THE MAN WITH THE GREEN EYES
There was alarm, almost panic, in the capital when the news became known
that the Czar had started by the Sea of Azof and the Crimea to the
Caucasus! Now people understood the meaning of the comet! It was the
agent which had upset the calculations of wise men and fools alike.
Fearful curses echoed through the catacombs of the Church of the Holy
Virgin of Kasan when it became known that the Czar had changed his plans
and gone to Alexander Nevski Chapel! The plots, the fulfilment of which
was to shake the world, had been a failure! The Czar had left St.
Petersburg and betaken himself to a remote spot nineteen hundred versts
away, nearer by thirteen degrees to the equator. He had betaken himself
to a land where conspiracies do not flourish; he had escaped the giant
trap laid for him. The plot of the "Free Slavs" had come to naught,
which was to have begun the work of freedom with the immediate murder
of the Czar. Now the plot formed by the "Northern Union" came to the
fore, which was to carry out the constitution planned by "the green
book," either by forcing the Czar to initiate it or by his exile. In
either case, without violence to the crown.
The Czar started on September 13th, seven days before the date fixed for
the grand review. By this means the net of the military conspiracy was
also rudely torn asunder.
The members of the Szojusz Blagadenztoiga hastened to confer at
Zeneida's palace, not waiting invitation. What was to be done now?
Twenty-three among the twenty-four said the whole thing must be begun
afresh. The four-and-twentieth was Jakuskin, who said:
"If all of you fall away, I remain firm. Discuss as you choose; I act."
And with these words he left the meeting.
Hence the chase had begun. As the hungry wolf pursues the hare through
steppes, forests, marshes, so Jakuskin pursued his prey.
The Czar had a six hours' start of his enemy, who fully expected to get
over the ground quickly enough to come up with him. He had a strong
Caucasian mare accustomed to do its twenty hours a day and then graze on
any grass at hand. The rider was worthy of his horse; he, too, could
content himself with a piece of bread and bacon, and take his four
hours' sleep under any shrub by the wayside.
But the pursued went fast. Every day the Czar covered one hundred and
fifty kilometres--_i.e._, a twenty hours' post--only allowing himself
four hours' sleep. He was also accompanied by a large escort; but that
was no impediment to Jakuskin's plan.
Once to stand face to face with him was all he needed. He knew the way
in which the Czar travelled. First a picket of Cossacks, well in advance
of the rest of the cortege, that the Czar might not be incommoded by the
dust of their horses' feet. Then in the first carriage the Czar, easily
to be recognized by his coachman, Ilias, his long beard fluttering like
a couple of flags on either side the carriage. With him is his adjutant,
Count Wolkonsky. The Count is a small, undersized man; the Czar a man of
splendid physique--tall, athletic, with a head small in proportion to
his size. Impossible not to recognize him.
If only Jakuskin could get in advance of his intended victim! But this
he could not do. The pursuer's worst hinderance was the moonlight,
which, turning night into day, enabled the imperial cortege to travel
continuously, and thus prevented his stealing a march. Fortunately, on
the seventh day, when they reached Kursk, the sky suddenly clouded over
and stormy weather set in. The moon no longer replaced the sun, and
driving by night was impossible--but not riding.
This gave hopes of overtaking the Czar. But these hopes also were doomed
to be frustrated.
He was to experience that nothing is impossible to the great of the
earth. When the Czar is in haste even darkness must yield. Once when
Jakuskin, galloping in the pitch darkness over breakneck paths, had got
nearly up with the escort, it was but to see that the Czar's way was
illuminated. Men carrying lighted torches were riding on either side of
the imperial carriage.
"All the better!" thought Jakuskin to himself. But when he reached the
high-road, he saw that as far as the eye reached, at a distance of
three hundred paces, were fagot heaps, serfs standing beside them with
lighted matches; and as the Czar approached, one fagot heap after
another, blazing up, lighted the way. This went on till break of day.
The Czar rattled over the ground by artificial light.
