Mary Imlay Taylor

“ The Princess Daria’s horse had carried her a few yards away, and there she held him, looking back, rooted, as it seemed, to the spot, though I shouted to her to ride on. The swords whirled and ground together, and in a flash I saw the whole scene and remembered it; the glory of the sky, the wide sweep of land, the shadows of the sycamores, and the sharp outline of her figure and her face, white as a pearl. But, all the while, I had much ado to keep his steel from my heart, and verily, I think the man fought more like a fiend than a human. ”

“ The yell of the mob and the screams of the dying came up together. The body of Matveief had been hacked to pieces; blood flowed on the Red Staircase, blood dripped alike from hands and weapons and smeared their faces with a hideous ruddiness. The mob was no longer densely massed, it was breaking asunder, into small parties in pursuit of victims. Every boyar, every man of rank, was a suspect, and he stood chance of a trial unless he was known to be of the Miloslavsky party. Even the horses in the carriages were cut down, that not a noble might escape. ”

“ I can die.”
“Out there?” asked Sophia scornfully, pointing toward the court-yard where the carnival of hell went on.
The Princess Daria did not answer, her face set itself rigidly.
“Out there?” said Sophia again. “I do not think they would kill you—not at once!”
Daria shuddered, turning her face away. Sophia looked at her with glittering eyes.
“It will avail nothing to resist,” she went on, in a fierce, low tone, “you are in my power; your father cannot save you; you shall marry Kurakin, I swear it! And Galitsyn will never see your face again—never.” ”

“ Behind me came Martemian—pistol in hand—a grim, purple-scarred man, who had no mercy and no music in him. Between the two, I made my choice. If I could have killed them then—and I would have done it if I could—Martemian would have been the first.
We rode thus—passing, once or twice, a peasant pilgrim travelling slowly and patiently toward the shrine of Saint Sergius, a brown-skinned, lean moujik with a sheepskin caftan, and legs swathed in folds of cloth, and shoes of lime-tree bark; a man whose life was only labour and starvation and prayer. ”

“ Homyak, the dwarf, betrayed the czarina’s brother to his death; Komar, the dwarf, saved the son of the Chancellor Matveief and Feodor Naryshkin; and Maluta, the dwarf, was my true friend and ally. Yet they were the veriest waifs of fortune, the most miserable toys of tyrants, the outcasts of society—and its spies. Misery and secret power, degradation and triumph, merriment and despair, these things made up the sum of their short lives, but love and happiness and honour passed them by and left them to perish by the wayside. ”

“ And death he would have, if he opposed me. His rank avails not. See, yonder goes the head of Artemon Matveief, the czarina’s uncle—she could not save him!”
The Princess Daria closed her eyes with a shudder, and I saw Sophia’s cruel, furtive smile. What devil possessed the woman? I felt in my bosom for the pistol, the spot was lonely! At the moment, came up the yell from below—like a voice from the infernal regions.
“Slay, slay the traitors! Give us Ivan Naryshkin and Von Gaden—the Jew poisoner—and Prince Voronin! Death to these wretches!” ”

“ A DUEL WITH SWORDS THERE is nothing in the world more beautiful than the dawn—the birth of a new day—the resurrection of the light. Darkness rolling away like a vapour, lying low on the earth, dropping away into its valleys; above, the firmament is radiant, an arch of glory, of tender colour, of soft white clouds, transcendently lovely, and the very air is sweeter, fresher, full of musical sounds—life stirring gently out of silence and sleep.
As the Princess Daria and I rode from the hut by the wayside, such a dawn was breaking ”

“ Not a tree grew near us, only in the upper courses of the rivers was there timber, and the moujiks burned straw and dried dung.
And while we rode the dwarf chattered to me of the power of the great Prince Voronin, and the rumours, current on the back stairs of the palace, of Sophia’s jealousy of Prince Galitsyn, and his love for the Princess Daria. A conversation that furnished gall and wormwood in plenty for my diet, and while showing me the insignificance of my cause and my efforts, only served to make me the more obstinate; for I have that in me that will not yield. ”

“ Close-shuttered windows and barred doors surrounded us; not a woman looked out, not a child ran in the court-yards, and if we chanced on a peaceful citizen, he skurried away at the sight of an armed man. As we neared the Gate of Saint Nikolas, I saw that it was occupied by a guard of Streltsi, and the dwarf signed to me to advance slowly, while he began to whistle softly, holding his hands over his mouth. Then I saw one of the guards at the gate lounge toward us, and began to suspect Maluta’s designs. ”

