SO NEAR, AND YET----
The long hours of evening and night wore away, so monotonously that
Nadia began to feel as if a slow and uneven progress on a badly laid
track, conducted to the accompaniment of the clanking of couplings and
the dull thud of the engine, and diversified by halts of varying
duration at unfinished and ill-lighted stations, was a normal
condition of her life, and might be expected to last for ever. The men
at the other end of the carriage made themselves comfortable upon the
benches, and the two women slumbered intermittently among the bundles.
Whenever she awoke Nadia busied herself in laying her plans for the
morrow, as she sat gazing into the flying darkness, with an occasional
glimpse of a distant star or a cloud of rushing steam. Her friend’s
insistence upon the necessity of a written petition had given her a
new idea, but she did not intend to make use of it unless she was
forced to do so by circumstances. It was still her intention to throw
herself suddenly at Caerleon’s feet and entreat him to listen to her
for a moment. If, not perceiving who she was, he should depute Cyril
to inquire into her case, all would be well; but if he should
recognise her, and she were compelled to deliver her warning to
himself, she still cherished the wild hope that she would be able to
retreat and lose herself in the crowd before he could recover from his
astonishment. The petition was only to be used in case she found it
difficult to obtain access to him. There was little likelihood of his
recognising her handwriting, which he had only seen once or twice, but
she hoped that the idea of a miscarriage of justice would rouse him at
once to make inquiries, when Cyril would naturally be the messenger
chosen.
In thus providing against various contingencies she passed the waking
hours of the night, and in the morning, when the train stopped at the
station where her friend’s cousin lived, she felt that she was
prepared for any event. The station-master’s residence was not
imposing in appearance, consisting as it did of four whitewashed walls
and a thatched roof, but the owner’s wife received her visitors with
much hospitality, insisted on their sharing her breakfast, and
supplied them with the means of making a hasty and somewhat primitive
toilet. During the meal Nadia’s first friend unfolded the girl’s
story, in so far as she had heard it, to her cousin, and engaged her
help in the matter of drawing up the petition. The hostess wasted no
time in assuring them of her sympathy, but produced at once a pen and
ink and some sheets of official paper from a hole under the thatch,
which served apparently as her husband’s bureau, and Nadia sat down to
write at the small low table, from which the breakfast things had been
hastily removed. It was no easy matter to translate into passable
French the sonorous Thracian which her travelling companion poured
forth, to the loudly expressed admiration of the station-master’s
wife, and the latter complicated the matter almost at the beginning by
exclaiming--
“Oh no, Maria! You must not mention the marriage, it would be most
unsuitable. Haven’t you heard the news?”
“News? What news?” cried Nadia and her friend together.
“Why, about the poor King. The engine-driver on the train from
Bellaviste which passed through the station this morning told my
husband what he had heard them saying last night. The wicked girl--for
wicked she is, princess or no princess--whom he was going to marry
went and ran off with some one else on the very day before the
betrothal!”
“I wish her husband joy of her!” said Nadia’s friend, grimly. “A jilt
like that will come to no good. After all, the poor young King is well
rid of such a minx. But I was afraid you were going to say that
something had happened to the King--and I see you were too,” she went
on, looking at Nadia, from whose hand the pen had fallen. “That would
have been bad for you; for Milos Drakovics, good patriot though he is,
is a man of iron, and would never listen to a girl’s entreaties,
especially on a matter that touched the discipline of the army. Well,
we must alter the words of the petition. Perhaps the poor King’s heart
will be softened by his trouble.”