Thus the wolf hangs back, gnashing his hungry teeth, when he sees
fire-light. These bonfires along the highway destroyed his calculations.
He must give up the pursuit; now he might allow himself time for sleep.
He did not move from the hut in which he had taken shelter for a whole
week, till the second cortege came up with the Czarina. She travelled
more slowly; that which had taken the Czar twelve days she accomplished
in twenty-four. Jakuskin followed on her track. The journey came to an
end at Taganrog.
Taganrog is a seaport on the Sea of Azof. It is a modest little town
which has twice been entirely deserted by its inhabitants, having once
been made over by the Russians to the Turks; the next time, at
conclusion of peace, by the Sultan of Turkey to the Czar. At present it
is inhabited by Greeks. It was only due to the chance throw of a knife
that it did not form the site of the capital of the empire. When Czar
Peter conceived the idea of founding a new capital on the sea he was in
doubt whether to build it in the Finnish marshes or the Tartar steppes.
The throwing of a knife decided it. If it had fallen point downward
Taganrog would now be St. Petersburg, and the cupolas of Isaac Cathedral
would be reflected in the Sea of Azof instead of in the Neva.
Jakuskin knew beforehand that the Czarina would not be staying here.
There was not a single garden in the whole town. No one planted a tree
lest his neighbor should gather the fruit. The first cutting wind that
blew would teach the Czarina's physicians that a place is not Italy
because it happens to be a certain latitude. The Czar would seek some
place in his vast empire for his beloved invalid to rest where the trees
are green all the year round. He has two places to choose between,
Georgia and the Crimea--both countries a paradise to the Russians, who
for eight months in the year are accustomed to see nothing but icicles
about them.
Hardly had the Empress Elisabeth installed herself in the castle at
Taganrog when the Czar started upon his voyage of discovery. He set out
in the direction of Novocserkask.
Jakuskin concluded that he would go on to the Caucasus. All preparations
were made to that end--post-horses and escorts bespoken as far as
Tiflis. Easy to choose a point where to lie in ambush.
But the Governor of the Crimea, Prince Woronzoff, came, and had so much
to tell of the lovely climate and surroundings of the Crimea that the
Czar, suddenly altering his itinerary, turned back; and Jakuskin only
first knew of the change when he had got on a day's journey before the
Czar.
Once more he posted after him until he reached the marshes of the Dead
Sea, where the evil spirits of malaria await the traveller. He did not
catch up with the Czar until his arrival at Simpheropol, reaching it at
the very moment when the whole city was blazing with illuminations in
honor of its illustrious guest.
But the Czar did not go out again to enjoy the brilliant sight. Tired
out, he had gone to bed. Jakuskin learned that the horses were ordered
early next morning; the Czar was going to visit Prince Woronzoff's
far-famed palace in Jusuff.
Jakuskin caught up the carriages at Bagdar; they were empty. Leaving his
carriage to pursue its way along the high-road, the Czar, on horseback,
accompanied by his escort, had taken the steep mountain-path of Tsatir
Dagh, a distance of some five-and-thirty versts.
The Czar's whole journey was conducted in as capricious a manner as if
it had been dictated by some one knowing that he was being pursued, and
as if this zig-zag progress from valley to valley by impassable paths
were intended to deceive.
And how many favorable opportunities had Jakuskin missed! The Czar had
felt so free from care among the simple Mohammedan populace that he had
wandered for hours on foot and on horseback among the exquisite gardens
and woods. As he strolled along the lovely valley of Oriander, in full
bloom, he had said, meditatively, "Here I would fain spend the rest of
my days!" Torturing care, melancholy's dark phantom, found no place
here; they were as effectually scared away as were the conspirators. At
his physician's earnest entreaty, at length leaving the sea-coast, he
turned to the interior of the peninsula, to the whilom capital of the
Tartar Sultan, Bakcsi Seraj; and in the palace of the former Ghiraids
passed the night.
All through that night and the following day there sat at the gate of
the palace, beneath the cypresses which have made Bakcsi Seraj so
famous, a dervish. That dervish was Jakuskin.
