The Daughter of an Empress
Page 35
ALEXIS ORLOFF
Two things principally occupied the Romans during the next weeks andmonths, offering them rich material for conversation. In talking ofthese they had forgotten all other events; they spoke no more of thegiant fish which had destroyed the friendship of France and Spain; theyno longer entertained each other with anecdotes in connection with thefestival of Cardinal Bernis, at which the _entree_ of that fish upon hislong silver platter was hailed with shouts and _vivats_--yes, even thatRussian princess, who had momentarily shown herself on the horizon ofsociety, all these were quickly forgotten, and people now interestedthemselves only about the extirpation of the order of the Jesuits, whichPope Clement had now really effected, and of the arrival of the Russianambassador-extraordinary, the famous Alexis Orloff, whose visit to Romeseemed the more important and significant as they well knew in what nearand confidential relations his brother, Count Gregory Orloff, stood withthe Empress Catharine, and what participation Alexis Orloff had in thesudden death of the Emperor Peter III.
The order of the Jesuits, then, no longer existed; the pious fathers ofthe order of Jesus were stricken out of the book of history; a word ofpower had annihilated them! With loud complaints and lamentations theyfilled the streets of the holy city, and if the prayer of humility andresignation resounded from their lips, yet there were very differentprayers in their hearts, prayers of anger and rage, of hatred andrevenge! They were seen wringing their hands and loudly lamenting, asthey hastened to their friends and protectors, and besieged the doors ofthe foreign embassies. With them wept the poor and suffering people towhom the pious fathers had proved themselves benefactors. For, sincethey knew that their existence was threatened, they had assiduouslydevoted themselves to works of charity and mercy, and to strengthening,especially in Rome, their reputation for piety, benevolence, andgenerosity. Prodigious sums were by them distributed among the poor;more than five hundred respectable impoverished Romans, who had beenaccused of political offences, were secretly supported by them. In thisway the Jesuits, against whom the cry of denunciation had been raisedfor years in all Europe, had nevertheless succeeded, at least in theholy city, in gaining for themselves a very considerable party, andthus securing protection and support in the time of misfortune andpersecution. But while the people wept with them, and many cardinals andprinces of the Church secretly pitied them, the ambassadors of the greatEuropean powers alone remained insensible to their lamentations. No oneof them opened the doors of their palaces to them, no one affordedthem protection or consolation; and although it was known that cardinalBernis, in spite of the horror which had for years been felt of thisorder in France, was personally favorable to them, and had long delayedthe consent of the court of France to their abolition, yet even Bernisnow avoided any manifestation of kindness for them, lest his formerfriend, the Spanish ambassador, might think he so far humiliated himselfas to favor the Jesuits for the sake of recovering the friendship andgood opinion of the Duke of Grimaldi. But Grimaldi himself now no longerdared to protect the Jesuits, however friendly he might be to them,and however much they were favored by Elizabeth Farnese, the Spanishqueen-mother. King Charles, her son, had finally ventured to defy herauthority, and in an autograph letter had commanded the Duke of Grimaldito receive no more Jesuits in his palace. And while, as we have said,the whole diplomacy had declared against the order of the holy fathersof Jesus, it must have been the more striking that this RussianCount Orloff had compassion upon them, and lent a willing ear to thecomplaints of the unfortunate members of the order.
This Russian count gave the good Romans much material for reflection andhead-shaking; the women were occupied with his herculean beauty, andthe men with his wild, daring, and reckless conduct. They called him abarbarian, a Russian bear, but could not help being interested in him,and eagerly repeating the little anecdotes freely circulated respectinghim.
They smilingly told that he had been the first who had had the courageto defy the powerful republic of Venice, which, for recruiting sailorsfor his fleet in their territories for the war against the Turks, wishedto banish him from proud and beautiful Venice. But Alexis Orloff hadlaughed at the senate of the republic when they sent him the order toleave. He had ordered the two hundred soldiers, who formed his retinue,to arm themselves, and, if necessary, to repel force with force; but tothe senate he had answered that he would leave the city as soon as hepleased, not before! But, as it seemed that he was not pleased to leavethe city, he remained there, and now the angry and indignant senatesent him the peremptory command to leave Venice with his soldiers intwenty-four hours. A deputation of the senate came in solemn processionto communicate to the Russian count this command of the Council ofThree. Alexis Orloff received them, lying upon his divan, and to theirsolemn address he laughingly answered: "I receive commands from no onebut my empress! It remains as before, that I shall go when I please, andnot earlier!"
