hermitage the anchorite Hilary, a man of saintly life, has died. He had
lived there eighteen years. The Tambov Abbot is asking whether there is
not a brother who would take his place. And here comes your letter. Go
to Father Paissy of the Tambov Monastery. I will write to him about you,
and you must ask for Hilary's cell. Not that you can replace Hilary, but
you need solitude to quell your pride. May God bless you!'

Sergius obeyed the starets, showed his letter to the Abbot, and having
obtained his permission, gave up his cell, handed all his possessions
over to the monastery, and set out for the Tambov hermitage.

There the Abbot, an excellent manager of merchant origin, received
Sergius simply and quietly and placed him in Hilary's cell, at first
assigning to him a lay brother but afterwards leaving him alone, at
Sergius's own request. The cell was a dual cave, dug into the hillside,
and in it Hilary had been buried. In the back part was Hilary's grave,
while in the front was a niche for sleeping, with a straw mattress, a
small table, and a shelf with icons and books. Outside the outer door,
which fastened with a hook, was another shelf on which, once a day, a
monk placed food from the monastery.

And so Sergius became a hermit.



III

At Carnival time, in the sixth year of Sergius's life at the hermitage,
a merry company of rich people, men and women from a neighbouring town,
made up a troyka-party, after a meal of carnival-pancakes and wine. The