by Mór Jókai
CHAPTER XIX
THE MONSTER
Krizsanowski had just ended his report of the St. Petersburgconference--to which a pale lady had lent most careful attention--whenthe duenna, keeping guard, entered hurriedly, and whispered,"Araktseieff has come." Then as quickly retreated.
"Oh, heavens!" sighed the pale lady, pressing her hands convulsively toher bosom.
"Now be strong as a man," whispered Krizsanowski. "The decisive momentis at hand!"
"Can it be that that brings him?" she asked, tremblingly.
"Not a doubt of it. Look well to your women, for he brings an arch spywith him. Handsome and dangerous with the sex."
Just then the sound of carriage-wheels was audible in the courtyardbelow, amid much noise and the harsh tones of a man's voice.
"Make haste away! The Grand Duke is coming!" the pale lady whispered toKrizsanowski.
He, rising, took her hand in his.
Again the duenna appeared, this time rushing in, and saying,breathlessly:
"The Grand Duke is back from the manoeuvres. Just as they drove in at thegate one of the horses stumbled, the outrider was thrown, and the GrandDuke's pipe was so jolted that it broke one of his front teeth. He iswild with rage."
"Alas!" exclaimed the lady, and was hastening out. Krizsanowski held herback.
"You would do well just now to keep out of his way."
"On the contrary, it is just now that I must hurry to him," sheanswered, freeing herself from Krizsanowski's hold. "But you hasten awayfrom here, that no one sees you."
"Well, then, be strong as a woman," he murmured, and disappeared.
Yet it was so difficult to disappear. Krizsanowski was in the palace ofBelvedere, in the royal park of Lazienka, the residence of the PolishViceroy, outside Warsaw. The park was surrounded by a great wall,guarded on all sides by armed soldiers. The castle itself a fortress,with high bastions and intrenchments, a deep moat round it, anddrawbridge; every outlet was protected by an embrasure, there was noevading the sentries. Within cannon-range the noble forest-trees hadbeen cleared away, and turf laid down adorned with tulip-beds. It ishumanly impossible to go or come unperceived. And yet Krizsanowski didsucceed in getting away, although Grand Duke Constantine had had theBelvedere built to his own plan, and had watched its construction withhis own eyes. It was impossible that there should be any secret passageunknown to him--and yet, supposing one did exist? The architect had beena Pole. He was capable of constructing a secret passage by night, and sobuilding it up again that the Grand Duke had no notion of its existence.And so it really was. Constantine might have been surprised in his bedany night were not assassination detestable to a Pole.
His wife hurried out to meet him.
The tyrant met her in the armory hall. He was exactly as hiscontemporaries have described. Imagination had not run riot.
The Grand Duke had reason enough to be wroth with his brothers. They hadall inherited their mother's beauty and noble presence. He alonepossessed his father's repulsive features and person. Czar Paul was theimpersonation of ugliness, so hideous in appearance that he would allowno coin bearing his effigy to be struck throughout the whole course ofhis reign. And Constantine was a faithful counterpart of his father. Hisenormous horn-shaped nose stood out from his face as if it had noconnection with his forehead; his little sea-green eyes were scarcevisible under his thick, shaggy eyebrows and blinking, almost shut,eyelids. His hair, beard, eyebrows, and eyelashes were the color ofhemp, his face red as Russia leather. But the most remarkable thingabout him was that the one half of his face was unlike the other, asthough Nature had intended to crown her master-work of ugliness byjoining together two different caricatures. One corner of the mouth wasturned up, the other down; the scars of small-pox, wrinkles, warts, socompleted the disfigurement that the painter who would have perpetuatedthe face could only have attempted it in profile. In fact, the artistwho would have painted him full-face would have been guilty ofhigh-treason. So he is described by contemporary writers.
His exterior was the true picture of his inner man; his features werethe slaves of his passions. To look at him was to make one shudder orderide. As was his face, so was his disposition--violent, passionate,cruel to a degree. He carried a stick always in his hand, and laid itabout him freely. If it be true that his brother, the Czar, spent twothousand rubles a year in quill pens, it may be guessed what amountConstantine's yearly budget showed for smashed walking-sticks. The stickhe now held in his hand was broken and split all the way up. No doubt hehad been again laying it impartially about the shoulders of the severalcommandants of division. Their morning prayers were blows.