Awkward as the transposition of sentiment might appear, the Thracian
poetess was equal to the occasion, and the petition was successfully
drawn out, with its wording altered to correspond with the change of
circumstances. After the first shock of surprise and ineffable relief,
Nadia wrote steadily on, without allowing herself time to think. Not
until she was again in the train, with the farewells and good wishes
of her kindly hostess ringing in her ears, did she permit herself to
remember that Caerleon was once more free, that now there was no one
who had the right to stand between him and herself. She knew that she
ought to feel sorry that a scheme of so much excellence had failed,
that such a cruel indignity had been put upon Caerleon in the face of
all Europe, but she was not. She was silently, unspeakably glad, and
all the morning as she sat listening patiently to her companion’s
legends, and putting in appropriate remarks at intervals, her thoughts
were of the spring of happiness which was rising again in her heart.
“You look better this morning,” the good woman observed complacently,
as they neared Bellaviste. “No doubt it makes you feel more
comfortable to have the written paper to depend upon in case you get
flustered when you see his Majesty and can’t say a word. That was how
my Elisaveta felt when the War Minister’s lady spoke to her one day at
a military _fête_. Now be sure and let me hear how you get on. I wish
you would come and eat some dinner with us, and let me take you
afterwards to some place where you will be able to get a sight of his
Majesty; but if you won’t, you won’t. Only, if you get into any
trouble, ask for the quarters of Serge Georgevics, and even if I am
gone home, you will find Elisaveta there, and she will help you in any
way she can, for I am going to tell her all about you.”
It was with difficulty that even on the platform at Bellaviste Nadia
released herself from her kind friend, but when she had delivered the
bundles she had been helping to carry into the charge of Sergeant
Georgevics, who was waiting to meet his mother-in-law, and had refused
a second invitation to dinner, she found herself free. The sergeant
told her that the King had already returned to the city, and was now
receiving the Ministers at the palace, but that he would drive through
the streets in the afternoon, that the townspeople might be gratified
by a sight of him before he left the capital again for Tatarjé. There
were, therefore, still two hours to spare before she could hope to see
him, and she walked restlessly about the less frequented streets until
she was tired, and then, fearing that she might be too exhausted to
perform her task, went into a quiet restaurant for a cup of coffee and
a roll. This frugal meal over, she made her way into the principal
street, where she waited with all the patience she could command until
the appearance of bodies of troops and police showed that the King
might be expected to pass by before long. In spite of the failure of
M. Drakovics to discover the nature of the plots hatched at Witska, he
had learnt enough to make him anxious for the King’s safety, and the
road was to be lined on either side with mounted soldiers and
gendarmes by way of precaution. Crowds of people gathered on the
pavement as time went on, and the windows and house-tops were as
closely packed with spectators as on the day when the King had first
entered his capital. The Thracians were resolved not only to
demonstrate their sympathy with their monarch under the somewhat
trying circumstances of his return from the Mœsian frontier, but also
to testify their appreciation of the diplomacy of his advisers. This
might well be said to have succeeded, in spite of the untoward event
which had occurred, in obtaining for Thracia peace with honour, and
hence no patriot stayed at home who could possibly get out into the
streets. Nadia succeeded in maintaining a position in the front rank
by dint of clinging to a lamp-post, and she peered anxiously between
the soldiers in front of her to catch the first glimpse of the
procession. At last the distant sound of mighty cheering arose, and as
it came closer she caught sight of the glittering helmets and
breastplates of the escort. Now she must act. Loosing her hold of the
lamp-post, she slipped in between the horses of the two mounted men
nearest her and tried to press to the front. But strict orders had
been given to allow no one to pass the guards, and the man on her
right caught her shoulder and turned her back.
“You can’t go any further, my girl. If you want to see the King, stand
still where you are, and you will get a splendid sight of him as he
passes. You don’t want to be introduced to him, do you?”
“I have a petition to present,” she said eagerly, disregarding the
man’s rough humour. “I must give it into his hand.”
“A petition? Let me see it.”
Nadia gave it to him, and he scrutinised it carefully, upside-down,
from the seal which the station-master’s wife had insisted on adding
at the foot, in the idea that it gave the document an official
appearance, to the loyal address at the head, turned it over, smelt
it, and handed it back to her. He could not even read sufficiently to
know that it was not in Thracian, but he was satisfied that it was not
calculated to convey any harm to the King.
