Full resolution (TIFF) - On this page / på denna sida - Chapter XXXVII. The Skjuts-boy and the courier-officer.
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T## SK#trrS-BO#. 311
spoken. The horse was old and worn out; but as no other horse
could be obtained, I was obliged fo serve with Iny white pony,
and the marrer, no doubt, would bave ended as well as usual,
had hot the courier-officer whipped the poor aniinal so severely
that if finally sank fo the earth, coinplete#y exhausted. I felt
in Iny heart every stro]#e that the poor creature received, l#either
prayers nor entreaties availed Ine. The poor animal was whipped
up fo proceed a few paces, and then fell again. And thus the
Iaatter went on, until the traveller, alinost crazy with rage,
inquired Iny naine, fo inscribe if on the book of coinplaints af
the next station. I told Mm–and in flaining characters the
incident which I ara now about to relate is inscribed upoa my
Inemory. I shall never forger the lashes and buffets I received
froin his hands. And why# Because I did hot hold Iny naine
and crest, as a nobleinan, in Inore esteein than fo insult if by
driving the trade of a skjuts-boy, l#erhaps if would bave been
better in accordance with his ideas #o starve rather than earn
Iny bread honestly; and he was a nobleinan who preached such
doctrines it was a nobleman that insulted himself by treating
Ine thus ignoininiously.
" The remembrance of that scene excites Ine Inuch–I shall
say no Inore concerning if. Suffice if fo say, that the next
morning Iny white pony lay dead in his stable; and I, who had
before cared but little about the difference between a nobleman
and a peasant, coininenced gradually to reflect about the in-
equality of castes, and their differences, so that I caine fo the
conclusion, which is now Iny innermost conviction, that if is
only the nobility of hear# that constitutes true rank, let it beat
either under the peasant’s jacket or the gold-einbroidered coat.
That caste cannot be pm-chased with money. This lineal treo
requires no court soil fo thrive, for its ancestors and Inerits are
hOt of this world.
" If was an accident which gave me this conviction, and
I strove fo become an independent man, for the purl0ose of
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