And there must needs come this accident. And through the confoundedhorse stumbling, and the postilions being thrown, the pipe, which wasnever out of the Grand Duke's mouth, had hurt his gum and broken him atooth. He uttered the most horrible oaths, spitting out blood the while.
"Cursed hound! As soon as he comes to himself throw him into the waterto rouse him! Bring him here. Miserable rascal! I'll break all his bonesfor him!" Just then he became aware of a gentleman advancing towardshim. "Who is that? Chevalier Galban? No, you fools--that hound, I mean;not this gentleman! What does he want? Araktseieff has come? The deviltake--Humph! It's the barber I want, and not a minister. Can't he seeI've got a broken tooth? Why are you hanging about, Chevalier Galban?"
At that moment a lady, coming hurriedly up, pushed the Chevalier aside.
"For Heaven's sake, what has happened to you?" she cried, throwingherself on Constantine's breast. "My life, my dearest, are you wounded?What is it?" And she kissed his bleeding lips.
Over the monster's face dawned a sudden smile--a smile joyous as theaurora borealis, sad as the depths it was, but it transformed the GrandDuke's hideous face. It chased away his violence. The wild, ruggedfeatures became more harmonious; the brutal mouth endeavored to assume agentle expression.
"Nothing, nothing, my love!" he replied, in the voice of a lioncaressing its mate. "Now, now, do not cry. Don't be frightened!"--hisvoice growing lower and lower. "There is nothing the matter."
"Oh, but your lips are bleeding. Your tooth is broken."
And she tried to stanch the blood with her handkerchief.
"It is not broken clean out," growled Constantine. "Only the crown ofit. And the devil take the crown!"
"Why, your Highness," put in Galban, beginning to take part in theconversation, which had assumed so much milder a tone, "do you say, 'Maythe devil take the crown'?"
"At present it is only the crown of my tooth that is under discussion,"returned the Viceroy, emphatically, in somewhat trembling tones. "Go youto Araktseieff, Chevalier Galban, and rest awhile after the fatigues ofthe journey. We shall have time for our talk after dinner. Before I haveeaten and drunk I am in no mood to talk over state matters. Do not spoilmy appetite. _Zdravtvijtje!_ And as for you, bring thatgood-for-nothing here as soon as he has come to himself. I will try acouple of good boxes on the ear to see if his teeth are set like mine.The scoundrel! If I had not been holding my pipe pretty firmly betweenmy teeth the mouth-piece would have pierced through my jugular--"
"Oh, don't!" stammered his wife, in superstitious dread, laying hertrembling hands over the Grand Duke's mouth.
He, pressing a kiss upon the palm of her outstretched hand, threw hisarm round her waist, and she, nestling up to him, they retired to theirinner apartments, leaving Chevalier Galban standing in the hall.
"So you really would grieve if I were brought to you one day dead, runthrough the chest to my back?"
"Oh, do not say such things!" exclaimed she, making the sign of thecross over the spot to which Constantine pointed. And to smother suchfearful words she shut his mouth with a long, fervent kiss.
"Child!" murmured the monster, and, taking his wife's head between histwo hands, like a bear hugging the head of a lamb, he looked into hereyes. "Child! Does it not go against you to kiss my mouth? Do not thefumes of tobacco disgust you?"
With an innocent glance,
she answered:
"I suppose every man's mouth emits the same smell of tobacco. I remembermy father's did."
At these words the monster pressed her with such force to himself asthough he would stifle her in his embrace.
"Oh, wondrous child! She knows neither the lies nor the flatteries of acourt lady. She does not tell me that my breath is ambrosian. She onlyknows that it was so when her father kissed her, and therefore the lipsof every man must be the same! Wife of mine, my father was as hideous asI am, and his wife loved him as dearly as you do me. And yet he was asrepulsive as I."
"You cannot tell what you are like."
