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diff --git a/old/64788-0.txt b/old/64788-0.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 206d10e..0000000 --- a/old/64788-0.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,7144 +0,0 @@ -The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Secret Dispatch, by James Grant - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and -most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions -whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms -of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at -www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you -will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before -using this eBook. - -Title: The Secret Dispatch - or, The Adventures of Captain Balgonie - -Author: James Grant - -Release Date: March 11, 2021 [eBook #64788] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: UTF-8 - -Produced by: Al Haines - -*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE SECRET DISPATCH *** - - - - - THE - SECRET DISPATCH; - - OR, - - THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN BALGONIE. - - - - BY - - JAMES GRANT, - - AUTHOR OF "ROMANCE OF WAR," "SCOTTISH CAVALIERS," - ETC. ETC. - - - - NEW EDITION. - - - - LONDON: - CHAPMAN AND HALL, 193, PICCADILLY. - - - - - TO - - PROFESSOR SIR JAMES Y. SIMPSON, BART., - - M.D., D.C.L., &C., &C., - - THIS TALE, - FROM RUSSIAN MILITARY HISTORY, - IS INSCRIBED, - AS A MEMORIAL OF ADMIRATION AND SINCERE REGARD. - - - - -PREFACE. - -I need scarcely inform the reader of history, that most of the events -narrated in the subsequent pages actually occurred in the manner -stated; and I have done much to soften, or subdue, the actual -barbarity of the story, though such barbarity was consonant enough to -the days of her, whose "lust of power and contempt of all moral -restraint" won her the name of "the Semiramis of the North." - -For the betrothal of the young Lieutenant of the Valikolutz Infantry -to his cousin, it may be mentioned that a dispensation was necessary, -as the Russian Church--like the Catholic--forbids all marriages -within four degrees of relationship. - -As stated in the text, the little song of the gipsy is one of many -current enough in Russia, where the destruction of the Crescent is -always fondly predicted; but never so confidently as during our late -Crimean War: and even at this very time, an aged Muscovite, named -Alexis Alexandrovitch, after a seclusion of many years in the -district of Samara, has come forth as a prophet on the same subject, -and is now proceeding from place to place, like another Peter the -Hermit, foretelling and preaching the downfall of "the sick man" at -Stamboul, and the speedy substitution of the Russian Cross for the -Turkish Crescent on the dome of St. Sophia. - -26, DANUBE STREET, EDINBURGH. - - - - - CONTENTS. - - CHAPTER I. - The Lost Traveller - - CHAPTER II. - The Castle of Louga - - CHAPTER III. - Natalie - - CHAPTER IV. - Corporal Podatchkine - - CHAPTER V. - The Dagger of Bernikoff - - CHAPTER VI. - The Palatine - - CHAPTER VII. - The Soldier of the Czarina - - CHAPTER VIII. - In Love - - CHAPTER IX. - Deluded - - CHAPTER X. - The Corporal in his own Trap - - CHAPTER XI. - Olga, the Gipsy - - CHAPTER XII. - St. Petersburg - - CHAPTER XIII. - What the Secret Dispatch contained - - CHAPTER XIV. - Charlie's first day in Schlusselburg - - CHAPTER XV. - The Imperial Prisoner - - CHAPTER XVI. - The Tratkir - - CHAPTER XVII. - The Wood of the Honey Tree - - CHAPTER XVIII. - Doubt and Dread - - CHAPTER XIX. - The Night of the 15th September - - CHAPTER XX. - Morning of the 16th September - - CHAPTER XXI. - Underground - - CHAPTER XXII - Over their Wine - - CHAPTER XXIII. - Will he Succeed? - - CHAPTER XXIV. - Conclusion - - L'Envoi - - - - -THE SECRET DISPATCH. - - - -CHAPTER I. - -THE LOST TRAVELLER. - -"Heaven aid me! here am I now--which way shall I turn--advance or -retire?" exclaimed Balgonie, as his horse came plunging down almost -on its knees, amid wild gorse and matted jungle. - -A cold day in the middle of April had passed away; a pale and -cheerless sun, that had cast no heat on the leafless scenery and the -half-frozen marshes that border the Louga in Western Russia, had -sunk, and the darkness of a stormy night came on rapidly. The keen -blast of the north, that swept the arid scalps of the Dudenhof (the -only range of hills that traverses the ancient Ingria), was bellowing -through a gorge, where the Louga poured in foam upon its passage to -the Gulf of Finland, between steep banks that were covered by gloomy -pines, when the speaker, a mounted officer in Russian uniform, who -seemed too surely to have lost his way, reined up a weary and -mud-covered horse on the margin of the stream, and by the light that -yet lingered on the tops of the tall pines, and gilded faintly the -metal-covered domes of a distant building on the opposite bank, -looked hopelessly about him for the means of crossing the dangerous -river. - -"Where am I?" he repeated, almost despairingly; for, as Schiller -sings in his "Song of the Bell,"-- - - "Man fears the kingly lion's tread; - Man fears the tiger's fangs of terror; - And still the dreadliest of the dread - Is man himself in error!" - - -Though clad in the uniform of the Russian Regiment of Smolensko, -which was raised in the famous duchy of that name, the traveller was -neither Muscovite nor Calmuck, Cossack nor Tartar, but a cool, wary, -and determined young Briton, one of the many Scottish officers whom -misfortune or ambition had drawn into the Russian service, both by -sea and land, from the time of Peter the Great down to the beginning -of the present century; for many Scottish officers served in the -Russian fleet with Admiral Greig at the famous bombardment of Varna: -and it was such volunteers as these that first taught the barbarous -hordes of the growing empire the true science of war and the -necessity for discipline. - -The rider's green uniform, faced with scarlet velvet and richly laced -with gold, was covered by a thick grey pelisse (like our present -patrol-jackets), trimmed with black wolf's fur: he wore a scarlet -forage cap with a square top, long boots that came above the knee, -and a Turkish sabre that had once armed a pasha of more tails than -one. - -"Swim the river I must," he muttered, after having traversed the -valley in vain, looking for a bridge, boat, or raft of timber; "but, -egad, death may be the penalty. Well," he added, with a gleam of ire -in his dark grey eyes and a bitter smile on his lip, "there was a -time, perhaps, when I little thought that I, Charlie Balgonie, would -find a nameless grave in this land of timber, hemp, and salted hides, -where caviare is a luxury, train-oil a liqueur, and the air of -Siberia deemed healthy for all who have any absurd ideas of political -freedom, or are silly enough to imagine that a man may be the lord of -his own proper person." - -To add to his troubles and discomfort, though the month was -April--usually the most serene of the year in Russia--snow-flakes -were beginning to fall, rendering yet greater the gloom of the -gathering night. - -"I was to have found a bridge here. Can that Livonian villain, -Podatchkine, have deluded, and then left me to my fate?" - -He knew that in his rear, the way by which he had come, lay -half-frozen morasses, heathy wastes, and forests of spruce, larch, -and silver-leaved firs--vast natural magazines for supplying all -Europe with masts and spars--the haunt of the wolf and bear; he knew -that to linger or to return were worse than to advance, and that he -must cross the stream and seek quarters and guidance at the château, -the name of which was yet unknown to him. - -This was, if possible, the worst season for passing the Louga, which -is always deepest and most navigable in spring. It rises in the -district of Novgorod; and, after traversing a country full of vast -forests for more than 180 miles, falls into the Gulf of Finland. - -Balgonie buttoned tightly his holster-flaps, hooked up his sabre, -assured himself that an important dispatch with which he was -entrusted was safe in an inner pocket, and prepared seriously for the -perilous task of swimming his horse across the stream. - -Again he looked anxiously at the château, the abode evidently of some -wealthy noble or boyar. Its outline had almost disappeared in the -increasing obscurity; the last faint gleams of the west had faded -away on the onion-shaped roofs of its turrets, and a central dome of -polished copper, which was cut into facets like the outside of a -pine-apple (for there is much of the Oriental in the old Russian -architecture); but lights were beginning to sparkle cheerfully -through its double-sashed windows upon the feathery and the -funeral-like foliage of the solemn pine woods. - -Could those who were comfortably, perhaps luxuriously seated within, -but know that there was a poor human being on the eve, perhaps, of -perishing helplessly amid the dark flow of that deep and roaring -river! - -"Courage, friend Charlie!" said the rider to himself; and then he -hallooed loudly, as if to attract attention, but did so in vain. The -night was becoming a very severe one; the flakes of snow fell thicker -and thicker on the gusty and cutting blast. - -"Ah! if I should perish here--such a fate!" thought he, shuddering. -"Shall I be swept down this black and horrid stream, the Louga, to be -cast a drowned corpse upon its banks, to be found stripped and buried -by wondering but unpitying serfs and boors; or shall I be torn and -mangled by bears and wolves; or borne even to the Gulf of Finland, -far, far away, having thus an obscure and wretched fate, without -winning the name I had hoped to gain--forgotten even by those who -wronged me in Scotland, the land that never more shall be a home to -me!" - -He did not say all this aloud; but certainly some such painful -surmises flashed upon him as he forced his snorting and reluctant -horse, by a vigorous use of the spurs, through the thickly interwoven -brushwood that grew on the bank of the river, the dull and monotonous -rush of which, encumbered as it was by large pieces of ice, was -sufficient to appal even a stouter heart than that of this young -Scottish soldier of fortune. - -With a brief invocation on his lips, he gave his horse the reins and -gored it with the rowels. A strong, active, and clean-limbed, but -somewhat undersized animal from the steppes of the Ukraine, with a -fierce and angry snort, it plunged into the torrent, and breasted the -icy masses bravely. - -The slippery fragments that glided past, struck at times both horse -and rider, forcing them to swerve down the stream; others were dashed -by the whirling eddies against the projecting pieces of rock or roots -of old trees; but after twice nearly despairing of achieving the -passage, and believing himself lost, his horse trod firmly on the -opposite bank. It emerged, panting, snorting, dripping, and -trembling in every fibre, from the flood, and then Captain Balgonie -found that he had escaped with life, and had safely passed the -swollen waters of the Louga! - -Leading his sturdy little steed by the bridle and caressing it the -while, he made his way up the opposite bank, guided only by the -lights in the mansion (or castle); but he proceeded with extreme -difficulty, for the underwood was thick and dense as that which grew -round the Palace of the Sleeping Beauty; ere long, however, he -reached a plateau, the border of a park or lawn, and saw the -snow-whitened walls and turrets of the edifice towering before him. - -Rising from a balustraded terrace, with an