_FIFTEEN YEARS AFTER._
Fifteen years had passed away; the year 1796 was drawing to its end.
It was in the beginning of the reign of Pavel I. All Petersburg was
hailing joyfully the liberation of the celebrated Novikoff from the
fortress, and the return from Siberia of Radischeff. The emperor, with
his august consort and several courtiers, went to visit the fortress
of Petropavlovski. The chief of the police, Arharoff, asked the
emperor if he would not like to visit the Ravelin of Alexéef, where
great alterations and repairs were taking place. One of the dungeons
attracted the attention of the Imperial visitors.
“Were any Italians ever confined here?” asked the emperor of the
commandant.
“Never, your Highness; only schismatics.”
“Well, look here,” and the Emperor pointed to the window, “here’s an
inscription on the glass, cut with a diamond. ‘O, Dio mio.’”
Arharoff and the commandant both bent towards the window eagerly. The
commandant was new, and therefore had not yet had time to become
acquainted with all the legends and past days of the fortress.
“It would be very interesting to know,” said the Empress Marie
Feodorovna. “It’s a woman’s hand. Poor thing, who could it have been?”
“Was it not Tarakanova?” said Nelidova, standing by. “Have you
forgotten, your Highness, the unfortunate Konsov, and the young lady
from Little Russia?”
“Tarakanova was drowned here at the time of the inundation,” said
somebody.
Every one was silent; the Empress Marie Feodorovna alone looked at
Nelidova, and pointed with her eyes out of the window at a solitary
silver birch tree, growing in the middle of the little neglected garden
of the Ravelin.
“That’s her grave,” she whispered. “Do you remember? But what can have
become of the diary?”
It was plain that the emperor had heard the words. As he took his
seat in the carriage, he remarked to Arharoff, “At whatever cost this
affair must be looked into; a most painful event here took place. They
were troublous times; the attempt of Merovitch, the insurrection of
Pougachoff, and then … this unfortunate.… I saw my mother’s tears; to
her very last days she could not forgive herself for allowing the poor
girl to be interrogated during her absence from Petersburg.”
The police were all set on foot.
Somewhere in an almshouse they discovered the poor blind invalid,
Antipitch. He had been watchman in the fortress twenty years before.
The invalid directed them to a gardener, and this one again to the
warden of the cathedral of Kazan, who said that he had found a trunk
filled with papers after the death of Father Peter, and that he knew
that in it there had been a roll of very important papers. Search was
made for the family of Father Peter. He had left no direct heirs, but
his grand-niece, the daughter of his niece Vâra, was found. Arharoff
went himself to see her, but she knew nothing. No one knew what had
become of the trunk of papers of Father Peter, or whether it had been
sent to Moscow with his other things. Everything was found out in
time. In the poor retired nunnery of the Oukraine, where Irena had
sought refuge, after having taken the veil, she peacefully died, at
an advanced age, fervently praying for her _fiancé_, the lost Konsov.
Amongst the effects of the deceased lay a packet of papers, with the
inscription “From Father Peter,” and there, together with a letter from
a very influential personage, a faded myrtle leaf. A neighbour, who
was very fond of antiquities, had borrowed these papers from the Lady
Superior. He had subsequently died abroad.
* * * * *
Count Alexis Gregorevitch Orloff-Chesmenski married, the very year that
the Count and Countess du Nord were travelling abroad. His illegitimate
son by the Princess Tarakanova, Alexander Chesmenski, died, in the
rank of Brigadier, at the close of the last century. Having survived
the Empress Ekaterina and the Emperor Pavel, the Count Orloff died in
Moscow, in the reign of the Emperor Alexander I., on Christmas Eve,
1807, leaving an only unmarried daughter, the well-known Countess
Anna Alexéevna. It remains a secret till now whether his conscience
tormented him for his treachery to Tarakanova, or whether the stings of
remorse had no hold on his hardened soul. However, it is a well-known
fact, that the agonies of death must have been for Count Orloff
especially terrible, because, in order to drown the horrible screams
and groans of the dying “Giant of his time,” it was found necessary
to make his private orchestra, at that time learning a sonata in the
neighbouring pavilion, play as loudly as possible.
THE END.
FOOTNOTES
[1] Lit., _word and deed_.
[2] _The original painting (by Constantine Flavitski) hangs in the
famous private gallery of M. Tretiakoff._
[3] The Bulgarian language is similar to the Russian, being a Sclavonic
dialect.
[4] The Russians have no “Mr.,” “Mrs.” or “Miss” before names. They use
the patronymic, which consists in adding _vitch_, for the masculine,
and _vna_, for the feminine, to the name of the father, with sometimes
a contraction.
[5] Little mother,--a caressing term.
[6] Pavel the son of Efstaffi (see note on page 8).