"Oh yes, I know. My mother used to tell me. She loved me best of all herchildren; spoiled me; allowed me my own way in everything. When mybrothers and sisters used to complain about it, she would say, 'Let himalone. It is because he has his father's ugliness that I love him so.'But I am a bad man too, and that my father never was. True, he washot-headed, and a blow was as quick as a word with him; but I am savageby instinct. I am bad because I like it."
"That is not true. Who says so?"
"I say it myself. Often when I come home with an inch of cane in myhand, having broken it on the backs of all who have come in my way, Ifeel as if I could break the rest of it on my own head." Here, for thefirst time noticing that the broken cane still hung from his wrist bythe strap, he flung it hastily from him.
"No, no, dear," said his wife, "it is that bad men exasperate you towrath. You have to do with rough people who are stupid and cunning, andthat irritates you. If they were good you would treat them kindly."
The monster stroked his wife's cheeks with caressing hand.
"And you really believe that I am good? Wonderful! I should have thoughtI had done enough to give proof to the contrary. I thought I was a verydevil."
Meanwhile his wife had coaxed the monster to her dressing-room, and,sitting him down before the toilet-table, had been busily occupied bythe aid of all manner of brushes and combs in bringing hair and beardinto something like order. Then she bathed his hot, dusty face withlily water, and stuck court-plaster over the cut on his mouth.
"Am I a pretty boy now?" said he, with the look of a child who has justhad his face washed.
"That you always are to me. But to-day you will have strangers diningwith you."
"True. And, moreover, grand gentlemen from St. Petersburg--from ourRussian Paris. Of course they are accustomed to smart folk, so make mesmart. How do we know whether these Frenchified gentlemen will like yourPolish cookery? You make light of it, after the manner of women-folk,and then they'll praise it."
"Do you wish me to appear at the table?"
"Of course. Why not? Even were the Czar himself my guest! Are you not myown little wife? Come, answer; are you not my very own little wife?"
She answered a timid "Yes."
"I would not advise any one who values sound limbs in his body topresume to look down upon you, Excellency or no Excellency!" cried theViceroy, wrathfully, menacing his own face with his fists in the glass."True, this Araktseieff was devoted hand and foot to my father--hefollowed him about like a dog. Yet, for all that, I'd rather know him tobe safe on the island which Kotzebue named after him, in the Yellow Sea,than here."
"Why, dearest?" asked his wife, as she tied and arranged the GrandDuke's necktie.
"Oh, women have nothing to do with state secrets," he answered, as hestrove to twirl the ends of his mustache evenly--an attempt in which allhis efforts were unavailing, for one side would not keep together. Woeto the private if the Grand Duke's eyes lighted on an ill-waxedmustache! "I only tell you he may esteem himself a lucky man if I haveno cane at hand during our interview."
"Oh, don't terrify me, dearest!"
"I was only joking. May I not have my bit of fun? Well, are we readynow? I am hungry. I have been working all the morning like anycorporal."
"We will go, then. Won't you choose out one of your sticks?"
In every room of the palace where the Grand Duke went, even in hiswife's dressing-room, stood a couple of sticks; and it was as much asany one's life was worth to move them from where he placed them.
"A stick? For what? I am not lame."
"No; but to chastise the culprit, he who ran you into such danger. Youmight have been killed. He well deserves to be punished."
"Does he, really? Well, then, you choose one. What, this good, stoutone? Ah, that won't break so easily. So you feel more for me than forthe man who injured me? Come, that is a rare trait in your sex. Womenusually expend their sympathy on the guilty. Now, then, let us be off."
Johanna took Constantine's left arm; the stick was in his right hand. Inthe armory hall the delinquent, with head bound up and swollen cheeks,was awaiting sentence. He trembled like a dog when he saw the Grand Dukein the doorway.
"You scoundrel!" snorted the monster, swishing his cane threateninglythrough the air. "You deserve a good sound hiding! Can you not look outwhen you are driving? So you have got badly hurt? There, take these fiverubles--buy yourself doctor's stuff with them. Gallows bird! What, youlimp! Then take the stick to walk with, you good-for-nothing!"
And he passed on with his wife.
