PLAN OF WAR AGAINST A WOMAN
On the way back to Ghedimin Palace naturally nothing was spoken of by
the members of the hunt but the exciting scene to which they had just
been witness.
"_Parole d'honneur_," said the clean-shaven horseman, as he struck his
riding-boot with his whip, "the whole world is turned upside down! In
the time of the Empress Elizabeth, if any woman had allowed herself to
insult a Princess Ghedimin in that manner, she would have had her tongue
cut out and have been punished with the knout."
"This is what we have to thank exaggerated philanthropy for! It was
never created for us. Voltairianism will be the ruin of the nation. How
can Araktseieff suffer it?"
"The woman is no Russian?"
"Perhaps some English or German here to spite us, and who has placed
herself under the protection of the Embassy? By Jove! in 1816, when I
was last at home, such a thing would not have been permitted!"
"These cursed foreigners! Anyway, if the president of the police does
not take the matter in hand, we will administer the knout ourselves. I
swear your presence alone withheld me just now, Princess Maria
Alexievna!"
"Indeed! You do not know who the woman is."
"What does it matter who she is? She may even be a princess."
"She is more than that."
"Then some expatriated queen, perhaps from Georgia."
"Silence!" said the lady, as she gave a warning look in the direction of
the girl riding at her other side.
"She does not understand German. So the woman is really a queen?"
At this question the lady laughed heartily.
"Really a queen! A true queen! A reigning queen--an absolute monarch! We
all are her slaves; you, I, even Alexis Maximovitch. A queen who is not
to be driven out of her kingdom by means of cannon, but with this!" and
she held out to her companion the whistle of her shattered riding-whip.
"What! an actress?"
"Of course. What else should she be?"
"Ha, ha, ha! To whom the whistle means a revolution; whose throne is
upset by hisses! Ah, Maria Alexievna, present me with this whistle. With
it I will fight for you, as a knight _sans peur et sans reproche_."
The lady resigned the fatal weapon, so efficacious in the downfall of
stage potentates, to her cavalier, as the latter lifted her out of her
saddle in the portico of the Ghedimin Palace.
He then kissed her hand. She kissed him on the cheek, and, taking the
young girl by the hand, she passed through a treble glass door and
ascended the broad frescoed staircase within.
Here the hunting-party broke up, making rendezvous at the opera that
evening.
Now the silent, bestarred gentleman, who had hitherto not mixed in the
conversation, slapping the clean-shorn one on the back with the flat of
his hand, said:
"Nicholas Sergievitch, a word with you. Come along with me."
"At your service, Alexis Maximovitch."
And together they rode off to the Araktseieff Palace.
There are no old palaces in St. Petersburg. The whole city only dates
back a century and a half. The palace of the favorite official of the
Czar is situated on the Nevski Prospect, and is built more for comfort
than for elegance. During the winter the whole building is heated
throughout with hot-air pipes; every window has treble cases; the floors
of the rooms are of parquetry.
The two huntsmen said nothing until they had refreshed themselves with
hot tea seasoned with arak and a curious compound of cayenne and
cantharides. A tiny portion on the point of a knife of this latter warms
one's frozen limbs. In any other climate it were poison.
The great man whom we now recognize from the name of his palace,
Araktseieff, first locking the door of the room they were in, pushed up
a rocking-chair to the fireplace for his guest, gave him a chibouque,
and himself took up his station before the fire.
"Hark ye, Nicholas Sergievitch, put the whistle you received from the
Princess just now among your treasures, and when you want to blow it go
out into the woods. That is my advice to you. For if you carry out what
you have sworn to the Princess you will find yourself next day on the
road to Irkutsk, and, by Heaven! I can't say when you will be coming
back."
"The devil!"
"You see, the Czar is of opinion that he can create a hundred noblemen
such as you in an hour; but singers such as Zeneida Ilmarine are to be
met with but once in the century."
"Ah! So this mysterious stranger is Zeneida Ilmarine, the far-famed
Simarosa heroine? All honor to her! I take my pipe out of my mouth as I
speak her revered name! When I made my promise to Princess Ghedimin, I
had no idea whom it concerned. This absolves me from my oath. Against
the 'divine' Zeneida one may not revolt, even to please the 'angelic'
Maria Alexievna. Rather raise the standard against the whole army of
legitimate rulers! What a fool I was! The excessive cold must have
frozen my wits like quicksilver in a thermometer. Of course, I had heard
abroad that the _diva_ was a _protégée_ of the Czar and Czarina, and,
moreover, the beloved of the brave Ivan Maximovitch. From the dialogue
in which the two ladies indulged, I might have gathered that it was a
meeting between wife and lady-love."