At length he had found the Czar. Wrapping himself in his burnous, he sat
and waited until the Czar should come forth. He is certain of his
object. In his girdle glistens a good sharp dagger. His hand does not
tremble.
And yet once more the Czar escapes him. He passed close to him; his
dress brushed him by, and yet Jakuskin does not recognize him; for,
dressed as a Tartar chief, the Czar had gone out of the palace quite
alone, without attendant of any kind. Had he but been attended by a
single person Jakuskin must have detected him; but one man alone escapes
notice. The Czar had wished to visit the "Valley of Tears," about which
the bridegroom of his favorite child had written. This romantic fancy
had saved him from the assassin's knife. Thence he went, still in the
same dress, to a Mohammedan mosque and stayed through a Moslem service.
After which, not returning to the palace, he met his retinue at the
Stadtholder's castle. There he found a despatch containing news of the
death of King Maximilian of Bavaria, brother-in-law to the Czarina.
Alexander was alarmed. Should this news have reached his wife it might,
in her delicate state of health, have seriously affected her. So, giving
command to start instantly, he did not return to the palace.
The dervish sitting at the gate awaited his prey in vain. When at length
he heard that the Czar had gone, the latter had already got a
considerable way towards the other side of the isthmus.
And now the pursuit began once more, and with it came to his mind the
saying, "For him who has been chosen by the man with the green eyes it
is in vain to whet the knife." He was growing superstitious--his
imagination filled with green-eyed spectres.
The Czar pursued his way by the Dnieper, thence through the Nogai
Steppe, and over the silk-growing plains of Mariopolis to the shores of
the Sea of Azof, where his beloved consort was awaiting him.
Jakuskin followed close upon his track. As he crossed a bridge, after
passing Orekhov, his horse, stumbling, broke his leg. Jakuskin had to
proceed on foot. It was not far from the post-house; thither he went. A
horse he must have at any price.
The postmaster led him to the stable.
"Look, my lord, I have not a horse left. The Czar has just passed
through; every horse I had has been taken for himself and retinue."
"And that one in the corner?"
"That horse is not mine. It belongs to a courier just arrived from Kiew,
who went at once to bed and is fast asleep."
"A courier who can allow himself to sleep on the way cannot have any
very urgent business. Perhaps I can persuade him, for some good gold
pieces, to sleep on until I have reached Mariopolis on his horse, whence
it shall be sent back to him."
"You can try it, my lord!" It was not such an unheard-of thing in Russia
for a courier to sell his horse from under him.
"If he will not lend me his horse I'll put a bullet through him,"
muttered Jakuskin to himself as he entered the guest-chamber.
A young officer of a lancer regiment lay on the bed wrapped in his
cloak.
"Good-day, comrade," said Jakuskin.
"Don't talk of good days," returned he, his teeth chattering. "I am
shivering all over. That confounded Caucasian fever has laid hold of me
on the road. It's all up with me. And I had a despatch to deliver into
the hands of the Czar himself wherever I might come up with him. General
Roth sent me--delay is most serious. And I cannot sit my horse! I say,
my dear fellow, do me a good turn and take charge of this despatch.
Take my horse. The Czar has gone to Taganrog Hasten after him! Give him
this despatch--into his own hands. Those were my orders! As for me, I
shall only be able to report myself to him in the next world. Lose no
time, I entreat you."
Nothing could have been more welcome to Jakuskin. A despatch which must
be delivered into the Czar's own hands--the Czar!
"Heaven be with you, comrade! You may die with an easy mind. I will
faithfully carry out your commission; and if you have a betrothed I will
write her where you breathed your last, and will send your mother your
watch and chain. You could not have found a better substitute."
The officer probably died and was buried in that picturesque steppe.
Jakuskin, mounting his horse, placed the despatch intrusted to him in
his breast-pocket.
