“It was you who sang it?”
“Yes, your Highness, it was I,” Waska replied, in a scarcely audible
tone, dropping his head and mechanically drawing his shoulders together,
as if shrinking from the coming blow.
It was full three minutes before the Prince again spoke. He still held
the whip in his hand, his eyes fixed and the muscles of his face rigid.
All at once the spell seemed to dissolve: his hand fell, and he said in
his ordinary voice--
“You sing remarkably well. Go, now: you shall have ten rubles and an
embroidered caftan for your singing.”
But any one would have made a great mistake who dared to awaken Prince
Alexis a second time in the same manner.