“Yes, it’s all right,” he said. “You can throw it into the King’s
carriage as you stand there. Or, if you are afraid of missing, I will
throw it for you, if you will thrust it into my hand just at the
moment, so that the sergeant may not see.”
“Oh no, I must give it to him,” cried Nadia in a frenzy. The first
carriage was close at hand now, and she saw that Caerleon was in it,
sitting with his face to the horses, with Cyril and General
Sertchaieff opposite him.
“But you can’t,” said the trooper, with a grim smile. What possessed
her to do it Nadia could never afterwards determine, but she snatched
out her dagger and struck at him wildly. He parried the blow with the
greatest ease, knocked the dagger out of her hand, and seized both her
wrists in an iron grasp, crying--
“Help! Here’s a woman trying to murder the King!”
“Holy Peter!” cried another, as Nadia struggled in vain to free
herself. “Look at her white hands. She is a Scythian spy!”
“A Scythian spy!” said another voice. “Kill her, then!” An officer of
the escort had forced his horse into the group, about which the crowd
was surging and shouting. Nadia became vaguely aware that the
new-comer’s face was familiar to her, that his eyes were like her
mother’s,--that he was her brother Louis. Madame O’Malachy’s words
recurred to her mind, “Louis will not allow you to spoil his plans,”
and as they did so, she saw that he had something in his hand. He
raised it, and for one awful instant, which seemed an hour, she was
looking down the barrel of a revolver. Her eyes were fixed on the
little steel circle so close in front of them, but she saw Louis’s
finger moving to the trigger, and a shrill scream of terror broke from
her as she cowered back and raised her elbow to shield herself. The
crack she was expecting came, sounding to her like a thunder-clap, and
the crowd yelled excitedly, but the bullet sped harmlessly over her
head, as the weapon was knocked up by the senior officer of the
escort, who had caught her captor’s agonised cry of “Accomplices,
lieutenant! she may have accomplices!”
“You will return to the palace, Lieutenant O’Malachy, and consider
yourself under arrest,” said the captain, and Louis saluted, and
backing his horse out of the crowd, rode away, followed by the cheers
of the mob, which appeared to approve of his endeavour to execute
lynch law. But Nadia did not even look after him. She had seen, over
the heads of the pushing and struggling people, who had forced their
way past the guards and into the road, Caerleon spring up in the
carriage and call to the coachman to stop, had seen Cyril throw
himself out before his brother could get his foot on the step.
“Your Majesty wishes me to settle this matter for you?” he said
imperatively, refusing to allow Caerleon to descend.
“Good heavens, Cyril! don’t you see that it’s Nadia? I tell you I
heard her voice. Let me pass!” But Cyril held his ground.
“Go on and leave me to settle things, unless you want to involve her
and yourself in the biggest scandal that ever spread through Europe.
It’s for her sake, I tell you!”
“May I entreat his Majesty to continue his drive?” said an agitated
commissary of police, thrusting his way to the front through the
raging, roaring mass of people that had closed around the troopers and
their prisoner. “The crowd are beginning to believe that the assassin
has accomplished her purpose, and the woman will be torn in pieces
before we can get her to the prison, unless the King will drive on and
show himself, and so distract their attention from her.”
“Do you want her blood on your head?” cried Cyril, pushing his brother
back into his place. “Go on, and let me see after her. I promise you I
will take no steps without your leave. Drive on,” he called to the
coachman.
