It was soon evident that the Princess Y---- had taken her new maid into her confidence to a certain extent.
She must have rung for Fauchette without my hearing anything, for presently the door opened again, and I heard my a.s.sistant"s voice.
As the result of a hurried consultation between the two women, in which Fauchette played to perfection the part of a devoted maid who is only desirous to antic.i.p.ate the wishes of her mistress, it was decided to wheel the sofa on which I lay into the oratory, and to bring the wax dummy into the Princess"s bedroom, to lie in state till the next day.
The arrangement did not take long to carry out.
Partly from what I was able to overhear, and partly from the report afterward furnished to me by Fauchette, I am able to relate succinctly what took place.
To begin with, I was left in the oratory, while the counterfeit corpse was duly arranged in the adjoining room.
Unable to lock me in the smaller apartment, Sophia declared her intention of locking both the outer doors of the bedroom, one of which gave on a corridor, while the other, as the reader is aware, opened into the boudoir where the previous scene had taken place.
The Princess retained one of these keys herself, entrusting the other to the maid, of course with the strictest injunctions as to its use.
To keep up appearances before the household, the Princess arranged to pa.s.s the next few nights in another room on the same floor, which usually served as a guest chamber.
It was explained to the servants that the death which had occurred had upset the nerves of their mistress, and rendered her own suite of rooms distasteful to her for the present.
Fauchette, who thus became my jailer, brought me a supply of cold food and wine during the night. I had part of this provision under the altar of the oratory, to serve me during the following day.
My cataleptic condition was supposed to endure for nearly twenty-four hours. The enforced seclusion was intensely irritating to a man of my temperament; but I could not evade it without revealing to Sophia that I had heard her confession, and thereby inflicting a deadly wound on a woman who loved me.
Meanwhile the arrangements for my funeral had been pressed on.
Already a telegram had appeared in the London papers announcing the sudden and unexpected death from heart-failure of the well-known English philanthropist, Mr. Melchisedak Sterling. One or two of the journals commented on the fact of Mr. Sterling"s death having taken place while he was on a mission of peace to the Russian capital, and expressed a hope that his death would have a chastening effect on the War Party in Petersburg.
My friend, the editor of the Peace Review, very generously sent a wreath, which arrived too late for the funeral but was laid on my grave.
Unfortunately these newspaper announcements were taken seriously by my exalted employers, as well as by the enemies whom I wished to deceive, but this could not be helped.
By noon the undertaker"s men had arrived with my coffin. The Princess played upon their ignorance of English customs and burial rites to pretend that the work of coffining must be done by women"s hands. In this way she and Fauchette were able to enclose the dummy in its wooden sh.e.l.l, leaving to the men only the task of s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g down the lid.
The burial took place in the English cemetery. I am glad to say that the Princess contrived to avoid the mockery of a religious service by alleging that Mr. Sterling had belonged to a peculiar sect--the Quakers, I fancy--which holds such ceremonies to be worldly and unnecessary.
I may add that I have since visited my grave, which is still to be seen in a corner of the cemetery. It is marked by a stone slab with an inscription in English.
In the afternoon the faithful Fauchette persuaded her mistress to go out for a drive, to soothe her over-strained nerves.
Before quitting the house, the Princess came in to take a last look at me.
She lingered minute after minute, as though with some premonition that our next meeting would be under widely different circ.u.mstances.
To herself, I heard her whisper, sighing softly:
"Andreas! O Andreas! If I could sleep, or thou couldst never wake!"
She crept away, and the better to secure me locked both the bedroom doors herself, and carried off the keys.
On her return, two hours later, Sophia, with a look that told the watchful Fauchette of her uneasiness, hurried straight up-stairs, toward the door of the little oratory.
She found it locked from the outside, with the key in the door.
It had cost me something to break my pledge to the Princess Y---- that I would give her my new address before leaving her.
But her unfortunate discovery of the portrait I wore around my neck and her plainly-declared intention to hold me a prisoner till she could shake my fidelity, had rendered it necessary for me to meet treachery with treachery.
The secret service, it must always be borne in mind, has its own code of honor, differing on many points from that obtaining in other careers, but perhaps stricter on the whole.
For instance, I can lay my hand on my heart and declare that I have never done either of two things which are done every day by men holding high offices and high places in the world"s esteem. I have never taken a secret commission. And I have never taken advantage of my political information to gamble in stocks.
The manner of my escape was simplicity itself.
My a.s.sistant had not come to live with the Princess without making some preparations for the part she was to play, and these included the bringing with her of a bunch of skeleton keys, fully equal to the work of opening any ordinary lock.
As soon as her mistress was safely out of the way, Fauchette came to receive my instructions.
I told her that I did not intend to wait for my jailer"s return. We discussed the best way for me to slip out, without obstruction from the servants, and I decided to take advantage of the superst.i.tion of the Russian illiterate cla.s.s, by enacting the part of my own ghost.
The report that I had been buried without any funeral service had already reached the household, and had prepared them for any supernatural manifestation.
Fauchette first brought me a little powdered chalk, with which I smeared my face. I then put on a long flowing cloak and a sombrero hat, part of the wardrobe acc.u.mulated by the Princess in the course of her gaieties.
I slipped a damp sponge into my pocket and directed the girl to lead the way.
She went down-stairs a few yards in front of me, turned into the servants" part of the house and threw open the back door, which led out into a courtyard giving on a street used only by tradesmen"s carts. At this hour of the day it was deserted.
I followed cautiously in Fauchette"s wake, and got as far as the back door without meeting any interruption.
But at that point, the porter, who must have been roused by an unfamiliar step--though I understand he swore afterward that the pa.s.sage of the ghost had been absolutely noiseless--came out and stood in the doorway.
Without hesitating for an instant I a.s.sumed an erect posture and advanced swiftly toward him with my whitened face well displayed.
The fellow gave vent to a half-articulate call which died down in his throat, and bolted back into his room uttering yell after yell.
Fifteen seconds later I was out in the street, sponging the chalk from my face.
And five minutes after that I was comfortably seated in a hired droshky, on my way to a certain little house in the seafaring quarter of the city, which possessed, among other advantages, that of commanding an exceedingly fine view of the Admiralty Pier.
CHAPTER XXIV
A SECRET EXECUTION
I now come to a part of my chronicle which I plainly foresee must expose me to grave criticism.