THE PRINCESS Y----'S HINT
I never use the same stratagem more than once. It is to this rule
that I attribute my success.
On previous missions to Russia I assumed the disguises of a French
banker, of the private secretary to Prince Napoleon, of an emissary
from an Indian Maharaja, and of an Abyssinian Maduga.
I now decided to go thither as an Englishman, or rather--for there is
a distinction between the two--as a Little Englander.
It appeared to me that no character could be more calculated to gain
me the confidence of the Anglophobes of the Russian Court. I
anticipated that they would smother me with attentions, and that from
their hypocritical professions I should stand a good chance of
learning what was actually in their minds.
No sooner had I taken this decision, which was while the brougham was
being driven along the Mall, than I gave the order "---- House."
I was driven to the office of a well known review conducted by a
journalist of boundless philanthropy and credulity. Mr. Place--as I
will call him--was within, and I at once came to business.
"I am a Peace Crusader," I announced. "I have devoted myself to the
sacred cause of which you are the foremost champion. At present war
is threatened in the Far East. I am going to Russia to persuade the
war party to abandon their designs. I have come here to ask you for
your aid and countenance in this pious enterprise."
The editor gave me a doubtful glance.
"If it is a question of financial aid," he said not very
encouragingly, "I must refer you to the treasurer of the World's
Peace League. I am afraid our friends----"
"No, no," I interrupted him. "It is not a question of funds. I am a
wealthy man, and if you need a subscription at any time you have only
to apply to me. What I desire is your moral support, your valuable
advice, and perhaps a few introductions to the friends of peace in
the Russian capital."
The editor's face brightened.
"Of course!" he exclaimed in cordial tones. "I will support you with
all my heart. I will write up your mission in the _Review_, and I
will give you as many introductions as you need. What is your name,
again?"
"Sterling. Mr. Melchisadek Sterling."
The philanthropist nodded and touched a bell on his table.
"I will give you a letter," he said, as his secretary came in and
seated herself at the typewriter, "to the noblest creature I have
ever met, a woman of high birth and immense fortune who has devoted
herself to the cause."
And turning 'round in his chair he dictated to the attentive
secretary:
"_My dear Princess Y_----"
It needed all that command over my features which it has taken me
twenty years to acquire to conceal the emotion with which I heard
this name. Less than half an hour had passed since I had warned Lord
Bedale that the Princess would be the most formidable enemy in my
path, and now, on the very threshold of my enterprise, her name
confronted me like an omen.
I need not repeat the highly colored phrases in which the
unsuspecting philanthropist commended me to this artful and
formidable woman as a fellow-worker in the holy cause of human
brotherhood.
Not content with this service, the editor wanted to arrange a meeting
of his league or brotherhood, or whatever it was, to give me a public
send-off. As I understood that the meeting would partake of a
religious character I could not bring myself to accept the offer.
In addition to the letter to the Princess Y----, he gave me another
to a member of the staff of the Russian Embassy in London, a M.
Gudonov. He also urged me to call upon a member of Parliament, a
rising politician who is not unlikely to have a ministerial post in
the next government, and who has made himself known as an apologist
of the Czar's. But as I had good reason to know that this gentleman
was by no means a disinterested dupe, like Mr. Place, I prudently
left him alone.
On going to the Russian Embassy to have my passport viséd I inquired
for M. Gudonov.
The moment he entered the room I recognized him as one of the most
unscrupulous agents of the notorious Third Section, one of the gang
who drugged and kidnapped poor Alexander of Bulgaria. My own
disguise, it is hardly necessary to say, was impenetrable.
This precious apostle of peace greeted me with unction, on the
editor's introduction.
"You are going to our country on a truly noble errand," he declared,
with tears in his eyes. "We Russians have reason to feel grateful to
worthy Englishmen like you, who can rise above national prejudices
and do justice to the benevolent designs of the Czar and his
advisers."
"I hope that I may be instrumental in averting a great catastrophe,"
I said piously.
"Even if you fail in preventing war," the Russian replied, "you will
be able to tell your countrymen when you return, that it was due to
the insane ambition of the heathen Japanese. It is the 'Yellow
Peril,' my friend, to which that good Emperor William has drawn
attention, from which we are trying to save Europe."