Angry and bewildered, Caerleon found himself carried on, past the
seething crowd into which Cyril was now forcing his way, and between
fresh rows of anxious spectators who had not been able to leave their
places, so closely were they packed together, and who were necessarily
a prey to the wildest rumours. They greeted the King with tumultuous
cheers; and as the news spread, those who were on the outskirts of the
crowd, and found it impossible to obtain a view of him, rushed to the
churches and began to ring the bells, so that the drive continued in a
perfect pandemonium of sound. Caerleon, bowing mechanically to right
and left, and wondering what could have brought Nadia to Bellaviste,
and where Cyril would take her, could scarcely hear himself speak when
he remembered that it would be suitable to make some remark to his
companion on what had happened. He looked across at General
Sertchaieff, but started when his eyes fell upon his face, for it was
pale and set, and as expressionless as a mask.
“I am afraid this alarm has given you a shock, General?” he said,
wondering whether it would be advisable to summon a doctor to
prescribe for the Minister of War.
“Who would not be painfully affected by the attempt to perpetrate such
a crime, sir?” returned General Sertchaieff. “Whom can we trust when
Scythia turns our peasant-girls into assassins? I know these women:
they will dare everything and tell nothing.”
“I hope you will find you are mistaken,” said Caerleon. “I myself am
quite convinced that it was not an attempt at assassination at all.”
Etiquette forbade General Sertchaieff to advance an opinion contrary
to that of his sovereign, but he shook his head sadly, and it was
evident that the people were sharers in his belief. Indeed, before
Caerleon returned to the palace, it was commonly known in the city
that the would-be assassin--a woman of extraordinary stature, and
armed with three dynamite bombs, a dagger, and a couple of
revolvers--had mounted the step of the carriage and dealt a stab at
the King, which was only not fatal because the troopers had seized her
and dragged her back just in time. In view of such a determined
attempt at murder, it is not wonderful that the people thronged into
the churches to return thanks for the King’s escape, and that every
loyal householder in Bellaviste devised and proceeded to execute
marvellous impromptu illuminations for the evening with candles and
oil-lamps. Cyril smiled grimly over the popular enthusiasm as he
returned to the palace, and wondered impatiently how things were ever
to be set right. Out of doors, the people were breathing out furious
threats against the assassin; inside the palace Caerleon was waiting
in restless anxiety for news of her.
“Well, where is she?” he asked eagerly, as Cyril came in.
“In the prison. We had to take her there to save her life,--the people
were kicking up such a row,” as Caerleon uttered an exclamation of
horror; “but she is in the governor’s house, treated as a guest; and
the governor’s wife, rather a jolly old lady, but as deaf as a
post,--which is an advantage under the circumstances,--is looking
after her like a mother.”
“But what brought her here?”
“She came to warn you of a plot. So far as I can make out--for she
won’t mention any names--that good-for-nothing father of hers is
intending to murder you to-morrow on the way to Tatarjé. Madame
O’Malachy died the other day, and on her deathbed she let out the
secret. Miss O’Malachy kept her own counsel, and started off here as
soon as she could to give you the tip.”
Caerleon drew a long breath. “Well,” he said triumphantly, “I hope you
see now that it is positively incumbent on me to marry her. Think of
her coming all that way to warn me! She must care for me, after all.”
“I was always under the impression that she did care for you, but
refused you on conscientious grounds for the good of the kingdom,”
said Cyril.
“Oh yes, of course; but it’s quite a different thing now. You must
think me an utter cad if you imagine that I’m going to let her take
this journey just to save me, and get herself into awful trouble with
her own people, and then simply send her adrift again after it all.
It’s absolutely the only thing to be done.”
“It’s a most unfortunate affair altogether,” said Cyril, meditatively.
“If you ask me, Caerleon, I say that the only thing to be done is to
get her out of the city to-night, and hush the matter up. Just wait a
moment, and listen to me. You may not know--I didn’t want to bother
you at the time--that very nasty reports got into the Scythian papers
a little while ago about you and her. The O’Malachys left Bellaviste
hastily and in dudgeon, you see, and the old man takes it into his
head suddenly to express a deadly hatred of you, and begins to talk
big about the vengeance he will have for the way in which you have
treated his daughter. The girl makes no sign, but all at once, hearing
of your engagement to Princess Ottilie (for she must have started
before it was known to be at an end), she returns in disguise and
attempts to murder you--that is how it will appear,--and all this will
be simply nuts for the newspapers.”
