Chapter 111: The Cossack

The Cossack Maxim Tortchakov, a farmer in southern Russia, was driving home from church with his young wife and bringing back an Easter cake which had just been blessed. The sun had not yet risen, but the east was all tinged with red and gold and had dissipated the haze which usually, in the early morning, screens the blue of the sky from the eyes. It was quiet. … The birds were hardly yet awake. … The corncrake uttered its clear note, and far away above a little tumulus, a sleepy kite fl…