Chapter XXXVII: The Woman, 316 (2)

“And the Princess Daria,” I said; “is she the wife, or the daughter, of Prince Voronin?”

Maître le Bastien’s eyes twinkled and he shook a warning finger at me.

“Have a care, monsieur,” he said; “she is the prince’s only child,--and heiress,--and I doubt not there is some intrigue afoot.”

“I grow interested,” I said gaily. “I must solve the problem.”

“The saints forbid!” exclaimed the goldsmith piously; “you are already in trouble enough, M. le Marquis; do not, therefore, thrust your hand into a hornet’s nest.”

I laughed, with no thought of following this prudent advice; instead, I lay awake half the night, puzzling over the trinket, and when I finally fell asleep, it was to dream--hothead that I was--of the most beautiful face in the world, the face of the Princess Daria.

Next morning, as soon as we had finished breakfast, I prepared to set out for the palace of Prince Voronin, to return the locket to the princess of my dreams.

I remember well--as if it had been yesterday--the pains I took with my toilet, and how hard I stared at myself in the mirror that Maître le Bastien had brought from Paris. Yet I was no longer a callow youth to have my head turned by such folly; it only goes to show what a fool a man can be over a beautiful face. But if I hoped for satisfaction in my own image, I got but little. I saw in Le Bastien’s mirror a tall man with wide shoulders and long, strong arms, but I was not handsome, and I sighed at the contrast between my irregular features and my bold, blue eyes, and M. Kurakin’s classical beauty. I had a scar, too, on my forehead from a sword cut at Seneffe, and my chestnut hair, which I wore without a peruke, was beginning to show threads of silver, and I had the air of a fighter and no courtier, though I was well enough born and bred, too, for that matter, but I was no fop. My dress, too, had to suit my supposed condition, and being simple and even shabby in the matter of a blue taffety coat, did not set off either my face or figure, and I confess that--longing for the first time to pose as a squire of dames--I was in no very good humour either with myself or the world when I set out at last with the pear in the bosom of my doublet, and some directions from Maître le Bastien in my ears. Moreover, to add to my discomfiture, he had called after me, with a twinkle in his eye, that no man would be allowed to visit the _terem_ of Voronin’s palace, and I had best ask for old Piotr, the steward, at once and trust my errand to him. I shrugged my shoulders and tossed back a defiance, but I was far from feeling sanguine myself, as I left our quarters and began to thread the narrow lanes between them and the prince’s palace, which stood much nearer the banks of the Moskva.

As I left the bazaars behind me the streets seemed unusually quiet, and I had traversed perhaps a hundred yards and turned into a lonely lane, flanked on either side by the rear walls of two old houses, when I heard a shrill squeal of agony, so intense and so piercing that it seemed scarcely human, and followed by a silence as ominous. I stopped to listen and heard a shutter open on my right and close again; evidently some woman had peeped out to see what it was, but she would venture no more, and the stillness awakened my suspicions. What mischief was afoot now? I loosened my sword in its scabbard and felt for my pistol, and advancing quickly, I peered under the edge of a low vaulted gateway. It opened into the garden of a vacant house to the left; the yard was nearly choked with weeds--nearly, not quite--in the centre there was an open space, and in it I saw a burly fellow, red-headed and red-bearded, crushing some creature, child or beast, I knew not, under his knee. As I advanced my footsteps struck an echo from the stone pavement at the gateway and the man looked over his shoulder. It was my acquaintance, Kurakin’s steward, and, in a flash, it dawned on me that he was taking his vengeance on the unhappy dwarf. The next moment I had the great brute by the collar and put my pistol to his head, and he, recoiling as far as he could, let his victim fall on the pavement. With a kick and the threat of the pistol I got the big fellow to his feet; it was in my mind to make an end of him, but he was too contemptible.

“Get out!” I said to him in Russ; “be off to your kennel or----” I flourished my weapon.

He cursed me, his great bloated face purple and his eyes like blood, but he dared not linger, for he read that in my glance which cowed him. He slunk off like the coward he was, and then I looked at the dwarf, who lay in a heap on the ground, and marvelled that a creature so tiny could have resisted him a moment. The poor little wretch was stripped almost naked and had been lashed until he was covered with blood. A bloody thong lay near to tell the tale, and his throat had two purple marks on it where the steward’s fingers had been pressing the breath out of his body. Yet, nearly spent as he was, he crawled to my feet and fell to mumbling over them and kissing them, until it turned my stomach.

“Up, you little rogue,” I said bluntly, “and go home; ’tis your monkey tricks that have brought you to this. Learn a lesson, and leave such brutes alone.”

But he was not to be drawn off so easily; he clung to my knees, begging to serve me, vowing fidelity to death, and such an abject picture of misery and gratitude that I had not the heart to send him away. Indeed, he was afraid to venture two yards from my feet, and, as he was too weak to travel far, I was in a pleasant dilemma. The prospect of taking such a follower to the Voronin palace was certainly worse than the wearing of the old taffety jacket.

“What is your name, varlet, and your home?” I asked with impatience, and yet a little amused.

“My name is Maluta, excellency,” he said, kissing my shoes for the fiftieth time, “and my home is your home.”