arched porte-cochère in -front, the façade was square, and three storied, having a central -dome like an inverted punchbowl, and several little angular towers, -tall and slender like minarets; these cut the sky-line, and were -surrounded each by a broad cornice or gallery, and terminated by a -bulbous-shaped roof, exactly like an onion with its acute end in the -air. - -The lights in its many windows, the red and yellow coloured curtains -within, all indicated warmth and comfort; while with the snow flakes -freezing on his sodden and saturated uniform, his limbs benumbed, and -his teeth well-nigh chattering, Balgonie hastily led his horse under -the porte-cochère, and applied his hand vigorously to the great -brazen knocker on the front door. - -It was speedily opened, and a white-bearded _dvornick_, or porter, -wearing a long flowing _shoubah_, or coat of fur, lined with red -flannel, admitted him with many humble genuflections, at the same -time summoning a groom to take charge of his horse. - -By the bearing of these lackeys, one might almost have thought that -the Captain had been expected, or was a friend of the family: but a -uniform has ever been an all-powerful passport, and an epaulette the -most mighty of all introductions in Russia, where everything is -measured by a military standard; thus, in an incredibly short space -of time, the wants of rider and horse were alike hospitably attended -to. - - - - -CHAPTER II. - -THE CASTLE OF LOUGA. - -Captain Balgonie, of the Regiment of Smolensko, soon found himself in -a comfortable bed-chamber, where the genial glow of a _peitchka_, or -Russian wall-stove, diffused warmth through his chilled frame, and -where every current of the external atmosphere was carefully excluded -by double window sashes, adorned with artificial flowers between. - -When he chose to repose, a couch draped with snow-white curtains, and -having a coverlet of the softest fur, awaited him; and above it hung -a little holy picture of the Byzantine school, a Holy Virgin, with a -halo of shining metal in the form of a horse-shoe round her head, if -he chose to be devout and offer up a prayer. - -A valet, after supplying him with hot coffee and a good dram of vodka -(which somewhat reminded him of his native "mountain dew"), said that -the Count, his master, would rejoice to have the pleasure of the -visitor's society, after he had made a suitable toilet, and exchanged -his wet uniform for a luxurious robe-de-chambre, in the pocket of -which he took especial care to secure his dispatch, unseen. - -Hospitality such as this, was not merely then a characteristic of the -people, but was the result, perhaps, of a meagre population, and the -absence of inns; thus the arrival of a stranger, especially an -officer on duty, at this Russian mansion, created little or no -surprise among its inmates. - -He was ushered into the presence of Count Mierowitz, whose name at -once inspired him with confidence and satisfaction; for, by one of -those singular coincidences "which novelists dare not use in fiction, -but which occur daily in actual and matter-of-fact life," he had -arrived at a mansion where he was not altogether unknown. - -"I have to apologise to your High Excellency for this apparent -intrusion," said he; "but I have been misled or abandoned by my -guide. I am Captain Balgonie, of the Regiment of Smolensko, and have -the good fortune to number among my friends your son, Lieutenant -Basil Mierowitz, the senior subaltern of my company." - -"For Basil's sake, not less than your own, Captain, are you most -welcome to the Castle of Louga," replied the Count, lifting and -laying aside his cap. - -He was a man well on in years; his stature was not great, neither was -his presence dignified; he stooped a little and was thick set, with a -venerable beard, undefiled by steel; for, like a true old Muscovite, -he contended that man was made in the image of God, and should -neither be cut or carved upon. His eyebrows were white, but his eyes -were dark, keen, quick, and expressed a spirit of ready impulse, for -laughter or for ferocity--one, who by turns could be suave or -irritable, especially when under the influence of wine, which -generally made him fierce and stupid; for never, in all his life, had -he suffered control or had his will disputed. - -His silver hair was simply tied behind with a black ribbon; in his -hand he carried a little cap of black wolf's fur, adorned by rudely -set jewels; he wore a queerly cut coat of dark red cloth trimmed with -fur, and wore breeches of the same stuff, and lacked but a dagger and -pistols with brass Turkish butts at his girdle, to seem what he -really was, in disposition and character, a type of the boyar of the -old school, who preferred quass to champagne, ate his pancakes with -caviare, and was proud of being a specimen of the old Russian noble, -as he existed in the time of Peter the Great, when his class first -united some of the vices and luxuries of Western Europe to their -native lawlessness and hardy ferocity. - -Such was Count Mierowitz. - -"When did you last see my son?" he asked, in tone more of authority -than of anxious inquiry. - -"Some three months since, Excellency: he has been detached on the -Livonian frontier." - -"And you, Captain--" - -"I am proceeding on urgent imperial service from Novgorod where my -regiment is stationed in the old palace of the Czars." - -"To whither?" - -"Schlusselburg." - -The host changed countenance and almost manifested signs of -discomposure on hearing of that formidable fortress and prison--the -veritable Bastille of St. Petersburg, and he said: - -"A name to shudder at--by St. Nicholas it is!" - -"And, but for the feather in the wax of my dispatch," resumed -Balgonie (showing a red government seal in which a piece of feather -twitched from a pen was inserted, the usual Russian emblem of -_speed_), "I had not, perhaps, tempted the dangers of the Louga, but -sought a billet on the other side, if such could be found." - -"You know not, perhaps, that my woods are full of wolves; but this is -not the way to St. Petersburg." - -"Yet I was so directed, Excellency." - -"You have been misled, and are only some seventy versts or so from -the place you have left." - -"You amaze me, Count," exclaimed the perplexed Captain; for in the -Russian service, an error becomes a crime. - -"Captain, you should have gone by Gori, Oustensk, Spask, and so on." - -"That devil of a Podatchkine, an orderly of General Weymarn, who sent -him specially with me, has either deluded or abandoned me." - -"Yet we must thank your Podatchkine, in so far that he has procured -us the pleasure of your society in this lonely place--my daughter and -my niece, Captain Ivanovitch Balgonie," continued the Count, -introducing two young ladies who came through the curtains of a -species of boudoir, "Natalie and Mariolizza Usakoff. Our visitor, -Natalie, is that Ivanovitch Balgonie of whom Basil has spoken so much -and so kindly." - -Without being a vain man, Balgonie felt at that moment considerable -satisfaction in the conviction that he was--as his glass had often -informed him--decidedly a good-looking young fellow, with regular -features, fine dark eyes, curling brown hair, and a smart moustache; -for Natalie Mierowna, like her cousin Mariolizza, was one of the most -attractive women at the dangerous Court of the Empress Catharine II.; -for it was during her reign that the story and the atrocities we have -unfortunately to record took place; when among us, in more civilised -Britain, the grandfather of her present Majesty, old George III., was -king, and the arts of peace and war grew side by side. - -"The friend and comrade of my brother Basil is welcome," said -Natalie, presenting her hands (very tiny and delicate they were) to -Balgonie, who bowed and touched them lightly with his lips; "he has -often written to us concerning you and your adventures together in -Silesia." - -"I am but too fortunate to be remembered thus." - -"Nay," rejoined Natalie, "we could scarcely forget that daring act of -yours, which won you the rank you hold at present. Ah, Basil told us -all about that when he was last here," she added, with a beautiful -smile, of which she knew that many had already felt the power. - -"You mean my reconnoitring the enemy's position and avoiding being -taken by them?" - -"Yes, pray tell me about it?" said Mariolizza, her blue eyes dilating -with pleasure; "my brother was there too--Apollo Usakoff, a -lieutenant in the Regiment of Valikolutz." - -"It was a very simple matter," replied Balgonie, bowing to each of -the cousins, and not sorry to have a good personal anecdote to relate -of himself, one which was certain to make him appear to advantage in -the estimation of two very attractive women. "It was only a _ruse de -guerre_, and occurred when our Regiment of Smolensko was with the -combined armies in Silesia, and before the King of Prussia attacked -Count Daun at the Heights of Buckersdorff. An exact account of the -Austrian position was required by our general, who had not then -received the orders of the Empress to fall back upon the Russian -frontier. The task was one of extreme peril; so I being a soldier of -fortune, having all to win, and nothing to lose----" - -"Save your life!" interrupted Natalie. - -"One in my position, among a foreign army, must not value that too -much," said the Captain, in a tone not untinged with melancholy. - -"Well?" - -"I volunteered for it, despite all that your son, Count, my friend -could say to dissuade me. Well armed, at midnight, I set out upon my -solitary mission, unattended and alone, without relinquishing my -uniform; for if taken prisoner when otherwise attired, I would -infallibly be hanged as a spy; but ere long I found, that in such a -dress, there were insuperable difficulties to making the -reconnoissance required. - -"At the cottage of a Silesian boor, near the base of the Eulanbirge -(or mountain of the owls), I stopped to make some inquiries. The -fellow proved to be partially tipsy; the contents of my pocket-flask, -potent vodka, completed his happy condition, and after a few jests I -prevailed upon him to change dresses with me. He donned the green -coat, epaulettes, and boots of the Regiment of Smolensko; I, the -ample canvas caftan and girdle of a Silesian boor,--a fur cap, and a -visage daubed with grime, completed my costume. Thus attired, and -retaining only my pistols, I reconnoitred safely and unheeded the -Austrian position, noting the defences, trenches, fascine batteries, -cannon, and general disposition; but I had a narrow escape, for when -returning to the cottage of my new friend the boor, a party of Count -Daun's Imperial Cuirassiers, who had been patrolling the Eulanbirge, -overtook me, and at once perceiving I was not a Silesian, questioned -me rather closely and curiously. - -"I succeeded in passing myself off as a Pomeranian, and pointing to -the cottage, told them that there was concealed an officer of the -famous Regiment of Smolensko. They at once galloped off and -surrounded it, while I stole away to a thicket, and climbed into a -tree, from whence I could see the poor boor, clad in my uniform, and -still labouring under the influence of his late debauch, dragged a -prisoner--despite all his bewildered protestations and -denials--towards the camp of Count Daun, while I, under cover of -night, reached in safety the lines of the allies, and made my report -to General Weymarn, then commanding our division of the army. - -"It proved of no use to us, as we fell back next day; but it enabled -our ally, the King of Prussia, to storm with signal success the -Heights of Buckersdorff, to