Chapter XIV: Treachery

“Your swords, gentlemen!” resounded a most loud and commanding voice near me.

I glanced round. Captain Litvenoff addressed himself by turn to all the adjutants and others in the count’s retinue, demanding their swords. The deck was covered with armed sailors. Admiral Greig, his wife, and the consul were nowhere to be seen. Quite bewildered, I surrendered my sword, as did all the others. The Princess, hearing the clatter of arms and loud words, turned rapidly round. She was as pale as death; she had taken in the situation at a glance.

“What does all this mean?” she asked in French.

“In the name of the empress, you are arrested,” answered the captain.

“Violence! force!” screamed the Princess. “Help,--here,--to me!”

She rushed to the trap, forcing her way with her feeble hands through the ranks of armed men. The sailors, sunburnt and sullen, looked at her in astonishment. Litvenoff stopped her.

“Impossible!” said he. “Be calm.”

“Perfidy! Malediction!” madly cried she. “How dare you--with a woman--with a Russian Princess. Do you hear? Let me pass,” she cried to the soldiers in French. “Where is Count Orloff? Call him here. Bring him here. You shall answer for all this!”

“The count, by order of the empress and admiral, is also arrested,” answered Litvenoff, respectfully bowing. “He is arrested just as you are!”

The Princess gave a loud scream, and drew back.

Her reproachful glance fell upon me. It seemed to pierce my heart like a dagger, as though saying, “It is your fault. You have ruined me.”

She staggered back a few steps, and then fainted away.

The sailors carried her into the cabin. All the servants, except her maid, who remained with her, had been arrested, and under a strong escort had been transferred to another ship.

* * * * *

Shattered in my innermost soul by all that I had seen, I recovered my senses to find myself in a small dim cabin. Lifting up my head, I saw that I was shut in with that dastard Christianok, the principal author of our misery, the perpetrator of the treachery. I cannot say what astonishment I showed. My comrade, at all events, was very calm. He was lounging, and eating some bon-bons he had snatched up from the table, and glancing from time to time at our closed door.

“You’re astonished?” he asked me. “Is it not true? What wonderful things! Yes?”

“Yes, there’s enough to be astonished at!” I answered, concealing my disgust with difficulty.

“It was impossible otherwise,” said he.

“Why?”

“Because only the bait of marriage could tempt this adventuress.”

“Yes! but why play with her feelings, with her heart?” said I, impatiently.

“We should never have got her on board otherwise.”

“There were many other ways. I know myself that the count promised her on his oath to marry her, and that once his wife, she would have trusted herself with our fleet.”

“Ah! my dear Konsov, what simplicity!” chuckled the cunning knave. “Is it possible you have not yet guessed? Why, at the very moment when the count was playing with the Princess at the most tender protestations of love, I was writing under his dictation, and in his name, a letter to the empress, telling her that he had decided to do everything to catch the adventuress, and even, if need be, to tie a stone to her neck, and throw her into the river.”

“And why didn’t you straightway drown her?” I cried out, scarcely knowing what I said. “It would have been far more merciful than to deceive the poor unfortunate, consumptive creature.…”

“She’ll live long enough, yet,” said Christianok. “The orders were to catch her quietly, cleverly, without any noise. That’s just what we have done.”

I heard these cold hard words with the greatest indignation. I was almost beside myself at the heartlessness of the wily Greek.

“No! enough, old man. Calm your knightly feelings; that’s all bosh. In our time, remember, the most important thing is courage, and impudence itself must be clever and sharp. Success means might and riches; non-success, poverty, or what is worse, Siberia. No, you had better get up. Don’t you see that it’s time?…”

Raising my head, I saw that our door was open, and through it I could see the whole crew, walking to and fro, and talking gaily. The Greek and I were taken into the ward-room. There on the table stood a whole battery of wine bottles. The room was filled with the fumes of tobacco and punch. We were forced to drink, and then sent on shore. There I learnt that the count had all this time been with the admiral at the consul’s, discussing their future movements.

In the evening the streets of Livorno were filled with turbulent and indignant crowds. The Russians shut themselves up in their houses. Involuntarily I grasped my hat and cloak, and taking the most deserted streets, proceeded to the sea-shore.