“Holy Virgin!” I ejaculated, somewhat aghast, and then I laughed, too heartily amused to be vexed: here, certainly, was an acquisition to our household.

But it turned out no jest, and, try as I would, I could not shake the little wretch off, and was forced, at last, to convoy him back to our quarters and order Advotia to dress his wounds, while Maître le Bastien promised to keep him close until my return from my errand, laughing all the while at my adventure, as if at the richest joke in the world. So, by a strange intervention of fate, I was the patron of a miserable little dwarf and I had a mortal enemy in the kitchen next door; besides I was an hour late on my errand to the Princess Daria.

_V: THE PRINCESS DARIA_

AS I approached the palace of the Prince Voronin I entered a street which gave me a view of the open space beyond, where the Iberian Chapel stood, overlooking the Red Place, and farther off were the white buildings of the Kremlin, bathed in sunlight, their roofs of scarlet and green and blue, and their crosses of gold, glowing and flashing like so many stars at noonday. I caught, too, a gleam of the Moskva, and heard again the hum of busy life, for there was a throng of people in the Red Place. But my business was nearer at hand, and after one glance at the scene before me, I turned to the right and here, set in the midst of some peasant huts, I saw the Voronin palace, white--like the buildings of the Kremlin--with a green roof, and a golden cupola over the upper story, which I took, and rightly, for the _terem_. The main building was solid and massive, and nearly square, and there was a wing at one side, opening on to a high walled court, while behind this wing was the garden, which was beginning to show the promise of summer.

Instinct, and some observation of Russian customs, directed me, not to the main entrance, but to a low door in the wing, and here I knocked boldly, while I looked about the court with sharp eyes. Once out of the street, I heard none of its noises; and the quiet atmosphere of the place impressed me: there was not even the usual clatter and bustle in the kitchen, and while I waited a drosky drove up to the main entrance and a young man jumped out of it and was immediately admitted. I confess I was little pleased with his youthful and well-dressed appearance, for he had the air of a courtier, and I was on the point of going to the front of the house myself when the door behind me was softly opened. A serf looked out, staring at me in no very friendly fashion, and taking in every detail of my “German clothes,” as they called the European dress, and he almost closed the door again while he listened to my request to see the Princess Daria. Indeed, if I had asked for a piece of the moon he could not have looked more amazed, and, instead of answering me, he called loudly to someone within, and another serf came to stare, and then another and another, until the door was full of faces and all eyes fixed upon me, much as I have seen a rabble of Paris stare at a dancing bear.

“What ails you, you gaping fools?” I asked, losing all patience. “Do you not hear my errand? I come at the request of the Princess Voronin, and I bring her a packet of grave importance.”

But this only made them stare the more, and the door being full, the adjacent windows began to bulge with heads, and the entire service of the kitchen gaped and chattered and pointed. I grew red in the face and felt my anger rising; it seemed as if some of those heads must be broken before any impression could be made, and I was in the mood to break them.

“Fools!” I said; “do you serve your mistress so ill that you cannot take her a message?”

At this, a titter arose in the background, started by some kitchen wench, and her mirth proved infectious, every face widening into a grin until, at last, they broke into loud and mocking laughter. My own face burned and I felt myself paid--and in my own coin--for my trick upon Kurakin, nor did I know what to do; among so many, my anger was but impotent folly, and my appearance, in my shabby attire, did not impress their vulgar eyes, for the _canaille_ are likely to judge you by your clothes. I stood scowling at them, of two minds whether to turn on my heel or not, and leave them to their jest and the princess without her trinket--for I know of no swifter cure for a moonstruck gallant than ridicule--when the course of events was suddenly changed. A lattice over my head opened and a young girl peeped down at the group, and as I looked up I recognised the companion of the princess, Mlle. Lissa. She, as roguish as ever, began to laugh too, her blue eyes dancing with mischief, but, at the same time, she spoke sharply to the servants, and in a moment all merriment subsided and they huddled together in shame-faced confusion, eyeing me askance, while she vanished and old Piotr appeared below. It required only a word from the grey-haired major-domo to send the rabble of the kitchen skurrying to their quarters, and then he received me respectfully, but I thought there was a deep suspicion in his eye, while he listened to my request to see the Princess Daria.

“Her excellency has commanded me to admit you,” he said, however, and signing to me to follow him, he led me across a wide hall to a flight of stairs and began to ascend them with a measured tread.

The old man was dignified, with the deliberate movements so characteristic of the Muscovite; he held his grey head high, and his erect, muscular figure was clad in a long caftan of scarlet cloth, a chain of gold around his neck, and a dagger worn in his belt, and his whole aspect was perfectly in keeping with the part he played, of faithful retainer and steward in the house of a great noble. He did not address a word to me as we ascended the stairs and he led me on, as silently, through a gallery to another staircase which we also ascended, and then he opened a door and ushered me into a large apartment, where he bade me await the pleasure of his mistress, much as he would have bidden me await the coming of an empress, and bowing gravely, he left me to my own reflections. Being sure that I was now in the _terem_ of a great boyar’s palace, I looked about me with much curiosity. I fancied, with truth, that no foreigner had ever been introduced there before and I was, therefore, the more interested. The room was large and Oriental in aspect; arches of Eastern design supported the vaulted roof, and the floor was covered with Turkish rugs and the lounges cushioned with glowing silks from the bazaars. On the wall opposite was one of the inevitable sacred pictures; this time, Saint Olga, and one deep recessed window lighted the apartment, looking out over the Moskva at the red battlemented wall of the Kremlin, and its palaces and cathedrals, and beyond--so high was this upper story--I caught a glimpse of the sweep of the plain and the Hill of Prostration, where the devout kneel at the sight of the “holy white mother city.”

