An enigma which was not solved till the actual day of the coronation, and those who witnessed the solution were not likely ever to forget it.
That picturesque personage, accustomed to figure at a coronation, namely, the champion, now became a subject of discussion, Mosco himself having introduced the question.
"It is the duty of such champion," he explained in answer to Barbara"s interrogation, "to stand before the throne, and, casting down a glove, to defy to mortal combat any one who shall openly challenge the right of the sovereign to rule."
"But why," said the princess, with a pitying smile, "why should we retain a feudal usage out of place in this nineteenth century?"
"It has always formed a part of the coronation ceremonial," protested Mosco. "Your late father, Prince Thaddeus, would not have it omitted when he was crowned."
"And what would happen," asked Radzivil, "if some one malevolently disposed towards the princess should step forward and pick up the glove?"
"We had better consult the Justiciary," smiled Barbara. "He is our authority on all matters of law."
"Your Highness," returned Polonaski, "the ancient statute touching the championing of the sovereign"s rights has never been repealed, and therefore still stands good in point of law. Should any one accept the champion"s challenge by taking up the gage thrown down, the combat would have to take place."
"With what result?" queried Radzivil. "Will you say that if her champion should fall the princess must resign the throne?"
"According to the law of Czernova," replied the Justiciary.
Zabern leaned back in his seat and caustically whispered in the premier"s ear,--
"Count, methinks you were a little premature last night in banishing an excellent swordsman from Czernova."
"I venture to differ from the Justiciary," remarked the princess. "An earlier law is always repealed by a later. Therefore the feudal statute which has been cited is abrogated by the recent Anti-duelling Act. We will therefore omit this pretended championing of our rights as an obsolete, barbarous, and unmeaning ceremony."
The Justiciary did not look as if convinced by Barbara"s reasoning. He refrained from further comment, however, and the motion to omit the champion from the ceremonial was unanimously accepted.
Various other matters relative to the solemnity were settled, after which the council broke up, leaving Zabern still troubled by Mosco"s smile. A permanent member of the cabinet, the Greek archpastor, equally with the Roman archbishop, could not be removed at will by the princess or the premier, unless guilty of treason, and of this Zabern as yet lacked proof.
"He is playing Bora"s game," muttered the marshal. "He is a party to Lipski"s plot. I warrant he knows all about the store of arms concealed in that traitor"s cellar. Mosco, you shall sit no more as the betrayer of our meetings, for none shall be held. For some time to come Czernova shall be governed by a council of three--the princess, Radzivil, and myself."
But the evil which the Greek archpastor might do was as nothing compared with what the Roman archbishop could effect, and in the course of a few days Barbara found herself facing a peril of which even her confidant Zabern little dreamed.
A week after Paul"s departure Cardinal Ravenna returned to Slavowitz, coming from Rome in no good humor. The Sacred College, at the invitation of the Pope, had been spending many days in the discussion of some abstruse doctrine of theology, much to the irritation of Ravenna, whose self-interest required his presence in Czernova.
In the first hour of his return he was made aware that the cabinet, ignoring his superior claims, had deputed Abbot Faustus to crown the princess, and that all men were talking of the event; for inasmuch as it was the current belief that Ravenna was the very person who had converted the princess to the Catholic faith, the Czernovese were naturally not a little mystified by this exclusion of the archbishop from the coronation ceremony.
Ravenna knew full well that this appointment could not have been made without the sanction of Barbara herself, and accordingly on the following morning he repaired to the Vistula Palace, his mortification becoming still further enhanced by the mocking smile of his Greek rival, whom he chanced to pa.s.s on the way. Barbara received the cardinal with a chilling mien.
"Is it true, princess," he began with a grave air, "that in the matter of the coronation you have given to the Abbot Faustus, my inferior, the honor which belongs of right to the archbishop?"
"Quite true," responded Barbara, coldly.
"Do you intend, then, with set purpose, to put an affront upon me in the sight of all Czernova?"
"None but pure hands shall set the diadem upon my head. Shall I accept the Sacrament from one who has insulted me with words of unhallowed love, repeat prayers uttered by your lips? My lord cardinal," she added in scorn, "have you no conscience?"
Probably not. He was indifferent to the moral precepts of religion, if not at heart wholly atheistic, having adopted the ecclesiastic life merely as a stepping-stone to power.
"Is it likewise true that Zabern purposes at no distant date to introduce into the Diet a bill for the expulsion of Jesuits from Czernova?"
"Your eminence has been correctly informed. We cannot tolerate in the princ.i.p.ality those whose aim it is to create an _imperium in imperio_.
Besides," added the princess, caustically, "a Jesuit Expulsion Bill will put my Muscovite subjects in a good humor, while not greatly offending the Catholics."