“This is awful!” groaned Caerleon, aghast. “You mean to say that I
have let her in for vile suspicions of that kind?”
“I should have said that she had let you in for them. But it’s my firm
impression that she knows as little about this Scythian _canard_ as
you did a minute ago. If she had known, she is not fool enough to have
used that dagger as she did.”
“I don’t quite see what you are driving at. That doesn’t make any
difference. Get out a special ‘Gazette,’ will you?--you’re always
issuing special ‘Gazettes’ for some reason or other--and tell the
truth in it for once. Give her reason for coming here, and--no, I’ll
draw it up myself.”
“Caerleon, stop!” cried Cyril, peremptorily, “and listen to me. You
can’t carry things off in this way. No one would believe your story,
and it would be said that you had married her as the price of her
silence.”
“Stuff!” said Caerleon, contemptuously. “I shall ask the Queen of
Mœsia to invite her to Eusebia on a short visit, and that will put an
end to these slanders. As for leaving her unprotected now, I tell you
I won’t hear of it.”
“Do you mean to marry her against her will?” asked Cyril.
“No, I shall see her and make her understand the state of the
case--not telling her anything of what you have said, of course. But I
am sure I could have made her listen to me before, only she begged me
not to urge her against her conscience, and I obeyed her, like a fool!
At any rate, I won’t do that again. It would be absurd to talk about
refusing me now for the sake of the kingdom,--after what has happened
she must know that, for if I don’t marry her I shan’t marry at
all,--and besides, when once the people hear why she came here to-day,
they will be ready to worship her.”
“Then I suppose there is no use in my giving you her message?” said
Cyril.
“You may as well let me have it,” said Caerleon, reluctantly.
“She impressed upon me that she would not consent to see you under any
circumstances. She said she came here to try to do you a service, and
found herself your prisoner. If you chose to force yourself upon her
in defiance of her wishes, she must submit, since you were her gaoler,
but she believed you were a gentleman, and would respect her desire
for privacy.”
“What is one to do with a girl like that?” groaned Caerleon. He would
have liked to accuse Cyril of inventing the message, but it bore the
impress of Nadia’s somewhat impracticable style of heroism too plainly
not to be genuine. “Still, she doesn’t understand the case. I will put
it to her that if she will marry me, she will be clearing me from
imputations that have been made against me.”
“If she doesn’t understand the case then, she is not so clever as I
think her,” retorted Cyril; “and if you don’t put it strong enough she
won’t listen to you for a moment. Now look here: she has a home
promised her at Pavelsburg with Princess Soudaroff, her godmother,
with whom she lived before, and she only needs an escort to the
Scythian frontier. The governor’s wife would be quite willing to take
the little trip at your expense, and I will accompany them as far as
Boloszjen, where they will get the proper train. Then she will be all
right, and we can hush the matter up without any scandal at all.”
“And leave this wretched slander unrefuted?”
“Nonsense! the mere fact of the Princess’s receiving her again into
her house will refute it. Besides, I contradicted it at the time.”
“I am extremely obliged to you for your solicitude about my affairs.
Perhaps on another occasion you will remember that I also have some
slight interest in them. Well, I will see her, and then decide.”
“Of course, if you care to force yourself upon her after what she has
said----”
“You will drive me wild, Cyril. I will write to her, then.”
“No, you won’t. At least, I am not going to carry any letter. You
ought to know by this time that you should never put on paper anything
that might prove compromising later on. I’ll take any number of
messages from you, if you like, and deliver them without note or
comment.”
“What do I care about being compromised? If you will tell me the most
compromising form in which a letter can be written, I’ll write it.”
“I see. What I was afraid of was your compromising her.”