I waited with some impatience, listening for the sound of a footstep, but for a while the house was singularly silent. Presently, however, I was startled by the soft notes of some instrument, for I knew that, in the strict Muscovite household, music among the women was discouraged. But here was a stringed instrument, and then a woman’s voice, singularly sweet and mellow, began to sing in Russ, and I listened attentively, not only because of the unusual words of the little ballad, but because the voice seemed to me to belong to the princess herself.

“‘_If the frost nipped the flowerets no more_,’”

sang the unseen musician:

“‘_If in winter the flowerets would bloom,
If the woes of my spirit were o’er,
My spirit would cast off its gloom,--
I would sit with my sorrow no longer
O’erwatching the dew-covered field._’”

The singer’s voice rose and fell, plaintive and sweet, and then she played a few more chords before she continued:

“‘_I said to my father already,
Already I said to my taper,--
“Nay! marry me not, O my father!
O marry me not to the proud one!
O seek not for high piles of riches;
O seek not for palaces fair,
’Tis man, not his palace, we dwell in;
’Tis comfort, not riches, we need!”--
I hurried across the young grass;
I threw off my sable fur cloak,
Lest its buttons of metal might tinkle--
Afraid my stepfather would hear me
And say “she is there,” to his son--
To his son who is doomed for my husband!_’”

Again her voice sank and her hands must have strayed over her instrument. I had forgotten my impatience and stood listening in rapt attention, when she began again with the little refrain:

“‘_If the frost nipped the flowerets no more,
If in winter the----_’”

She got no farther; her song stopped sharply and then I heard a ripple of laughter and much whispering, followed by the rustling of skirts in the room beyond. Then the curtain between was lifted by an old Russian woman, who held it respectfully aside, and the Princess Daria entered. I had only seen her, cloaked and hooded, in Maître le Bastien’s workshop, and was almost unprepared for the vision that broke upon me, as she walked slowly across the room and, pausing in the broad light of the window, turned her face toward me and calmly waited for me to speak. She was tall, with a girlish slenderness of figure, and the dignity and poise of a young queen. The beauty of her features, which I had already seen, was greatly enhanced by her colouring, for her complexion was almost dazzlingly fair, and her hair as black and glossy as a raven’s wing. To my satisfaction, too, she wore no paint, which was unusual, as the Russian women painted not only their faces, but their hands and arms, and even coloured their eyelashes, but she was beautiful as nature made her. Her costume, too, singular as it was to my eyes, only added to her charms; it was a flowing, ungirdled robe of some clinging white material, embroidered in gold around the edge of the hem at her feet, and in a broad band around the half low neck; and on either bare, round, white arm, as well as about her throat, were plain bands of dull gold.

She stood looking at me with great composure, her penetrating glance apparently taking in every detail of my appearance, and to add to my embarrassment, I became aware of Lissa’s roguish face peeping out from behind the shoulder of the old duenna, who stood patiently in the doorway. However, I made my obeisance as gracefully as I could, and drawing forth the packet, which contained the pear. I presented it, along with the picture of the Czarevna Sophia, which Maître le Bastien had been careful to return. The princess received the package with dignified complacence, but at the sight of the miniature she turned crimson, looking for all the world like a naughty child caught in some mischief. Seeing her confusion, and determined to prolong the interview to the fullest extent, I bethought me of something more to say.

“Let me warn the princess,” I said courteously, “that there seems to be a peculiar interest attached to that locket, and that it was seen while in the hands of Maître le Bastien.”

She gave me a startled look, in which alarm and displeasure were mingled.

“And by whom, sir?” she asked haughtily.

“By the Boyar Kurakin,” I replied.

She blushed yet more deeply and bit her lip, while I heard a little smothered scream of laughter from the direction of the doorway.

“I trusted it to you,” said the Princess Daria coldly. “It was your fault that my confidence was betrayed.”

“It was purely accidental, mademoiselle,” I replied, and went on hastily to explain how Kurakin had forced himself into the house, pushing Michaud, who understood no Russ, out of his way and entering the shop unannounced. Then I told her briefly of his effort to get the locket from me.

“But he failed, princess,” I continued suavely, “because, at the moment when he thought to snatch it from me, he tripped and fell down the stairs on top of our fat old cook, Advotia, who beat him with a skillet of soup, so that the noble gentleman not only lost the locket, but was baptized in good broth.”

She had listened with an effort at dignified reserve, but at this conclusion to my narrative she began to laugh a little, and at the sound of the merriment behind the portière, she, too, gave way to hers, and laughed as gaily as Lissa; the duenna meanwhile--to whom my French was as so much Greek--looked from one to the other in puzzled silence, her black eyes keenly alert and her wrinkled face as grave as a judge’s.