drive back Count Daun, and invest -Schwiednitz. He offered me rank in his army; but I declined, on -which the Empress sent me the commission of Captain in her Regiment -of Smolensko, thus enabling me to rank as a noble of the ninth class." - -"May you soon rank as one of the sixth," said the Count, patting the -Captain on the shoulder frankly. - -"Ah, Excellency, it may be long ere I become a colonel; yet," he -added, almost as if talking to himself, "when I got the letter of the -Empress addressed to me, Carl Ivanovitch Hospodeen* Balgonie, I could -not but smile at the thought of how such a title would have sounded -in the ears of my good father, old John Balgonie, of that Ilk!" - - -* Equivalent to Monsieur or Esquire. - - -"Let me repeat that you are most welcome," said the Count, who -totally failed to understand the meaning of the last remark; "and -luckily you have arrived just as the ladies and I were about to -proceed to the supper-table." - -To Balgonie it had become apparent that each time he mentioned the -name of the Empress, the proud pink nostrils of Natalie seemed to -dilate, and that a decidedly dangerous expression glittered in her -splendid dark eyes. - -Natalie Mierowna, whose beauty had caused such jealousy at Moscow and -St. Petersburg (two duels are spoken of concerning her), had ever -shone brilliantly in the "follow-my-leader" kind of dance, now so -well known among us as the Mazurka,--the old Sclavonian measure, in -which all succeeding couples have to imitate the motions of the -first; and the chief Russian peculiarity of the dance consists still -in the circumstance of the ladies selecting their own partners--the -brilliant Natalie, we say, having twice sportively, or in a spirit of -coquettish bravado, chosen a handsome young aide-de-camp, whom the -Empress was supposed to view with favour, led to her abrupt exile -from Court, and to the detaching of Captain Vlasfief, of the Imperial -Guards, to irksome and secluded duty at the state prison of -Schlusselburg. This unmerited affront filled her brother, Basil -Mierowitz, with such fiery indignation, that but for the dread of -compromising his whole family, he would have cast his commission at -the feet of the imperious Catharine, and quitted the Russian army; -but flight or exile must at once have followed the act. - -As it was, though detached and distant on the Livonian frontier, he -was now conceiving a scheme for vengeance, much more perilous to -himself and to all concerned, and which actually aimed at the -dethronement of the Empress Catharine! - - - - -CHAPTER III. - -NATALIE. - -There are few Russian ladies now, who do not speak with equal -facility, German, French, and English; but Natalie Mierowna and her -cousin were then each mistress of them all,--and this was in the -comparatively barbarous time of Catharine II. - -Thus their acquaintance with European literature enabled them to -excel in an easy and well-supported conversation of which the old -bovar, their kinsman, could make nothing; and which they could -embellish by their wit and power of quotation, and with an exquisite -_finesse d'esprit_ peculiarly their own. When this dangerous charm -was added to the great beauty of Natalie, she could not but prove a -perilous acquaintance for the young Scottish wanderer. - -Her loveliness was indeed great. - -She was a large, showy, and snowy-skinned beauty, almost voluptuous -yet very graceful in form, with fine dark eyes, that were dreamy or -sparkling by turns as emotion moved her; long-lashed they were, and -perhaps too heavily lidded. Her hair was of the darkest brown, -almost black; her lips were full, but flexible, small and pouting -when in repose, almost too large when she smiled, which was -frequently. - -It was when she spoke of the Empress, that her white bosom heaved, -and a fiery expression seemed to pervade her whole features. She -said little, and that little was generally said with assumed -gentleness or real reserve, for language cannot be too guarded in -Russia; but her dark eyes flashed, her delicate nostrils dilated, her -short upper lip quivered, she threw back her proud head, and more -than once Balgonie saw her white hands clenched; for all the -dove-like softness of her nature seemed to depart, when she thought -of the affront that exile from Court had put upon her, and her whole -family, even to delaying the marriage of her cousin Mariolizza to her -brother Basil, to whom she was engaged--solemnly betrothed by a -religious ceremony. - -She took the arm of Balgonie, and led the way to the dining-room, -which was lit by brilliant crystal girandoles, and heated, of course, -by a peitchka, the greatest luxury of civilised life that can be -found in a cold climate, and which warms a house more effectually -than any grate of coals can do. Built on that side of the large, -lofty, and magnificent room which was farthest from the windows, it -was formed of solid stone, with several carved apertures, and lined -with white shining porcelain; within it, blazed a constant fire of -billets and faggots, under the care of the dvornick, or house-porter, -and these were furnished by the Count's serfs or woodsmen from the -adjacent forests. - -All made a sign of the cross in the Greek fashion, and seated -themselves; but weary and exhausted by his long ride and recent -immersion in a swollen and icy river, Balgonie found it almost -impossible to partake of the supper that was pressed upon him: -caviare on slices of bread to begin with,--"caviare from the roe of -the sturgeons of the Don," as the Count informed him,--roasted capon -and jugged hare, dried figs and conserves, prunes, and pastilla of -fruit and honey compounded, together with the champagne, Rhine wine, -and vodka, in silver tankards and goblets of jewelled Venetian -crystal. - -The jaded traveller could make only a pretence of eating; but he -could drink deeply, for he was athirst; and more than one foaming -goblet of sparkling Moselle was filled for him, till he became giddy -and confused. Were the fumes of the wine mounting to his head? What -was the Count saying in an undertone? Was it of him that the cousins -were talking in some strange language, and covertly exchanging smiles -with their beautiful eyes? "Courage, Charlie," thought he, "this is -a bad beginning!" - -Though people were not very particular as to a bumper more or less in -those days anywhere, in Russia least of all, an emotion of shame came -over the young Scottish, officer; he felt his cheeks and forehead -burn, and he made a vigorous effort to rally his senses, but in vain: -he heard the voices of Natalie and of Mariolizza; but he knew not -what they said or what he replied, for he felt as one in a -half-waking dream. They were talking merrily, however, in French, -which is always spoken well by the Russians; perhaps because the -tongue that can master Russ may achieve anything. - -After a time he mustered sufficient energy and sense to beg that he -might be permitted to retire, as he had his journey to resume betimes -on the morrow; and he was escorted to his chamber by the Count in -person. Its four corners seemed to be in rapid pursuit of each other -now, and the floor and the ceiling to be incessantly changing places; -then his senses reeled, and the light departed from his eyes. He -found himself fainting. - -The sudden and rapid journey from Novgorod, the lack of food and the -toil he had undergone for one night and two entire days, while -wandering with the treacherous Podatchkine, the crossing of the -Louga, and the bruises he had unconsciously received from several -pieces of floating ice, had all proved too much for his system, and -brought on a relapse of an old camp fever from which he had suffered -once when serving with the army in Silesia,--and in the morning he -was delirious. - -Though weak, bewildered, scared by the prospect of loitering thus -when proceeding on urgent duty (for obedience and discipline become a -second nature to the soldier), enduring a raging thirst and a burning -pang that shot with each pulsation through his brain, stiff in every -joint and covered with livid bruises, he had still strength left as -dawning day stole through the double sashes of his windows, to -stagger from bed, and search for the dispatch, which, on the hazard -of his life, he was to place in the hands of Bernikoff, the Governor -of Schlusselburg. - -He hurriedly, and with a tremor that increased, examined each of his -pockets in succession, then his sabretasche, and lastly the pocket of -the robe-de-chambre; but the dispatch--the dispatch of the -Empress--entrusted to him as a chosen man by Lieutenant-General -Weymarn was gone! - -Lost, or abstracted, it was irretrievably _gone_! - -Was he the victim of treachery or of a snare? Was it a dream that -the voluptuous and beautiful Natalie, with her snowy skin, her dreamy -eyes, and her fascinating smile, had been hovering about him--a dream -or a reality? - -Alas! he knew not; for again the walls and windows were whirling -round him in wild career, and he sank on the floor insensible. - -Poor Charlie Balgonie knew not that the morning on which he made this -alarming discovery was that of the second day since his arrival at -the Castle of Louga. - - - - -CHAPTER IV. - -CORPORAL PODATCHKINE. - -Scarcely had Charlie Balgonie achieved the passage of the Louga, and, -in the dark, forced his panting horse up the wooded bank towards the -lighted windows of the castle, than his guide and orderly, Corporal -Michail Podatchkine, who, for reasons which were his own, and which -shall ultimately be explained, had decoyed him many, many versts to -the southward of his proper route and then abandoned him, while he -still cautiously followed, and watched him plunge into the perilous -stream--watched him in the hope that he might perish in its icy -current; Corporal Podatchkine, we say, had barely seen that the -officer's safety was certain and assured, than he turned his horse's -head, and with a hoarse malediction on his bearded mouth, rode away -in an opposite direction. - -The lighted windows of the Castle of Louga soon darkened and vanished -in his rear; the snow-flakes came thicker and faster on the icy -blast, whitening his round bearskin cap and fur shoubah or cloak, and -the untrimmed mane of his shaggy little horse; but with his long -lance slung behind him, his knees up to his saddle-bow, and his -fierce, keen eyes peering out the way before him, the amiable -Podatchkine, who, though a Livonian by birth, had the honour to hold -the rank of corporal in a corps of Cossacks, rode on through the -dense fir forest as unerringly as if every tree therein had been -planted by his own warlike hands. - -Ere long, with a grunt of satisfaction, he struck upon a track that -led to the right and left, and he unhesitatingly pursued the latter. -There were then none of those verst-posts, about ten feet high or so, -such as may now be found by the side of the Russian roads through the -forests, or along the open steppe; but Podatchkine rode steadily on, -pausing only now and then to unsling and grasp his spear, or give a -fierce gleaming glance around him, while the nostrils of his thick -snub-nose dilated, when a prolonged and melancholy howl, rising from -the woody depths into the chill drear sky of night, announced that -some wolf was rousing itself in its lair among the grass, or in its -den beside the river. - -Anon he came to a place where the forest was partially cleared, and -there stood a little hut built of squared logs. The walls of this -edifice were whitened artificially; but the roof was rendered whiter -still by a coat of the fast-freezing