“ He broke in upon me with a kind of fierce joy.
“You prevented it—and how, sir?”
“I married the Princess Daria myself,” I said.
A pause followed, a pause so deadly that I heard Maître le Bastien breathing like a man spent with running. I believe that Galitsyn thought me mad; he looked at me as if he doubted his own senses, and that doubt alone stayed his hand. I think, on the first impulse, he would have struck me dead—if he could. He wore the look men wear when they strike to kill; I saw just such a look on the face of M. d’Argenson that morning in Easter week, on the Place Royale. ”

“ Nor do I blame you for refusing to intrust your daughter to a stranger, but, M. le Prince, I have upon me papers that will establish my birth and my rank, not entirely unsuitable for your consideration, and although a foreigner, monsieur, and a stranger, I love the princess deeply, so deeply that I will force no claim upon her. She is free to choose; if she will recognise the marriage, I am her devoted husband and lover, but she—and she alone—must choose. ”

“ I said, “I am not the man to be thus lightly dealt with. If she wishes to be free—I will free her. No woman is my wife against her will; but if she chooses me of her free will, mine she is, and shall be, against the world.”
“And think you that the Princess Daria will choose you?” he asked contemptuously.
I returned his glance with equal pride. “And why not, monsieur?” I said quietly. “I am her husband.” ”

“ The boyar’s house was large, and shaped like a Greek cross, the kitchen and the servants’ quarters opening on the court, which was crowded now with the serfs, for the steward of the household was giving one of the varlets a taste of the whip. The doors and windows of the kitchen gaped wide, filled with curious spectators; some, I fancied, half in sympathy with the poor rogue who squealed under the lash, and others applauding the major-domo, whether from fear or love I knew not. ”

“ I was bewitched, if ever man was, and yet—and yet, did she love Galitsyn? With these pretty torments to sting and goad me on, I rode boldly into the village at the gates of Troïtsa, and finding quarters for my horse, set out, at once, on foot to make inquiries.
It was a cloudy day and exceedingly dreary; even the splendour of that great monastery seemed subdued. There were more pilgrims, though, I thought; more men and women kneeling here and there in the road facing the sacred place. ”

“ A varlet or a gentleman? A serf or a freedman?”
“He might have been one, and he might have been the other,” I stammered slowly, as if the Russ tied my tongue. “I do not rightly remember, your highness.”
She rose from her chair at this and stamped her foot at me, calling me, durak, which may be interpreted as “ninny,” and then she swept up to Maître le Bastien and opened the locket so sharply before his face that he started back as if she had snapped a pistol under his nose. She held up the trinket, displaying the beautiful face of the Princess Daria. ”

“ As I rode, I studied the square outlines of Martemian’s figure; his short, thick neck, red and folded at the nape, like a bull’s; his brutal head, his wide shoulders and strong, muscular limbs gripping the horse tightly with the knees. Not an easy man to kill, I reflected, and as if my thoughts were carried to him by the current of the air, he turned sharply, and looked me between the eyes, and scowled, meeting my glance. Then he rode on, and once I saw him slyly peep at my bag of roubles; meanwhile, however, I heard Mikhail’s horse plodding steadily behind, but to-day he did not sing. ”

“ A little further off lay a body, the rich dress disordered, the feet—stiff and straight—turned toward me. And close at hand a gang of Streltsi seemed to be on guard; perhaps, five or six in all, too many certainly for one man, and that man hampered by a woman. While this conviction forced itself upon my unwilling mind, and I saw that we were no nearer an escape from the trap than before, I became aware that the princess had followed me across the cellar and stood close behind me. The comparative quiet without had deceived her and she was in no mood for delay. ”

“ I saw in Le Bastien’s mirror a tall man with wide shoulders and long, strong arms, but I was not handsome, and I sighed at the contrast between my irregular features and my bold, blue eyes, and M. Kurakin’s classical beauty. I had a scar, too, on my forehead from a sword cut at Seneffe, and my chestnut hair, which I wore without a peruke, was beginning to show threads of silver, and I had the air of a fighter and no courtier, though I was well enough born and bred, too, for that matter, but I was no fop. ”

“ GALITSYN WHEN I left our quarters I had made no plans, and was only determined to find the Princess Daria, and to save her from the dangers that encompassed her at every step. A wild enough design for one man—and a foreigner at that—to form at such a time in Moscow, and the aspect of the deserted streets smote me with a sharp sense of the desperate nature of my enterprise. ”

