Chapter XXXV: Fifteen Years After

Fifteen years had passed away; the year 1796 was drawing to its end. It was in the beginning of the reign of Pavel I. All Petersburg was hailing joyfully the liberation of the celebrated Novikoff from the fortress, and the return from Siberia of Radischeff. The emperor, with his august consort and several courtiers, went to visit the fortress of Petropavlovski. The chief of the police, Arharoff, asked the emperor if he would not like to visit the Ravelin of Alexéef, where great alterations and repairs were taking place. One of the dungeons attracted the attention of the Imperial visitors.

“Were any Italians ever confined here?” asked the emperor of the commandant.

“Never, your Highness; only schismatics.”

“Well, look here,” and the Emperor pointed to the window, “here’s an inscription on the glass, cut with a diamond. ‘O, Dio mio.’”

Arharoff and the commandant both bent towards the window eagerly. The commandant was new, and therefore had not yet had time to become acquainted with all the legends and past days of the fortress.

“It would be very interesting to know,” said the Empress Marie Feodorovna. “It’s a woman’s hand. Poor thing, who could it have been?”

“Was it not Tarakanova?” said Nelidova, standing by. “Have you forgotten, your Highness, the unfortunate Konsov, and the young lady from Little Russia?”

“Tarakanova was drowned here at the time of the inundation,” said somebody.

Every one was silent; the Empress Marie Feodorovna alone looked at Nelidova, and pointed with her eyes out of the window at a solitary silver birch tree, growing in the middle of the little neglected garden of the Ravelin.

“That’s her grave,” she whispered. “Do you remember? But what can have become of the diary?”

It was plain that the emperor had heard the words. As he took his seat in the carriage, he remarked to Arharoff, “At whatever cost this affair must be looked into; a most painful event here took place. They were troublous times; the attempt of Merovitch, the insurrection of Pougachoff, and then … this unfortunate.… I saw my mother’s tears; to her very last days she could not forgive herself for allowing the poor girl to be interrogated during her absence from Petersburg.”

The police were all set on foot.

Somewhere in an almshouse they discovered the poor blind invalid, Antipitch. He had been watchman in the fortress twenty years before. The invalid directed them to a gardener, and this one again to the warden of the cathedral of Kazan, who said that he had found a trunk filled with papers after the death of Father Peter, and that he knew that in it there had been a roll of very important papers. Search was made for the family of Father Peter. He had left no direct heirs, but his grand-niece, the daughter of his niece Vâra, was found. Arharoff went himself to see her, but she knew nothing. No one knew what had become of the trunk of papers of Father Peter, or whether it had been sent to Moscow with his other things. Everything was found out in time. In the poor retired nunnery of the Oukraine, where Irena had sought refuge, after having taken the veil, she peacefully died, at an advanced age, fervently praying for her _fiancé_, the lost Konsov. Amongst the effects of the deceased lay a packet of papers, with the inscription “From Father Peter,” and there, together with a letter from a very influential personage, a faded myrtle leaf. A neighbour, who was very fond of antiquities, had borrowed these papers from the Lady Superior. He had subsequently died abroad.

* * * * *

Count Alexis Gregorevitch Orloff-Chesmenski married, the very year that the Count and Countess du Nord were travelling abroad. His illegitimate son by the Princess Tarakanova, Alexander Chesmenski, died, in the rank of Brigadier, at the close of the last century. Having survived the Empress Ekaterina and the Emperor Pavel, the Count Orloff died in Moscow, in the reign of the Emperor Alexander I., on Christmas Eve, 1807, leaving an only unmarried daughter, the well-known Countess Anna Alexéevna. It remains a secret till now whether his conscience tormented him for his treachery to Tarakanova, or whether the stings of remorse had no hold on his hardened soul. However, it is a well-known fact, that the agonies of death must have been for Count Orloff especially terrible, because, in order to drown the horrible screams and groans of the dying “Giant of his time,” it was found necessary to make his private orchestra, at that time learning a sonata in the neighbouring pavilion, play as loudly as possible.

THE END.

FOOTNOTES

[1] Lit., _word and deed_.

[2] _The original painting (by Constantine Flavitski) hangs in the famous private gallery of M. Tretiakoff._

[3] The Bulgarian language is similar to the Russian, being a Sclavonic dialect.

[4] The Russians have no “Mr.,” “Mrs.” or “Miss” before names. They use the patronymic, which consists in adding _vitch_, for the masculine, and _vna_, for the feminine, to the name of the father, with sometimes a contraction.

[5] Little mother,--a caressing term.

[6] Pavel the son of Efstaffi (see note on page 8).

[7] Pet name for Irena.