A monster arm in arm with his good genius!
"Humph!" growled the Grand Duke. "It is odd. You have discovered thebetter self within me; and now it almost seems as if I, too, weresensible of it."
The two gentlemen were already in the dining-hall. There were no otherguests. The Viceroy was not particularly hospitable; nor had he muchoccasion to exercise that virtue, for the people over whom he ruled camebut seldom to the palace. But they must stand high in favor who wereallowed to sit at his table when his wife, Johanna, was present.
Araktseieff was one of these privileged ones. The two men had seen eachother shed tears--once only, and no other eye had witnessed it. Theoccasion was when first they met after Czar Paul's death. The faithfulfollower loved the dead man as fondly as did the monster. Othersbreathed a sigh of relief when the grave closed over him. The world wasrid of a burden! The assassins were pardoned; some even attained to highpositions as generals. Two men only never forgave them--Grand DukeConstantine and Araktseieff. When, at Austerlitz, the French surroundedGeneral Bennigsen, Constantine charged them like a Berserker, at thehead of a company of Dragoon Guards, and, with the daring of a wildanimal, rescued him from their midst, only to call out later to him, "Ihave saved your life, and you were one of my father's assassins!" It wasthis common hatred which enabled him to "suffer" Araktseieff. He"suffered" him. And that meant a great deal with him. Moreover,Araktseieff was a minister who could be beaten--be sent away--and yetwho always came back again.
"_Zdravtazjtye!_" was the Grand Duke's salutation to his guests. "Onecan still talk Russian with you, eh? You have not grown intofull-fledged Frenchmen? Kiss my wife's hand!"
Chevalier Galban carried out this injunction with all a courtier'sgrace. Araktseieff, with the unction characteristic of the genuineRussian peasant, pressing the lady's hand with both of his to his lips,amid many long-winded compliments, finally ending up with an amoroussigh.
"Ah! the sight of this domestic happiness, this 'sweet home,' reminds meof my own home."
Johanna alone was unconscious of the deep affront hidden in these words.But her very unconsciousness incensed the Grand Duke the more; his facecrimsoned with wrath. It was well that he had but now made a present ofhis cane, else it would emphatically have expressed on Araktseieff'sback, "My good man, this is not Daimona!"
"Don't talk bosh!" growled the imperial host; "but toss off a glass ofschnapps in good Russian style. I can't stand your foreign fads andfashions--French compliments and German maunderings. I never could learna foreign language. I dare say you well remember, Araktseieff, the sortof school-boy I made! My poor tutor! When he used to try to impress onme to work hard, I would answer him, 'What for? You are always learningand learning, and are only an usher, after all!'"
"Better still was the answer your Imperial Highness gave to your
professor of geography: 'I do not learn geography; I make it!'"
"All very fine. But you see I do not make it."
"All in good time."
"Shut up. Here comes the soup; set to work, and don't talk. And keepsilence, gentlemen, while my wife says grace; she does the praying forme. And now, no serious subjects during dinner. Anecdotes are allowed,drinking is a duty, swearing is not forbidden; but he who makes a coarsespeech in presence of my wife must straightway make full apology to her.If you get short commons, I must beg you, in my wife's name, to excuseit; she was not prepared for guests. That our fare is strictlynational--Russian and Polish--needs no excuse. I cannot abide Frenchcookery; their names are enough to my ears, let alone the kickshawsthemselves to my digestion! And as for my wife, they are positivelyinjurious to her!"
Chevalier Galban had his word to say:
"Oh, French cooks are swells among us just now. The family 'Robert' arequite aristocrats in St. Petersburg; it confers nobility to possess oneof them in one's household. His French cook is a greater personage thanthe Czar himself; for he makes out the Czar's daily menu, and suffers nosupervision in his domain. He is a more important man than the familyphysician, for he rules strong and weak alike. What he refuses to serveup is unobtainable. M. Robert does what the Polish Senate alone wasempowered to do when the 'niepozwolim' was yet in fashion. If his mastersends word that he desires this or that dish that day at table, M.Robert meets him with his _liberum veto_, which in French implies, '_Can'existe pas!_' Quite recently Prince Narishkin sent for his cook, thathe might repeat to him by word of mouth his written refusal to prepare ablanc-mange for the dinner-table."
