"Your Highness does not mean that in earnest?"
"In thorough earnest and in cold blood," said the Grand Duke, laying his hand on Araktseieff"s arm. "All my life through I had never known what it was to be loved. I verily believe that the nurse who nursed me thrashed me for being such a piece of deformity. Not even a dog have I ever been able to attach to me. Look where I will, I see that every one shrinks back from me. My very voice, which I try in vain to moderate, is rough and grating, as if I were perpetually scolding. I have never heard an 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 who loves me with all her being. She does not say it, she feels it--nay, she lets 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 to myself. She alone of all the world has brought sunshine into my dark life. 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 for any prize the earth could give? That for any throne in the whole world I would 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, and it is not new to find that love is the most powerful factor we have to deal with on earth. It is strong, but not lasting. To-day your Highness may be feeling as you say; but the human heart is as variable as the sky; and earth, the fatherland, is its antipodes. To-day we may feel as though we had cast away a whole paradise of bliss in descending from heaven to earth; to-morrow we discover that our supposed heaven was but a cloud which glistened in the sun and disappeared, leaving "not a wrack behind." Earth, on the contrary, remains firm beneath our feet; it never loses its power of gravity. What? Could your Imperial Highness stand by with folded arms and see the whole monarchy, a prey to the flames, sink into ashes at your feet, that your head might rest undisturbed on the lap of the woman you love?"
"Well, and even then?"
"Even then? Even in that case I have my clear instructions. Your Highness is the master of your own future. But the Russian Empire is the master of its own fate. If the Czarevitch prizes the prosaic domestic life of a citizen higher than the maintenance of the empire he has received from his ancestors, I have yet one other proposition to make to him. His Majesty the Czar will elevate the morganatic wife of the Czarevitch, Johanna Grudzinska, to the rank of a Polish princess, with the family name of "Lovicz"! In perpetual lien he will make over to her the royal Lovicz domain of Masover Voivodeship upon the Grand Duke declaring her to be his legitimate wife; her children to be Princes of Lovicz and heirs to their mother"s kingdom, with the rank of Russian bojars--_in virtue of which Grand Duke Constantine will resign the t.i.tle of Czarevitch and the right of succession to the Russian Empire, for himself and his heirs, forever, in favor of his brother_."
Constantine struck the table emphatically with his fist.
"Rather to-day than to-morrow!"
"I entreat your Highness not to reply too hastily! The sky is ever changing; not so the earth. I am convinced of the truth of your Imperial Highness"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 Ems or Carlsbad. Separate yourself from her, so that you are not seeing each other daily, hourly; that she may not always be your centre, but that you may both come in contact with other people, other surroundings, other interests--"
"And do you suppose that absence, whether longer or shorter, could estrange 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 out the 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 yourself mistaken. 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 akin to madness--it is incredible! But once to love me is never to part from me! And to expect me to forget that woman is an absurdity. Then, of a truth, should I be the blind fowl pecking at a grain of oats instead of the pearl before her. Is the Act of Renunciation ready? Of course you have brought it with you? Give it here. To-day, to-morrow, or as long as my life lasts, you will receive from me but the one answer--"I will sign it.""
"Let us agree to delay the decision, your Highness. The subject in question is no child"s play; nor is it the fighting down any youthful love affair. Let your Imperial Highness weigh well what you are renouncing--the nineteen crowns of Russia! From Ivan Alexievitch"s crown, inlaid with its nine hundred brilliants, to the simple "cap" of Peter the Great; the Novgorod crown with the Deissus, crown of the Republic, worn by Ruric; the Astrakhan cap of Michael Feodorvitch; the Siberian hat of Fedor Alexievitch; lastly, the ancient, most sacred relic, the crown of Monomachos, who dates from legendary times. And would my ill.u.s.trious chief renounce all this splendor for the sake of a "woman"s charms"?"
Here the conversation was interrupted by the entrance of Chevalier Galban, who appeared in the doorway humming a ballet air.
"Well, Galban," shouted the Grand Duke, as he appeared, "how do you like the Belvedere?"
"Grand!" returned the Chevalier, "and, moreover, an _impregnable fortress_!" The two last words were directed to Araktseieff, accompanied with a meaning look. Possibly the Grand Duke intercepted it, for with sharp intonation he repeated:
"An impregnable fortress? I did not know that you concerned yourself with the storming of fortresses among other things."
"Oh yes," retorted the Chevalier, in a tone equally sarcastic. "I have had the good-fortune to succeed in storming many a castle hitherto held to be impregnable."
Araktseieff here cut short the allegory by interposing, abruptly:
"I know the castles in the taking of which you have won your spurs--Chateau Lafitte and Chateau Margot!"--both well-known Bordeaux wines--at which the Grand Duke, with a laugh, rose from the table.
