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The Shadow of the Czar
THE CORONATION DUEL. _Frontispiece_]
The Shadow of the Czar
By John R. Carling
_Illustrated_
Boston Little, Brown, and Company 1903
_Copyright, 1902_, BY LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY.
_All rights reserved._
Published September, 1902
UNIVERSITY PRESS . JOHN WILSON AND SON . CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE MEETING IN THE FOREST 1
II. THE CASTLE BY THE SEA 3
III. FEVER AND CONVALESCENCE 30
IV. THE SEALED CHAMBER 45
V. THE RETURN OF THE "MASTER" 60
THE STORY
I. TWO YEARS AFTERWARDS 78
II. CZERNOVESE POLITICS 92
III. A Menace from the Czar 110
IV. THE PRINCESS AND THE CARDINAL 122
V. ON THE RUSSIAN FRONTIER 136
VI. KATINA THE PATRIOT 149
VII. WHAT HAPPENED IN RUSSOGRAD 170
VIII. PAUL AND THE PRINCESS 186
IX. A DISPLAY OF SWORDSMANSHIP 200
X. THE DEED OF MICHAEL THE GUARDSMAN 215
XI. THE ENVOY OF THE CZAR 230
XII. THE POLISH CONSPIRACY 254
XIII. THE FATE OF THE APPROPRIATION BILL 274
XIV. NEARING A CRISIS 300
XV. THE EVE OF THE CORONATION 326
XVI. THE CRIME THAT FAILED 343
XVII. THE BEGINNING OF THE CORONATION 361
XVIII. THE GREAT WHITE CZAR 377
XIX. THE CORONATION DUEL 395
XX. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL 410
THE SHADOW OF THE CZAR
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER I
THE MEETING IN THE FOREST
Paul Cressingham, captain in Her Britannic Majesty's army, had seensome active service, and was therefore not unused to sleeping on theground at night wrapt in his military cloak. Nevertheless he had acivilian weakness, if not for luxury, at least for comfort, and muchpreferred a four-poster, whenever the same was procurable.
At the time, however, when this story opens it seemed likely that ifhe slept at all, his slumbers would have to be _a la belle etoile_,for he found himself late at night wandering in a deep pine-forest ofDalmatia.
Paul's regiment--the Twenty-fourth Kentish--had its headquarters atCorfu; for his were the days when the United States of the IonianIsles formed a dependency of the British Crown. His uncle, ColonelGraysteel, was commander-in-chief of the forces stationed there,--afact which stood Paul in good, or possibly in bad, stead, for therebyhe was enabled to obtain more relaxation than is consonant with thetraditions of the War Office, his furloughs being extremely numerous,and spent chiefly in exploring odd corners of the Adriatic.
Colonel Graysteel growled occasionally at his nephew's negligences.Having no children of his own, he had adopted Paul as his heir. Onparade there was no finer figure than Paul's,--tall, athletic,soldierly. With hair of a golden shade and having a tendency to curl,with soft hazel eyes that could look stern, however, at times, andwith graceful drooping moustache, he was first favorite with theladies of the English colony at Corfu, especially as his elegance inwaltzing was the despair of all his brother-officers. He was anexcellent shot, a deadly swordsman, a dashing rider, a youth of spiritand bravery. To one of this character much must be forgiven, and theold colonel forgave accordingly.
Nevertheless when Paul one fine morning walked into his uncle's villaat breakfast-time and requested furlough for no other reason than awish to explore the wilds of Dalmatia, there was a slight outbreak ofwrath on the part of the commander-in-chief.
"Another leave of absence? I don't believe you've put in three months'service this year."
"Four months, five days," corrected the other amiably.
"The Commissioner's beginning to notice your vagaries."
"Hang the Commissioner," replied the young man, irreverently. "Let himgive me something worthy of doing, and I'll do it. Get up a war, sayagainst Austria or Turkey, the latter preferred; show me the enemy andyou'll find me to the fore. But this playing at soldiers; thismarching and counter-marching; this inspection of kit, and attendanceat parade,--I'm growing wearied of it. I'm rusting here,--I, whosemotto is 'Action.' Am I to remain for ever in these cursed malarialisles, a mere drilling machine?"
"The drillings pay when comes the day," retorted the colonel, sosurprised at this betrayal into rhyme that he repeated it. "And what'sthis new craze of yours for Dalmatia? Wild outlandish place! Nobodyever goes there."
"Precisely my reason for visiting it," returned Paul, lunging withhis sabre-point at a mosquito that had just settled on a panel of thewall. "Why go where everybody goes? My tastes run in the direction ofthe odd, the romantic, the wild, the--anything that's opposed to thecommon round of existence. I fancy I shall find it in Dalmatia."