"Now you must devise a way to find favor with both. Favor with the wife,
as with the sweetheart."
"Easy as kiss your hand. I have only to tell one about the other."
"That may succeed with the wife, for she is outspoken, straightforward,
and passionate. With the favorite, however, it may be more difficult;
for she understands how to play as many parts in real life as on the
stage. And your office it will be to find out which is the real one."
"That I will do--as sure as my name is Galban."
"Well, Chevalier Galban, you may imagine that it is a matter of some
importance which has induced us to call you back from Versailles, where
you were to us as eyes and ears are to man. You have there learned, in
masterly fashion, how to unravel the most secret diplomatic webs by
means of a woman's heart, yourself the while remaining unscathed. Now
you must carry out your masterwork at home."
"What, Holy Russia has secrets which her police and the priests are
unable to fathom?"
"My dear Chevalier Galban, our good Chulkin has enough to do to catch
thieves, and is not too successful in that department. I counsel you, if
your sledge be stopped on the way home from the club at night, give the
thief your purse quietly, for if you call the watch the soldiers will
ease you of your fur coat into the bargain. If, on the other hand, you
fall into the hands of a policeman, he will not only clear you out, but
the thief too. As for the priests, they count for nothing to our people,
who are atheists."
"Have we come to that?"
"Yes; to that. General Kutusoff did well to say, when our forces came
back from the French War, 'The best thing the Czar could do would be to
drown the whole expedition in the Baltic.' They were all indoctrinated
to a man with liberalism, and have infected the entire army. I assure
you that many a young officer carries 'The Catechism of a Free Man' and
'A Scheme of Constitutional Monarchy' about with him in his
coat-pocket."
"How do they get hold of them?"
"They must have a secret press."
"They have been allowed to play with freedom too long."
"That were the least danger. As long as we allowed them the game of
freemasonry, all was open and above board. At the court balls they would
talk in the presence of the Czar himself of freedom, and debate over the
rights of the people and the emancipation of serfs. That was all
academical discussion. But when the masonic lodges were closed, and the
insignia sold by auction in the Jews' market on the Appraxin Dwor, the
secret evil grew worse and worse. The freemasonry of Mamonoff, of a
sudden, took five or six different forms. One called itself a 'General
Betterment Society,' Orloff at its head. Another was 'Szojusz Spacinia,'
a third 'The Confederation of Patriots,' a fourth 'Szojusz
Blagadenztoiga.' There is another constituted under the title of
'Republic of the Eight Slav Races'; its members wear an eight-pointed
star as a token, the inscription on one of the points being Hungary.
They grow like mushrooms."
"Ridiculous! Even in my time there were clubs where secret meetings were
held. But there was no talk then of danger to the State. If certain
much-wronged husbands had no complaint to make, the police might let us
go scot-free."
"That is not the case now," answered Araktseieff, impatiently. (It was
his habit, when receiving secret visits in his own house, to keep a
sword-stick in his hand, with which he would incessantly prod screens,
walls, and hangings, as though ever suspecting listeners; and did he
perceive that his visitor had a bulging pocket-handkerchief or
note-book, he would prod that, too, to discover what was there.) "They
are about everywhere, and yet nowhere to be traced. They give each other
rendezvous at balls, concerts, wine-parties, etc., and so contrive to
give our spies the slip. Why, they actually keep a register, a sort of
parliamentary hand-book, in which the conferences of every distant
province are entered concerning the organizing of a systematic
revolution throughout Russia; the best form of constitution; what is to
become of the dynasty; how the empire is to be partitioned, and whether
to be represented by landed proprietors or the people. And this protocol
it is which contains a fully named register of the conspirators, those
who hold the threads of the net in their hands throughout the whole
land, from the shores of the Black Sea to the Arctic Pole. Among
themselves they call it 'the green book.' Now, where is this book? That
is the question."
"To which I reply by a counter-question. But do not keep on so
incessantly prodding my coat-pockets with that sharp stiletto of yours.
Has any one seen this book--and, if seen, why has he not said where he
has seen it?"
"That I will tell you, too. The conspirators are divided into three
classes. The first are 'Brethren.' To this community any one may belong,
on his introducer making himself responsible for him; they know nothing
beyond the fact that they are members of a conspiracy, and have the
right to attend meetings. The second class are called 'Men.' They are
trusty people, who, on a certain watchword being given them, are
authorized to act. You may reckon one-third of the officers in the army
as belonging to this class. They cannot betray anything beyond their own
individual names and the work given them to do. Then we come to the
third class, the 'Bojars,' and leaders of the whole affair. It is
extremely difficult to get in among them; and those who do belong to
them do not betray one iota."