I nodded my head as if well satisfied.
"Whatever you and your friends in Petersburg tell me, I shall
believe," I assured him. "I am convinced of the good intention of
your Government."
The Russian fairly grinned at this simplicity.
"You cannot find a more trustworthy informant than the Princess
Y----," he said gravely. "And just now she is in a position to know a
very great deal."
"How so?" I asked naturally--not that I doubted the statement.
"The Princess has just been appointed a lady-in-waiting to her
imperial majesty the Dowager Empress Dagmar."
This was a serious blow. Knowing what I did of the past of Princess
Y----, I felt that no ordinary pressure must have been brought to
bear to secure her admission into the household of the Czaritza. And
with what motive? It was a question to which there could be only one
answer. The War Party had guessed or suspected that the Czar's mother
was opposed to them, and they had resolved to place a spy on her
actions.
Inwardly thankful to Mr. Place for having been the means of procuring
me this important information in advance, I received my passport and
quitted the Embassy with the heartfelt congratulations of the
ex-kidnapper.
Forty-eight hours later I had crossed the Russian frontier, and my
life was in the hands of the Princess.
My first step on arriving in the capital of the North was to put up
at the favorite hotel of English visitors. The coupons of a
celebrated tourist agency were credentials in themselves, and I had
not forgotten to provide myself with the three articles indispensable
to the outfit of every traveling Briton--a guide book, a prayer book,
and a bath sponge.
At the risk of incurring the suspicions of the police agent stationed
in the hotel, I mingled some hot water in the bath which I took on
the first morning after my arrival. Then, having made my toilet and
eaten the heavy breakfast provided for English visitors, I set out,
suffering sadly from indigestion, to present my letter of
introduction to the Princess.
As this woman, the most brilliant recruit ever received into the
Russian secret service, and a foe of whom I am not ashamed to confess
that I felt some fear, has never been heard of by the public of Great
Britain, I shall say a word concerning her.
The Princess, whose Christian name was Sophia, was the daughter of a
boyar of Little Russia. Her extraordinary beauty, while she was still
a very young girl, attracted the attention of the governor of the
province, Prince Y----, who was one of the wealthiest nobles in the
Empire, and a widower. He made proposals for her hand which were
accepted by her father, without the girl herself being asked to
express an opinion in the matter, and at the age when an English girl
would be leaving home for a convent or "high-school," Sophia became
the Governor's wife.
Almost immediately the Prince resigned his government and went to
live in his splendid palace on the Nevsky Prospect, in Petersburg.
Before very long, society in the Russian capital was startled to hear
of the sudden deaths in rapid succession of both the Prince's
children by his former wife, a son and a daughter. Then, after a
brief interval, followed the tragic death of the Prince himself, who
was found in bed one morning by his valet, with his throat cut.
The almost satanic beauty and fascination of the youthful Princess
had made her from the very first one of the most conspicuous
personages at the Imperial Court. These three deaths, following on
the heels of one another, roused the most dreadful suspicions, and
the Czar Alexander III. personally charged his minister of justice
to see that the law was carried out.
Accordingly the police took possession of the palace while the corpse
of its late owner still lay where it had been found. The most
searching investigations were made, the servants were questioned and
threatened, and it was rumored that the widow herself was for a short
time under arrest.
Suddenly a great change took place. The police withdrew, professing
themselves satisfied that no crime had been committed. The deaths of
the son and daughter were put down to natural causes, and that of the
Prince was pronounced a suicide, due to grief at the loss of his
children. Some of the servants disappeared--it was said into
Siberia--and in due course the Princess resumed her place in society
and at Court, as though nothing were amiss.
Nevertheless, from that hour, as I have every reason to know, her
life was really that of a slave to the head of the secret police. She
appeared to go about unfettered, and to revel in the enjoyment of
every luxury; but her time, her actions, and the vast wealth
bequeathed to her by her husband, were all at the disposal of her
tyrant.
Time after time, in half the capitals of Europe, but more especially,
of course, in that of Russia, I had come on traces of this terrible
woman, not less terrible if it were true that she was herself the
most miserable victim of the system of which she formed part.
