"Count Radzivil," observed Barbara, turning to the premier, "on you devolves the honor of entertaining our guest, Count Feodor Orloff, so long as he shall remain in Czernova."
But the envoy, his asperity not at all softened by the princess"s courtesy, bluntly averred his intention of setting out for St.
Petersburg within an hour from that time.
"Loyalty to the Czar forbids me to dally in his service."
"The Czar is honored in possessing an envoy so discreet. My lords, we will retire."
Zabern was the first to draw his sabre, and to hold it aloft over the head of Barbara; the rest of her adherents standing in a double line imitated his action, Paul among the number; and thus the fair sovereign, with a smile and a blush, and yet maintaining an air of dignity withal, pa.s.sed out beneath an arcade of brilliant sword-blades, and amid a saluting cry from her soldiery of "Long live the Princess of Czernova!"
She had gained a diplomatic victory over Russia, but none knew better than Barbara herself that her triumph was merely temporary, and that Russia would return to the charge at the first opportunity.
The a.s.sembly broke up. Orloff went back to the Hotel de Varsovie, and summoning those of his suite who had not attended him to the Vistula Palace, he set off immediately for Russia. The Duke of Bora, with bitterness rankling at his heart, followed the princess to her apartments, determined to hear from her own lips whether it was her intention to break off the marriage to which she had been so long pledged. The ministers sought the palace gardens, where they discussed the envoy"s defeat.
"The Czar will not submit to such rebuff," said Radzivil, gloomily.
"Yet how could the princess speak and act otherwise if she must maintain her dignity?"
"Aha!" grinned Zabern to Paul, as they remained behind in the Throne Hall. "Did you mark the two traitors--the fall in their faces? They are somewhat doubtful now as to the success of their plot. Orloff is returning to Russia more than half-convinced that the Charter is still intact."
"He has a lingering suspicion, however," remarked Paul. "You have staved off the difficulty--but only for a time. What will happen on the coronation-day when Orloff beholds a charterless altar?"
"Bah! I"ll remedy that," replied Zabern, adding as he turned away, "shall I see you at the bal masque this evening?"
"Without doubt," answered Paul; for had not Barbara promised to dance with none but himself, a course she could take without exciting suspicion as to the relationship existing between herself and her secretary, inasmuch as her mask and fancy costume would disguise her ident.i.ty. "Without doubt," he continued, "for I am young, which is to say, frivolous. But you, marshal, will you be there? I thought you had a soul above music and dancing?"
"And such have I. But the masquerade held this evening by command of the princess is something more than a mere _fete_; it is a cloak to cover a certain political enterprise--what, you shall learn when the time comes. Captain Woodville," added Zabern, mysteriously, "at the bal masque of to-night history will be made. Till then, farewell."
With this Zabern turned away, and ascended to the lofty chamber in which he had left Katina.
He opened the door, not without a certain fear that she might have fulfilled her threat of suicide, but to his relief he saw her sitting pensively beside the barred cas.e.m.e.nt. There was a pistol by her side, a weapon which the marshal intuitively felt was a loaded one.
He had expected to be received with reproachful invective, instead of which she met him with a glad light in her eyes. She seemed totally transformed from the vengeful maiden whom he had left an hour previously. Zabern noted the change and wondered.
"Your imprisonment is over, Katina," he said, gently. "Orloff has departed."
"I know it," she replied, "for I have seen him."
"You have seen him," muttered the marshal, glancing suspiciously at the pistol, and doubtful now as to whether it was loaded.
"Yes. In departing Orloff and his suite took their way through the palace gardens and pa.s.sed within view of this very window. I could have over-reached you, marshal," she continued with a smile, "for, as my pistol is with me," she added, tapping the weapon, "I could easily have brought him down."
"But the thought of Czernova stayed your hand?"
"No!" she answered, "no," murmuring the words faintly, as if speaking more to herself than to him, while at the same time the soft color mantled her cheek, "it was the thought rather of him whom I love that kept me from the deed."