"You'll find yourself in the hands of banditti. That's where you'llbe. The mountains swarm with them. And I'm damned if I'll pay yourransom," cried the colonel with returning wrath, as he recalled theliberality and frequency with which Paul drew upon his purse."Remember the case of young Lennox, and the severed ear sent to hisfather in an envelope. Ten thousand florins! That's what the old chaphad to pay to get his son out of the clutches of the infernalscoundrels, and never a thaler has he been able to recover from theAustrian Government. And now you would run yourself and me into asimilar noose!"
"Banditti won't fix my ransom at so high a rate. Besides," added Paul,critically contemplating the Damascene inlaying of his sabre, "they'vefirst got to take me."
"Well, if they'll fix it at what you're worth," said his uncle,grimly, "I shall not object to the payment."
Ultimately Paul obtained the desired furlough by resorting to hisusual threat; he would sell his commission, buy a string of camels,and spend the rest of his life in trying to discover the sources ofthe Nile.
Thus it came to pass that a few days after this interview youngCaptain Cressingham embarked on board the Austrian Lloyd's steamer_Metternich_, bound for Zara, the clean, well-built capital ofDalmatia, directing his voyage to this city in order to renew oldmemories with some former college-chums, who were about to pass theirsummer holiday in its neighborhood.
Finding that he had anticipated the arrival of his friends by a fewdays, Paul resolved to spend the interval in taking a pedestrian toursouthward as far as Sebenico: and accordingly he set off, withouteither companion or servant, and wearing his uniform, partly becauseas a soldier he was proud of it, partly because experience had taughthim that in these eastern regions a uniform inspires respect in theminds of innkeepers, if not in those of banditti.
He passed the first night of this journey at a wayside hostelry.
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nbsp; At sunrise he resumed his course, walking amid picturesque scenery--onthe right the sparkling sea, on the left glorious pine-clad mountains.
Late in the afternoon Paul, who had followed the post-road, reached apoint where it entered a magnificent forest. As this wild-wood wasjust the sort of place where banditti might be expected to lurk,Paul's first impulse was to turn aside, and to take the morecircuitous way along the sea-beach.
"You fear!" a secret voice seemed to whisper: and the reproach decidedhis route. Not even in his own eyes would he be a coward.
This choice of a road was but a small matter, one might think; yet itwas to form the turning-point of his life.
He walked forward at a quick pace, and, with an eye to a challengefrom some outlaw of the forest, he kept his hand constantly upon thebutt of his revolver.
He did not meet with a bandit, however, but with a bear--the first hehad ever seen in a wild, free state.
The creature came shambling from the wood on one side of the road afew yards in front of him, and there it stood, with its eyes fixedupon the wayfarer, as if questioning the right of man to invade thesesolitudes.
"An adventure at last!" murmured Paul, tingling with excitement."_Ursus Styriacus_ from his size. Now to emulate Hereward the Wake."
As previously stated Paul was an excellent shot, and inasmuch as hisrevolver was six-chambered he had little fear as to the result of theencounter.
The killing of a bear is the easiest thing in the world, at leastaccording to the theory set forth by a hunter whom Paul had met theprevious evening at the hostelry.
"If you fire at Bruin while he is on all-fours, you waste powder andshot, for his tough shaggy sides are almost impervious to bullets. Youmust face him at close quarters, and when he rises on his hind legs towelcome you with that hug which is his characteristic, then is thetime to aim at the vital parts. If the shots fail to take effect, andyou find yourself in his embrace, you simply draw your knife, give thenecessary stab, and the thing is done."
The plan seems beautifully simple.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Paul did not have theopportunity of reducing the theory to practice; for, as he slowlyadvanced, revolver in hand, and with his eye alert to every movementof the bear, the latter ambled off again into the wood.
Resolving to give chase, Paul turned aside from the road. He wouldshoot that bear, bring back some fellows from the inn to flay theanimal, and present the skin to his uncle.
But Colonel Graysteel was not destined to decorate his smoking-roomwith a trophy of his nephew's valor, for though Paul followed hardupon his quarry, its rate of progress surpassed his own. In a fewmoments it had passed from view, and all the shouting and randomfiring on the part of Paul failed to provoke the return of the animal.
"Talk no more to me of the spirit of bears," he muttered, as he put uphis weapon.
