"So you have come; as I thought you would. And you are very welcome. But why have you come?"
"Because I hope to serve your Highness, and--she whom we both love," I answered promptly.
"Yes, I was sure of that, although we have met only twice or thrice. I am seldom mistaken in a man whom I have once looked in the eyes; and I know I can trust you, as I dare trust few others,--none within these walls save the good Mishka. He has told you that I am virtually a prisoner here?"
I bowed a.s.sent.
"I am closely guarded, my every word, my every gesture noted; though when the time is ripe, or when she sends word that she needs me, I shall slip away! There is a great game, a stern one, preparing; and there will be a part for us both to play. I will give you the outline to-night, when I shall come to you again. That staircase yonder leads down to my apartments. I had it made years ago by foreign workmen, and none save myself and the Pavloffs--and you now--know of its existence, so far.
In public we must be strangers; after the formal audience I give you to-night I shall probably ignore you altogether. But as Gould, the American farming expert, you will be able to come and go, riding the estates with Pavloff--or without him--and yet rouse no suspicion.
To-night I shall return as I said; and now _au revoir_."
He left just in time, for a minute or two after I had unlocked the door, Nicolai reappeared, and conducted me to an ante-room where I found quite a throng of officers, one of whom introduced himself as Colonel Grodwitz, and presented me to several of the others. They all treated me with the easy courtesy which well-bred Russians a.s.sume--and discard--with such facility; but then, and later, I had to be constantly on guard against innumerable questions, which, though asked in what appeared to be a perfectly frank and spontaneous manner, were, I was convinced, sprung on me for the purpose of ascertaining how much I knew of Russia and its complicated affairs.
But I was quite ready for them, and if they had any suspicions I hope they abandoned them for the present.
After dinner a resplendent footman brought a message to Grodwitz, who thereupon told me that he was to conduct me to his Highness, who would receive me now.
"Say, what shall I have to do?" I asked confidentially as we pa.s.sed along a magnificent corridor. "I"ve been to a levee held by the King of England, but I don"t know anything of Russian Court etiquette."
He laughed and shrugged his shoulders.
"There is no need for you to observe etiquette, _mon ami_. Are you not an American and a Republican? Therefore none will blame you if you are unceremonious,--least of all our puissant Grand Duke! Have you not heard that he himself is a kind of "_Jacques bonhomme_"?"
"That means just a peasant, doesn"t it?" I asked obtusely. "No, I hadn"t heard that."
He laughed again.
"Did the good Mishka tell you nothing?"
"Why, no; he"s the surliest and most silent fellow I"ve ever travelled with."
"He is discreet, that Mishka," said Grodwitz, and drew himself up stiffly as the footman, who had preceded us, threw open a door, and ushered us into the Duke"s presence.
He was standing before a great open fireplace in which a log fire crackled cheerily, and beside him was the little fat officer I had seen him with before; while there were several others present, all ceremoniously standing, and looking more or less bored.
Our interview was brief and formal; but I noted that the fat officer and Grodwitz were keenly observant of all that pa.s.sed.
"Well, that"s all right," I said with a sigh of relief, when Grodwitz and I were back in the corridor again. "But there doesn"t seem to be much of the peasant about him!"
"I was but jesting, _mon ami_," Grodwitz a.s.sured me. "But now your ordeal is over. You will take a hand at bridge, _hein_?"
CHAPTER x.x.xVIII
THE GAME BEGINS
That hand at bridge lasted till long past midnight, and I only got away at last on the plea that I was dead tired after my two days" ride.
"Tired or not, you play a good hand, _mon ami_!" Grodwitz declared. We had been partners, and had won all before us.
"They shall have their revenge in good time," I said, stifling a yawn.
"_Bonsoir, messieurs_."
I sent Nicolai to bed, and wrapping myself in a dressing gown which I found laid out for me, sat down in a deep divan chair to await the Duke, and fell fast asleep. I woke with a start, as the great clock over the castle gateway boomed four, and saw the Duke sitting quietly smoking in a chair opposite.