[7] Pet name for Irena.
[8] The man who cries the hour for prayer from one of the mosque towers.
[9] The banks on either side of the Volga.
[10] A Persian garment worn by Russian men.
[11] A Polish garment.
[12] Seven days after the accession to the throne of Ekaterina II. her
husband, Peter III., died, it is supposed, a violent death. Some time
after a simple Cossack, named Pougachoff, an escaped convict from the
mines of Siberia (whose torn nostrils showed that his crime had been
murder), succeeded in raising the whole of the Urals (such was the
credulity of Russians at that time) by giving himself out as Peter III.
[13] _Lit._ “mistress-woman,” _i.e._, a clever manager, one quite
capable of conducting her affairs.
[14] The Pânins were, and are, a celebrated noble family holding
various court appointments.
[15] Dimitri Tzarevitch was the son of Ivan the Terrible, the last of
the house of Ruric, and was said to have been killed at the age of
nine at Ouglitch. He of whom the Princess speaks was a pretender, a
runaway novice, so it is said. But historians differ as to this. Some
say that when Boris Godounoff (the Russian Oliver Cromwell) planned to
kill Dimitri, some faithful friends hid the Tzarevitch, and sent him to
the Polish Court, where he was brought up, and that afterwards he came
into Russia with many adherents and an army of several thousands, the
majority of whom were Poles. He reigned less than a year, being killed
during an insurrection, 1595-96.
[16] Steps before a house.
[17] “Tarakanova” and “Tarakanovka” have the same meaning, and apply
equally to persons and property, but the latter, being the more playful
term, is used for a child. “Tmoutarakanova,” or “Tmoutarakanovka,” was
a pet name. It is the name of a town opposite Kertch, and of a Prince
whose capital it was. _Tarakan_ means “cockroach.”
[18] Aloshki was a native of Oukraine, but was brought thence to sing
in the choir of the Imperial chapel. His splendid voice first attracted
the attention of the Empress Elizabeth Petrowna. His handsome figure
and beautiful face did the rest.
[19] The title given to the chief over all the Cossacks in Little
Russia.
[20] A pet name. Nearly all family names admit of this suffix. The
Russians have any number of pet names and diminutives. “Aloshki” (p.
44), for instance, is the diminutive for Alexis.
[21] The Russian version of this nursery tale is rather different to
the English.
[22] To this day this breed remains unrivalled, and it is called, after
the Count, “Orlovski Rissak.”
[23] A sheepskin coat with the wool inside. The hide is embroidered
with gaily-coloured silks, and being peculiarly tanned, is very
expensive.
[24] _Chic._--A diminutive expressive of endearment.
[25] A species of dove, remarkably short-beaked and short-winged. In
flying they turn over and over.
[26] There are a hundred different ways of saying Russian names.
[27] _i.e._ “If you play me false, you forfeit your head.”
[28] Generally miswritten in English “Leghorn.”
[29] That, namely, which placed Ekaterina on the throne.
[30] _i.e._ “What an impatient, impulsive, hot-headed fellow!” Compare
the English idiom, “What a brick!”
[31] A small Italian coin.
[32] Members of the higher society in Russia are accustomed
to interlard their conversation with foreign,--especially
French,--phrases. This is not astonishing when we consider what
splendid linguists they are.
[33] An anachronism of the author.
[34] An Asiatic dagger.
[35] His hands and feet were chopped off, and he was then hanged. He
himself had executed hundreds thus.
[36] German.--“Leave of Absence.”
[37] _i.e._ “A good-for-nothing hussey.”
[38] Ekaterina is here referring to a letter of Orloff’s.
[39] A street in St. Petersburg.
[40] The général procureur is the highest authority in legal matters.
[41] A service in honour of our Lord and the Virgin Mary.
[42] “Docifé” is supposed to have been another daughter of Elizabeth
Petrowna. It is known that she died in the nunnery referred to.
[43] A Persian coat.
[44] A fine black silk net as worn in England about the time of George
II. and George III.
[45] _Entresol_, a suite of apartments between ground and first floor.
[46] 663 miles.
[47] A wife, in Russia, always takes her husband’s title, adding only a
feminine suffix.
[48] In Russia the roofs of all Government buildings and of substantial
houses are made of iron sheets painted dark red or bright green.
[49] These are always used instead of picks, as the ground here is
sometimes frozen more than a yard deep.
[50] See Frontispiece.
[51] The heir-apparent, son of Ekaterina, afterwards ascended the
throne as Pavel I.
[52] A hooded sledge, lined with furs, and with large fur curtains and
panes of glass let in. It is used for long winter journeys.
[53] A school in St. Petersburg for the daughters of the nobility,
endowed by Ekaterina II.
[54] That is, the high road from Kieff.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Princess Tarakanova, by G. P. Danilevski