“I am sorry you lost your soup, monsieur,” said the princess, still laughing softly, “and for me, too!”

“I would lose much more--and peril much--for the sake of the Princess Daria,” I replied gallantly, forgetting my rôle of apprentice.

She flashed a quick look at me and blushed and smiled, for, with all her hauteur, she seemed to have the simplicity of a child. But the chaperon was not so well pleased, and she made a cautious movement of warning, touching the princess’ robe, and the young girl, blushing still more deeply, recollected her dignity, and taking a purse from the old woman’s hand, she turned to pay for the locket. This part of the transaction had never entered my thoughts, and as it flashed upon me my face burned, and I motioned the money away; retreating toward the door. It was now her turn to be embarrassed; she drew back the purse and looked at me, a picture of pretty confusion.

“But, monsieur,” she said, “cannot take the work as a gift. I must pay for the locket.”

“There is nothing to pay,” I retorted brusquely, as red as fire; “the labour was nothing.”

“But there was the soup, monsieur,” she said, a mischievous gleam in her eyes.

“That went to M. Kurakin,” I replied with a bow, and I took another step toward the door.

She stood irresolute, looking at me and fingering the bracelet on her arm, and I know not how long might have lingered, for she was good to look upon, when suddenly she snapped the circlet and it fell apart in her fingers. She looked at it with a little cry of surprise, and then held it out to me, with the prettiest gesture of friendliness.

“Will you not mend it for me, sir?” she said, with her head on one side, a smile lurking in her eyes.

“With pleasure, my princess,” I replied, bowing profoundly, and as I took the bracelet I managed to kiss the fair hand that gave it.

And then the duenna hustled me suddenly out of the _terem_, for if she knew no French, she understood looks and gestures only too well--the old ferret--and she shook her staff at me from the head of the stairs as I descended. She stood there looking, for all the world, like an angry hen, clucking away at me in Russ, at the top of her lungs, until old Piotr took me in charge and, in his turn, hurried me out of the house. Evidently, the pair of them regarded me as a dangerous intruder in their dove-cote.

_VI: THE DWARF_

ONCE more in the court-yard, I stopped to laugh, for the anger and trepidation of the two guardians of the household furnished me with no little entertainment. I was in a good humour, too, for I had seen my divinity and had even kissed her soft white hand; a proceeding which caused her no little amazement, for I had seen her surprise in her eyes, and the blood had stolen up to her hair, but I flattered myself that she was not altogether angry, for I felt sure she was amused at the old woman’s excitement over the little episode. I glanced back now over the house, hoping to catch another glimpse of its fair mistress, but was disappointed. Piotr’s discipline had served to keep the serfs from gaping at me again, and the upper windows were vacant, save for a solitary raven that perched upon one sill and craned his neck as if to look down at me. The sun shone intensely on the white walls of the palace, and the shadows were clean cut and black where they fell in the niches of the building, and above the sky was blue. The bells of the Kremlin churches began to ring sweetly, the clear-toned notes floating away in the distance, and the air was soft as spring in the south.

I walked slowly to the gates and stood a moment looking out into the street, and it was while I lingered thus that a drosky arrived at the main entrance drawn by three fleet horses, and a tall man alighted from it, attended by a servant. At the first glance I recognised the handsome face and fine figure of Prince Basil Galitsyn; he had been often to Maître le Bastien’s workshop, and I could not mistake his face or his bearing. Of all the Russian nobles he was the most Western in his manners and tastes, and he was an unusually handsome and dignified man. The air of familiarity with which he approached the house and the cordiality with which he was greeted--Piotr standing bare-headed on the step to receive him--were not at all to my taste. I stood staring after him as he vanished into the palace and, for the first time, I regretted having assumed a disguise. I reflected that the princess had in her possession, at that very moment, a locket that belonged to Prince Galitsyn, and all at once he loomed up before me as a probable lover of the beautiful Daria. “Why not,” I reflected; “what was more likely? And here was I, like a blockhead, in the shabby garb of an apprentice, cooling my heels in the court-yard, while his excellency, the prince, was doubtless taking _zakuska_ in the salon.” Yet I had no remedy, and must even grin and bear it, for to rush back and declare myself the Marquis de Cernay would have done little for my cause beyond raising the ridicule of the kitchen. Neither could I hang about the court-yard, like a menial, to catch a glimpse of the proceedings that might be visible through the lower windows; there was nothing for it but to curse my ill fortune and, buttoning my old taffety coat over the princess’ bracelet, to proceed on my way back to my quarters with no very pleasant reflections. But there was one thread of comfort: I knew that by common report the Czarevna Sophia loved Prince Galitsyn, and she was reputed to be a woman of no ordinary qualities and was likely enough to be a formidable rival even for the beautiful Princess Voronin. I tried to remember all that I had ever heard of the czarevna, and to piece together a respectable romance between her and Prince Galitsyn, but I confess I got very little satisfaction out of the process, for before my mind’s eye stood always the graceful figure, the glowing, youthful face, the sparkling eyes of Daria Kirilovna, and I could not believe that the prince was blind.

