A Knight for an Hour by Nikolay Nekrasov. Short summary

5 seconds

A man walks through a field at night and admires nature. He recalls past events and suddenly feels the invisible presence of his dead mother. The hero is ready to die in order to meet her again.

1 minute

A frost hit the street. It invigorated the body and mind of the protagonist. On a brightly lit moonlit night he walked through a field. There was a sense of freedom in his soul. The man notices the beauty surrounding him and sees a young hawk flying away.

The hero is delighted with the land in the shimmering light of the moon, the leaf-littered autumn forest, and the haystacks. Suddenly the man begins to remember the events that happened to him. He dreams of a church and its bells ringing. It seems to him that the invisible soul of his mother is floating somewhere nearby.

He asks his mother to appear, if only for a moment. She left her son early, but he remembers her sacrifice and kind heart for the rest of his life. The man wished for his mother’s guidance.

He feared neither the coldness of friends nor the intrigues of ill-wishers. The hero was tired of endless inglorious battles and was ready to leave this world to meet his mother. He wanted to prove his love to her by dying.