Though maintaining a calm exterior, the cardinal nevertheless listened with secret dismay, for her words were the very death-knell of his ambition. By using the princess as his instrument he had hoped to play the _role_ of a Richelieu in Czernova, and to be the supreme director of affairs, secular as well as ecclesiastical. By reason of his supposed conversion of a Greek princess he had obtained a high place in the Pope"s favor. He had openly boasted at the Vatican that the Greek heresy would soon vanish from Czernova. But now? The att.i.tude of Barbara and her cabinet showed that he had been building castles in the air.
Was this to be the end of his life"s work? Must he write "failure"
across the scheme that had occupied his mind for twenty years? It would seem so.
"Is it to be war between us? Good! Thus, then, do I take up the gage flung down by you. On your coronation day, in the sight of all a.s.sembled in the cathedral, I shall rise to affirm, ay, and to prove too, that you are not Natalie Lilieska. I shall denounce you as an impostor, as a knowing usurper of the rights of Bora."
"And be arrested as an accomplice of the impostor; since, if I fall, you fall with me."
"Not so, princess; for I shall previously have made my terms with Bora. You may count, now, upon having the Pope as your enemy, since you are bent upon persecuting the Society of Jesus. By falsely claiming to be princess you have imposed upon the Holy Father. You admit a heretical prelate to partic.i.p.ate in the ceremony of your coronation. You pretend to be a Catholic, yet your ministers have placarded Slavowitz to the effect that the princess will swear at the altar to preserve inviolate the ancient privileges as well of the Greek as of the Latin Church. Such Laodicean policy will not suit Pio Nono. A word in his ear from me will bring against you a bull of excommunication. And, remember, that the subjects of an excommunicated ruler are absolved from their allegiance."
Barbara laughed scornfully.
"We are not living in the time of the Crusades. Excommunication is an obsolete weapon."
"Not so obsolete as you deem, princess. The Poles are loyal, or shall we say superst.i.tious, Catholics. Many of them will obey the Pope rather than yourself. There will be a cleavage in the ranks of your Polish adherents fatal to your interests. Barbara Lilieska, with the Pope and the Catholic clergy of Czernova alienated from you; with dissension among your own adherents; with the duke and his Muscovite faction opposed to you; with the jealous Czar, ready, nay, eager, to march his armies against the usurping princess who had so often thwarted his policy--it will pa.s.s the wit of Zabern himself to keep you upon the throne. Dream not of your coronation. You may ride in state to the cathedral, but only to witness the crowning of Bora. From that ceremony you will return not to this Vistula Palace, but to that Citadel in which you once imprisoned the duke. He hates you bitterly since your rejection of him for Captain Woodville. Now he will be able to wreak his vengeance upon you. You will have to drink deep of the cup of humiliation. Are you prepared for this?"
Barbara sat, pondering over the difficulties of her position. Then amid her troubled thoughts came the memory of Paul and of his mysterious plan, and she took courage.
The cardinal stood silently drinking in the beauty of her face and figure, loving and hating her in the same moment, hoping against hope that she would change her att.i.tude towards him.
So long did Barbara remain mute that the cardinal began to think that her opposition was weakening, and under this delusion he ventured to renew his proposals of love.
"No more such language, my lord," said the princess, her eyes flashing with indignation, "or I call the guard."
"And thereby precipitate your immediate ruin. The news of my imprisonment would cause my nephew Redwitz of Zamoska to put in evidence the three sealed letters. At present the secrets contained within them are unknown even to him; but in a day more all the world would be talking of the impostor-princess of Czernova. There are still seven weeks left to you; why abbreviate your reign?"
Ravenna had spoken without his accustomed caution in revealing the names Redwitz and Zamoska, which last was a small town in Russia, distant a few miles from the Czernovese border. Though trembling with anger at the cardinal"s insolence, which a hard necessity compelled her to tolerate, Barbara did not let the phrase "Redwitz of Zamoska"
escape her. The words seemed to afford a ray of hope. If these letters could be seized, and the cardinal arrested on one and the same day, why--then--then--
"Barbara Tressilian," said the cardinal quietly, "your aversion to illicit love would seem to combat the theory of heredity."
At this singular utterance the princess gave a palpable start.
"The daughter is more scrupulous than the mother."
These words and the cold sneer accompanying them occasioned in Barbara a fear far greater than that caused by the threat of deposition.
"What devil"s lie are you inventing now?" she murmured.
"Your English mother, Hilda Tressilian, was content to be wooed and won without asking the church to consecrate her love."
If it be possible for the human heart to suspend its pulsation, then Barbara"s heart did at that moment.