snow. A single ray of smoky -light streamed from the opening (which passed for a window) near the -door, on which Podatchkine, without dismounting, struck three blows -with the butt of his lance. - -"Nicholas Paulovitch," he exclaimed, "are you within?" - -The door was soon unfastened, and thereat appeared a figure, not -unlike an Esquimaux, bearing a pine torch. He was a man of great -stature and muscular development, clad in a caftan of coarse, thick, -and warm material, girt by a broad belt in which a long and rusty -knife was stuck; he had on bark shoes and long leggings of sheepskin, -which, like Bryan O'Linn's breeches, had "the skinny side out and the -hairy side in;" and he cultivated one long lock of grizzled hair -behind his right ear in the old fashion of the Black Cossacks; but -this appendage was concealed by the hood and tippet of fur which he -wore. This man, however, did not belong to any of the nomadic -military tribes, but was a species of Russian gipsy, a half-breed. - -He held up the pine torch, and its flaring light tipped with a lurid, -weird, and uncertain glow his fierce, tawny, and repulsive visage, -causing his cunning and almond-shaped eyes to gleam redly, like two -carbuncles, from under their thick and impending brows, which were -nearly as shaggy as the moustache that blended with his greasy and -uncombed beard; and in the same light the head of Podatchkine's lance -and the hafts of his sabre, dagger, and pistols glittered at times, -being the only bright parts of his remarkably dingy costume. - -"Is it you, Michail Podatchkine--and _alone_?" he asked surlily. - -"Yes; even so, alone. Dost think I have the evil eye about me that -you stare so, Nicholas Paulovitch?" - -"God forbid!" replied Nicholas with a shudder, for this idea is the -grossest and the greatest of all Russian superstitious; "but I -expected two--yourself and another." - -"Who told you so?" - -"Olga Paulowna, my sister, who yesterday saw you at Krejko." - -"True, I remember. Now listen, old friend and comrade----" - -"Hush, the girl is within and may hear you." - -"Well," said Podatchkine, lowering his voice, while the other -extinguished his torch, half closed the door of his hut, and drew -nearer the speaker, "by order of General Weymarn, Governor of St. -Petersburg, General of the Cavalry, Director-General of the Canals, -Bridges, and Highways----" - -"And the devil knows all what more!" said the other impatiently. -"Well?" - -"I am ordered to guide this Carl Ivanovitch Balgonie, who is a -stranger, to the gates of Schlusselburg, as he bears to Bernikoff a -dispatch of importance; but I have been promised a heavy sum----" - -"Ah! how much say you?" - -"I have said nothing yet." - -"But you spoke of a heavy sum." - -"Two hundred silver roubles." - -"Two hundred silver roubles!" exclaimed Nicholas, opening his -avaricious eyes with wonder, and then closing them again, so that -they looked like two narrow slits. - -"Yes, every _denusca_, if I, by fair means or by foul, prevent the -delivery of that paper into the hands of old Bernikoff." - -"He whose dagger tickled the throat of Peter III.: and by whom are -you offered this, friend Podatchkine?" - -"I can trust you: well, by the Lieutenant Apollo Usakoff." - -"The grandson of the Hetman Mazeppa!" - -"The same; and by Basil Mierowitz----" - -"Well, and what the devil have I to do with all this?" growled the -half-breed. - -"Much: fifty roubles will be yours, Paulovitch, if you will assist -me," said Podatchkine in a husky whisper. - -"Let us talk over this: dismount, and come in." - -"Nay, there is Olga Paulowna: then I have other work to do; but give -me a drink, for I am sorely athirst." - -The other speedily brought him a painted bowl full of foamy quass, -which the Cossack Corporal, for so we may term him, drained to the -dregs; though it is a liquor, to any but a Russian, horrible as the -water of Cocytus. - -"Let us be wary, friend Podatchkine," said the woodman: "the knout is -not an angel, but it teaches us to tell the truth alike of ourselves -and of others." - -Refreshed by his bitter draught, the Corporal shook the gathering -snow-flakes from the sleeves of his fur shoubah, and resumed somewhat -garrulously: - -"My next instructions are, that the dispatch, which is from the -Empress herself (whom God and our Lady of Kazan long preserve!), and -which bears the imperial seal, shall never be delivered; but must be -obtained by me for Basil Mierowitz and the Lieutenant Usakoff, now -detached upon the Livonian frontier, and who both know as little as I -care, that its bearer is actually their own dearest and most valued -friend! I misled the Hospodeen Balgonie, lured him to the river's -brink, and left him there, in the hope that he and his horse might -become frozen on the steppe or in the forest, where I could rob him -at ease; but the man seems made of iron, and, to my astonishment, I -saw him swim the Louga. I thought all gone, he, the dispatch, and my -200 roubles, when he plunged his horse into the river; but he stoutly -won the opposite bank, and has made his way straight to the dwelling -of Count Mierowitz, where now, I doubt not, he is safely housed." - -"It seems to me, friend Podatchkine, that you took a great deal of -useless trouble when you had your dagger and pistols," said the -other, suspiciously. - -"Nay, if he was to perish thus, suspicion might too readily fall upon -me, for he is a favourite officer of the Empress, and of Weymarn too. -My plan is this: I may get the dispatch to-night in yonder castle of -Count Mierowitz." - -"And if not?" - -"Then I shall again lure and mislead Balgonie, and bring him here in -the night." - -"What then?" asked the woodman doggedly. - -"How dull we are, Paulovitch. We shall drug and drown him; thus -shall he die without a wound. I will take back the dispatch to -Novgorod; and you can carry the body on his horse to St. Petersburg, -where a sum will be given you for finding it. The poor stranger, -they will say, has perished amid our keen Russian frosts, and that -will be all. Nicholas Paulovitch, the carcass will be well worth -twenty roubles to thee." - -"And thy fifty?" - -"You shall receive when the affair is over, and when you come to me -at Novgorod, where I am quartered." - -"By the bones of my tribe, and by the sword that flames in the hand -of the holy Michail, I am with you, Podatchkine!" exclaimed the -half-breed with ferocious joy, mingling his gipsy cant with that of -the Russian church. Then they shook heartily their hard and dingy -hands--hands that had wrought many a deed of merciless cruelty. - -"And now, Paulovitch, give me a light for my pipe, and let me begone." - -A few minutes more and these worthy compatriots had separated. - -Podatchkine rode somewhat leisurely to a ford that he knew of lower -down the river, believing that in time the whole onus, and perhaps -suspicion, of Balgonie's death (if it was necessary) might fall on -the woodman, whom he had resolved to cheat of the promised fifty -roubles if he could. - -"He will play me false," muttered Podatchkine. "Is not the dog a -gipsy? Beware of the tamed wolf, of the baptized Jew, and the enemy -who has made it up; why should I not delude him who will readily -delude me?" - -Our enterprising Corporal was correct in his estimate of Nicholas -Paulovitch; for, at the same moment, that personage, while wrapped in -his filthy sheepskin (caring nothing for the comfort of any other bed -than the floor), was considering how he might drug and drown both the -officer and his treacherous guide, sell both their bodies at the -nearest military post, and, by taking the dispatch to Novgorod -himself, obtain the entire reward offered for it by the Lieutenants -Mierowitz and Usakoff, or still more, perhaps, by delivering it to -the Empress! - -There was a third person who had overheard the first savage plot, and -who felt her heart stirred with pity and terror for Balgonie, who had -given her a silver kopec at Krejko but yesterday,--the gipsy girl, -Olga Paulowna, the sister of Nicholas Paulovitch; and she resolved to -baffle both conspirators if she could. - -It was in perfect ignorance of who might be the bearer of that -dispatch (with the contents of which a spy had acquainted them) that -the two officers, who were then engaged in an extensive and dangerous -political and military conspiracy, contrived to have Podatchkine, in -the character of a guide and orderly, sent upon the trail of one who -was really their most valued friend and comrade; though, as a -foreigner and soldier of fortune, they deemed it proper to keep him -as yet in total ignorance of their daring hopes and plans. - - - - -CHAPTER V. - -THE DAGGER OF BERNIKOFF. - -It may now be necessary to afford the reader a little historical -insight as to what it was that hinged on this important dispatch of -the Scottish officer, Balgonie. - -When the Emperor Peter II. died of smallpox (just on the eve of his -marriage), closing a short reign of three years of stormy trouble and -dark intrigue, the whole male issue of Peter the Great of Russia -became extinct. - -The Duke of Holstein, son of his eldest daughter, was entitled to the -throne; but the Russians, for certain cogent political reasons, -filled that perilous seat with Anne, Duchess of Courland, daughter of -Ivan, Peter's eldest brother. Governed by her favourite Biron, on -whom she bestowed the duchy of Courland, she broke through all the -limits which growing civilisation had imposed upon the power of the -Czars; she engaged in many useless wars, lost vast treasures and more -than a hundred thousand men in strife with the Turks, and closing an -inglorious reign, was succeeded by one who will shortly be introduced -to the reader, Ivan Antonovitch, or John IV., son of her niece, the -Princess of Mechlenburg, an infant only six months old. This -Princess sent Biron, the Regent, to the usual place of Muscovite -seclusion, Siberia, and assumed the administratorship during the -minority of her son. - -This state of affairs was but of short duration when Elizabeth, -daughter of Peter the Great, having a strong party, seized the crown, -banished the entire family of Mechlenburg, and deposing the infant -monarch, Ivan IV., confined him for life a prisoner of state in the -great Castle of Schlusselburg, where he had been for twenty-three -years, at the period when our narrative opens. - -To mention him in conversation, and still more to possess a coin -bearing his effigy, incurred the guilt and insured the punishment of -treason! More than twenty years after the deposition of this -transitory emperor, a German tradesman, who had worked long as a -cabinet-maker at St. Petersburg, went to Cronstadt, intending then to -embark for his native city, Lubeck. As it was not permitted to carry -out of Russia above a certain quantity of specie, an officer of -customs asked the German "what he had with him?" "Only a few roubles -to pay for my passage," he replied; and on being commanded to show -them, one was discovered having the effigy of Ivan IV! In vain did -the unhappy tradesman protest that he neither knew he had such a -coin, nor from whom he had received it. Death was the penalty; but -his goods were confiscated, and he was condemned to perpetual -imprisonment in the mines of Siberia. - -The Empress Elizabeth died the victim of intemperance; and while poor -Prince Ivan, an uncrowned emperor, a prisoner without a crime, was -left to pine in the Castle of Schlusselburg, the sceptre was given to -the feeble and dissipated Peter III., the husband of the beautiful, -voluptuous, and talented Catharine II., daughter of a petty prince, -but descended from