He cut short my stammered apologies in the frank unceremonious manner he always used when we were alone together, and plunged at once into the matter that was uppermost in his mind, as in mine.
Now at last I learned something of the working of that League with which I had become so mysteriously entangled, and of his and Anne"s connection with it.
"For years its policy was sheerly destructive," he told me. "Its aims were as vague as its organization was admirable. At least nine-tenths of the so-called Nihilist murders and outrages, in Russia as elsewhere, have been planned and carried out by its executive and members. To "remove" all who came under their ban, including any among their own ranks who were suspected of treachery, or even of delaying in carrying out their orders, was practically its one principle. But the time for this insensate indiscriminating violence is pa.s.sing,--has pa.s.sed. There must be a policy that is constructive as well as destructive. The younger generation sees that more clearly every day. She--Anna--was one of the first to see and urge it; hence she fell under suspicion, especially when she refused to carry out certain orders."
He broke off for a moment, as if in slight embarra.s.sment.
"I think I understand," I said. "She was ordered to "remove" you, sir, and she refused?"
"That is so; at least she protested, even then, knowing that I was condemned merely as a member of the Romanoff family. Later, when we met, and learned to know each other, she found that I was no enemy, but a stanch friend to these poor peoples of Russia, striving so blindly, so desperately, to fling off the yoke that crushes them! Then it was that, with the n.o.ble courage that distinguishes her above all women I have ever met, she refused to carry out the orders given her; more than that, she has twice or thrice saved my life from other attempts on it. I have long been a member of the League, though, save herself, none other connected with it suspected the ident.i.ty of a certain droshky driver, who did good service at one time and another."
His blue eyes twinkled merrily for an instant. In his way his character was as complex as that of Anne herself,--cool, clever, courageous to a degree, but leavened with a keen sense of humor, that made him thoroughly enjoy playing the role of "Ivan," even though it had brought him to his present position as a state prisoner.
"That reminds me," I said. "How was it you got caught that time, when she and her father escaped?"
He shrugged his shoulders.
"I had to choose, either to fly with them, and thereby endanger us all still further, or allow myself to be taken. That last seemed best, and I think--I am sure--I was right."
"Did you know the soldiers were coming?"
"No. That, by the way, was Selinski"s doing,--Ca.s.savetti, as you call him."
"Ca.s.savetti!" I exclaimed. "Why, he was dead weeks before!"
"True, but the raid was in consequence of information he had supplied earlier. He was a double-dyed traitor. The papers she--the papers that were found in his rooms in London proved that amply. He had sold information to the Government, and had planned that the Countess Anna should be captured with the others, after he had induced her to return, by any means in his power."
"But--but--he couldn"t have brought her back!" I exclaimed. "For she only left London the day after he was murdered, and she was at Ostend with you next day."
"Who told you that?" he asked sharply.
"An Englishman I saw by chance in Berlin, who had met her in London, and who knew you by sight."
He sat silent, in frowning thought, for a minute or more, and then said slowly:
"Selinski had arranged everything beforehand, and his a.s.sistants carried out his instructions, though he, himself, was dead. But all that belongs to the past; we have to deal with the present and the future! You know already that one section of the League at least is, as it were, reconstructed. And that section has two definite aims: to aid the cause of freedom, but also to minimize the evils that must ensue in the struggle for freedom. We cannot hope to accomplish much,--there are so few of us,--and we know that we shall perish, perhaps before we have accomplished anything beyond paving the way for those that come after!
There is a terrible time in store for Russia, my friend! The ma.s.ses are ripe for revolt; even the bureaucracy know that now, and they try to gain time by raising side issues. Therefore, here in the country districts, they stir up the _moujiks_,--now against the tax-gatherers, more often against the Jews. Murder and rapine follows; then the troops are sent, who punish indiscriminately, in order to strike terror into the people. They create a desolation and call it a peace; you have seen an instance yourself on your way hither?"
I nodded, remembering that devastated village we had pa.s.sed.