But singularly enough, though I had heard so much of the Princess I
had never actually found myself pitted against her. And, more
singularly still, I had never met her.
From this it will be gathered that I experienced a sensation of more
than ordinary curiosity and even apprehension as I presented myself
at the house in the Nevsky Prospect, and asked to be admitted to the
presence of its mistress.
"Her highness is on duty at the Palace to-day," I was told by the
chamberlain who received me in the inner hall. "Her carriage is just
ordered to take her there. However, I will take up your letter, and
inquire when her highness can see you."
I sat down in the hall, outwardly a calm, stolid Briton, but inwardly
a wrestler, wound up to the highest pitch of excitement and impatient
for the sight of his antagonist.
To pass the time suitably, I took my guide-book out of my pocket and
began to read. The book opened at Herr Baedaker's description of the
gloomy fortress of the Schlüsselburg, the dreaded prison of the foes
of the Czar.
The description did not tend to soothe my nerves, conscious as I was
that the woman I was about to meet could consign me to the most
noisome dungeon in the fortress by merely lifting her little finger.
I was just closing the book with an involuntary shudder when I heard
a light, almost girlish, laugh from above. I looked hastily, and saw
the woman I had come to measure myself against standing poised like a
bird on the top of the grand staircase.
As I rose hurriedly to my feet, taking in every detail of her superb
yet delicate figure, her complexion like a blush-rose, her lustrous
eyes--they were dark violet on a closer view--and the cloud of
rippling gold that framed her brow, I was moved, yes, positively
carried away for a moment, by a sentiment such as few women have been
able to inspire in me.
Perceiving, no doubt, that she had produced the desired impression,
the Princess ran lightly down the stairs and came toward me holding
out two tiny hands, the fingers of which were literally gloved in
diamonds.
"My friend! My noble Englishman!" she exclaimed in the purest French.
"And since when have you known that dear Monsieur Place?"
I checked myself on the point of replying, pretended to falter, and
then muttered in the worst French I could devise on the spur of the
moment:
"_Parlez-vous Anglais, s'il vous plaît, Madame?_"
The Princess shook her head reproachfully.
"You speak French too well not to understand it, I suspect," she
retorted in the same language. Then dropping it for English, marred
only by a slight Slavonic accent, she repeated:
"But tell me,--dear Mr. Place, he is a great friend of yours, I
suppose?"
"I can hardly claim the honor of his personal friendship," I replied,
rather lamely. "But I have always known and admired him as a public
man."
"Ah! He is so good, is he not? So generous, so confiding, so great a
friend of our dear Russia. You know Mr. ----?"
The name she uttered was that of the politician referred to above.
She slipped it out swiftly, with the action of a cat pouncing.
I shook my head with an air of distress.
"I am afraid I am not important enough to know such a great man as
that," I said with affected humility.
The Princess hastened to relieve my embarrassment.
"What is that to us!" she exclaimed. "You are an Englishman, you are
benevolent, upright, truthful, and you esteem our country. Such men
are always welcome in Russia. The Czaritza is waiting for me; but you
will come back and dine with me, if not to-night, then to-morrow, or
the next day. I will send an invitation to your hotel. My friends
shall call on you. You are staying at the----?"
I mentioned the name of the hotel, murmuring my thanks.
"That is nothing," the beautiful woman went on in the same eager
strain. "I shall have good news for you when we meet again, believe
me. Yes--" she lowered her voice almost to a whisper--"our dear Czar
is going to take the negotiations into his own hands. So it is said.
His majesty is determined to preserve peace. The odious intrigues of
the War group will be defeated, I can assure you. You will not be
disappointed, my dear Mr.----" she snatched the editor's letter from
her muff and glanced at it--"Mr. Sterling, if I tell you that you are
going to have your journey for nothing. You will have a good time in
Petersburg, all the same. But believe me when I tell you so, your
journey will fortunately be for nothing!"
And with the repetition of these words, and another bright bow and
look which dazzled my senses, the wonderful creature swept past me to
where the chamberlain stood ready to hand her into her carriage.
For nothing?