Paul turned to resume his journey in some vexation of spirit--afeeling which did not diminish as he began to realize that he had losthis bearings. All around him rose the lofty pines, obscuring his viewof the road from which he had been diverted by the chase of the bear.There was nothing to indicate the way. He carried an ordnance-map ofthe district, and the forest was marked large upon it, but he wasunable to tell what particular point of the map corresponded with hisown position at that moment. Moreover, he was without a compass; and,to add to his difficulty, the sun had set.
Seek as he would he could not find the road. Now and again he shoutedat the top of his voice, even at the risk of attracting the notice ofpersons less friendly than charcoal-burners or wood-cutters, but hiscries met with no response. The silence and solitude of the leafyvistas around were more suggestive of the primeval back-woods of theNew World than of an European forest.
For several hours he walked, or rather stumbled along, in thedarkness, wandering this way or that, as blind fancy directed, andhaunted by the reflection that Bruin might return with one of his_confreres_, eager to dine off a too venturesome tourist.
He had given himself up as hopelessly lost, when he came to a spotwhere the foliage above his head suddenly lifted, revealing a sky ofthe darkest blue set with glittering stars. This sky extending in abroad band far to the left and far to the right proclaimed the welcomefact that he had hit upon the road again.
He looked at his watch, and found that it was close upon midnight.That infernal Bruin had delayed his journey by six hours.
Even now he had no idea which way to turn for Sebenico, till his eyes,roaming over as much of the sky as was contained within his circle ofvision, caught the sign of Ursa Major.
"Poetic justice!" he smiled. "Misled by the earthly bear, guided bythe heavenly." Knowing that Sebenico lay to the south, he accordinglyset his face in that direction with intent, on reaching the firstmilestone, to ascertain from his ordnance-map the position of thenearest village or inn.
He stepped forward briskly, and keeping a sharp lookout soon came upona milestone glimmering white upon one side of the road. Kneeling downhe struck a match--like the revolver, a recent invention in 1845--andby the faint glow learned that he was thirty miles from Zara.
Taking out his map, together with the "Tourist's Manual for Dalmatia,"he proceeded to make a study of both by the brief and unsatisfactoryilluminations afforded by a succession of lucifers.
"After to-night," he muttered, "I shall always carry a small lanternwith me; likewise a compass."
Now while Paul was kneeling there, intent upon book and map, hereceived the greatest surprise of his life.
"Which way does Zara lie?"
The question was spoken in Italian--the common language ofDalmatia--by a voice so soft and musical that the like had never beenheard by Paul.
When he had risen to his feet he stood mute with astonishment, apassage from "Christabel" floating through his mind,--
"I guess 't was frightful there to see A lady so richly clad as she-- Beautiful exceedingly!"
For, in truth, it _was_ a lady that Paul saw standing before him atmidnight hour beneath the light of the stars in the depth of theDalmatian forest; and, like the lady of the poem, she was both richlydressed and marvellously beautiful--lovely as the soft beauty of asouthern night; with raven hair, and dusky eyes that seemed themirrors of a sweet melancholy. She wore a long Dalmatian capote withthe hood drawn over her head. The capote being partly open revealed acostume of the richest silk. Decorated with curious gold brocade, andwith a wealth of chain-work and gems, this dress, though it might havebeen pronounced bizarre by the more sober taste of Western ladies,harmonized in Paul's judgment with the wild oriental beauty of thewearer.
"Pardon me if I have startled you. Which way does Zara lie?"
And the astounded Paul, usually full of assurance in the presence ofwomen, could do nothing on the present occasion but simply stammerforth, while pointing to the north,--
"That is the road to Zara."
"I thank you, signor."
With a stately inclination of her head she drew her capote moreclosely around her, and walked away in the direction indicated by Paulas quietly and confidently as if the lonely forest-road were theBoulevard des Italiens, and the distant Zara a pretty toy-shop a fewyards ahead!
Different people, different customs. Was it the habit of youngDalmatian women to take solitary midnight walks through bear-hauntedforests?
Recovering from his surprise Paul hastened after her.
"Signorina, you cannot walk alone to Zara."
"And why cannot I walk alone to Zara?" said the young lady, facingPaul and assuming a hauteur that had a somewhat chilling effect uponhis gallantry.
"Perils beset you--banditti, for example."
"With native Dalmatians the person of a woman is held sacred. No one,not even a robber, will do me hurt."
Subsequent inquiry on the part of Paul proved that the lady had spokencorrectly. Indeed he learned that if a stranger travelling in thisregion were to place himself under the escort of a woman, he would befree from molestation.
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br /> This high standard of chivalry, curious among a people otherwisebarbarous, explained the lady's confidence and fearlessness inapproaching him.