Busied with these meditations, I traversed the streets between the palace and our quarters quickly enough, and entering the house, with a face as long as my arm, bethought myself of the dwarf, and intending to call for him, I opened the door of the refectory and looked in. There was the dwarf himself, seated on a table in the middle of the room, busily engaged in devouring a meal that had been spread before him, while Michaud, the apprentice, was sitting on a window-sill near at hand, looking on with a grin.

The little creature, with his white, three-cornered face, was hunched over his food, eating with his fingers, and devouring the stuff with the fierce greediness of an animal, and as he ate his great ears wagged with every motion of his jaws, and Michaud,--who was an idle rogue,--seeing this, put his hands at each side of his own head and wagged them to and fro, in mockery of Maluta’s ears, making his jaws go to the same tune. The meal, too, was one to startle any but a Russian stomach; it was a bit of sterlet,--the precious fish they love so well,--some Muscovite rice bread, a pickled mushroom, and a tankard of beer, with some drops of oil of cinnamon in it, a flavour that the Czar Alexis considered a truly royal delicacy, and the dwarf ate and drank with an avidity that could be heard in the entry, while Michaud mocked him--eating imaginary food with the same relish.

I stood looking at the scene in silence, vastly amused thereat, and so fierce was the dwarf’s appetite that he did not observe me until he had gulped down the last of the beer, and then his rat-like eyes suddenly alighted upon me. He put down the empty tankard, sighed, thrust the whole pickled mushroom into his mouth as a parting dainty, and wriggling off the table, he came across the room, knelt on one knee and made an obeisance before me, as if he kissed the floor at my feet, while Michaud hooted derisively in the background.

“Up, you little varlet,” I said impatiently, advancing toward the only chair at the table, “come hither and tell me your history”; as I spoke, I was about to sit down, when I discovered that that lout of an apprentice had thrown himself into the armchair and was gazing at me with a cool impudence that I had never seen equalled.

So amazed was I that, for the moment, I only stared and then I stirred him with my foot.

“Be off!” I exclaimed sharply, tried beyond prudence.

“Be off, yourself!” retorted Michaud insolently.

I fairly choked with rage. “You impudent puppy,” I said, “how dare you?”

“How dare I?” said he; “and what are you? You are Raoul, the apprentice, and I am Michaud, the apprentice, and a better goldsmith than you, I’ll warrant!”

This was too much; my disguise had cost me too dearly already, and the varlet’s insolence made me blaze forth into fury.

“Get up!” I said fiercely. “I am neither Raoul nor the apprentice, sirrah, and you know it! Try not my patience too far, or I’ll break your head for your pains.”

Something in my face cowed him, though the fellow usually was bold enough. He rose sullenly.

“I care not!” he said gruffly; “you are one moment an apprentice and the next moment ‘monsieur.’ How can an honest man know what you are?” and he shot a look of suspicion at me.

I disdained to tell him who I was, although I did not fear betrayal, or care for it, but I ordered him out of the room, and then, taking the disputed chair, I fell to questioning my new protégé. Maluta had watched me while I talked with Michaud, and though he understood no French, I think the little beast read our gestures and expressions so well that he understood the gist of the matter, and I saw him studying my face, while we talked together, much as a mariner studies a new-made chart of a dangerous coast. A few well-directed questions drew forth the creature’s history, in substance, at least. He was one of the court dwarfs, or had been, and the Czar Feodor had given him to the Boyar Kurakin, who had virtually discarded him, and he had, for the last few months, got his food where he could, mainly through the charity of cooks and scullions, for these little creatures were veritable waifs of fortune. That he might be useful to me I could not doubt, for he had, of course, every court intrigue at his fingers’ ends; but that he would also be a nuisance and a charge upon me was equally plain, yet I never felt less inclined to turn a poor waif into the street. Moreover, he was infinitely amusing, for that night while Maître le Bastien and I supped together, he danced for us and performed a dozen monkeyish tricks with tireless energy. And, whether I would or no, he attached himself to me; he watched my moods, he carried my cloak and my sword, he was even ready to change my shoes, or to run my errands, and after a day or two I began to tolerate him and even to find him useful. I little dreamed then, however, how useful he was to be.

Meanwhile another kettle of fish was boiling fast in the Zemlianui-gorod, where the Streltsi were gathered. For days the storm of discontent had been gathering, and petitions were carried back and forth between the barracks and the palace. The very day that I visited the Princess Daria the soldiers had seized and scourged one of their own colonels, and no man dared gainsay them, though the Chancellor Matveief, the uncle of the Czarina Natalia, and the old commander of the Streltsi, had been recalled from exile in Archangel and was in the Kremlin, trying to pour oil on the troubled waters, but deeper and yet deeper worked the intrigues of the Miloslavskys. Their emissaries were busy among the ranks of the soldiers, pledges were making, dissension was sowing, and loud and deep came the growl of the mob. Men dared not walk abroad unarmed; women kept closer than ever; even the _Gostinnoi Dvor_, the great bazaar, was almost deserted. I walked through it at noon of a Friday, and saw scarcely fifty people chaffering at the stands, and they were buying images and pictures of saints, and the merchants, bearded and solemn, looked pale and whispered apart. And the Red Place was empty, an ominous sign; it was not crowded with courtiers and petitioners, and the Czarina Natalia held her court with empty galleries--so Le Bastien told me--while the Czarevna Sophia was besieged by the soldiers, who hung about her, when she appeared in public, and thronged her ante-room at all hours. On the outskirts of the town the mob gathered at morning and evening, and talked and threatened; an officer riding through with an order from the czarina had been stoned at daybreak on Thursday, and there was a cry now for pay for the regiments and redress of all old grievances, the affirmation of the Streltsi’s old privilege of keeping shop, and a dozen other benefits that they had--or fancied they had--by right.