[8] The man who cries the hour for prayer from one of the mosque towers.

[9] The banks on either side of the Volga.

[10] A Persian garment worn by Russian men.

[11] A Polish garment.

[12] Seven days after the accession to the throne of Ekaterina II. her husband, Peter III., died, it is supposed, a violent death. Some time after a simple Cossack, named Pougachoff, an escaped convict from the mines of Siberia (whose torn nostrils showed that his crime had been murder), succeeded in raising the whole of the Urals (such was the credulity of Russians at that time) by giving himself out as Peter III.

[13] _Lit._ “mistress-woman,” _i.e._, a clever manager, one quite capable of conducting her affairs.

[14] The Pânins were, and are, a celebrated noble family holding various court appointments.

[15] Dimitri Tzarevitch was the son of Ivan the Terrible, the last of the house of Ruric, and was said to have been killed at the age of nine at Ouglitch. He of whom the Princess speaks was a pretender, a runaway novice, so it is said. But historians differ as to this. Some say that when Boris Godounoff (the Russian Oliver Cromwell) planned to kill Dimitri, some faithful friends hid the Tzarevitch, and sent him to the Polish Court, where he was brought up, and that afterwards he came into Russia with many adherents and an army of several thousands, the majority of whom were Poles. He reigned less than a year, being killed during an insurrection, 1595-96.

[16] Steps before a house.

[17] “Tarakanova” and “Tarakanovka” have the same meaning, and apply equally to persons and property, but the latter, being the more playful term, is used for a child. “Tmoutarakanova,” or “Tmoutarakanovka,” was a pet name. It is the name of a town opposite Kertch, and of a Prince whose capital it was. _Tarakan_ means “cockroach.”

[18] Aloshki was a native of Oukraine, but was brought thence to sing in the choir of the Imperial chapel. His splendid voice first attracted the attention of the Empress Elizabeth Petrowna. His handsome figure and beautiful face did the rest.

[19] The title given to the chief over all the Cossacks in Little Russia.

[20] A pet name. Nearly all family names admit of this suffix. The Russians have any number of pet names and diminutives. “Aloshki” (p. 44), for instance, is the diminutive for Alexis.

[21] The Russian version of this nursery tale is rather different to the English.

[22] To this day this breed remains unrivalled, and it is called, after the Count, “Orlovski Rissak.”

[23] A sheepskin coat with the wool inside. The hide is embroidered with gaily-coloured silks, and being peculiarly tanned, is very expensive.

[24] _Chic._--A diminutive expressive of endearment.

[25] A species of dove, remarkably short-beaked and short-winged. In flying they turn over and over.

[26] There are a hundred different ways of saying Russian names.

[27] _i.e._ “If you play me false, you forfeit your head.”

[28] Generally miswritten in English “Leghorn.”

[29] That, namely, which placed Ekaterina on the throne.

[30] _i.e._ “What an impatient, impulsive, hot-headed fellow!” Compare the English idiom, “What a brick!”

[31] A small Italian coin.

[32] Members of the higher society in Russia are accustomed to interlard their conversation with foreign,--especially French,--phrases. This is not astonishing when we consider what splendid linguists they are.

[33] An anachronism of the author.

[34] An Asiatic dagger.

[35] His hands and feet were chopped off, and he was then hanged. He himself had executed hundreds thus.

[36] German.--“Leave of Absence.”

[37] _i.e._ “A good-for-nothing hussey.”

[38] Ekaterina is here referring to a letter of Orloff’s.

[39] A street in St. Petersburg.

[40] The général procureur is the highest authority in legal matters.

[41] A service in honour of our Lord and the Virgin Mary.

[42] “Docifé” is supposed to have been another daughter of Elizabeth Petrowna. It is known that she died in the nunnery referred to.

[43] A Persian coat.

[44] A fine black silk net as worn in England about the time of George II. and George III.

[45] _Entresol_, a suite of apartments between ground and first floor.

[46] 663 miles.

[47] A wife, in Russia, always takes her husband’s title, adding only a feminine suffix.

[48] In Russia the roofs of all Government buildings and of substantial houses are made of iron sheets painted dark red or bright green.

[49] These are always used instead of picks, as the ground here is sometimes frozen more than a yard deep.

[50] See Frontispiece.

[51] The heir-apparent, son of Ekaterina, afterwards ascended the throne as Pavel I.

[52] A hooded sledge, lined with furs, and with large fur curtains and panes of glass let in. It is used for long winter journeys.

[53] A school in St. Petersburg for the daughters of the nobility, endowed by Ekaterina II.

[54] That is, the high road from Kieff.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Princess Tarakanova, by G. P. Danilevski