“Oh, go and tell her what I want. You badger a man till he doesn’t
know whether he’s standing on his head or his heels! But if you will
make her understand that I beg and beseech and entreat her to marry
me, and that I undertake that the people shall receive her joyfully as
queen, I’ll forgive you--that is, if you bring back word that she says
yes.”
“Very well. I suppose I may give orders for a carriage and relays of
horses to be ready to-morrow morning? Whether Miss O’Malachy decides
to take the Trans-Continental express for Pavelsburg, or to go and
stay at Eusebia preparatory to being transformed into the Queen of
Thracia, we must get her out of the place before people are about.
I’ll take Wright to drive, if you can spare him. He couldn’t tell
tales here if he would.”
“Oh, all right. But what on earth is the good of all this fuss? Tell
her that if she will only have me, we will be married as soon as we
can get a British chaplain up here.”
“Do keep cool,” entreated Cyril. “In any case, I thought that the lady
always fixed the day?”
He left the room as Caerleon gave a despairing groan, and returned to
the gaol for his second interview with Nadia. He found her sitting
with the wife of the governor, a pleasant-looking, white-haired old
lady whom deafness appeared to condemn to perpetual speech. Cyril
could hear her monotonous voice rambling on as he came up the stairs,
and it was not until he had written on a piece of paper that it was
very important he should speak to Nadia Mikhailovna in private that
she withdrew to the chimney-corner and comparative silence. Nadia had
laid aside her peasant’s dress, which had been torn almost to rags in
the rough handling she had received from the crowd, and the old lady
had lent her a black gown of her own, which was so much too large
about the waist that it was necessary to keep it in place by a sash.
This gave her a somewhat nun-like appearance, and she looked very tall
and severe as she accompanied Cyril to the window.
“I suppose you have come to tell me what is to happen to me,” she
said, with extreme coldness, and yet before his entrance the irony of
the situation had almost made her laugh. To have come all the way from
Witska to save Caerleon, and to find herself accused of trying to
murder him!
“I am here as the bearer of a message from my brother, which I have
promised to deliver to you word for word,” said Cyril. “If it had not
been for your appeal to his good feeling, he would be here himself
now; or he would have written, but I refused to carry a letter. He
implores you to reconsider your former determination, and to consent
to marry him. He undertakes that there shall be no opposition to the
match among the people, and he will regard it as the proudest day of
his life if you will be crowned with him next month as Queen of
Thracia.” He paused for a moment, then went on. “I am anxious to keep
my word to Caerleon, and therefore I will tell you that no one could
be more delighted than he was at the rupture of his engagement to
Princess Ottilie of Mœsia.”
“Ah!” said Nadia, her eyes shining for a moment, “and what do you
advise me to do?”
“I don’t presume to offer you any advice whatever. If my counsel was
not in accordance with your wishes, I dare not hope that you would
follow it, and if it agreed with them, it would be unnecessary. I am
so anxious to leave you absolutely unfettered, that I will go so far
as to say that I see no likelihood of my brother’s taking the course
which it seems to me would be most advantageous for the kingdom, and
making another attempt to ally himself with a royal house. He appears
firm in his determination to allow no one to occupy your place in his
heart. I congratulate you on your triumph.”
“I hate you!” cried Nadia, with fierce irrelevance. “If anything could
induce me to marry Carlino, it would be the thought that I was
spoiling your plans by doing it.”
Cyril shrugged his shoulders. “I hope that I should never forget
myself so far as to behave otherwise than politely to the lady who had
honoured my brother with her hand,” he said.