But the horse given over to him was a sorry jade, and not accustomed, as
his other had been, to the steppes. He could make but few miles a day,
and whenever he came to a bridge his rider had to dismount and drag the
animal across. He would not go over a bridge.
Owing to such a bad mount he did not reach Taganrog until four days
after the arrival of the Czar.
One day Jakuskin found out that the Czar intended going from Alapka to
Mordinof. Now there was but one road to it, and that only a
bridle-path--a path called by the natives "the ladder." It well merited
its cognomen, rising so steeply up the mountain-side that sometimes the
horse has to force its way through narrow clefts in the rock.
Jakuskin hired a Tartar guide, who was to lead him through the forest to
the summit of "the ladder."
Before dawn, in the dead of night, he made his start, to be there before
the Czar. He was dressed in the costume of a Tartar huntsman, a
double-barrelled gun slung over his shoulder. Emerging from the thick
forest, he saw the steep mountain path before him. Over a spring,
gushing from out the rocky wall, grew a bush some ten feet distant from
the path. The path itself was intercepted here by a cleft in the rock,
across which a narrow bridge had been thrown, only wide enough for one
horseman to pass at a time.
The most favorable spot possible for an ambush.
"Hi, lad! How green your eyes are!"
The man laughed a hollow, low laugh, as though out of an empty cask.
"You're right; my eyes are green." He spoke, and disappeared in the
thick underwood.
Bethsaba's tale came into Jakuskin's mind. He drew back behind the tree,
loaded his gun, and waited.
A vulture flew over him with hoarse scream; he took the waiting man for
a corpse, so motionless was he.
At length was heard the long-expected signal. The path groaned beneath
the tramp of horses. The horsemen must perforce pass quite close to him.
He could aim as slowly as he pleased.
Only when the horsemen came up did he see how he had been the sport of
fate. They were only outriders; the company passed; the Czar was not
among them.
Where could he be?
"Confound you, you fellow, with your green eyes!" said Jakuskin, with an
oath. "You will be making me into a superstitious fool!"
There was no sign of the Czar. He had escaped.
* * * * *
It is a delicious autumn day, such as is only to be met with in the
enchantingly beautiful mountains of Tauris. The air is so pure that the
distant ranges are brought near; silvery threads of gossamer flutter
from every branch; the autumnal tints are an exquisite mixture of gold
and red; the turf is strewn with pink anemones. That little spot of
earth is the orchard of the world. There is a perfect forest of
fruit-trees here, groaning under their ripe loads. Fallen apples and
pears cover the ground. Blackbirds sing their praises to the owner of
the woods, who grudges of his plenty neither to the wanderer nor to the
birds of the air. The giant trees, which in other countries only bring
forth wild pears, are here laden with luscious fruit sweet as honey.
What can be gathered with the hand is the passer-by's; the rest is the
property of the owner.
Czar Alexander was delighted with the wealth of fruit in this
fairy-land. He began to believe in Bethsaba's fairy stories.
In one place, where the path led up through two rocky walls, the sound
of bells came wafted down below.
The Czar, accosting a Tartar who was coming down the rocky path towards
him, asked:
"Where are those bells which are ringing?"
"In St. George's Monastery," was the answer.
"Who built a monastery in this wilderness?"
"It is the former Temple of Diana. Among its ruins the black monks, who
came here from Mount Athos, have settled."
"So this is, then, the famous Temple of Diana in Tauris?" returned the
Czar, suddenly recalling to memory the tradition of the lovely priestess
of Artemis, Iphigenia, of whom poets from Euripides down to Goethe have
sung. "And is this temple a monastery now?"
The Czar never passed by a church without entering it. And here was an
attraction over and beyond his yearning for the sacred building. It was
a piece of historical antiquity, a relic of classic times, as well as a
Christian asylum in a Mohammedan province.
"How does one get to the monastery?" he asked the Tartar.
"By a footpath which forks off from the ascent and leads round past the
monastery to the regular path again. The horses would have to be sent
on; the way can be only accomplished on foot. It is somewhat difficult
to find. I could guide you."