"What, did he give an audience to the fellow?"
"Yes; and M. Robert repeated his refusal verbally. The Prince begangiving him a piece of his mind, when the _chef_, rising on his heels,said, 'Sir, you forget to whom you are speaking!'"
"The devil! And what was the end of the story?"
"Well, the Prince went without his blanc-mange."
"Ah, ah! That would just suit me. I should be for eating up the cookinstead of his dishes."
Chevalier Galban was a capital talker; he took the chief burden of theconversation upon himself.
"A funny thing happened at St. Petersburg a few days ago, at PrincePopradoff's, who has a French cook, and a French tutor for the children.The cook was but so-so; the tutor no great pedagogue. All of a suddenthe cook was taken ill, and confusion reigned. The tutor offered hisservices, saying he knew a little about cookery, and he was forthwithdespatched to the kitchen, where he sent up seven excellent dinners.Meanwhile the sick cook offered to carry on the little prince's tuition,and he made surprising progress. To make a long story short, bothconfessed to have only taken their situations from necessity, and, infact, to have changed departments."
"And the Prince had not found it out? You must tell that story to mywife, more in detail, when you go into the drawing-room. Let us nowspeak of more important things. How was my august brother the EmperorAlexander, Araktseieff, when you left him?"
As he named the Czar the Grand Duke had risen, in which action he wasfollowed by the others.
"I regret, your Highness, to be unable to give a satisfactory answer tothat question."
"What is the matter, then, with his Majesty my brother? Eh? Or can younot speak out before my wife? All right. You do well not to startle her.You shall tell me when we are alone. And how is her Majesty the CzarinaElisabeth? Are there any unpleasantnesses between them? If you have nogood news to give, better say nothing before my wife. Do not troubleher."
Araktseieff, in the face of this caution, found it wiser to lick hisfingers and say nothing.
"It's always the case when a man marries too young!" resumed the GrandDuke, picking his teeth with his two-pronged fork. "I found that outmyself, and had cause to repent it. Well, thank Heaven, that's past! Ihad work enough before I could obtain a separation from my first wife.But we won't talk of that before my wife. After all, it was I who was infault; I who was to blame. A woman who could put up with me is as rareas a comet. And how does the world wag with you, Galban; have you gotcaught yet? Who is the unlucky woman who calls you husband? If I werethe Czar I would levy a tax upon all such bachelors as you. Theold-bachelor tax! Lucky for you that I shall never come to the throne."
"Your Highness! It was an understood thing that we touched upon noserious subjects at table," observed Araktseieff, deferentially.
"Yes; you are right. I was infringing the rule. To make amends, let usempty our glasses to my wife's health."
The men's three glasses clinked together, then touched the fourth,extended to them by a white hand, while the fiery Tokay moistened adelicate red lip. Dinner was over, dessert on the table. The Grand Dukeonly took hazelnuts, which he cracked with his teeth. The first three helaid on Johanna's plate.
For the first time since she sat down to dinner she spoke, and then butin a whisper.
"Oh, please be careful about your teeth. You might break away anothercrown!"
"That may be!" said the Grand Duke, leaning his elbows on the table, anddarting a quick glance from under his bushy eyebrows at Araktseieff, whounderstood it. Then Constantine kissed his wife's forehead.
"Now leave us, darling. Have coffee served on the terrace, and take theChevalier with you. He likes to end up dinner with his coffee in Frenchfashion. While we, like good Poles, will sit over our wine a littlelonger."
On this Johanna, rising, took the Chevalier's arm, and, followed by afootman carrying the silver coffee equipage, left the dining-hall.
The two men, left alone, applied themselves to the wine, filling uptheir glasses a fourth time with golden Tokay.
"To the health of my august brother the Czar!"
They drained their glasses and refilled them.
"In truth, the Czar stands in sore need of that fervent aspiration!"quoth Araktseieff, with a deep sigh.
"What! is he seriously ill, then? What ails him?"
