After dinner Mistafor said to his daughter: "What say you now--is not
this Prince Dardavan?" "No, dear father," replied Dogada, "this is not
the Prince, but our shoemaker Krutshinin."
"Why, have you lost your wits, child?" said Mistafor; "we have got rid
of Goria Krutshinin long ago." "Well, mark you," replied Dogada, "I
will prove that this man is not the Prince. Invite him to spend the
night here, and order a bed to be made ready for him; and if he lies
down upon it he is not Prince Dardavan, but the shoemaker Goria."
When the evening came, and it grew late, Mistafor ordered the best
bed to be made ready for the shoemaker; then Mistafor asked the
pretended Tsarevich whether, as it was growing late, he wished to
retire to rest. So Goria went into the bedchamber, and, seeing that it
was not the bed of which Prituitshkin had spoken, he instantly called
his servant, as if in a passion, and giving him a box on the ears,
said: "You rascal, why have you not made ready my bed? You know very
well that I always sleep on my hundred-pood bed: go instantly and
bring it to me!" Thereupon Prituitshkin ran as fast as he could and
brought the hundred-pood bed, which he had stolen from Prince
Dardavan.
Then Goria the shoemaker undressed, and lay down upon the bed; and
Dogada, on purpose to try him, ordered a number of tapers to be
lighted and taken into his bedchamber. But Goria instantly drove all
the servants away with the lights, and ordered Prituitshkin to give
him the stone, which the latter presently brought, having stolen this
also from Prince Dardavan. Then Goria placed the stone on the table,
and lay down to sleep; and the light shed by the stone was more
dazzling than a meteor in the sky.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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