When at last she spoke it was in a voice breathless with indignation.
"Can there be a more base deed than to slander a dead mother in the presence of her daughter?"
"No slander, but the solemn truth do I speak. Your father, Prince Thaddeus, withheld this knowledge from you, from a desire to spare your feelings. When after the Dalmatian earthquake of two years ago, you were wavering between the crown of a princess and the veil of a nun, the knowledge that you were of illegitimate birth might have deterred you from accepting the crown; therefore Prince Thaddeus kept that matter a secret. He invented the story that the church, the scene of his marriage, had been burnt, and the record of the union destroyed; and the more effectually to deceive you he made choice in his fiction of a certain church which had actually been consumed by fire. But the preservation of the edifice would have availed you nothing, for its marriage-book contained no such names as Thaddeus Lilieski and Hilda Tressilian."
"It is a question betwixt my father"s word and yours. I prefer my father"s."
"Naturally, inasmuch as it suits your interests. When on your crowning-day, and before a vast a.s.sembly, I rise to deny that you are Natalie Lilieski, will you dare affirm it, knowing, as you do, that you lack a certain birth-mark of that princess? If you aver that you are in reality Barbara Lilieska, the elder daughter of Thaddeus, what answer will you give to those who challenge you to produce the proofs of Thaddeus"s early marriage? Barbara Tressilian, you are illegitimate, and as such debarred from reigning. Your beauty has made you many enemies among the proud and envious ladies of Czernova. Those over whom you have queened it will be able to point the finger of scorn at the discrowned princess, branded with the stain of illicit birth."
He marked with secret pleasure the shiver of wounded pride on the part of Barbara, and clenched his remarks with the question,--
"Knowing what I can effect, do you still maintain your defiance of me?"
"I do," responded Barbara, quietly. "Believing myself to be the lawful princess of Czernova, I shall hold to my throne. Girt around with earthly perils, I tranquillize my mind by looking above, confiding in the justice of heaven."
That any one should think of trusting to such a shadowy weapon as the justice of heaven drew a sneer from the atheistic cardinal.
"The history of Poland should have taught you that G.o.d is always on the side of the strong." And then, conscious of the futility of further argument, he made a mock bow, and with the words, "Farewell, Princess Lackland," he withdrew from the saloon.
Barbara retired to her own private apartments, and was seen no more that day, save by her personal attendants.
Her belief in her legitimacy had rested upon her father"s word; but how if he had deceived her? The thought that she might be of illicit birth rankled in her mind, poisoning all her happiness. She clenched her hands in agony, and unable to sit still, paced restlessly to and fro.
The spirit of justice was deep-planted within Barbara"s breast; a throne unlawfully held had no attractions for her; if she could be certain that the cardinal"s statement were true, then, bitter though the duty might be, she must resign the crown of Czernova to her enemy Bora. But she was not certain, and therein lay the torture. She would have no peace of mind till the question should be settled, and unfortunately the circ.u.mstances of the case seemed to preclude the possibility of solving the doubt.
When Zabern next day sought the presence of the princess, he was struck by her pallid complexion and melancholy air.
"The cabinet," he muttered to himself, mistaking the cause of her sadness, "will have to recall Woodville, or our princess"s health will give way. Your Highness," he said aloud, "Dorislas has just proposed a conundrum."
"To what effect?" asked Barbara with a smile.
""Whether does Cardinal Ravenna live at Slavowitz or at Rome?" I confess I am unable to answer it. It is but forty-eight hours since the cardinal"s return, and yet we now hear that he has set off again for Rome, and will not come back till your coronation eve."
"When he will bring with him," observed Barbara, quietly, "a papal bull excommunicating the Princess of Czernova."
"Ha! he"ll be well advised not to read it," said Zabern, touching the hilt of his sabre significantly. "I plainly foresaw that our preference for Faustus would make an enemy of Ravenna. And so he hath gone to Rome to solicit a bull of excommunication? And he"ll obtain it. Our intended attack on the Jesuits will not please Pio Nono; once their foe, he hath of late become their friend and patron.
Excommunication! Thus does the Church reward us for preserving her property, since in fighting for our own Convent of the Transfiguration, we were fighting likewise for all the other monasteries of Czernova; for which service it now appears we are to receive papal curses.
Humph! "Catholicism without the Pope" will soon have to be our cry."