"He is suffering from the malady hardest to cure--melancholia. All thedoctors' arts are of no avail. For months together the Czar gets nosleep, save a short, unrefreshing siesta at noon. By night and day he istortured by all kinds of fancies. He is weary of life; and what wonder?Wherever he looks he sees nothing but ruin and decay in all that whichhe so painfully built up. The dreams he cherished are dispelled. Everyinstitution for promoting liberty of thought and action which he calledinto life has he been himself compelled, one by one, to annul andabolish. And he has no spirit or energy left to pull himself togetherand devise new schemes. He feels that he has aroused disaffection, andhas not the moral strength to become a tyrant and quell thatdisaffection. He knows himself to be surrounded by assassins, and hasnot energy to take firm hold of the only weapon which remains to him.Moreover, his domestic happiness is ruined. Your Imperial Highness knowsthe catastrophe. The Czar's spirit is clouded by the weight of religiousdepression; he looks upon himself as an irremediable sinner, condemnedalike by God and man. Shudderingly surveying the fatality, he ishurrying it on. A mental condition such as this must in the endundermine the strongest constitution. The slightest indisposition mightprove fatal at any moment; and he takes not the slightest care ofhimself. He will suffer no physician about him, and keeps his ailmentssecret. It is my firm belief that in his heart is the seat of disease,and that the heart is wounded to death."
"My poor brother!" muttered the Grand Duke, resting his head on hishand. "That noble, powerful fellow, by whose side I was at the victoryof Leipsic, when he concluded peace with Napoleon on the island in theNiemen, and in the triumphal entry into Paris; and in Vienna, at theCongress; and wherever we went I heard people whisper, 'There he is,that splendid-looking man beside the deformed one!' Light and shadow; wewere their true exponents."
"We must be prepared for the worst. The feeble flame which still feedsthat light needs but a breath to extinguish it, and then the wholecountry will be given up to most terrible anarchy. The ground isundermined by countless conspiracies;
we are menaced on all sides. Whocan withstand the flood when the gates of heaven are opened? The Czarhas no children. Who is to succeed him?"
"He whom the Czar appoints."
"And supposing he appoints no one? It is, indeed, impossible to get himto do so. The law, he says, speaks plainly enough--it is the Czarevitchwho succeeds the Czar."
The Grand Duke burst into a loud laugh. He threw himself back in hischair in his fit of laughter; he laughed till his open jaws disclosedtwo rows of teeth like those of a yawning lion.
"Ha, ha, ha! That's a good one--the Czarevitch! No, my friend, he ismuch obliged; he would rather not sit on the throne! You don't catch mewearing Ivan's diamond crown!"
"Why not, your Highness?"
"Because I prefer to see your ribbon across your back than about mythroat!"
Czar Paul had been strangled by his adjutant's ribbon.
"What are you thinking of, your Highness?"
"Of my father--and of my people. I should be a pretty fellow for the St.Petersburgers! Last year, when my illustrious brother the Czar, thinkinghimself in a bad way, was graciously pleased to command my presence, andI repaired to the capital, Hui! there was a panic! They began to takesteps to appoint me his successor. As soon as I showed my face in thestreets they were cleared in a trice. People took refuge in doorwaysrather than salute me. Ah! how they flocked into the churches! Thesacristan had never had so many kopecs in his alms-bag as while I was inSt. Petersburg. The priests almost dragged the angels by the feet outfrom heaven in their fervent supplications for the Czar's recovery. Theysketched a caricature of my profile, with my huge nose, at every streetcorner, with all manner of slanders beneath it! And when it pleasedProvidence to restore my imperial brother so far that he could drive outagain, there were rejoicings. The people thronged round his carriage,hardly allowing the horses room to plant their feet, and almost buriedhim under flowers. And all this to show their hatred to me. Not thatthey loved him, but because they dreaded me. You just now said that evenhe is surrounded on all sides by assassins; but the difference is thatthey would despatch him to heaven, me to hell. They believe they wouldfind in me the son of my father--a man with iron hand for their ironnecks, as was my sainted father."
"And that is what they need! The Russian's iron neck only bends to thehand of iron."
