Princess Zara

by Ross Beeckman

  CHAPTER XVI

  THE MOMENT OF VENGEANCE

  Zara's intensity of passion during her dramatic recital, had imparteditself to me, so that when she ceased speaking for a moment, I feltmyself glowing and throbbing with all the excitement that absorbed her.It seemed almost as if I were, indeed, the person who was concerned inthe story she had related, and my nerves were strung to the point whereI felt that I could go out and kill the czar for the wrongs that hadbeen committed in his name; if not at his connivance, certainly withhis permission, and with the presumption of his approval. She withdrewfrom me and crossed to the window, where she stood looking out upon thesnow clad street; suddenly she started, and turned to me. How beautifulshe was and how I loved her at that moment!

  "Come here, Dubravnik," she said. I obeyed, and in an instant was ather side at the window.

  "What is it?" I asked.

  "There; look yonder. Do you see that _karetta_, just beyond thecorner?"

  "Yes. I see it."

  "It has all the appearance of waiting for a passenger who is supposedlywithin one of the adjacent houses, has it not?"

  "It certainly has," I replied, smiling.

  "My love, I recognize that _karetta_, and the man in charge of it. Itbelongs to--never mind whom. That does not matter. But the man incasedin fur, who seems to be the driver, is a nihilist; within theenclosure, there is certainly one, and possibly there are two more men.Each of them has sworn to take your life at the cost of his own, ifneed be. They will wait there until you leave me. Then they will dotheir work. Do you still doubt that you have been sentenced to death?"

  "I have not doubted it, sweetheart."

  "But do you doubt their ability to carry out the decree?"

  "I do."

  "Ah, Dubravnik, you little know the men with whom we have to deal."

  How sweet it was to hear her include herself with me, against them."They are like bloodhounds on a trail. They never leave it, nor tire.They are indefatigable. When one falls, another takes his place. Theynumber thousands, and you are one."

  "WE are one," I corrected her, smiling. "I do not doubt theirintentions, but I have not lived till now, and found you, to be killedby the nihilists."

  She gazed at me a moment in silence, and then, slowly, she added:

  "Do not think that I sought to frighten you by what I just said. Ialready know you much too well for that. My intention was to warn you."

  "I understood you, dear, perfectly."

  She turned away from the window again and faced me, and her eyes wereglowing with the light of love. Again for the moment we were face toface with the perils that menaced us from the outside, and before thatconsideration, all else faded to nothingness with Zara. A little whileago she had repudiated me, but all-conquering Love had stepped inagain, had overpowered her, enthralled her, and I could see that shewas more than ever mine own, now.

  For a space we looked into each other's eyes across the short distancethat separated us. We were reading each other's souls, and both saw andunderstood all that the heart of love could desire. It was anundiscovered country to each of us, upon which we trod just then; a newcreation that was the sweeter because of its strangeness.

  "I love you!" Zara whispered; and she came nearer until her handsrested upon my shoulders, until her face was close to mine so that Icould feel her sweet breath against me. Her lips were parted slightlyin a half smile, and I knew that she had forgotten the waiting_karetta_ with its freight of assassins.

  I took her in my arms, slowly, tenderly, firmly. I held her pressedclosely against me for a moment and then my lips sought hers, and herssought mine. It was a oneness of desire, a singleness of purpose thatbrought us together in the kiss of perfect love; and we remained sowhile minutes sped. I closed my eyes and held her the more tightlyagainst me, so that I could feel the throbbing of her heart and thequivering eagerness of her lithe body, warm against my own. We forgotthe dangers and perils that surrounded us; forgot the world and all itcontained; forgot life and death, czars and their empires, nihilistsand their plots, remembering nothing, in that great spasm of adoration.We did not speak. There was no occasion for words. There came noopportunity to utter them. But we breathed, and breathed together. Ourhearts throbbed in unison. Our souls communed, intermingled, blendedinto one. We sighed together, thought together, until my own sensesreeled under the strain of it, and I knew that Zara was more than halfunconscious of all things save her present contact with me. Ah, heaven,the greatness of it! The magnificence of that moment! The rapture ofher caress, and the great joy of mine to her!

