The two days out at sea were a raging impatience to Paul, in which he
learnt to understand all the torments of Tantalus. To know and feel her
near, and yet not to be allowed to get to her! It was an impossible
cruelty.
The two grey-headed men's hearts ached for him, and Captain Grigsby
delivered himself of this aphorism:
"Say what you will, Charles, but youth pays the devil of a long price for
its pleasures. Here you and I snored like a couple of porpoises all last
night, while the boy paced the deck and cursed everything."
And Sir Charles had only grunted, for he was feeling very deeply for his
son.
There was a fresh breeze blowing when the time was up and they sighted land
again, and long before any possible shore could be examined, Paul
stood--his strongest glasses in his hand--on the look-out.
At length they came in full view, and alas! there could be no mistake, the
flagstaff upon the villa roof was empty.
To the day of his death Paul will keep a vivid picture of the pure
white-columned house. No semi-Oriental architecture met his view, but a
beautiful marble structure in the graceful Ionic style, seeming a suitable
habitation for his Queen.
It was approached by groves of ilex, from a wall at the edge of the
sea. And now Paul could discern the landing-stage, and the great studded
door.
A sensation of foreboding--a wild, mad anxiety, filled his being. What had
happened? Why might he not land? Then for the first time that fact of
Vasili's vanishment came into his mind. Was there something sinister in
it? Had he scented any danger to his Queen, and gone to see? A whirlwind of
questions and frenzied speculation shook Paul's brain. But there was
nothing to be done now but to cram on all steam and make for
Constantinople.
He looked again. The green _jalousies_ were lowered over the windows, all
seemed peaceful, silent and deserted. No living being wandered in the
gardens. It might have been a mausoleum for the dead. And as this thought
came to him Paul almost cried aloud.
Then he dominated himself. How weak and intolerably foolish to imagine evil
where perhaps none was! Why should his thoughts fly to terrible reasons for
the postponement of his joy, when in truth they could as well be of the
simplest? A sudden call to the city--a descent of some undesirable spying
eye--a hundred and one possible things, all much more likely than any ones
of fear.
He would not permit another moment of wonder. He would regain his calm and
wait like a man for certainty. Thus his face wore an iron mask and his
thoughts an iron band. And presently they came to Constantinople.
But of what followed afterwards it is difficult to write. For fate struck
Paul on that warm June morning, and blasted his life, so that for many days
he only saw red, and lived in hell.
Every one knows the story which at the time convulsed Europe. How a certain
evil-living King, after a wild orgie of mad drunkenness, rode out with two
boon companions to the villa of his Queen, and there, forcing an entrance,
ran a dagger through her heart before her faithful servants could protect
her. And most people were glad, too, that this brute paid the penalty of
his crime by his own death--his worthless life choked out of him by the
Queen's devoted Kalmuck groom.
But only Paul and his father, and Mark Grigsby, know the details, which
were told in Dmitry's heart-broken letter. How that night, the 29th of May,
at the hour the Excellency was expected, he--Dmitry--was waiting in the
garden to meet him and conduct him through the gloom, when, while he stood
there under the stars, the Imperial Highness had called him softly, telling
him to take the message down to the Excellency, which he did. How he had
never dreamed that immediate danger threatened her, or that the King was
there, or he would not have left her for any peril to the Excellency, who
was after all a man and could fight. And How Vasili, being younger and more
quick of wit, had suspected, hearing his message as he gave it to the
Excellency, that all was not well, and had hastened to the house--too late
to save his Queen.
And then the faithful servant took up Anna's tale. How this good girl had
been watching on the side of the villa towards the town, and had heard the
King come battering at the gate. How she had flown to warn her mistress,
but that the _Imperatorskoye_ had sent her back to watch, saying she
herself would call Dmitry to protect them. Of course--as they now
guessed--on purpose that Anna should not hear her message to him--as the
Queen knew full well if he--Dmitry--heard from Anna the King was there, and
she--the Queen--in danger, he would not leave her, even to do her
bidding. Then of how the King had thrust the frightened servants aside, and
strode with threats and oaths into the hall, accompanied by his two vile
men. And how Anna had implored the Queen to hide while there was yet time.
But how that shining one had stood only listening intently for the
sea-bird's cry, and then when she heard it, had turned in triumph to the
entering King, saying to Anna that nothing mattered now the Excellency was
safe!
On her face, as she looked at this monster, was no dread of death, or aught
but scorn and fearless pride. How Anna, seeing the dagger, had screamed,
and tried to get between, but had been seized by one of the execrated men,
and there been forced to watch the murder of her worshipped Queen. Ah! that
had been a moment the saints could never efface! The splendid lady had
stood quite still, her head thrown back, while this hound of hell had
lurched towards her--hissing through his evil teeth this dreadful sentence:
"Since thou hast at last obeyed me and found me an heir, making the people
love me, I have no more use for thee. It will be a joy to kill thee!"
And with that he had plunged the dagger in her heart.
Of all that followed the Excellency would know. How Vasili had entered,
scattering the minions like a mad bull, and springing upon the villainous
King, had torn his life out on the marble floor.
Thus ended the letter.
Ah, God! For Paul had come the tears. But for her--cold steel and blood.
And so, as ever, the woman paid the price.