Maître le Bastien, who was an over-cautious man, began to hide much of the gold and silver that had been given him for his work, and he bought another pistol in the German quarter, at which I laughed; but he shook his head.

“There’s mischief brewing, monsieur,” he said; “mischief of a black sort. These soldiers are little better than a rabble of cut-throats and robbers, and the Miloslavskys are stirring them up to a devil’s business”; he shook his head again. “A child and a woman to rule,” he added, “and a band of wolves at the door; prime your pistols, M. de Cernay, and keep your sword loose in its scabbard. I remember hearing my grandmother tell of the Eve of Saint Bartholomew; though she was as good a Catholic as I am, she never forgot it, monsieur; their house was in the district of Saint Germain l’Auxerrois, and to the day of her death she would fall to shivering when a pistol cracked in the dark or the bell of Saint Germain tolled. Last night, when I came out of the gate of Saint Nikolas, I passed perhaps twenty of these fellows, and if ever I saw the devil in men’s faces, I saw it in theirs.”

“Tut, Maître le Bastien,” I said, with a laugh; “you’ve got an old woman’s whims in your brains. They have but to pay these rogues and give them a beating, and they will slink back to their kennels.”

But he was not to be persuaded. “When the wolf scents blood----” he replied, with an expressive gesture, and went to the cellar to hide more of his gold. While I laughed and set Maluta to dancing on the table, which he did in a marvellous fashion, spinning around and around, in constantly increasing circles, until he leaped clear over my head and perched on the back of a chair, swinging there like an ape, to my great diversion.

Yet the future, so swiftly approaching, was bigger with fate for me than for Maître le Bastien, while for the Princess Daria--chut, I must not run ahead of my own tale.

_VII: THE SUMMONS_

IT was on a Friday, scarcely three days after Kurakin saw the golden pear in Maître le Bastien’s hands that a summons came from the palace. The goldsmith had been modelling in wax a very beautiful little image of the Virgin of Kazan, intending to cast it in gold with precious stones for the little Czar Peter. He was at work on it in the forenoon while I sat watching him, for lack of something better to do, for he had not yet mended the bracelet for the princess, though I had importuned him to do so; I think he delayed only to vex me, for he would shake his head, with a sly twinkle in his eye, when I asked him for the trinket.

The windows were open, and opposite the sun shone on Kurakin’s roof. All the morning there had been the dull boom of distant drums, for there was some new excitement in the quarters of the Streltsi; and there were strange rumours afloat that the blind Czarevitch Ivan was ill of a poison, but outwardly the city was calm, the calm that comes before the tempest, for it was already past the middle of May, and no one, perhaps, but Sophia Alexeievna herself knew the devil’s broth that was boiling under our feet.

A breath of chill air blew in from the north and lifted the grey curls on Maître le Bastien’s broad forehead. He set the little image on the table an viewed it complacently.

“It is well,” he said, and looked at me smiling, expecting approval.

But I was not heeding him; my ear had caught the clang of the outer door, the skurry of feet on the stairs, and the next moment Michaud opened the door, breathless, and before he could enter, one of the court chamberlains pushed in. A big man with a long grey beard and a portly front, swelling with his own importance, and in his long, gorgeously embroidered caftan and high cap, he looked like some Eastern eunuch. Maître le Bastien was inclined to treat him civilly enough, but he took a high tone.

“Your presence is required immediately at the palace, master goldsmith,” he said, in a deep tone, rolling out the sonorous Russ like a big bass drum; “my orders are not to return without your person.”

Le Bastien, ever cautious, looked startled and perplexed.

“By whose authority?” he asked, gravely polite.

The chamberlain stared, stupidly as an ox, blowing out his cheeks angrily.

“By the order of her serene highness the Czarevna Sophia Alexeievna,” he said, “and it behoves you to make haste, my master.”

“I have ever been ready to serve her highness,” said Maître le Bastien, in an aggrieved tone; “these peremptory orders are uncalled for, monsieur.”

A flash of intuition illumined the situation for me, and I determined not to desert him.

“I will accompany you,” I said to him, in French, “and carry the image yonder--as an excuse for my presence. It may be well to have a witness.”