The senators departed with bitter murmurs and severe threats. CountAlexis Orloff remained, and the cowardly senate, trembling with fearof this young Russian empire, had silently pocketed the humiliation ofseeing this over-bearing Russian within their walls for several weekslonger. This evidence of the haughty insolence of Count Orloff wasrelated among the Romans with undisguised pleasure, and they thankedhim for having thus humiliated and insulted the proud and imperiousrepublic. But they suspiciously shook their heads when they learned thathe seemed disposed to display his pride and arrogance in Rome! Theytold of a _soiree_ of the Marchesa di Paduli which Alexis Orloff hadattended. As they there begged of him to give some proof of the verysuperior strength which had acquired for him the name of "the RussianHercules," he had taken one of the hardest apples from a silver plateauthat stood upon the table and playfully crushed it with two fingers ofhis left hand. But a fragment of this hard apple had hit the eye of theDuke of Gloucester, who was standing near, and seriously injured it. Thesympathies of the whole company were excited for the English prince, andhe was immediately surrounded by a pitying and lamenting crowd. CountOrloff alone had nothing to say to him, and not the slightest excuse tomake. He smilingly rocked himself upon his chair, and hummed a Russianpopular song in praise of his empress.
And was it not also an insult for Alexis Orloff now to show himself afriend to the Jesuits, whom the decree of God's vicegerent had outlawedand proscribed? Was it not an insult that he loudly and publiclypromised to these persecuted Jesuits a kind reception and efficientprotection in Russia, and invited them to found new communities and newcloisters there?
But Alexis Orloff cared little for the dissatisfaction of the Romans,He said to his confidant Stephano: "There is no greater pleasure than toset at defiance all the world, and to oppose all these things which thestupid people would impose upon us as laws. The friend and favorite ofthe Empress Catharine has no occasion for complying with such miserablelaws; wherever I set my foot, there the earth belongs to me, and I willforcibly maintain my pretensions whenever they are disputed! In RussiaI am the serf of the empress, in revenge for which I will, at leastabroad, treat all the world as my serfs. This gives me pleasure, andwherefore is the world here but to be enjoyed?"
"A little also for labor," said Stephano, with a sly smile.
"For that I have my slaves, for that I have also you!" responded Orloff,laughing. "There is only one labor for me here in Rome, and that is tocreate as much disturbance as possible in the city; to set the peopleat odds with the government, so that they may have their hands full, andfind no time for observing our nice game with our little princess, orto interfere with it. We must have freedom of action, that is the mostimportant. Hence we must protect these pious Jesuits, and offer supportto the enemies of this too-enterprising pope, by which means we shallultimately attain our own ends, and that is enough for us!"
"We have not yet advanced a step with our Princess Natalie," saidStephano, shrugging his shoulders; "that, it seems, is an impregnablefortress!"
"It must, however, yield to us," laughingly responded Alexis Orloff,"and she shall
yet acknowledge us as conquerors. We are undermining,Stephano, and when the building crushes her in its crashing fall, willshe first discover that she has long been in danger. And what saidyou--that we have not yet advanced a step? And yet Rasczinsky is gone,and we have known how to keep Cardinal Bernis, who would have interestedhimself for the little one, so very much occupied with the affair of theJesuits, that he has yet had no time to think of the princess. Ah, theseJesuits are very useful people. We strew them like snuff in the faces ofthese diplomatists, and, while they are yet rubbing their weak eyes andcrying out with pain, we shall quietly draw our little fish into ournet, and take her home without opposition!"
"And if the fish will not go into the net?"
"It must go in!" impatiently cried Orloff. "Bah! have I at the righttime succeeded in towing our emperor, God bless him! into eternity, andshall I doubt in the fulness of time of enclosing this beautiful childin my arms! Look at me, Stephano--what is wanting for it in me? Are notall these beautiful women of Rome enraptured with the Russian Hercules?How, then, can it be that a woman of my own country can withstand me?The preliminaries are the main thing, and if we only had some one toprepare her for my appearance, all would then go well. And such a one wewill find, thanks to our rubles! But enough of politics for the present,Stephano. Call my valet. It is time for my toilet, and that is a veryimportant affair."