the ancient house of Servestan,--a woman whom, in -three short months after their coronation, he contrived to disgust by -his political innovations, and still more by his amatory inconstancy; -so it was resolved to get rid of Peter, who was then in his -thirty-fourth year. - -Peter I. had nearly lost Russia by compelling the people to cut off -the tails of their coats; and Peter III. became equally unpopular by -ordering them to trim their vast beards, and by putting his troops in -the Prussian uniform. Crowned heads should leave such matters to -tailors and tonsors; but he certainly abolished the secret tribunal -with its contingent horrors, and recalled many a poor exile from -Siberia. - -A party was formed for his dethronement; so one evening in July, -1762, when he was surrounded by his guard of Holsteiners, and amusing -himself with his flower gardens (he was a great botanist), and with -some of his beautiful mistresses at the palace of -Orienbaum,--particularly the Countess of Woronzow, to whose -allurements he had abandoned himself,--the exasperated Empress -prepared to strike a final blow for Russia and for herself. - -Putting on a uniform of old Russian Guards belonging to her future -favourite, Captain Vlasfief, with the most coquettish grace, this -young and beautiful, but in some respects terrible, woman borrowed -from the nobles around her all the accessories of a complete military -toilette: of Basil Mierowitz, a hat; of Count Orloff, a scarf; of -Colonel Bernikoff, a belt; of some one else, a sword. Over all, she -wore the blue ribbon of the first order of the Empire, which her -impolitic husband had laid aside for that of Prussia. - -The drums beat to arms: in this strange guise she showed herself to -the troops, who were now mustered to the number of twenty thousand -men in the great square of St. Petersburg, where the sight of the -uniform of the old guard, which had been forced to give place to -Peter's cherished Holsteiners, raised bursts of acclamation, quite as -much as the appearance of Catharine, who was then "in the full flower -of her robust beauty, perfectly elegant in figure, and purely -feminine from her shoulders to her feet, which were remarkably -handsome, and of which she was very proud." Her nose was aquiline, -her eyes blue with black lashes, and her hair, a brilliant auburn, -was curling on her shoulders. Thus has an eyewitness described her. - -The regiments began to file off against the Emperor, and little -knowing the end of the expedition, among the troops on this night -marched Charlie Balgonie, with the colours of the Regiment of -Smolensko on his shoulder. - -Everywhere the rebellious Empress was received with enthusiasm, and -the Great Chancellor Woroslaff, who was sent against her, was among -the first to join her party. - -The Emperor, abandoning his flowers and his fair ones, fled to his -yacht or galley, which was rowed to Cronstadt, of which his enemy, -the High Admiral Talizine, had already made himself master. The -imperial galley (relates M. Rulhière in his "Histoire sur la -Révolution de Russie") came under the ramparts in the night, while -the great alarm bells rung, the drums were beaten and scarlet rockets -ascended in showers from the dark mass of the Castle of Kronslot; and -then, all along the line of fortifications, Peter saw two hundred -port-fires shedding their weird unearthly glare through the yawning -embrasures upon the twilight sea and sky--each port-fire beside a -loaded cannon--loaded against himself! - -This was at ten o'clock; but ere the great oars of the galley were -laid in, or the anchor dropped, a sentinel challenged: - -"Who comes there?" - -"His Imperial Majesty the Emperor," replied the Captain of the -galley, who was standing on its gilded prow. - -"There is no longer any Emperor!" was the stern reply of some one on -the ramparts. - -"'Tis false! I am here--I, Peter Antonovitch," said the Emperor, -growing pale at these daring and terrible words, as he stood up and -threw back his cloak to show himself and his well-known Prussian -star, by the clear, lingering twilight of the northern evening. - -"Sheer off," shouted the Admiral Talizine, "or, by our Lady of Kazan, -I will fire on you!" - -"We are going--give us but time," cried the Captain hopelessly, -through his speaking-trumpet. - -At that moment a thousand voices on the ramparts shouted on the still -twilight air-- - -"Long live the Empress Catharine II.!" - -On hearing this, Peter burst into tears, and fell back into the arms -of his attendants, saying-- - -"The conspiracy is general--from the first days of my short reign I -have seen it coming!" - -He was soon after abandoned by all, even by his obnoxious Holstein -Guards, who surrendered to the Regiments of Smolensko and Valikolutz; -and then he was committed by his wife, prisoner of state, to the -Castle of Robsch, in a solitary place, eighteen miles from St. -Petersburg. Six days afterwards had only elapsed, when it was -suggested that though young Ivan was still lingering a captive at -Schlusselburg, and some were not without hopes of replacing him on -the throne, tranquillity could not be perfectly restored while Peter -lived, though lonely and abandoned now. - -His wife's lovers and favourites came to this decision speedily; so -late one afternoon, three horsemen arrived at the residence of the -fallen Emperor. They were Count Orloff, who had in his breast a -laced handkerchief of the Empress, the grim Colonel Bernikoff, and a -Hospodeen or gentleman, who announced that they had come to sup with -him; and, according to the Russian fashion, glasses of brandy were -served round before they sat down. - -In that given to the Emperor was poison. - -Whether, adds the historian we quote, they were in haste to carry -back their dark tidings, or whether the horror of the deed made them -anxious to finish it, none can know; but to hasten their terrible -work, they insisted on giving him another glass. - -Already the subtle poison was diffusing itself through the vitals of -the unhappy Emperor; and now, struck by the pallor of their faces and -the ferocious expression of their eyes, he started back, refused the -proffered glass, and despairingly summoned assistance. - -They then flung themselves upon him, and Count Orloff, pulling from -his breast the handkerchief he had concealed there, threw it over the -mouth of Peter, to gag him and stifle his cries. He was dashed again -and again to the floor, where he defended himself against his -assassins with all the fury that terror of death and despair could -inspire. - -Two young officers of the guard now rushed in, and, as the orders of -all were to slay Peter without a wound, they knotted the handkerchief -round his neck to strangle him, while the Count pressed his knees -upon his breast. - -Still the dying Emperor struggled so fearfully that the ferocious -Bernikoff, losing all patience, plunged a dagger into his throat; and -thus, poisoned, stabbed, and strangled, he expired without further -resistance. - -A few hours after this, pale, dishevelled, and covered with blood, -dust, and perspiration, with torn garments and disturbed bearing, -Count Orloff appeared before the Empress. "She arose in silence," -says M. Rulhière, "and passed into an inner room, whither he followed -her. Some minutes after, she called Count Panin, who was already -named her minister, and informed him that the Emperor was dead, and -consulted with him upon the mode of announcing his demise to the -people." - -It was given out that he had died a natural death. - -The wound inflicted by Bernikoff's dagger was carefully sewed up; the -orifice was neatly covered by a piece of gold-beater's skin; and the -body, in an old green regimental coat, with four wax candles as a -funeral state, was exposed for three days to the people. The -Russians were permitted to wear their beards; the Empress poured out -her afflictions in a ukase, and offered up her prayers, as became a -widow, in the church of our holy Lady of Kazan. - -And it was in the service of this charming people, - - "----this new and polished nation, - Whose names want nothing but pronounciation," - ---a people, who, in the arts of peace, were little better than the -Scots when James I. was butchered in the Black Friary at Perth, or -the men of "Merry England" when her crook-backed Dick was smothering -the royal babies in the Tower--that, by an adverse fate, our hero -found himself a soldier of fortune, when, as before stated, old -George III. was King of the British Isles, and "the first gentleman -in Europe" was a sinless infant on his mother's knee. - -After Peter was laid in his grave, and Catharine was firmly seated on -his throne, her conduct was cautious and judicious, and, as even her -enemies admitted, at times magnanimous; yet frightful atrocities were -committed during her reign when she degenerated into ferocity and -debauchery. - -The captivity of the young and innocent Ivan in Schlusselburg, in -charge of the unscrupulous Bernikoff, Captain Vlasfief, and a -Lieutenant named Tschekin--three officers in whom Catharine had -implicit reliance--seemed more hopeless now than ever when the -sceptre was in her firm grasp. - -Now that Peter was disposed of, her only dread consisted in the -chance of Ivan's escape; so his guards were doubled, and her orders -to Bernikoff concerning him were to ensure his detention even by -death if necessary: and it was concerning this very dread that -Captain Charles Balgonie was proceeding with a dispatch from -Novgorod, where Catharine, with some of her favourites and courtiers, -was residing for a time in the ancient palace of the Czars. - - - - -CHAPTER VI. - -THE PALATINE. - -Corporal Podatchkine was an admirable specimen of his own type of -Russian,--one who was more afraid of neglecting Lent than of -murdering his fellow-being, especially if that fellow-being was a -foreigner; "for," saith M. L'Abbé Chappe at this time, "they do not -reckon foreigners among the number of their brethren." - -His thick black scrubby hair was cut straight across the forehead in -a line with the eyebrows, and at each side it hung perpendicularly -down below the ears, in the old Russian and Mediæval fashion, and -was, moreover, cut square across the neck behind, just as the English -wore theirs in the days of Richard III.; and he kept alternately -scratching and smoothing his rugged front, nervously and assiduously, -when he removed his fur Cossack cap; and, full of affected concern, -even to exhibiting tears in his small cunning eyes, presented -himself, through the bribed auspices of the dvornick, to Natalie -Mierowna next morning, and besought her to have him "conducted to the -chamber of his brave, his beloved Captain, his comrade and brother, -who was, he now learned, seriously ill, helpless, and -delirious,"--and, in fact, just as the cunning Corporal wished him to -be. - -There he found Balgonie, certainly too ill and weak either to -recognise him or understand what he was about; so the faithful -Cossack made a rapid and skilful investigation of all the officer's -pockets, and especially his sabretasche, for the dispatch. - -Not a vestige of it was to be found. - -"What the devil can he have done with it?" muttered the bewildered -Corporal, as he thought of his 200 silver roubles; "can he have lost -it in the river, or swallowed it?" - -The truth is, that Natalie Mierowna had her doubts about the fidelity -of Podatchkine, and even of some of her own domestics, and aware of -the risk run by the stranger if he lost a dispatch of the Empress, -she had, prior to the introduction of the Corporal, secured the -document, and at that