  Presently I felt her clinging arms relax and I guided her tenderlytoward a huge chair. I lifted her as if she were a child and put hersoftly down among the cushions; and I dropped to my knees, stillholding her, still with my arms wound tightly around her.

  For a long time after that we were silent, and Zara was the first torouse from our mutual revery.

  "Dubravnik," she said, and you can have no idea how sweetly that namewas made to sound by her utterance of it, "I have not yet completed thestory I was telling you; but there is only a little more, and you musthear it."

  "Yes," I replied. "As you will, Zara. I am content. But need we gomore deeply into the sorrows of that poor girl and her sufferingbrother? Let us rather talk of the great joy that has come to us.There seems to be nothing but joy in the world, when I look into youreyes. Ah, little one, it is sweet indeed to be loved by you."

  "And sweeter still to love you," she retorted, smiling and rousingherself. "Sit here in this chair," she added, rising and forcing me todo the same; and when I had complied she drew a large hassock towardme, and seating herself upon it while she rested one shapely arm acrossmy knees, with her face upturned to mine, she continued the story.

  "Shall I continue to represent you as being the embodiment of thecharacter I am describing?" she asked.

  "If you prefer it so."

  "Listen, then, for I think I do prefer it so. I want you to hear thestory to the end, for it will make you understand many things which arenow obscured; and if I give you the part of the great actor in thistragedy, that also is for a purpose."

  "Yes, dear."

  "You returned to St. Petersburg intent upon two things, and only two.After those two duties should be accomplished, you meant to take yourown life; and in that purpose you were upheld by those among yourfriends who knew your story.

  "You meant to kill the man who had betrayed your sister into the handsof the police, and after that to destroy the real author of all hermisfortunes and yours--the czar. You had changed so that you needed nodisguise. Had your sister been alive and well, and had she met you onthe street she would not have known you. Your once tall form so erectand soldier-like, was bent, and your former quick tread had becomeunsteady. Your hair, black as the wing of a raven when you went away,was now white, like the snow that is heaped out there in the street.None of your old friends recognized you although you met and passedmany of them on the avenues and streets in the full light of the day.Even your fiance who loved you better than she did her life, saw youand passed you by unheeded. She saw your wistful glance, and lookedupon you wonderingly; but she, like others, believed that you weredead, and although she felt that her heart leaped to her throat andthat a spasm of sorrowful recollections convulsed her when she glancedinto your eyes, yet she did not know you. And you--you thanked God thatshe did not, for you knew that she would have flown into your arms thenand there--would have risked Siberia with all its horrors for one moreword of love from you. So you passed each other on the street so nearlythat her furs brushed against you, and she never knew--neverknew--until long after you were dead, when those friends who had helpedyou when all others failed, went to her and told her."

  "You were an invalid when you returned to St. Petersburg, and youwaited for health and strength before completing your work. You hadlearned patience during those weary months of searching and waiting inSiberia. Then, too, that same Russian officer whom you had sworn tokill, was
absent, and you wished him to return. Your friends told youthat he had been restored to favor with the czar, that he had been sentto a post in Siberia; but when you arrived he was expected back withinthe month. He was to take the very place and assume the same officialrank that you had once filled in the palace, next to the sacred personof the czar. Ah! If you could only find them together, and destroy themat the same time! Such a climax would be sweet indeed. It was for thatthat you waited and hoped. But he did not come; you waited, and he didnot come.

  "During all this time you were like a child in the hands of yourfriends. You did precisely what they told you to do, no more, no less.You were absorbed by the one idea. You could not see nor reason beyondthat. You even forgot your fiance and your love for her, save on thatone day when the sight of her on the street brought her vividly beforeyour mind; but the following morning even that recollection was gone.At last your madness changed to a type more morose and sullen. Thedelay fretted you, and one day without consulting your friends, youresolved to act. You had reason enough left to know that your mind wasgrowing weaker and you feared that it would be altogether shattered;that you would never avenge the fate of your sister unless you acted atonce. You told nobody of your intention, but you armed yourself with apistol and started for the palace. You had determined to kill the czarbefore your reason fled utterly."