"Well, let them have it; but Heaven preserve me from them, and them fromme!"
"But every true man sets his hopes upon your Highness!"
"Eh! Time enough for that. But why are we talking such folly? Why shouldI survive him? I am but eighteen months his junior. Fill your glass.Long life to my brother his Majesty, the Czar! And what else brings youhither? We will speak no more of that."
"I came with a commission from his Imperial Majesty. It is his pleasurethat the succession be now settled. The Czar has no heir."
"Well, no more have I! But one may be on the way--as you see I haverecently married."
"So I see; but only left-handed. A morganatic marriage."
"So far. But as soon as my wife bears me a child I will make her mylegitimate wife."
"That is not possible to your Highness."
"Why not?"
"Because your Highness's first wife, Anna Feodorovna, is still living."
"But the Synod has granted me a separation, and she has alreadyrenounced the name of Anna Feodorovna and resumed that of Juliana ofSaxe-Coburg; moreover, my fresh marriage was entered upon with thesanction of the Czar."
"But it was only a left-handed marriage."
"Then we will convert it into a right-handed one."
"That is impossible. In the State Archives is a ukase of Czar Alexanderto the effect that _only women descending from reigning families may beraised to the imperial throne_, and the descendants of those who are notof royal birth may not inherit the throne."
"Then when I--which Heaven forbid--come to the throne I will promulgateanother ukase annulling that one."
"But there is a further obstacle, which not even the Czar's ukase canovercome. Your Highness is aware that _a woman may not ascend theimperial throne unless she be of the Orthodox faith_. Does your Highnessbelieve that Johanna Grudzinska would abjure the Roman Catholic faithfor a crown?"
"Not for all the crowns in Europe! The heart of that woman is so stanchthat she would scarce change a horse grown old in her service for ayoung one! Still less would she change her religion. I would not adviseany one to try it on her."
"And there is yet another still greater obstacle than even that ofreligion--society. Is St. Petersburg society to be exiled from theCzar's palace? Johanna Grudzinska may be a very angel of light, but shewould by no means make a Czarina whom the Ghedimins, Narishkins,Trubetzuois, Muravieffs, and whatever all their names may be, would bewilling to acknowledge to stand on a par with themselves, still less towhom they may pay allegiance."
"Then let them keep it."
"What does your Highness mean by that?"
"A very simple meaning. Let them keep their crown. I keep my wife!"
"Your Highness does not mean that in earnest?"
"In thorough earnest and in cold blood," said the Grand Duke, laying hishand on Araktseieff's arm. "All my life through I had never known whatit was to be loved. I verily believe that the nurse who nursed methrashed me for being such a piece of deformity. Not even a dog have Iever been able to attach to me. Look where I will, I see that every oneshrinks back from me. My very voice, which I try in vain to moderate, isrough and grating, as if I were perpetually scolding. I have never heardan endearing epithet since I was out of the nursery. And suddenly Fate,like a blind hen, casts in my way a pearl of women, a tender soul wholoves me with all her being. She does not say it, she feels it--nay, shelets me feel it. She lives in me like the very soul and thought of me.The little good there is in me she awakens and makes me reconciled tomyself. She alone of all the world has brought sunshine into my darklife. When I am ill she nurses me; when I am violent she pacifies me.She is my better self! And do you believe that I would renounce her forany prize the earth could give? That for any throne in the whole world Iwould exchange this easy-chair where she has sat nestling up to me? Ah,what fools you must be to think it!"
"Your Highness! I have long made the human mind an object of study, andit is not new to find that love is the most powerful factor we have todeal with on earth. It is strong, but not lasting. To-day your Highnessmay be feeling as you say; but the human heart is as variable as thesky; and earth, the fatherland, is its antipodes. To-day we may feel asthough we had cast away a whole paradise of bliss in descending fromheaven to earth; to-morrow we discover that our supposed heaven was buta cloud which glistened in the sun and disappeared, leaving 'not a wrackbehind.' Earth, on the contrary, remains firm beneath our feet; it neverloses its power of gravity. What? Could your Imperial Highness stand bywith folded arms and see the whole monarchy, a prey to the flames, sinkinto ashes at your feet, that your head might rest undisturbed on thelap of the woman you love?"