"Him whom you love?" repeated Zabern, with a touch of surprise in his voice. "Love? Humph! I am glad to hear that word from you, Katina."
"Why so?" she asked, casting a glance at him, and averting her eyes again immediately, when she observed how steadfastly he was regarding her.
"It shows that you are human if you can be touched by that sentiment,"
laughed Zabern. "I have been accustomed to think that you were even as myself."
"In what way?"
"Insensible to love. You know that my father led me in childhood to the sacramental altar, and there made me swear to do my best to destroy a great empire. Complete devotion to that patriotic vow--"
"Has extinguished in you every other emotion," murmured Katina.
"True. _Delenda est Muscovia_ is written on my heart in letters of fire. Patriotism is the only pa.s.sion that has ever possessed me. But with youthful maiden it should be different. Because Poland is not free must you, too, steel your heart against natural affection? And so my pretty Katina has a sweetheart? And his name?"
Why Katina should look frightened, and why her face should turn so white, completely mystified Zabern. As she remained silent he repeated his last question.
"His name? No! I cannot tell it; at least--not--not to you; though others know it. Nay," she added, wildly, "even Russakoff, the spy, can taunt me with it in the public street."
"Others know it, even Russakoff?" repeated Zabern. "And yet you would keep the name from me? Well, be it so," he added reproachfully. "I should have thought, Katina, that you would have let your old friend, the marshal, be the first to congratulate you."
Strange that Zabern, so quick to divine the plans of his enemies, should be so dull at reading a woman"s heart! Yet so it was. He really had not the least idea as to the cause of Katina"s agitation. He thought it behoved him to find out. He had nursed her as a child on his knee, and now with the tender familiarity of an old friend he placed his hand beneath her chin, and though she attempted a faint resistance, he succeeded in raising her drooping face to his own. The strange wistful look in her dark eyes that met his for a moment only, and then fell again, was a complete revelation to the marshal. It told her secret as clearly as if she had spoken it.
"Katina!" he murmured, huskily, quitting his hold of her, and starting back.
Katina herself sank on a seat silently and with averted face, the very picture of confusion.
"What! am I the man?"
If silence gives a.s.sent, then Katina had a.s.sented.
There was a brief interval of silence. Then the affair seemed to present itself in a humorous light to the marshal, for he began to laugh.
"You love me! Me! the greatest knave in Czernova! a one-handed grim old fellow like myself, twice your age, with an ugly face, made--thanks to the Russians!--still more ugly by sabre-cuts. You have a strange taste, Katina, when there is many a young and handsome Pole willing to make you his bride."
"But none like Zabern," she murmured, yet hardly daring to say the words.
Though the marshal looked upon Katina as the fairest maiden in Czernova after the princess, yet the thought of wooing her had never entered his head; but now, while he contemplated her as she trembled like a leaf, looking the more charming in her confusion, the grim old warrior felt within himself a power unfelt till that moment.
"Katina," he said, and never before had she heard his voice sound so gentle,--"Katina, you may kiss me--if you like."
"It is your place to come and kiss me."
Zabern was making a forward movement, but ere he could take the second step Katina was within his arms, and clinging as if she intended never to release her hold. And it was evident that the marshal found his new experiences far more attractive than the business required of him as a minister; for when a minute afterwards a secretary tapped at the door with the announcement that he was bringing state despatches, Zabern, in a loud voice, bade him begone and carry the despatches to the--well, a certain dark gentleman popularly supposed by the Muscovites of Czernova to be a near relation of Zabern himself.
"And have you never before loved any woman?" asked Katina, as she sat on the marshal"s knee, and seeming to be quite at home there, too!
"Never; but now I shall love all women for your sake."
"I had rather you did not," said Katina, opening wide her eyes; and then as she nestled closer within his embrace she murmured, "this is more pleasant than to hang for the slaying of Orloff."
"Much more," remarked Zabern. "To shoot him would have been a very inadequate retribution for what he made you suffer. One swift pang, and all would have been over. Now I will point out a better way of avenging yourself--a way that shall cause Orloff to eat out his heart in vexation of spirit."