"Marshal," said Barbara, resolving to make Zabern a confidant of her secret history, "did you not present me with a handsome bow and quiver about six months ago?"
Zabern replied in the affirmative, wondering why the princess should have introduced a matter seemingly irrelevant.
"Have you not felt hurt that I have never once made use of your gifts?"
"The princess has been occupied with more important matters."
"Shall I give you my reason?"
"If your Highness wills."
"The reason is very simple. I have never handled bow and arrow, and it might create suspicion if I should now begin to learn."
"Now your Highness is jesting," said Zabern, puzzled to account for this humor on the part of the princess, because Barbara was not in the habit of jesting; and, moreover, if her remark were intended for a jest, it was somewhat difficult to see the point. "You shoot like Diana herself, or rather, I should say you did, for I must confess that since your Dalmatian tour you seem to have taken a dislike to archery."
"Marshal, I have never in my life taken aim at a target."
Zabern was completely dumfounded by the seriousness with which Barbara spoke. On recovering from his surprise, he said, smiling the while, for he did not believe in what he was saying,--
"Then if I am to accept your Highness"s statement as true, it must follow as a logical conclusion that the young princess who handled the bow so admirably three years ago is not the same as she who now addresses me."
"Now you have hit upon my secret, marshal. I am not Natalie Lilieska."
"And I am not Ladislas Zabern," laughed the other. He could not tell why the princess spoke thus; he certainly could not believe her.
"Now, Zabern, be serious, for I am serious. Can you not recall when I first came here from Dalmatia, many supposed lapses of memory on my part? Was it not a common saying at that time, "The princess has grown very forgetful?" Was I ever seen without either my father or Ravenna by my side? The truth is they were secretly instructing me as to the persons whom I met, giving me their names, history, and the like. And yet in spite of many blunders on my part, no one seemed to have any suspicion as to the truth, not even the Duke of Bora. Listen,"
continued Barbara to the utterly bewildered marshal, "listen while I give you a secret chapter of my biography."
Zabern gave due heed; and though the story was one of the most marvellous and most romantic that had ever come under his notice, either in history or fiction, he was compelled to believe in its truth, for what motive could the princess have in fabricating such story?
But when he was made aware of the sacrifice which the cardinal had demanded of Barbara as the price of his silence, Zabern became first cold with horror, then hot with rage. A saint as regarded his own dealings with women, he viewed with peculiar aversion a priest addicted to illicit amours.
"By heaven, your Highness, if I had but known this three hours earlier I would have cut the villain"s throat."
"And thereby, in the cardinal"s words, have precipitated my immediate ruin. We must act warily. Listen."
And here Barbara proceeded to enlighten the marshal as to Redwitz of Zamoska, the guardian of the three sealed letters; and how on receiving intelligence of his uncle"s imprisonment or death, the nephew was to despatch these missives,--one to the Russian Foreign Minister, a second to the Duke of Bora, and a third to the office of the "Kolokol" newspaper.
"A subtle knave!" smiled Zabern.
Himself born with a genius for plotting, the marshal took a keen zest in outwitting the plans of others, and in his view the cardinal"s contrivance for safeguarding himself presented some interesting features.
"I fail to see why your Highness should fear the cardinal. You are so like Princess Natalie in face and figure that you can laugh at his threat to expose you on the coronation day. We will ascribe his statement to the malice of a disappointed ecclesiastic."
"Not so," replied Barbara, with a shake of her graceful head. "My sister Natalie had a mole upon her right shoulder, as the physicians who attended her birth, and the nurses and ladies who waited upon her, can prove. I have no such mark. Now, Zabern, never lacking in subtle counsel, you see my peril. Aid me. You defeated Lipski; now defeat the cardinal for me."
"A very easy matter. Why did not your Highness confide in me before?"
"How--easy? In what way do you propose to act?"
"In the first place, are you certain that no one knows your secret besides ourselves, Ravenna, and Captain Woodville? This Redwitz, for example?"
"The cardinal a.s.serted that his nephew was ignorant of the contents of the three packets."
"Good! For my own part I do not think it probable that the cardinal would share so valuable a secret with others; his own self-interest would forbid it. Well, now," mused Zabern, "if we lay violent hands upon Ravenna the nephew over the border will send off the letters."
"That has been my fear."
"On the other hand, if I despatch an agent to the house of Redwitz to obtain possession of the letters, and it would be very easy to effect this--"