streaks appeared among the clouds on
the horizon. Through the mist, the river winding among the limitless
woods glittered like dull steel. On the river bank at the foot of the
precipice the monastery was slowly emerging out of the gloom. It
was surrounded by a palisade which gave it the appearance of an
ancient wooden fortress. A large wooden gateway, surmounted by
the image of Christ, opened upon the river. Inside the palisade stood
a group of buildings with raised ground floors, vestibules, corridors,
closets, attics, summer rooms, turrets, watch towers with narrow
windows like fortress barbicans, and steep wooden roofs. Round
these clustered a smithy, a tailor’s shop, a tanyard, a cobbler’s shop,
a hospital, a school, and a place where icons were painted. The
chapel, dedicated to the Virgin of Tolveoye, was also a simple
building of logs, only larger than the rest, surmounted by a wooden
cross and a shingled dome; near it was the belfry which stood out
black against the pale sky.
A faint plaintive sound came floating through the air; this was the
summons to early mass. Instead of bells, knockers were used,—oak
boards hung on ropes made of twisted ox-sinews, a huge three-
sided nail being used to hammer them. According to tradition Noah
had summoned the animals to the ark in similar fashion. In the
responsive silence of the woods the sound rang singularly sweet and
sad.
The pilgrims, looking towards the holy monastery, last refuge of
the persecuted, crossed themselves.
“Holy, Holy, Holy New Jerusalem, may God’s glory descend upon
thee,” chanted Kilikeya. A transfiguring joy lit up her pale, waxen
face.
“All the monasteries have been destroyed; this one alone has
remained untouched,” remarked Vitalia; “the Queen of Heaven has
evidently taken it under Her holy protection. It is written in
Revelation: ‘And to the woman were given two wings of a great
eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness.’”
“The Tsar’s arm is long, but it won’t reach as far as this,” said one
of the pilgrims.
“This is the last refuge of ancient holy Russia,” concluded another.
The sound died away, all remained quiet. It was the silent hour,
when, according to tradition, the waters remain motionless, the
angels pray, and the seraphim move their wings in holy awe before
the throne of the Most High.
Simple John, sitting with his arm round his knees, his motionless
eyes fixed on the brightening east, sang his eternal song:—
 A coffin of pinewood tree
Stands ready prepared for me,
Within its narrow wall
I’ll await the judgment call.

And again, as on the rafts at Petersburg on the night of the Venus

festival, the talk turned upon the end of the world, and Antichrist:
“Soon, soon! He is already at the door,” began Vitalia. “Now we
just manage to get along; but when Antichrist has come our lips will
be sealed, and only in our hearts shall we be able to cling to God.”
“It is terrible, terrible,” moaned Kilikeya.
“I have heard,” continued Vitalia Avilka, “a runaway Cossack from
the Don, relate a vision he had in the steppe: three men came to his
hut, all exactly alike in countenance, they spoke Russian, but with a
Greek accent. ‘Whence come ye,’ he asked, ‘and whither do ye go?’
‘From Jerusalem,’ they answered, ‘and from the Lord’s Sepulchre to
Petersburg, to see the Antichrist.’ ‘What Antichrist?’ he asked. ‘He
whom you call Tsar Peter; he is the Antichrist. He will conquer
Constantinople, and collect the Jews and take them to Jerusalem
where he will reign. And the Jews know he is the real Antichrist. And
with him has come the end of the world.’”
Again all remained silent, as though in expectation. All at once
from the dark forest there came a long cry, like that of a weeping
child; it probably was a night-bird. A tremor passed through them.
“Friends, friends,” stuttered Petka, his voice shaking with gasps, “I
am afraid. We speak of him, the Antichrist, and perhaps he is here in
the wood near us! See how we all are troubled.”
“Fools, fools, blockheads!” suddenly cried a voice like the angry
growl of a bear. They turned round and saw a man whom they had
not noticed before. He had probably come out of the wood while
they were talking, had sat down on one side in the shade, and had
remained silent. He was a tall stooping man, with grizzled red hair.
His face could hardly be discerned in the morning twilight.
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