His brow cleared and he thanked me hastily, the chamberlain scowling meanwhile, for he could not follow our French, and could only reiterate his orders to us to make haste. There seemed indeed no reasonable way to evade him, nor cause for it, for neither of us had done anything to merit the displeasure of the all-powerful princess, and therefore we prepared to accompany the portly old gentleman back to the Kremlin. But when we got to the door and found that he had a guard there of five or six of the Streltsi, we began to fear that we were under arrest, and said as much to each other in French, yet we could not anticipate any legitimate reason for it, and were forced to put as good a face on the matter as we could, trailing along in the chamberlain’s wake, with a file of savage-looking soldiers on either hand. True to my character of apprentice, I carried the little waxen image of our Lady of Kazan, and Maître le Bastien, being empty-handed, plucked nervously, first at his short velvet cloak and then at his lace cravat. I never saw the good man so distraught over what seemed, at most, a small matter. Meanwhile, our silent companions eyed us askance, as the Russian always eyes the foreigner, and finding little reason to converse, we fell silent, and there was only the tramp of our feet as we traversed the streets. In this quarter they were deserted, but once or twice a woman peeped cautiously out of an upper window at us, or a group of children skurried out of our way like so many rabbits. It was broad sunshine, and as we drew near the sacred picture of Saint Basil, on the wall, I saw the pigeons nestling and cooing on its canopy. There was a huge lamp, which burned perpetually, suspended before the shrine, under the protecting roof of the canopy, and the gaunt figure and dusky face of the saint looked grimly down upon us. Before it knelt a moujik, in a long sheepskin caftan, his legs bound up in cloths, and his feet in bast shoes; he was kneeling on the flint pavement praying, with the devout indifference to the world which is common to the Russian peasant. And as the chamberlain and his six tried friends drew near they also humbly saluted the sacred picture and passed it with bared heads, for these fellows were, like their humble countryman, very zealous in their religion, and held the Pope of Rome in as little reverence as did our brethren beyond the Loire.

Some excitement in the outskirts of the town had drawn off the people from the Kremlin, for when we crossed the Red Place it was nearly vacant, and only a crowd of dwarfs peeped at us as we ascended the Red Staircase and entered the palace. We left our six ruffians in the guard-room and, conducted by our fat friend, the chamberlain, we were led up the back stairs to a gallery of the _terem_, where we were left to wait, at a safe distance from the private apartments of the women. I remember to this day seeing a dark-eyed, curly-headed boy of nine, cross the gallery with an attendant and stop to stare at us with frank curiosity. A large child for his years, with a bold port and keen eye. It was the little Czar Peter, and it was said that he was ever eager to learn new lessons, and to see strangers. While we waited, neither Maître le Bastien nor I cared to talk, but once he turned to me.

“I fear that this concerns that trinket of yours,” he said very low, with an anxious eye.

“So I think,” I replied and smiled.

My life in Moscow had been flat, stale, and unprofitable, and the thought of danger was ever a sweet taste in my mouth.

The goldsmith looked troubled. He was a man whose life lay in pleasant places, and he could not contemplate the thought of intrigue and violence with my complacence. He shifted his position uneasily and fell to watching the door through which the fat man had vanished. Meanwhile I had deposited my wax model on a window ledge and, walking about the room, stopped to examine a painting that hung on the wall at one side. It was a picture of Saint Olga on a loose piece of canvas, and would scarcely have held my eye long if I had not noticed a curious flutter and movement to it, as if it was swayed by a current of air, and lifting the end I suddenly discovered that it concealed a narrow slit in the wall, un œil-de-boeuf, through which I could look down into the room below. Nor was the room vacant; one glance interested me so much that I silently signalled to Maître le Bastien to come, too, and behold my discovery. It was a good-sized apartment, and in the centre of it stood a woman, short, stout, singularly striking in appearance, and before her were grouped seven or eight fierce-looking soldiers of the guard, Streltsi; some knelt at her feet; all were eager and attentive, and she was addressing them, her voice rising and falling, with a thrill of eloquence, and her expression and gestures were as eloquent, though we could not hear what she said. I glanced a question at Le Bastien, and he nodded.

“Sophia is meddling with the Streltsi,” he said, very low and disconsolately. “’Tis as I thought,--as most people have feared,--there’s not a Naryshkin fit to match her, unless it is the Chancellor Matveief, and even he----” The goldsmith shook his head dolefully. “There is a Russian proverb,” he said, “that ‘a woman’s hair is long, but her understanding short,’ but the saints defend me from a manœuvring woman!”

His ejaculation was so pious and so heartfelt that I laughed and dropped the canvas, just in time, too, for our friend the chamberlain came waddling in again to inform us that her imperial and serene highness would see us in five minutes. He proceeded, therefore, to conduct us, by what seemed to me an entirely new route, to her presence, I wondering all the while if she would receive us and the Streltsi together. But my speculations on that point were soon satisfied, for when we entered the ante-room we passed her friends coming out, fierce-eyed and keen-set as a party of wolves, and when the chamberlain opened the door of the room we had looked down upon, and bowed low at the threshold, we found the czarevna quite alone, and seated in a great carved chair at the further end of the apartment. The official announced the name of Maître le Bastien, goldsmith of Paris, with great solemnity, and then, closing the door upon us, left us to face the daughter of the czars.

_VIII: THE GREAT CZAREVNA_

WHEN we entered the room the Czarevna Sophia remained seated, and the light from a window at her side fell full on her face and figure, revealing them sharply. She was twenty-five years old at this time, but already very stout, with an enormous head, and a homely fat face, with small, keen eyes that were alert and searching. She still wore deep mourning for her brother Feodor, and her black robe falling loose and straight, after the prevailing fashion, only increased her apparent bulk. Her plump, short-fingered hands were, however, extremely white, as they lay on her black draperies, and, unquestionably, there was something in her glance and bearing that was imperial. The woman was a power, and we felt it as soon as we came in contact with her. She bent a singular look upon us as we advanced and made our salutations, and as we drew nearer I discovered that she was holding some object concealed in her hands. I had not long to wait before I learned what it was. She addressed Maître le Bastien, taking no notice of me, evidently putting me down as an apprentice.