“ The fellow loved his master. I myself had once just such a follower, devoted to jealousy, and full of sullen fits and the changeful moods of a woman.
“You speak truly, M. le Marquis,” said Le Bastien thoughtfully; “we cannot judge too harshly; but where have you been, Michaud?”
“I got out of the palace in the tumult, monsieur,” replied the apprentice, “and I have been hiding in [221] one place and another, ever since; only an hour ago I got out of the Kremlin through the kindness of a soldier, whom I knew, and who got me through the guard at the Gate of Saint Nikolas, for a rouble—all I had.” ”

“ The great black storm-cloud rolled up, covering the heavens and the earth with the blackness of the pit, and the wind, rising steadily, swept over those wide plains with furious power. The few trees that stood about us bent and creaked, feeble as reeds, and the rain came down in torrents, and all through the fury of the tempest Maluta shouted a weird song, kneeling sometimes, while the water swirled around his little figure, and again lifting his arms over his head and dancing to and fro, swaying back and forth, and calling for protection on Koshchei and his legion of evil spirits. ”

“ On either side of the main entrance the serfs stood in double tiers, clad in white caftans banded with purple, and their wild, dark faces illumined by the streaming fire of the torches that they held aloft, fifty strong men on one side and fifty on the other; while farther off, in the corners of the great yard, and at the gateway, crowded men and women and even children, in every colour, from deep scarlet to pale pink, a living mass of creatures that served one lord, the thralls of the vast domain of this Russian prince, his slaves and his warriors. ”

“ The very day that I visited the Princess Daria the soldiers had seized and scourged one of their own colonels, and no man dared gainsay them, though the Chancellor Matveief, the uncle of the Czarina Natalia, and the old commander of the Streltsi, had been recalled from exile in Archangel and was in the Kremlin, trying to pour oil on the troubled waters, but deeper and yet deeper worked the intrigues of the Miloslavskys. Their emissaries were busy among the ranks of the soldiers, pledges were making, dissension was sowing, and loud and deep came the growl of the mob. ”

“ What man could quell the tumult, drive these mad creatures back to their dens? Fierce faces looked up, brawny arms brandished their weapons, and I noticed that they had even broken the long handles of their spears, that they might use them as swords. They poured in from every avenue and gateway, they choked up every outlet and massed themselves about the palace, shouting with passionate fury.
“Down with the Naryshkins! Death to the traitors! They have murdered the Czarevitch Ivan!”
Down with the Naryshkins! Ah, Mme. Sophia, this is then your handiwork? ”

“ Their wild upturned faces scowled fiercely upon the nobles; they gesticulated and screamed, but, as, yet, no blood was shed, and only one or two stones had been thrown, and they fell wide of the mark, but the sullen rumble of wrath rose on the outskirts of the throng; the naked spears flashed in the sunshine, death was there, riot and murder—no sane man could be blind to it. Once more that wild shout rose. [124] I climbed on the window-sill and looked down and saw the boyars bringing out the Czarina Natalia and her son, the little Czar Peter, and with them the weak-minded Czarevitch Ivan. ”

“ She had no conception probably of the greatness of France, seeing nothing beyond her own horizon but the edge of the world; the pride of these Muscovites is something truly amazing.
The display of the model coming off so poorly, the goldsmith stood silent and, for the moment, the interview seemed a flat enough matter, and then the czarevna suddenly struck to the root of it. She held out her hand, and in the palm of it lay the Princess Daria’s jewelled pear. We both started, and Maître le Bastien turned from white to green; the good man seemed for the time chicken-hearted. ”

“ I bit my lip; to her I was the goldsmith’s apprentice. So be it, I thought; if she despised the man, she may also despise the marquis. I had meant to tell her, but now I would not.
“Are Russian men then cowards, madame?” I asked drily.
She did not reply; she had no time, for we had come to the clump of trees, and as we turned them, a horseman suddenly barred our way with a drawn sword. She recognised him first, with a little cry of horror, and then I, too, looked into the flushed face of the Boyar Kurakin. ”

“ I cried angrily, “but I am your lawful husband. You married me—not Kurakin—in the palace chapel. To whom, then, do you owe the first allegiance—your father or your husband?”
“Ah, monsieur,” she replied softly, “’tis a question that has cost me many a vigil, many a prayer! [323] My father has little love for me, I fear, but I am still his daughter, and I would fain obey him, but——”
Her faltering voice quivered, and choked with a sob. I took a quick step nearer, and swiftly, but gently, I pushed back that hood, and looked into a pale, downcast face—not the face of the princess, but the woman. ”