"Well, and even then?"
"Even then? Even in that case I have my clear instructions. YourHighness is the master of your own future. But the Russian Empire is themaster of its own fate. If the Czarevitch prizes the prosaic domesticlife of a citizen higher than the maintenance of the empire he hasreceived from his ancestors, I have yet one other proposition to make tohim. His Majesty the Czar will elevate the morganatic wife of theCzarevitch, Johanna Grudzinska, to the rank of a Polish princess, withthe family name of 'Lovicz'! In perpetual lien he will make over to herthe royal Lovicz domain of Masover Voivodeship upon the Grand Dukedeclaring her to be his legitimate wife; her children to be Princes ofLovicz and heirs to their mother's kingdom, with the rank of Russianbojars--_in virtue of which Grand Duke Constantine will resign the titleof Czarevitch and the right of succession to the Russian Empire, forhimself and his heirs, forever, in favor of his brother_."
Constantine struck the table emphatically with his fist.
"Rather to-day than to-morrow!"
&
nbsp; "I entreat your Highness not to reply too hastily! The sky is everchanging; not so the earth. I am convinced of the truth of your ImperialHighness's words; but a short delay cannot be of any vital importance.Let your Highness try absence from the lady, say, for a week or a month.Or send her for a time, as in truth her delicate health requires, to Emsor Carlsbad. Separate yourself from her, so that you are not seeing eachother daily, hourly; that she may not always be your centre, but thatyou may both come in contact with other people, other surroundings,other interests--"
"And do you suppose that absence, whether longer or shorter, couldestrange us from one another?"
"It is an old story, yet ever new."
"That one short month could suffice to cause some new face to blot outthe other from our hearts? You are a fool, man!"
"It is but giving it a trial."
"I may do it! But I tell you beforehand that you will find yourselfmistaken. Do not dream for an instant that your plan will be successful.We do not stumble, like ordinary mortals. For a woman to love me is akinto madness--it is incredible! But once to love me is never to part fromme! And to expect me to forget that woman is an absurdity. Then, of atruth, should I be the blind fowl pecking at a grain of oats instead ofthe pearl before her. Is the Act of Renunciation ready? Of course youhave brought it with you? Give it here. To-day, to-morrow, or as long asmy life lasts, you will receive from me but the one answer--'I will signit.'"
"Let us agree to delay the decision, your Highness. The subject inquestion is no child's play; nor is it the fighting down any youthfullove affair. Let your Imperial Highness weigh well what you arerenouncing--the nineteen crowns of Russia! From Ivan Alexievitch'scrown, inlaid with its nine hundred brilliants, to the simple 'cap' ofPeter the Great; the Novgorod crown with the Deissus, crown of theRepublic, worn by Ruric; the Astrakhan cap of Michael Feodorvitch; theSiberian hat of Fedor Alexievitch; lastly, the ancient, most sacredrelic, the crown of Monomachos, who dates from legendary times. Andwould my illustrious chief renounce all this splendor for the sake of a'woman's charms'?"
Here the conversation was interrupted by the entrance of ChevalierGalban, who appeared in the doorway humming a ballet air.
"Well, Galban," shouted the Grand Duke, as he appeared, "how do you likethe Belvedere?"
"Grand!" returned the Chevalier, "and, moreover, an _impregnablefortress_!" The two last words were directed to Araktseieff, accompaniedwith a meaning look. Possibly the Grand Duke intercepted it, for withsharp intonation he repeated:
"An impregnable fortress? I did not know that you concerned yourselfwith the storming of fortresses among other things."
"Oh yes," retorted the Chevalier, in a tone equally sarcastic. "I havehad the good-fortune to succeed in storming many a castle hitherto heldto be impregnable."
Araktseieff here cut short the allegory by interposing, abruptly:
"I know the castles in the taking of which you have won yourspurs--Chateau Lafitte and Chateau Margot!"--both well-known Bordeauxwines--at which the Grand Duke, with a laugh, rose from the table.