CHAPTER XX
THE BLIND HEN"S GENUINE PEARL
What had Chevalier Galban found so admirable on the terrace of Belvedere Castle, and what did he find so impregnable there?
In truth, a lovely view! In the foreground the ma.s.sed trees of Lazienka forest, clad in the tender hues of spring"s young green, their colors ranging from the golden green of the maple to the reddish purple of the sumach, delighted the eye. From amidst the thick foliage arose the zinc roofs of John Sobieski"s ancestral home, Lazienka Castle. Red and green roofs of luxurious villas peeped out here and there from among the trees; rows of silvery poplars overtowering the rest marked out cross-roads. In the distance the ancient capital of Poland, living heart of a dead body; the terraces of the once royal castle showing where its gardens had been; on the Gothic towers of St. John"s Church the golden crosses glistening. Below the city, the winding Vistula, its islands ablaze with spring-tide glory. To the right the great Belian forest, with its ancient Camaldulen Monastery, its walls glowing in the light of the evening sun; and then, dumb witness to so many an historic event, the great Wolja plain, where formerly kings were elected. On the horizon, fast disappearing in the golden haze of evening, the outline of a castle--Mariemont, whilom residence of Marie Sobieski.
"A lovely view, is it not?" said Johanna to Chevalier Galban, as, having reached the highest terrace of Belvedere, they let their eyes wander round.
"A magnificent prison," returned the Chevalier.
Johanna looked in astonishment at him with her large brown eyes, which, neither dazzling nor enticing, were full of soul.
"A prison--for whom?" she asked, surprised.
"For a saint and martyr, who is ready to sacrifice herself for her nation."
"And who may this be, and wherein her sacrifice? I do not understand you."
"Truly, it is not martyrdom to be tortured with red-hot iron if that torture be borne in patience; but it is martyrdom to give one"s heart to be tortured in a manner more cruel than human imagination has yet conceived. And to be torn in pieces by a wild beast is not so ghastly a death as to kiss and embrace such a monster. Such a sacrifice could only be conceived by a Polish woman and for the Polish nation!"
"Either I fail to understand you, or you are laboring under some mistake," returned Johanna, handing the Chevalier a cup of fragrant mocha as they seated themselves.
Chevalier Galban was a practised strategist at such storming operations.
He knew at once where the fortress was weakest.
"d.u.c.h.ess! wherever the name of the Polish Viceroy is heard, that of Johanna Grudzinska is named with it; with adoration and affection people utter it, for she is the guardian angel of all who are oppressed and afflicted."
"I know nothing of all this. Here only criminals are punished; and _such_ punishment I can do nothing to hinder."
"Perhaps not in words; perhaps only unconsciously. Yet the whole world knows that Poland"s terror has changed under the magic of your influence. He has sane periods in which he treats his people with clemency. And for these Poland has to thank you!"
"Herr Galban! Do you not see that any praise must be repugnant to me which reflects upon my husband?"
"Far be it from me in any way to reflect upon the Czarevitch, my master.
He is as nature and circ.u.mstances have made him. The ruling of a nation is no poetry, nor is it a matter of Scriptural teaching; it has its established laws. Diplomacy is heartless, and a thorough-going statesman must be heartless likewise. Every one knows that the Czarevitch is a tyrant to his subjects."
"But to me he is my husband, to whom I am bound by every law of love and duty."
"It is just that which makes my blood boil. I can talk openly to you. I must confess, when I undertook the mission intrusted me by Araktseieff, I had conceived a very different idea of you from what I do, now that I am face to face with you. In the different courts I have visited I have come across many ladies who have deluded themselves with the belief that the love of crowned heads is quite another thing from the love of ordinary mortals. Once their mistake found out, they have been able to console themselves; and when higher state interests have demanded the sacrifice of their affections, they have accepted the t.i.tle of countess or princess, with its accompanying estate as compensation, and have survived it."
"But what a.n.a.logy is there between their and my position? I was solemnly married to my husband. At the altar I first placed my hand in his. I bear his name, and I know he loves me truly."
"Ah, Princess, you have no conception at present of the heartless nature of diplomacy! What you say is perfectly true; but you certainly did not notice that in the marriage ceremony the priest placed the Grand Duke"s left--not his right--hand in yours. This was no treachery, no deception; it is customary with princes of the blood, and their wives and children can hold up their heads without shame. But--and here comes in the infamy--Araktseieff is set upon proclaiming the Grand Duke as the Czar"s successor to the throne, because he is his ideal. But to this end it is imperative that the Grand Duke should take back his first wife, who is still living, _and who is a member of a reigning dynasty_; for the fundamental laws of the empire allow no other woman to ascend the throne. Do you now see the fate awaiting you?"
"However hard it be, I will endure it silently."