"Are they married men? Have they no wives--no mistresses?"
"That question occurred to me long ago. It is no new discovery that
women are the best mediums for discovering secrets. Bright eyes and
diamonds can cast light into many a dark corner--that is an old story!
That 'the green book' is in the custody of some woman is unquestionable;
but, so far, with all our espionage, we have reached no further. We were
informed that Orloff's mistress was the possessor of 'the green book,'
and paid down enormous sums for the information. And what did we find? A
pack of scandalous anecdotes of St. Petersburg society, all of which,
moreover, were known to us before. Then we got on another scent. 'The
green book' was in the keeping of the 'Martinists,' whose president had
a lady-love--faithfulness itself. In her case all our bribes were
useless. So one night we had her surprised in her room, bound, the
boards of the floor raised, and actually there was found a 'green book.'
But it contained nothing but atheistic theses. What was the use of them?
People may rebel against the Deity, but not against the Czar! At length
we received secret information that the heart of the conspiracy is that
league which calls itself 'The Northern Union'--its head Prince
Ghedimin."
"The devil!"
"Yes, my friend; the next in succession to the throne! He it is who must
hold possession of 'the green book,' or who has had it in his keeping.
To whom should a man confide so dangerous a treasure but to his own
wife? But the husband, we are told, always wore the key of the iron
chest in which the book was guarded round his neck. Father Hilary
attacked the Princess on the religious side, and persuaded her to remove
the key from her husband's neck when he lay unconscious in typhus fever.
She must have had many sins to atone for. Anyway, she did commit the
small piece of treachery, and I passed a whole night studying 'the green
book' obtained from Ghedimin."
"Well?"
"Well, having carefully gone through it, I flung it to the other end of
the room. The book was filled with dangerous doctrines--nothing more.
Pure abstract reasoning, philosophical treatises, and the like, but no
single name of any member. What care I for the utterances of Seneca,
Rousseau, Saint-Just? What I want to know is what the Muravieffs and
Turgenieffs are talking about. That, too, was a mere piece of trickery.
That cunning Ghedimin did not trust his wife. He gave her a book to keep
which the Censor--had she betrayed him--would readily have condemned to
be burned, but for which the President of Secret Police would have
grudged the oil consumed in the reading."
"Then, if the real 'green book' is not to be found in his wife's
keeping, it must be in that of his lady-love--and that lady-love is
Zeneida?"
"Right."
"Is she a foreigner?"
"No; a subject. A Finnish girl from Helsingfors; and especially favored
by the Czar, because she has triumphed over the pride of the
Empire--Catalani. The Czarina, too, is very gracious to her. You know
that the Czar is a great music-lover, and will not suffer the school of
Cimarosa and Paisiello to be set aside by the modern school of Rossini.
Zeneida Ilmarine does not sing a note of Rossini. At all hours she is
admitted to the imperial family. How often have I--ay, and even the
Grand Duke Nicholas--had to kick our heels in the antechamber while she
was having audience? At the court soirées she is treated like any
reigning princess; she alone is privileged to wear in her hair a white
rose, the Czarina's favorite flower. It is entirely due to the magic of
her voice that the Finnish students of Helsingfors escaped being sent
off in a body to Kiew after the rebellion; for she can intercede as
effectually as she can sing. The Czar would have raised her to the rank
of a duchess, but what do you think the spoiled _diva_ said? 'Would your
Majesty wish to degrade me?'"
"And is this the woman who could take part in a conspiracy against the
Czar?"
"Why not? if the leader of that conspiracy be sweet upon her, a Prince
Ghedimin, the most powerful among Russia's twelve ruling families, the
number of whose serfs and estates more than equals the whole kingdom of
Würtemberg. Do not forget, moreover, that she is a 'Kalevaine.'"
"What are the proofs of this suspicion?"