The Czar was now more than ever anxious to see it; so, alighting from
his horse, he ascended the path with the guide to the Temple of Diana.
It led through a thick forest. On either side picturesque groups of
trees lined the way; wild vines festooned the branches, forming a green
roof overhead, from which hung bunches of little round grapes, called in
Tartar language "kacsi." Other fruit-bearing trees abounded; among them
towered two thorn-bushes bearing plums--the one rosy red, the other
waxen yellow. The yellow plum has a large stone; the red one grows in
the form of a grape, like cherry-plums.
"What do you call this fruit?" the Czar asked his guide.
"The yellow is called 'alirek,' the red 'isziumirek.'"
"Gather me some. I should like to taste them."
The guide, hastily breaking off some blackberry leaves, formed them into
a basket and filled it with red and yellow plums.
The Czar was heated from the mountain ascent, and thirsty. The ripe,
juicy fruit, with its pleasant acid, was very grateful to him. He left
none. Only on returning the empty basket to his guide was he struck by
something in the man's appearance.
"Countryman, what peculiar green eyes you have!"
"Yes, so people say. I have never seen my own eyes."
After an hour's walking the Czar and his attendant reached the classic
ruins, now the monastery. He was wet through with perspiration from the
exertion of the long climb on a hot autumn day; still overheated, he
passed through the subterranean passages, visited the caves at one time
appropriated to youths destined for sacrifice, and those secret
hiding-places cut out of the rock whence Orestes had formerly stolen the
golden statue of Artemis. After which he visited the chapel and remained
some time in prayer.
On leaving the monastery he sent to seek his guide, but he was nowhere
to be found. No one had noticed when he left them. The monks themselves
conducted the Czar through the woods on the way to "the ladder," where
his horse and horsemen awaited him.
Thus the Czar avoided passing the yew-tree where Jakuskin lay in wait
for him.
That same day the Czar was forced to confess to his physician that he
was feeling a strange languor in all his limbs, accompanied by attacks
of shivering. But he would not be persuaded to take any remedies, saying
it would pass off of itself, and continued his journey.
He visited the ancient Akhtia, which now bears the high-sounding name of
Sebastopol, was present at the launch of a man-of-war, and inspected the
Pontus fleet. Despite the recurrence of fever, he was untiringly
occupied throughout the day; late in the evening he again went into the
church to pray.
When Jakuskin took the despatch from the dying messenger and placed it
in his bosom the thought flashed through his mind that it might carry
infection; but he dismissed it with:
"Bah! How ridiculous to fear a scrap of folded paper!"
And yet Jakuskin would have done himself and his friends better service
had he taken to his bosom one of the horned serpents which lie in wait
for the traveller by the side of ditches, or in coach-tracks, rather
than that piece of paper.
He thought to himself, "Let the despatch contain what it may, as long as
I deliver it to the man for whom it is intended!"
The story of the despatch was this:
In the Southern Army all preparations had been made for the proclamation
of the Constitution. Pestel--called the Russian Riego--had up to now won
over one thousand officers, including even generals, to the conspiracy.
Pestel himself had been chosen as the future Dictator, who, with the
Southern Army, was to hasten to aid in proclaiming the Greek Republic;
while Ghedimin, as civil governor, was to construct the new republic
within the empire. It had been planned that on January 1st, 1826, the
"Viatka" regiment commanded by Pestel should march into the headquarters
of Tultsin. And that very day every officer not among the conspirators
should be slaughtered. From Tultsin they were to rush on to Kiew, take
the commandant of the First Army Corps, General Osten-Sacken, prisoner;
proclaim the Republic; incite the Poles to rebellion, and declare the
abdication of the Czar. Entire regiments of infantry, hussars, and
artillery had been won over to this scheme, the commandants never even
dreaming what was going on about them. Privates were won over by being
told that the "German" officers were to be massacred. To massacre the
Germans is naturally always a popular idea. The generals at the head of
the army, Osten-Sacken, Wittgenstein, Roth, Diebitsch, were all Germans.