  "Regarding the two hours that passed between the time you were lastseen by your friends, and the events that happened in the palace thatday, nothing is known. What streets you traversed on your way there;how you gained admittance to the palace, which was guarded as strictlyas it is now; how you passed the guards and gained access even to thecabinet of the emperor, are mysteries which have never been solved, andnever will be this side of the grave. All that is known is that youware your old uniform, the same one from which the czar once tore thebuttons, and it is possible that it had something to do with passingyou through. At all events you did pass them all, and you did reach theperson of the emperor himself. Ah, it must have been grand! I wouldthat I could have been with you then! I would that I could have seenand heard all that took place there at that time--the only time whenthe truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth has been told tohis august majesty. There was one of our agents there who heard it all;that is how I know about it now."

  "The emperor was alone when you entered, and you had closed and lockedthe door of the cabinet before he discovered your presence. He did notknow that you were there until a sharp command from you caused him toraise his head; but it was only to see you standing there with thepistol in your hand aimed at his head, and to hear you say that if heuttered one cry for assistance, or attempted to call for help in anyway, you would shoot."

  Zara leaped to her feet and strode rapidly across the room twice,wringing her hands. She paused, confronting me.

  "Oh, my God!" she cried. "To think, if you had only told your friendsof the errand, and of the plans you had made for reaching the presenceof the czar, that it would have succeeded and you would have killedhim--_killed him_."

  She rushed again to my side, and seized me by the shoulders, so thatshe turned my face until it exactly confronted hers.

  "Dubravnik," she cried. "I can almost believe that I am indeed talkingto him--to the man whose history I am relating--when I look at you. Insome ways you are like him, so like him! But I will still deceivemyself with the idea that I am really talking to him about himself. Itis easier so. Oh, my love, be patient with me. I must forget for themoment that you are the man I love. I must compel myself to believethat I am talking to him--to the brother of Yvonne."

  "Alexander was always a coward, and he proved it then. He thought thathis hour had come, and that a just vengeance for all the lives that hehad taken, was about to fall upon him.

  "'Do not shoot,' he pleaded. 'You shall have any demand you wish tomake. Everything you desire shall be granted.' You only laughed at him.

  "'Do you know who I am?' you cried.

  "'No,' he replied. 'Who are you?'

  "You told him your name, and he cowered lower in his chair, begging formercy as a hungry dog begs for food; and all the time you laughed,repeating at every pause he made, those words so terrible for him tohear: 'I have come to kill you because you killed Yvonne.'

  "Once he attempted to leave his chair, but you warned him to remainseated. You rehearsed the evils he had done, and was doing. You toldhim of the night when your sister was arrested. You related how thepolice had invaded her room. You went over again, the story of yourpleading with him. You repeated how he had torn the buttons from yourcoat, and disgraced you because you loved your sister. You left nodetail unrecited concerning that time of weary waiting you hadundergone, while seeking tidings of your sister. You described the longjourney to Saghalien, and the disappointment that awaited you when youarrived. And all the time he cringed lower and lower in his chair,expecting each moment that you would work yourself into the additionalfrenzy that was necessary to make you pull the trigger of your weapon.Ah, you made him suffer tortures such as he never endured, before orsince, even if you did not succeed in killing him. Then, slowly, andwith deadly earnestness, you related the story of the months ofwandering over Siberia searching for Yvonne, and finally you came tothe climax, where you told of her discovery and her death, at your ownhands. You had approached nearer and nearer to him during the recital.Twice there had been a summons at the door of the cabinet, but eachtime, threatened by your pistol, the czar had ordered that he was notto be disturbed. Now, as you came to the end of all you had to say--asyou told how you had returned to St. Petersburg, and why you had waitedso long before the killing, hoping also to find the other and to killhim, too, you put the pistol almost in Alexander's face, and with aloud laugh of exultation--for you were mad, then, mad--you pulled thetrigger."