"I have already told you that the conspirators are marvellously clever
in eluding detection. It is not their way to creep into obscure corners
or subterranean caves; they rather hold their meetings in the midst of
crowds and in public places. This is a wrinkle they have learned from
the Poles, among whom the 'Philaretes' and 'Vendita' usually meet at
their yearly fairs. Now the fast is at hand. For seven weeks every
public amusement is forbidden, that the people may see that great folks
do penance as well as themselves. High and low must attend the services
of the Church. But no one asks what takes place o' nights behind closed
doors. This is the harvest-time for secret meetings. The invited guests
have no political proclivities; they have no wish to found
constitutions; their sole idea is to enjoy a good dinner--'Anti-fasters'
they call themselves. Surprised by the police, all that would be
discovered would probably be a table spread with appetizing game or
steaming roast-beef, and, maybe, a few guests the worse for liquor. The
'sinners' would, of course, be fined, but no one would be the wiser of
what was taking place in the more private apartments. And here our prima
donna has peculiar advantages. The stage, as you know, makes its own
laws. Who in the world expects to find strict morality among actresses
and ballet-dancers? The police wisely shut their eyes to much that goes
on among them. He who is lucky enough to be an invited guest to one of
Zeneida Ilmarine's exclusive Carême soirées will find all the frivolous
beauties of the opera and ballet, all the _jeunesse dorée_ of St.
Petersburg, assembled, and will have no need to complain of either the
lack of fiery eyes or fiery wines. Many a man has been singed by them.
But if he be wise enough to keep his head in the midst of the tumult, he
will observe a certain portion of the company disappear gradually and
noiselessly from the reception-rooms."
"There may be other reasons for such disappearance."
"Certainly. For instance, roulette may be carried on in those private
apartments. Now, the Czar has issued a severe prohibition against
roulette-playing--any one caught in the act is sent straight off to
Siberia, without possibility of remission of sentence. It is a fact that
Zeneida's calumniators, especially among the women who are envious of
her, have circulated the report that she keeps a roulette bank, which
enables her to indulge in all her lavish luxury. I hold a different
opinion."
"Upon what grounds?"
"That Michael Turgenieff is a constant guest at these theatrical
soirées, and is one of those who at midnight disappear into the inner
apartments. Now, Michael Turgenieff is a philosopher and a puritan."
"Even philosophers have their lucid intervals, induced by combined
charms of pretty women and good wine."
"We know Michael better. I have had my eye upon him ever since his
Demi-Decemvir. He was the only one among his young companions who did
not give way to any of the modern forms of debauchery. In his travels
through England, France, and Germany, he only sought out great writers
and men of mind and genius; he was never to be found in fashionable or
vicious haunts. Not even in Paris, where vice and pleasure reign
supreme. What, then, should possess him to secretly worship here at the
altar of false gods? No; the presence of this one man alone is
sufficient to betray that those closed doors conceal other than
Eleusinian mysteries."
"And it has, so far, been impossible to discover them?"
"No sooner does Zeneida, taking the Duke's arm, leave the company than
it assumes the aspect of a revel. Beauty and folly take possession of
men's senses, and next day not one of them can recall anything but that
they have had a jolly evening. If a 'Brother' try to follow a 'Bojar' in
his retreat, he is surrounded by sirens, who lure him back by a
conspiracy of charms. In order to let diamond cut diamond, and so
conquer the high-priestess of the mysteries herself, it needs just such
a conquering hero as you are."
"Very flattering for me! When shall I make a beginning?"
"This very night. It is the last day of Maslica week, the last night of
the opera. Zeneida is to sing in Cimarosa's _Secret Marriage_. The
streets will be thronged. At the stroke of midnight the bells of all the
churches will proclaim the beginning of Lent. Every one goes to
confession. In the opera queen's kingdom, however, the revel begins.
Prince Carnival, with his merry company, will make his joyous procession
through the brilliantly lighted saloons, through whose fast-closed
windows no ray of light, no sound of music, may penetrate. You must
manage to procure an invitation to the entertainment."
"After the insult of to-day?"
"You are master in the art of intrigue."
"I have given my promise to Princess Ghedimin to hiss her rival off the
stage to-night."
"You have given me your promise to win her to-night."
"The time is too short."
"But the opportunity favorable. I am informed that yesterday two men
arrived in the capital who are rarely seen here. The one is
Krizsanowski, from Poland; the other, Colonel Pestel, of the Southern
Army. Both have already received invitations to Zeneida's so-called
dance. Only there can you come across them; and you must find out from
them what has brought them here."
"I will be there."
"How will you manage it?"
"As we men begin all love affairs--by means of presents."
"Ah! this nymph is richer than you, my dear fellow. She makes her forty
thousand rubles in a single concert. If her mood is for diamonds, she
chooses out the most costly; if for something better than diamonds, she
divides her night's earnings among the poor. It may happen that you
receive back your presents twofold."
"I will make her a present which will command her favor--an
eight-in-hand."
"Ah! such as the Czar alone possesses?"
"Such as not even the Czar possesses! You shall see, with this
eight-in-hand, I will force open the gates of the fairy castle. Leave
the rest to me. If a 'green book' be in existence, I will know its
contents."