"But, signorina," remonstrated Paul, "the way is so long. Zara isthirty miles off. And you would walk that distance on foot! Considerthe fatigue."
"I can sit and rest, and when tired can sleep for a time on the groundas I did last night. I _must_ reach Zara," she added, with a shiver asof fear.
Her dress of jewels gave proof of her wealth, her voice and manner ofrefinement. It was amazing, then, to hear her talk of sleeping _alfresco_ on the turf like a gipsy or a soldier.
"I thank you, signor, but I do not require an escort." So saying shewalked away again with the dignity of a princess, while Paul in hisbewilderment gazed after her retreating figure.
"Here's a mystery, forsooth! Who is she? What is she? What lovelyeyes! And what a witching face! Now how should a fellow act in a caselike this? Ought I not to follow her?"
Paul had no wish to force his protection upon a young woman averse toit, but the circumstances seemed to justify him in exercising somesort of surveillance over her, for though the Dalmatians might be suchpaladins as she had represented, there were dangers other than thosearising from the malevolence of human beings--bears, for example. Ifharm should befall her, then his would be the blame for permitting herto go on her way alone. But as she was opposed to his presence heshrank from walking by her side. She might insist upon his retiring,and refusal or obedience would be equally distasteful to him. Hiscourse was clear; the protection must be exercised from a distance,and without her knowledge.
Accordingly he followed in the wake of the young woman, screeninghimself from a possible backward glance on her part by keeping withinthe covert of the trees that skirted the roadside, and stepping outfrom time to time to note her progress.
Her slow and halting pace gave clear indication that she was worn withtravelling, and half-an-hour had not passed when Paul observed herswaying to one side as if about to fall. Too tired to proceed farther,she turned to a grassy mound beside the road and sat down, resting herbrow upon her hand, the very picture of languor and despondency.
The sight of her helplessness moved Paul strangely. No longerconcealing himself, he walked boldly forward in the centre of the roadthat she might observe his coming.
"Signor, you are following me," she said, with a touch of reproach inher voice.
"I plead guilty."
"Wishing to protect me from imaginary perils?"
"Imaginary! You may be safe from men, but have you made a truce withthe beasts? A huge bear crossed this road a few hours ago."
The lady gave a start of fear. Paul saw his advantage and pursued it.
"Signorina, I am an Englishman--a military officer, as you see," heremarked, putting aside his cloak and revealing his handsome uniformof dark blue adorned with silver facings. "I do not ask who or whenceyou are; but whether you be princess or peasant, I cannot let you goon your way alone and unprotected."
She did not reply, and Paul continued in a somewhat firmer tone,--
"You do wrong to repel me. You are too exhausted to walk fartherwithout aid."
"You speak the truth," she murmured. "I am faint. I have eaten nothingfor twelve hours."
Her tone went to Paul's heart, the more so as he had nothing to offerher in the shape of food, for he had long ago consumed his lastmorsel.
"You must think it strange," said the lady, after a brief pause, "fora woman to be wandering in this hour in such a spot."
"I do not press for confidences--only for permission to conduct you toa place of safety."
"But learn the risk you run by so doing. It was not from churlishnessthat I refused your escort just now. Signor, I will be frank with you,believing that you will not betray me. I have escaped from a convent,where I was forcibly detained, and I fear pursuit by the Austriangendarmerie. Hence, by aiding me, you may come into collision with theauthorities. Why should I bring trouble upon you? Now you understandmy desire for Zara. I hope to find there some English vessel. Oncebeneath its flag I shall be safe."
"You fear pursuit? Then you require an arm for your defence. So longas I can handle sword and pistol no one shall carry you off againstyour will. Signorina, you must come with me."
"And where would you take me?" she asked in a tone that showed she wasyielding.
"Not far from here, according to my guide-book, is a path leading downto the sea. On the shore, which is distant about a mile, stands abuilding, old but tenanted, and called Castel Nuovo. This is thenearest human habitation," continued Paul. "Before meeting you I hadintended to try my fortune there. Now, suppose we go together? As theDalmatians are such respecters of women they will not refuse youhospitality. Rest at this castle for the night, and to-morrow youshall find an easier way of reaching Zara than journeying thither onfoot."
The young lady was not long in coming to a decision. A roof, food, anda bed, and these distant but a mile, offered a more attractiveprospect than supperless repose on the dank turf of the darkbear-haunted wild-wood. She rose to her feet, looked intently at Paul,and read in his clear eyes the glance of a good conscience.
"Take me with you," she said, with the simplicity of a child.
Paul bowed, and offered his arm, which she accepted. The touch of herlittle hand thrilled him with a strange pleasure.
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