The whole of this bold plot had been wrecked by the weakness of one man.
One among a thousand, a certain Captain Mairoboda, could not act against
his conscience, and confided to his commandant, General Roth, the whole
details of the conspiracy, giving the names of the superior officers,
the leaders of the whole affair.
General Roth had written fully to the Czar, sending his report by an
officer to his imperial master at Taganrog.
The officer was seized by fever on the way, which quickly turned to
typhus; he was unable to press on to Taganrog. Fate brought Jakuskin
that way, that he might be the one to replace the broken wheel of its
chariot. Such were the contents of the despatch he had undertaken to
deliver. With it in his bosom he was himself converted into a witness
against his fellow-conspirators.
When at last he pulled up his poor staggering horse at the gates of the
imperial castle at Taganrog, his first question to the officer on guard
was if the Czar were here?
The answer was that the Czar was here, and had not left his room for
some days past. It was understood that the Czar was ill, but scarce four
hours since an imperial messenger had been despatched to carry the
joyful news to the Czar's mother that last night his illness had
suddenly taken a favorable turn and he was recovering.
"Heaven be thanked!" sighed Jakuskin, while his hand sought his dagger.
Every circumstance combined to favor his awful scheme. The guard of
honor of the imperial palace happened to have been taken from the
"Viatka" regiment, both officers and men of whom had been won over to
the conspirators. Well-known faces on all sides gave him secret looks of
intelligence.
With determined tread he hastened up the staircase. The two grenadiers
on guard at the door of the Czar's room, saluting, let him pass.
In the anteroom was the officer on duty, who greeted him by name as a
friend.
"I seek the Czar, with an urgent despatch."
"Go through. You will find there Adjutant Diebitsch, who will announce
you."
Jakuskin opened the door. At the same time the door was opened from the
inside, and the man coming out and the one going in met on the
threshold.
Jakuskin trembled. The face before him had _green eyes_. Or was it only
his fancy? The man was wearing a Tartar costume; his expression at once
so singular, awe-inspiring, defiant, arrogant! Contempt, scorn, and
sorrow mingled in his look; his eyes glittered like green beetles. As he
pushed by, an icy shudder passed through Jakuskin.
Jakuskin staggered.
"I say!" he exclaimed to the officer, as he pointed to the man passing
through, "who is that fellow?"
"Some messenger or other."
"Did you not notice what green eyes he has?"
"'Pon my word, no. What the deuce do his green eyes concern you?"
Jakuskin passed on to the inner room. Here he found Diebitsch sitting at
a table writing. He seemed in haste, for he did not raise his head.
"Am I permitted to go in to the Czar?"
"You are."
"Is he alone?"
"Alone."
"What is he doing?"
"Sleeping."
"I am the bearer of an urgent despatch to him. May I wake him?"
"Wake him."
The general did not look up from his writing--did not observe to whom he
was speaking. Jakuskin resolutely approached the door of the adjoining
room. It seemed remarkable that the man he had addressed had not
perceived, by the wild beating of his heart, what he was meditating! A
door only separated him from his victim--and that door stood open!
The Czar was already very ill on his return to Taganrog. Still he would
hear of no remedies. It is a characteristic trait of Russian czars to
defy illness. They will not believe that Death (their chief agent), who
has been so long in their service, who at their word of command has mown
down rows of men like ears of corn, should ever--brandishing his scythe
backward--cut down his lord and master. They are far too proud to
concede that the pale spectre should ever see their weakness, hear their
groans, limit their wills. Even Death, when he knocks at their door,
they would bid to "wait."
Or, was it not so? Was it that the great colossal figure which, like a
second Atlas, had so long borne the whole world on its shoulders, had
grown weary of the burden? That he who had been accustomed to hear his
praises echoed from the four corners of the earth now shrank from
hearing the murmurs born of revenge and bitterness, and that his soul
yearned for the rest of the grave? Earth has nothing more for him to
do. He feels that he stands in the way of history. He has lost all that
his heart held dear; his last ray of sunshine, his sick wife's smile, is
but a fading light in the sky of evening. Is it not possible that the
giant, weary of life, and becoming aware of a call to another world,
should, far from shutting out that call, open wide the doors, saying,
"Here am I--let us go"?