“So, master goldsmith, you’ve come at last,” she said in Russ, her tone as acid as vinegar. “I find that you have not been idle in Moscow.”

Le Bastien, as cautious as an old fox, felt his ground.

“I have endeavoured to labour diligently, your highness,” he said suavely, “and I think I may venture to say that I have accomplished something. The great vase is now nearly completed, if your highness will but come to view it, and here is a model I have been making of a figure of our Lady of Kazan, to be executed in gold and jewels.”

As he spoke he signed to me to advance, and display the model, which I did with the more alacrity because I wanted a nearer view of the princess, but I was so awkward in handling the image that the goldsmith took it himself and displayed it. But Sophia looked at it with a cold eye; it was plain that her thoughts were elsewhere.

“In gold with jewels; it would cost too much,” she said severely, “and we have not paid our soldiers. I know not why the Czarina Natalia should encourage such extravagance.”

Maître le Bastien, accustomed to consideration from all the great men of France, and the patronage of our munificent monarch, flushed hotly at her tone and handed the image back to me.

“The conception was altogether mine, madame,” he said, in dignified displeasure. “In my country princes delight in all the elegancies of art; pardon me for not considering merely the question of cost.”

He meant a rebuke, but it was lost on her highness; she merely shrugged her shoulders. She had no conception probably of the greatness of France, seeing nothing beyond her own horizon but the edge of the world; the pride of these Muscovites is something truly amazing.

The display of the model coming off so poorly, the goldsmith stood silent and, for the moment, the interview seemed a flat enough matter, and then the czarevna suddenly struck to the root of it. She held out her hand, and in the palm of it lay the Princess Daria’s jewelled pear. We both started, and Maître le Bastien turned from white to green; the good man seemed for the time chicken-hearted.

“You have recently handled the locket, master goldsmith,” Sophia said slowly, “and for whom?”

I could hold my tongue no longer; I feared his loss of nerve.

“Tell her it was left in your absence,” I said, very low and in French.

She darted a tigress look at me, but remained silent, waiting on Maître le Bastien. He repeated my lesson by rote.

“Who was in your house to receive it?” she demanded sharply, then suddenly pointing at me, “that man?”

“I suppose so,” faltered the goldsmith, the cold perspiration starting in beads on his forehead.

“Can you speak Russ?” she asked, turning on me.

“A little,” I replied, afraid to leave it in Maître le Bastien’s hands.

She held up the pear. “Who brought this to your master’s house?”

“A man, I think,” I replied stupidly, rubbing the back of my head like a clown.

She uttered an exclamation of impatience.

“What man?” she cried fiercely. “Are there not hundreds and thousands of men? What manner of man, stupid, and of what condition? A varlet or a gentleman? A serf or a freedman?”

“He might have been one, and he might have been the other,” I stammered slowly, as if the Russ tied my tongue. “I do not rightly remember, your highness.”

She rose from her chair at this and stamped her foot at me, calling me, _durak_, which may be interpreted as “ninny,” and then she swept up to Maître le Bastien and opened the locket so sharply before his face that he started back as if she had snapped a pistol under his nose. She held up the trinket, displaying the beautiful face of the Princess Daria.

“How dared you take mine out for this?” she thundered, fixing her little eyes on him with the fierceness of a tigress, ready to spring.

“Tell her that it was a mistake,” I whispered in French, “that it was intended for another setting.”

“Hold your tongue, varlet,” said the czarevna, casting a fierce glance at me, though she understood not a word.

“Many things are brought to me, madame,” said Le Bastien slowly; “this miniature must have been put in the wrong locket. I have two apprentices, and sometimes, between us all, errors are made.”

“Where, then, is my portrait?” she demanded, fastening her eyes on his face, as if she meant to read his very soul.

Here, in spite of her rebuke, I interposed, bowing profoundly.

“Pardon me, your highness,” I said blandly; “I think I know where the picture lies safely at Maître Bastien’s quarters, if we may be permitted to look for it.”

She turned on me sharply. “You know where it is, then?” she said. “Ah, I perceive, it was you who had the pear and hid it from the Boyar Kurakin.”

Saint Denis! it was M. Kurakin then! Like a flash I saw how we had been betrayed; but how had she got the trinket? There was the riddle.

“The pear was brought for us to mend, madame,” I said simply.

She scowled at me, black as a thunder-cloud; she was far too keen not to suspect us, but she had no means of pinning us to the wall.

“I am determined to know how this miniature was substituted for mine,” she said in a more even tone, though her small eyes glittered like two knife points; “if either of you trifle with me or deceive me, you shall receive first the _pravezh_ and then----” She drew her hand across her throat with a significant gesture.

Then, for the first time, Maître le Bastien fully recovered his composure. Her speech had made my blood boil, and it brought his to his cheek.