“Oh no, there is no fear of that,” said Nadia, wearily. “But do you
think I don’t know what would happen if I married him? Don’t be
afraid--I am not going to accept his offer. Your conduct would be
unexceptionable, no doubt, but the things you would say--the hints you
would give--the way you would look at me! Whenever trouble came upon
Thracia, you would make me understand that you considered it was due
to me. I cannot see how you and Carlino can be brothers. He is so--and
you are----”
“We seem to be both easier to imagine than describe, at any rate,”
said Cyril. “I said I wouldn’t offer you any advice, and I won’t. If I
were an orator like Drakovics, I might discourse to you on the beauty
of self-sacrifice, the expediency of renouncing one’s private wishes
for the sake of the State, and other similarly appropriate themes. But
being merely a man of the world, I can only say, marry Caerleon if you
like, and become Queen of Thracia. No doubt you will be very happy
until the next revolution comes. Or else leave him free still, and let
him and the kingdom have a chance.”
“I believe,” said Nadia, slowly, “that you would prefer that your
brother had been killed rather than that he should be saved through
me.”
“Now you are becoming excited,” said Cyril, “and when you think over
the things you have said you will be sorry for them. Certainly I might
wish that you had not chosen to warn him in such a noticeable--one
might almost say theatrical--way. But that is a detail, a mere error
of judgment, and does not really prejudice the fact, for which both he
and I must always remain grateful to you.”
“Thank you,” said Nadia. “After receiving such a handsome
acknowledgment of my services, it is only fair for me to give you the
satisfaction of hearing that I refuse absolutely to marry the King,
and that I will leave Bellaviste as soon as you will allow me.”
“I can’t pretend not to be relieved by your decision,” remarked Cyril,
frankly. “Pray be sure that I will do my best to settle the
arrangements for your journey as much in accordance with your wishes
as possible, although it will unfortunately be necessary to make the
start very early in the morning, in order to avoid exciting attention.
I propose, if you will allow me, to do myself the honour of
accompanying you as far as Boloszjen----”
“Oh, why make all this fuss--this pretence of asking my permission?”
asked Nadia, impatiently. “I know quite well that I am a prisoner, and
must submit to whatever arrangements my gaolers may choose to make for
me.”
“Excuse me,” said Cyril, “but I understood that you were leaving
Thracia by your own choice, and going to rejoin your friends? I think
you will see that this is both a more correct and a more agreeable way
of looking at the matter. To return to our subject. The first part of
the journey we must make by road, for it would not be advisable for
you to take the train from here. We will get on board at some country
station, where no one is likely to recognise us. Our good friend
Madame Bruics here will accompany you as far as the Scythian frontier,
and give you into the charge of Princess Soudaroff’s lady-in-waiting.”
“I am most grateful to you for your kindness and consideration,” said
Nadia, rising to leave the room. “Perhaps you will tell Madame Bruics
anything else you may have to say. I am very tired.”
“If your gratitude is to be interpreted by your looks, it is not a
kind I should care to get much of,” said Cyril to himself as she
retired. It took some time to explain in writing to Madame Bruics what
was required of her and to meet her various objections, but at last
Cyril was able to leave the prison and return to the palace. Sending
for Wright to give him his orders for the morrow, he found the groom
bursting with excitement and importance.
“’Ave you ’eard, my lord, as ’ow Mr O’Malachy ’ave sloped?” he asked
eagerly, as soon as the footman who had conducted him into Cyril’s
presence had departed.
“Sloped? Lieutenant O’Malachy?” cried Cyril, and cursed himself for a
fool. Why had it not occurred to him to order Louis’s arrest instantly
on hearing Nadia’s story? He might have guessed that her father’s plot
needed a confederate in the city to enable him to carry it out
successfully. “Is it certain that he is gone?” he asked of Wright.
“Quite certain, my lord. The capting’s in a orful way about it, been
rowin’ the sergeants shameful, and one on ’em tell me. The capting, ’e
put Mr O’Malachy under arrest for shootin’ at the young lady, and tell
’im to come back ’ere. Contrairywise, ’e rides to the post-office, as
bold as brass, and sends off a Government telegram to Mr Francis
Xavier O’Reilly, at Tatarjé, orderin’ ’im to leave the country within
twenty-four hours. Then ’e rides out at the Feodoratz gate, sayin’ as
’e’s a-actin’ aide-de-camp to ’is Majesty, and no one see ’im since.