That day he had so far recovered that his illness seemed entirely to
have disappeared. Even his physician was deceived by the outward
symptoms; and late that evening a courier had been despatched to the
Dowager Czarina in St. Petersburg with the glad news, "Alexander out of
all danger. No further fears for him." (None further than some hundred
thousand attempts at assassination.)
But the next morning the benevolent spirit, which comes alike to kings
and beggars to ease them of their burdens, had appeared to him, saying,
"Come home." For three days and nights Elisabeth had not left her sick
husband's room. She was his constant nurse, her wifely affection his one
consolation.
And to the Czar of All the Russias was granted the happiness--at the
moment when every arm was turned against him, when the altar itself at
which he prayed was undermined, when a whole vast empire was about to
crumble to pieces about him--that for the last time, by the rays of the
rising sun, with the life-giving warmth of the day-star bathing his
brow, he could yield up his soul to Him who gave it with the words "_Ah,
le beau jour!_"--the happiness of having tender hands to close his eyes,
and to cross his arms upon his breast.
Then the sick wife's strength broke down entirely, and she sank
swooning to the ground. The two physicians, hastening to her, lifted
her, and carried her to her apartment. The third man, who had been
witness to the dying scene, hastened back to the study to send off the
despatch to the Czarina-mother announcing the death of the Czar, giving
the messenger instructions to make all speed in order to overtake the
courier of the previous night, and, if possible, precede him. After
which his next care was to send off a letter to the Grand Duke
Constantine, in Warsaw.
At that moment Jakuskin had entered.
Diebitsch hastened on with his writing, his mood that of Russian cynical
humor. "What is the Czar doing?" "Sleeping." "Dare I wake him?" "Wake
him if you like!"
Or had there been something in Jakuskin's face which betrayed his plans,
and was that why the adjutant's utterances had been framed so
sarcastically?
* * * * *
The conspirator advanced into the room. At that moment no one else was
there. The Czar was alone. Jakuskin saw him whom he had been seeking
lying before him--silent, motionless, with eyes closed, his arms folded
on his breast.
A mighty man--invulnerable--dead. Jakuskin dared not draw nearer. Before
the dead Czar he trembled.
He rushed staggering back into the adjacent room, holding the despatch
still in his hand.
"The Czar--" he stammered.
"Is dead!"
"When?"
"In this very hour."
"Why did I not arrive one day sooner, in order to deliver up this
despatch to him!"
The adjutant thought this exclamation somewhat odd.
"I give you a piece of advice," said he to Jakuskin. "Make this letter
into a bullet, and shoot yourself through the head, and you will
overtake him yet."
In truth, no bad piece of advice! Jakuskin would have done better had he
followed it; instead, he dashed the despatch on the table, and flung
from the room, uttering curses on his fate.
At the gate of the palace he again came across the man of the green eyes
in the act of mounting his horse. Looking at him with his cat-like eyes,
he laughed.
"You came too late, eh?" cried he, and, driving his spurs into his
horse's sides, dashed away.
Jakuskin shivered and trembled in every limb.
Elisabeth, as soon as she had recovered from her swoon, went back to her
dead, and wrote the following letter to the Czarina-mother from the
chamber of death:
"BELOVED MOTHER,--Our angel is already in heaven, and
I still am left on earth. Who would have thought that
I, the invalid, should have outlived him? Mother, do
not forsake me, who now stand alone in this world of
care and suffering. Our beloved has recovered all his
sweetness of expression in death; the smile upon his
face shows that he is looking upon more lovely things
in the next world than here on earth. My one
consolation is that I shall not long survive him, and
shall soon be reunited to him."
Her presentiment was a true one. Next spring brought her to that land
where Czar and serf alike are happy and there is no difference between
them.