’Is ’orse ’ave come back to ’is stable, but they say as Mr O’Malachy
must ’ave ’ad a change of clothes ’id away ready somewheres, and ’ave
got away like that, though why ’e should want to is beyond me.”
But Louis’s motive was not beyond Cyril’s comprehension, for it was
evident to him that, expecting that Nadia would involve him in her
disclosures, he had seized the earliest opportunity for flight--a
contingency against which he had carefully provided beforehand--and
that he had, moreover, succeeded in warning his father to escape from
Tatarjé at least an hour before Cyril had telegraphed thither to
arrest him. The loquacious Wright found himself dismissed somewhat
hastily, with instructions to have the carriage ready at six in the
morning; and Cyril turned from the unpleasant contemplation of the
oversight of which he had been guilty to drafting the announcement
which was to appear on the morrow in a special ‘Gazette,’ in order to
tranquillise the minds of the people. It was evident, he wrote, that a
certain amount of misconception existed as to the incident of the day.
The supposed attempt to murder the King was not, as had been imagined,
the outcome of a plot, but it was hoped that in consequence of it the
ramifications of a very extensive conspiracy would be laid bare. As
for the young woman who had been arrested, she could not be held
responsible for the intended crime, and having been found harmless,
she had been restored to her friends. The last sentence pleased Cyril
extremely, both on account of its plausibility and its adherence to
the truth, although he reminded himself as he read it over that he
must keep the ‘Gazette’ out of Caerleon’s way. His next duty was to
write a full account of what had happened to M. Drakovics, who had
remained on the frontier in order that he might meet the Premier of
Mœsia, and to tell him all that he had succeeded in extracting from
Nadia on the subject of the plot. This was not much, for she knew very
little, and declined to tell even the whole of that, but there was one
point which seemed to Cyril to be of considerable importance. Who was
the X. of whom Nadia had heard Madame O’Malachy speaking to her
husband, saying that he had been induced by bribes to join in the
conspiracy, and to bring with him all the men in his employment? After
much cogitation, Cyril could only decide that he must be one of the
large distillers whose trade had been spoiled by the temperance
legislation of the present Government, and who would therefore be
inclined to prefer a change in the state of affairs. He resolved to
keep an eye on persons of this class in future, and he mentioned his
conjecture to the Premier in order to see whether he agreed with him
or not.
At the appointed hour the next morning, one of the royal carriages
stopped before the door of the gaol, and Madame Bruics and Nadia came
out and took their places inside. Cyril occupied the seat opposite
them, acting, as Nadia felt, more as guard than as escort. Madame
Bruics was fortunately sleepy and disinclined to talk, and they drove
on in silence until they were about to pass the palace. With a sudden
impulse Nadia bent forward and looked out of the window--to take a
last look at the place which held Caerleon. But when they came abreast
of the small private gate, she started, for beside it there stood in
the winter twilight a tall figure wrapped in a cloak. With a gasp
Nadia realised that Caerleon was there,--that a word, a sign, would
bring him to her, would end the long struggle in the way in which her
heart ached for it to end.
“How did the beggar manage to find out when we were starting?” asked
Cyril of himself with lively disgust, for the moment was a crucial
one. He was equal to it, however. “You see him?” he whispered to
Nadia. “You will give in now, I know.”
She turned away from him impatiently, feeling even then a mingled
shame and surprise that she could choose to wring Caerleon’s heart
rather than allow his brother to triumph over her. Her eyes met
Caerleon’s, and he stepped forward eagerly. For one moment she looked
into his face, saw its expression of earnest entreaty change to one of
disappointment, and read in it that her decision was accepted, as it
was given, in silence. She waved her hand to him as he drew back, the
carriage passed on, and he was left standing by the roadside, without
a word said.