moment it was hidden in her own fair bosom -until she could secure it in a safer place. - -In her bosom! Poor Natalie! Alas, she little knew its contents, and -the horrors they were yet to produce! - -Baffled thus in his attempt to secure it, there was no resource for -the faithful warrior of the steppes now but to take up his quarters, -which he was nothing loth to do, at the Castle of the Louga, and -there quietly and comfortably to smoke his pipe by the kitchen stove; -await the recovery or the death, he cared not which, of Balgonie; and -to concert further measures with the huge gipsy, Nicholas Paulovitch, -whom he saw daily. - -It was no feverish dream of Balgonie that Natalie Mierowna had been -hovering about his bedside; for she and her cousin Mariolizza had -been his especial nurses. - -In less than three days the feverish delirium subsided, sense -completely returned, and the young Captain appeared to be labouring -only under a species of influenza. A cold, as we understand that -homely but troublesome kind of ailment in foggy Britain, is almost -unknown in the latitude of St. Petersburg. "It is," says Dr. -Granville, "indigenous to England, and, above all, to London;" yet we -fear Balgonie had a most unromantic and unmistakable cold, consequent -on his immersion in the icy Louga, together with an aguish shivering, -which rendered the quitting of his couch, and betaking himself to the -saddle, as yet quite impossible. - -Balgonie had an insatiable thirst: he had visions of iced champagne; -but in lieu, got only tea-punch, if we may so call it, being tea in -the fashion still taken by the Russians (who hold that milk spoils -it), with a slice of lemon or preserved fruit; and as he got -stronger, Katinki, a strapping Polish damsel with fine black eyes, -who was Natalie's own particular follower, added thereto a dash of -rum and then _tsvetochay_, or flowery tea, with cakes, which the -Captain seemed to relish all the more when he understood them to be -made by the white hands of Natalie: an appreciation which showed a -decided improvement in that young officer's health. But-- - -"My dispatch," he frequently said aloud,--"I must be gone with my -dispatch!" - -"Might it not be entrusted to the Corporal Podatchkine?" asked -Natalie one morning, as she personally gave him his warm and soothing -drink with her own hand, Katinka standing demurely by with a silver -salver. - -"Impossible, Hosphoza, for so I may call you: an officer alone can -carry a dispatch of the Empress. Its contents are most urgent: this -delay, over which I have no control, may be visited by royal -disfavour, even punishment; and I fear that the air of Tobolsk or -Irkutsk would ill suit a Scotsman's lungs, Natalie Mierowna." - -"Yet tarry here you must," said she, with a smile, the beauty of -which proved very bewildering: "the Louga is coated with ice this -morning, but not so thick, however, that it might not be broken by -throwing a five-kopec piece from here; but to travel yet would only -kill you, Carl Ivanovitch, and cannot be thought of just now." - -Then as she glided away, with her beaming smile, her white hands and -taper arms, her rustling dress of scarlet silk trimmed with snowy -miniver, and all the sense of perfume that pervaded her, Balgonie -sighed wearily yet pleasantly, and half thought that beautiful figure -a dream, as he turned on his soft and luxurious pillow, and marvelled -whether his past or his present existence was the real one. - -A captain in the ducal Regiment of Smolensko and not yet twenty-five! -Same ten years ago, his future seemed to point to a very different -course of life. - -Far from Russian steppes and icy streams, their forests and -barbarity, his mind had been wandering home to Britain's happier -shore; and he might have said with the Bard who sang the "Course of -Time,"-- - - "Nor do I of that Isle remember aught, - Of prospect more sublime and beautiful, - Than Scotia's northern battlement of hills, - Which first I from my father's house beheld, - At dawn of life; beloved in memory still, - And standard yet of rural imagery." - - -His story is a brief one, and not very startling, save for its rapid -career of injustice. - -Charles Balgonie, son of John Balgonie of that Ilk in Strathearn, had -come into the world during that which was perhaps the most stupid, -lifeless, and impoverished era of Scottish existence, the middle of -the reign of George II.; when the country was without trade, energy, -or enterprise, and when nothing flourished save that which prospers -there more than ever even under the rule of her present Majesty, and -will do so apparently unto the end of time,--gloomy fanaticism and -canting hypocrisy: more among the laity certainly, who make a trade -and cloak of outward religion, than among the clergy, who dare not be -liberal, even if so disposed; for without a public and noisy -exhibition of sanctity, few have ever had much chance of place or -profit north of the Tweed. - -Moreover, Charlie was born at a time when to be a Scotsman or an -Irishman was almost a political crime in the eyes of their somewhat -illiberal fellow-subjects, and when for either to attain eminence in -the service of their native country was nearly an impossibility; and -hence the Scots crowded to the armies and fleets of Russia and -Holland, and the Irish to those of France and Spain. - -By the early death of his parents, Charlie had been cast, in his -extreme boyhood, upon the tender mercies of a bachelor uncle, Mr. -Gamaliel Balgonie, a hard-hearted, grasping and avaricious merchant -in Dundee--one who was a noisy exhibitor of religion, a fervent -expounder of crooked texts, and, of course, an Elder of the Kirk; a -great quoter of Scripture upon unnecessary occasions; one who always -wore garments of sad-coloured broad cloth, with a spotless white -cravat, and whose quavering voice and meek but cunning eyes were -frequently uplifted against the enormities, the wickedness, and "the -temptawtions and tribulawtions of this weary world;" and who was, -moreover, a vehement despiser of that which he stigmatized as "its -wretched dross," but which he left no means, fair or foul, untried to -acquire. - -In the lovely vale of Strathearn--one of the most exquisite tracts of -verdant scenery in Scotland--stood the home of Charlie Balgonie. In -his delirium, the present had fled, and the past returned. He had -been a boy again at his father's knee--a child with his curly head -nestling on his smiling mother's breast; again, in fancy, had her -kisses rested on his cheek, and her soft voice lingered lovingly in -his ear; again had he felt all that happiness, perfect trust, and -security which the boy feels by his father's hearth, and the man, in -after life, never more! - -He heard not the hoarse Louga crashing down its ice-blocks to the -Baltic Sea; but the gentle murmur of the Earn, flowing from the -wooded hills of Comrie towards the broad blue bosom of the Tay--the -Earn, where many a time and oft he had lured the brown trout and the -speckled salmon from the deep, dark pools, near the old battle-cross -of Dupplin and the Birks of Invermay. Again he had heard the leaves -rustle pleasantly in the summer woods, where he had nutted and -birdnested when a boy; and he had seen, in a vivid dream, his -glorious native valley where it narrows at Dunira; and far beyond, -the blue ridges of the mighty Grampians, lifting their summits, alp -on alp, to the clouds, eternal and unchanged as when the foiled -legions of Julius Agricola fled along their slopes in rout and -disorder. - -On the death of his parents his small paternal estate of a few -hundreds per annum would have become, as all might have supposed, his -inheritance; but the relation before mentioned--the paternal uncle, -Gamaliel, a man of the strictest probity, and of that which was -equally valued in Scotland, extreme sanctimony; one who, on the -funeral day, had shed abundance of tears at the uncertainty of life, -and had excelled even the minister in prayer and "in warsling wi' the -diel" (_i.e.,_ wrestling with Satan)--suddenly produced a will, by -which, to the profound astonishment of all, the entire estate was -left to him as a return for certain loans and sums advanced to the -deceased, of which, however, no proof could be found; but it was a -veritable death-bed will, written accurately by a notary, and duly -signetted with the autograph of "John Balgonie of yt Ilk." - -Though tremulous and shaky,--strangely so,--and rather unlike the -usual signature of the deceased laird, three men there were, -accounted good, worthy, and religious men, who solemnly deposed to -having seen "the hand of the dead man pen those four words." - -It was a case which made some noise in those days, because thirty-six -hours after the alleged signature was given John Balgonie died. - -The law of Scotland requires that, after framing and signing such a -deed, the testator must have been able to go once at least to church -or market. How it came to pass we know not now, but the dispute, -though without a basis, was brought before the Supreme Court by some -friends of the orphan, for there were not a few persons in Strathearn -who alleged that John Balgonie's hand had certainly traced the -signature which was sworn to so solemnly as his,--but had done so -after death: the pen being placed in the fingers of the corpse, which -were guided by those of the pious and worthy merchant of Dundee, who -wanted his nephew's little patrimony in aid of certain speculations -of his own. - -Pending a decision, the bereaved boy was removed to the busy town on -Tay side, and was left to solace his sorrows at school, prior, as he -supposed, to becoming a drudge in his affectionate uncle's -counting-house, when the last of his slender inheritance had been -frittered away in the fangs of the law. - -One day--poor Charlie never forgot it--his worthy Uncle Gam returned -from Edinburgh by the packet. The case had been decided against him, -and the Court was about to name trustees to look after the estate of -the orphan boy: so that boy learned long after. Mr. Gamaliel -Balgonie was unusually grave, stern, and abstracted; but he -deliberately seated himself at his desk, and while humming, as was -his wont, a verse of a psalm, he penned a letter addressed to the -captain of a vessel then lying in the harbour, and gave it to his -nephew for immediate delivery, desiring him to wait for the answer. - -Charlie remarked that Uncle Gam did not, according to his usual -careful custom, keep any copy of this letter, and that it was written -in a hand so unlike his usual penmanship as to be completely -disguised. - -The boy, then in his fifteenth year, started on his errand with -alacrity. It was better to be out amid the bustle of the sunlighted -quays, than drudging with a quill in the sombre merchant's office in -a narrow gloomy alley of Dundee. He soon found the ship, which was -moored at some distance from the shore, with her fore-topsails loose, -and blue-peter flying at the fore, to indicate that she was ready for -sea; yet Charlie had no suspicion of the trap into which he was -running, or the cruel fate that awaited him. - -The skipper, a rough, surly, and brutal-looking man, eyed the boy -keenly, while tearing the letter into minute fragments, after he had -perused it, with a grim smile of satisfaction. He then went to a -locker, where he poured out a glass of something that seemed to be -port-wine. - -"Drink that, my lad," said he, "while I write an answer to your -uncle." - -Charlie, half afraid to refuse, though the skipper's bearing began to -inspire him with distrust, drained the glass; but scarcely had he -done so when the cabin seemed to be whirling round him; he thought -that he was becoming sea-sick, and was in the act of staggering -towards the cabin stairs, when he was felled to the floor by a blow -from the skipper's heavy hand--a blow dealt cruelly and unsparingly. - -He recovered consciousness some time after, to find himself stiff, -sore, and bloody from a wound in the temple, lying on deck in the -moonlight, with some twenty-five other boys, several of whom were -still in the same state of stupor or intoxication in which they had -been brought on board. Others were loudly lamenting their parents -and brothers or sisters they never more would see, and all were more -or less covered with blows and bruises. To his horror and dismay, -Charlie now found that the ship was at sea, and running between the -dangerous reef known as the Bell Rock and the flat sandy shore of -Barrie, and that, through the machinations of Uncle Gamaliel, he had -been lured into the hands of one of the most notorious -plantation-crimps that ever infested the Scottish coast, Captain -Zachariah Coffin of New England, whose craft, a palatine ship, the -_Piscatona_, was a letter of marque, carrying twelve six-pounders and -fighting her own way. - -Many miserable little fellows who had been lured to a certain den in -Aberdeen, and there drugged, robbed, and manacled, were brought on -board the palatine ship as she lay off Girdleness and burned three -red lights, in the night, as a private and concerted signal with the -crimps ashore: and some of these same crimps were discovered, in -after years, to have actually been the magistrates of the city! - -After this, the _Piscatona_ was hauled up, in order to go north about -by Cape Wrath, having on board nearly fifty boys, who were to be sold -as slaves to the highest bidder in Virginia, for nowhere was the -infamous crime of kidnapping carried to a greater excess, even during -the early years of George the Third's reign, than in the -neighbourhood of the Granite City, where, in some instances, whole -families disappeared, and their horror-stricken and bewildered -parents died broken-hearted and insane. - -Among the little Palatines--a name given by Americans to individuals -who were thus kidnapped--some there were who pined and wept for home; -and some who built castles in the air, and looked to America as a -land of promise. Others there were who schemed out vengeance, and -were sullen. Among the latter was our hero, who hoped yet to repay -his wrongs on Uncle Gam, but meanwhile was knocked about mercilessly -by the sullen skipper, and was so repeatedly rope's-ended by him, -that he was often a mass of blood and bruises; and then, like a poor -little victim, as he certainly was, Charlie would creep away into a -corner, or skulk between the lee-carronades, where the salt spray -flew over him, and mingled with the tears he wept so unavailingly, -for those once tender and affectionate parents who were lying side by -side in their graves, in sunny Strathearn, far, far away. - -Many times, after being beaten cruelly, he was deprived of food for -hours and put in the bilboes, where the captain amused himself by -hunting a savage dog upon him. - -But his time of vengeance was coming! - -Storms came on when the _Piscatona_ entered the Pentland Firth; and -four days after Dunnet Head with its flinty brow, four hundred feet -in height, had vanished into the wrack and mist astern, a sudden cry -of fire caused every heart to thrill on board the lawless vessel. - -Whether an act of treachery or not, it was impossible to ascertain; -but it had broken out near the ship's magazine, to which it -communicated with frightful rapidity; for suddenly, while the crew -were all running fore and aft with buckets, a dreadful explosion -seemed to rend the _Piscatona_ in two. Half of the main-deck was -blown away with two of the boats. A whirlwind of fragments flew in -every direction; and then the flames shot into the air in scorching -volumes, which soon set the courses and topgallant sails on fire. - -Discipline, or such a system of it as Zachariah Coffin maintained on -board, was totally at an end. Some of the crew lowered the only -remaining boat, and fought like wild beasts for possession of it, -knocking each other into the water without mercy. Captain Coffin -cocked his pistols at the gangway, shot one man dead, and swore with -a dreadful oath that he would kill the next who dared to precede him; -but he was struck from behind by an iron marline-spike, and falling -together with his savage dog into the flaming gulf that yawned -amidships, was seen no more. - -Some of the crew ultimately pushed off in the boat; others sprang -overboard and held on to spars and booms; but these and nearly all -the little Palatines perished miserably, after being half scorched. -Some were crushed to death by the falling yards and masts. Many held -on to the fore and main chains, till these became so unbearably hot, -that they had to drop off, with screams of despair, when they sank, -faint, weary, and helpless, to the bottom at last. - -How it all happened Charlie Balgonie never knew, but hours after the -whole affair was over, and the detested _Piscatona_ had burned down -to her water-line and sunk, leaving all the sea around her -discoloured and covered with floating pieces of charred wood and the -buoyant parts of her cargo, he found himself adrift in the wide and -stormy Pentland Firth; but wedged with comparative safety in a large -fragment of the fore-top, to which, the yard being still attached by -the sling, a certain amount of steadiness was given; yet his heart -leaped painfully, each time, when the fragment of wreck rose on the -summit of a green glassy wave, or went surging down into the dark and -watery trough between. - -To add to the terrors of his lonely situation, the sun had sunk amid -gloomy purple clouds, and a rainy night was drawing on. Half drowned -perhaps, the poor boy soon became faint and exhausted, and would seem -to have dropped into a species of stupor; for when roused by the -sound of strange voices, he found himself close by a great and -towering ship, which lay to, now right in the wind's eye with her -main-yard aback, and her gunports and hammock nettings full of -weatherbeaten faces, gazing at him with eagerness and curiosity in -the twilight, while a boat was lowered from the davits and pulled -steadily towards him by six sailors clad in dark green. - -She proved to be a Russian 50-gun ship, the _Anne Ivanowna_, -commanded by Thomas Mackenzie, one of the many Scottish admirals who -have bravely carried the Russian flag in the Baltic and the Black -Sea, the same officer who a few years after was to build the great -harbour and forts of Sebastopol, at the little Tartar village then -known as Actiare. - -His youthful countryman became his _protégé_. - -The worthy admiral sought to make a sailor of the rescued Palatine; -but the latter had seen quite enough of the sea while on board the -_Piscatona_, and while he was clinging like a limpet or barnacle to -the piece of drifting wreck; so he became a soldier, and served under -General Ochterlony, of Guynd, in the Regiment of Smolensko, where, as -a cadet, his superior smartness, intelligence and education, not less -than his courage, soon distinguished him among his thick-pated -Russian comrades: thus, in less than ten years, he became, as we find -him, Captain Carl Ivanovitch Balgonie, the most trusted aide-de-camp -of Lieutenant-General Weymarn, Commander-in-Chief of the City and -District of St. Petersburg. - - - - -CHAPTER VII. - -THE SOLDIER OF THE CZARINA. - -"You can never know, Ivanovitch Balgonie, how much I pitied you--" - -"You, lady?" was the joyous response. - -"That is, I and Mariolizza," said Natalie Mierowna, slightly blushing -(the Russians always speak thus, putting the personal pronoun first), -"when we found you sunk on a fever-bed, in a foreign land, so far -from your country, your friends, your mother, perhaps; for you are -young enough, I think, to miss her still, at such a time, although a -soldier." - -"Far indeed, in many ways!" replied Balgonie, with a bitter smile, as -he thought of Uncle Gam and the Palatine ship, or perhaps it was -illness that had weakened him. "I have a country to which more than -probably I shall never return; but father, mother, or friends, I have -none there: all who loved me once, have gone to the silent grave -before me." - -"All?" - -"Yes, lady." - -"But you are making many friends in Russia," said Mariolizza, -cheerfully: "there are my cousin, Basil Mierowitz and my brother -Apollo Usakoff, who both, I know, love you as a brother." - -"True; and most grateful am I to them for their regard, for both are -polished gentlemen. I have old General Weymarn, too, though I know -not what he will think of this delay in delivering the Imperial -dispatch." - -"Alas, that most tiresome dispatch!" exclaimed Natalie; "but I -forget," she added, with a curl of her short upper lip, "those who -proceed on the errands of the Empress Catharine, would need -seven-league boots, or the carpet of the prince in the fairy tale, -which transported the owner at a wish." - -"Hush, cousin," said Mariolizza, glancing timidly round: but no one -was near save Corporal Podatchkine, who was stolidly smoking a huge -pipe at a little distance on the terrace, when this conversation took -place two days after Balgonie became convalescent, and fully a week -since the night of peril on which he swam the Louga. - -"I cannot describe to you, ladies, the relief that came to my mind on -discovering that it had neither been lost nor stolen, but was safe--" - -"In Natalie's bosom!" said Mariolizza, laughing. - -"Certainly the last place, where, for her own sake, I would place a -dispatch of the widow of Peter III.," responded the other, haughtily; -but Balgonie felt his heart beat quicker as she spoke. Her voice was -sweet and low, and had a wonderful chord in it. - -The day was mild and beautiful, and truly an April one. The last of -the ice had disappeared from the river; not a flake of snow was -visible among the woods or on the distant hills; and the bright sun -of noon shone clearly and brilliantly from a deep-blue sky flecked by -floating masses of white cloud, and cast across the bosom of the -Louga the shadows of the great fir trees that spread like a sea of -solemn cones for miles along its banks; and amid that woody sea, the -most striking feature was a white-walled monastery with its -"golden-headed church" and all its metal cupolas glittering in the -sunshine. - -As they promenaded on the gravelled terrace that lay before the -Count's residence, Balgonie could see the domains of Mierowitz that -lay for miles around: the patrimonial village of the Count, nestling -among the coppice, containing a dozen or so of stone houses, and -double that number of quaint tumble-down edifices of wood, and a -church with a little gilt cupola, where his serfs said their prayers, -and thanked God and him for permission to live and breathe, and to -hoard their roubles in secret--for wealth in a serf was a sure source -of misery, extortion, and perhaps of torture, if discovered. - -In the immediate foreground were wharves, where the wood for masts -and spars from his forests were launched, and formed into great rafts -for conveyance to the Gulf of Finland. The din of axes and the crash -of falling timber, with the cheerful voices of the woodmen and -labourers, were heard rising from the echoing woods, as they lopped -and trimmed the giant pines for conveyance to the Baltic coast; for -his forest trees were one of the chief sources of revenue to Count -Mierowitz. - -"Your father's mansion is indeed a noble one!" said Balgonie, who -after surveying the landscape from the terrace, ran his eyes over the -façade of the castle, as it was named, though by no means so well -fortified as his patrimonial tower in Strathearn, which dated from -the days of the Sixth James. - -"So noble that the first Count of our name who built it, when Ivan -Basilovitch--Ivan the Terrible--was Czar, put out the eyes of the -architect, who was, of course, one of his serfs," said Natalie. - -"For what reason?" asked Balgonie, starting. - -"Lest he should repeat the work for another," replied Natalie; "but -then the Count was a fierce soldier, who had served under Yermack in -the conquest of Siberia. I fear you think us very barbarous, Captain -Balgonie; but I can assure you, that even in the remote forests of -Yakoutsk, on the banks of the Lena, there is more regard for human -life and divine laws now, than existed when my father was a boy. He -has, indeed, seen terrible things!" - -Balgonie did not see much of the Count, who was generally occupied -among his people, to whom he was alternately a source of reverence -and of terror. - -Though infinitely more civilised than the old Russian noble as -described by Clarke, "unwashed, unshaven, eating raw turnip and -drinking quass" (for according to the Doctor, in 1799, "raw turnips -were handed about in slices in the first houses, on a silver salver, -with brandy as a whet before dinner"), he was a fair average specimen -of a fine old Muscovite gentleman "all of the olden time," who had a -cat-o'-nine-tails always at hand; who generally unbuttoned his vest -when the gold cup was brought, in which he drank his pink champagne -or rare Hungarian wine, which he always had in equal plenty with his -fiery vodka and bitter quass; who reckoned his silver roubles by -sacksful, and his Sclavonian souls by thousands; and who, though by -no means a bad fellow, as his imperious and outrageous class go in -Russia, had still the somewhat czarish notion, that true nobility -"means the privilege of being treated like a human being of -intelligence and feeling, and of treating others as if they were -nothing of the kind." - -Scandal said that in his wild youth he had flogged his serfs to fight -with his favourite bear, and flogged them again if they maltreated or -bit Bruin too much: Balgonie certainly saw two or three old serfs who -had lost an ear in these combats. And when the Count took his -afternoon nap, if a cock crowed in the village, a dog barked, or a -cat mewed, the whole community were wont to tremble, when the stout -dvornick, or house-porter, was seen to issue forth with his -cat-o'-nine-tails in search of the proprietor. - -A rich sash usually girt the waist of his old-fashioned tunic, which -was of fine cloth, and trimmed with fur, broad or narrow according to -the season; a square cap of crimson velvet, tasselled with gold and -edged with ermine as white as his beard, was placed diagonally on his -head, when he went abroad; and then he carried a long gold-headed -cane, with the exact weight of which most of the shoulders in the -neighbourhood were perfectly familiar. On holy festivals the breast -of his best velvet coat was always covered by orders of the empire; a -dozen of servants usually hovered about him when he dined; and he -always went to church and confession in a clumsy old coach drawn by -six white horses, three abreast, in honour of the Holy Trinity. - -He was proud of being one of the old hereditary nobles, who are -distinguished from the personal nobility by their right to possess -serfs, and to whose earthly tyranny there was no limit, save the -tomb. All the wretched serf possessed, even his wife, was the -property of his lord. Fear of secret murder alone protected the -latter species of property; hence no wonder is it that the land is -without a middle class. Even in the present century, Heber, in his -Journal, mentions an instance of a Russian noble who, in his profane -cruelty and lust of power, nailed a servant on a cross, for which he -was only imprisoned in a monastery. - -But in the character of Count Mierowitz, there was something of the -rough and hardy country gentleman. He it was who caught with his own -hands, and in his own forests by the Louga, the famous team of brown -bears which, in the marriage procession of the late Empress -Elizabeth's jester, drew that jocular personage and his bride, when -the newly-wedded couple proceeded to the wonderful palace of ice -(which was built on the frozen Neva), all the ornaments of which were -icicles, and the appurtenances of which were also ice, even to the -cannon which were fired, and did not burst. - -"When Peter the Great came to the throne," said he, one day, "he -found only two lawyers in all Russia; so, Captain Balgonie, he hung -one as an example to the other. Ah, he was a truly great man, Peter! -The English admire him solely because he tried to imitate them; but, -for that very reason, we don't approve of many of his innovations. -We look from the north and south sides of the same hedge." - -It is not surprising that Charlie Balgonie preferred the society of -two beautiful young girls to that of a testy old boyar. To enhance -their natural attractions and winning manners, they were always -dressed in the most fashionable French _mode_, and wore the rich -stuffs which came from Moscow, and even from China. - -They and he had many topics in common, on which they could converse, -after old Count Mierowitz had dined and dozed off to sleep--such as -the theatre erected some years before at Yaroslaff, by Volkoff, whose -troupe were now performing the tragedies of Soumorokoff at St. -Petersburg, where a government theatre had just been erected by a -ukase; while another ennobled the manager, Volkoff, who had died last -year, after appearing at Moscow in Zelmira. Their knowledge of -French and German opened up the best literature of Europe to the two -cousins, which was fortunate; for at the period of our narrative, -Russia had almost none, save some barbarous national songs, fabulous -ecclesiastical records, and ferocious traditions: nor is she now much -advanced in letters, though certainly, two months after publication, -Charles Dickens may be read at Tobolsk--that terrible Tobolsk--where, -as we have all read in our youth, Elizabeth wept such grateful tears -on the bosom of her Smoloff. - -Exiled from court, and secluded amid these forests by the Louga, a -Russian lady had few resources for amusement then; so the unexpected -visit of Captain Balgonie, with whose name and courage they were -quite familiar, proved a most welcome and fortunate circumstance to -those two handsome girls, who were merely enduring life, or simply -vegetating, in the great old mansion of Count Mierowitz. - -But there was one topic in which our soldier of fortune could by no -means agree with Natalie Mierowna--her bitter and most unwise -hostility to the strongly-established power of the Empress, or, as -she styled her, "the woman who now occupied the throne of Ivan;" a -prince whom she viewed exactly as the Scottish Jacobites did "the -Young Chevalier," and a few old Frenchmen do at the present hour, -"Henry V.," the descendant of St. Louis. These sentiments, however, -she had to utter in secret, or when none were by them; and when he -gazed into her dark and beautiful eyes, so full of romantic -enthusiasm and of dangerous light, he felt thankful that one so -peerless and so perilous was not, at all events, his enemy. - -She had accompanied the Empress on her celebrated pilgrimage to the -ancient cathedral of Rostov, by the Lake of Nero, where the last of -the Princes of Jaroslav was murdered in cold blood by Ivan the -Terrible. Her expedition had taken place in the May of the preceding -year. Catharine and her ladies walked ten versts afoot daily, and it -was at the conclusion of this devotional journey that the final -quarrel had taken place concerning the mazurka with the Aide-de-camp -Vlasfief. - -"That insult shall never be forgotten here!" said she, stamping a -little foot, in a prettily-embroidered scarlet shoe, on the carpet of -the drawing-room where, fortunately for herself, she was alone with -Balgonie: "an insult to me--to us, who have the blood of Ruric the -Varangian in our veins; and from her--this woman of Anhalt-Zerbst!" - -Balgonie laughed; for the Ruric blood is to Russians what Captain -John Smith's is to the Virginians, and the Norman element to the -English. - -"Yes," she continued, "'tis something novel, an insult to us, from -this Catharine, misnamed the Great, who has enslaved all the Ukraine, -and given men and women away by thousands, like herds of cattle, to -her courtiers and her lovers!" - -"Oh, be wary; I pray you, be wary, or speak in French!" said Balgonie -imploringly, while laying his hand impressively--rather too -impressively, we fear--upon hers, which was so delicately smooth and -white, and was placed very temptingly within his reach, as they sat -near each other for the purpose of conversing in low and confidential -tones. - -"The people are mere slaves under her rule," continued Natalie, -lowering her voice but without withdrawing that coveted hand; perhaps -she forgot it in her energy; but the omission made poor Charlie -Balgonie's honest heart beat very fast indeed, and his colour came -and went painfully while her dark and glorious eyes were bent on his: -"in her I behold only a usurper, who wields a knout in lieu of a -sceptre, and who seats herself on a throne of human skulls; but the -time is coming when all these things shall be altered!" - -"And this time, Natalie Microwna--what do you mean?" asked Balgonie, -who had been long enough in Russia to feel a thrill of terror at -words so wild and dangerous. - -"When it comes you will learn; if the blow fails, woe unto those on -whom it recoils! You may escape as a stranger; but I fear me, she -will punish the whole Regiment of Smolensko--" - -"My regiment--mine, say you?" - -"Yes, yours, Hospodeen, even as Peter the Great did the Battalion of -Strelitz, for adherence to his sister Sophia; and that we know to be -one of the most sanguinary sacrifices on record, even in Russia." - -"Heaven knows that is admitting a great deal; but you say either too -much or too little to satisfy my curiosity: explain this coming -peril--this mystery--to which you refer." - -In her growing energy, Natalie's other hand was now clasped above -his, and truly "the situation had its charm." - -"Let us speak of it no more," said she, recollecting herself, and -with a strange smile; "ere long you shall know all; but not now--not -now. Alas! the best I can wish you, Ivanovitch Balgonie, is, that -your chance visit here may not also compromise you with Catharine." - -They pressed each other's hands: it was done, perhaps, merely in the -energy of conversation; but, to be brief, Balgonie found himself now -hopelessly and helplessly in love with Natalie Mierowna. - -Though both cousins were remarkable for their beauty--one blonde, the -other dark--he had never for a moment wavered between them; for he -had been, from the first moment he beheld her, irresistibly attracted -by the brilliant and black-eyed Natalie. Besides, he knew well that -Mariolizza was betrothed, or, as the Russians might justly phrase it, -assigned away, to his friend and brother-officer, Basil Mierowitz. - - - - -CHAPTER VIII. - -IN LOVE. - -It was scarcely possible that the result of his visit could be -otherwise than it had proved; for Natalie was no common-place beauty, -but one who had subdued the hearts of many more men than Charlie -Balgonie--men, who now at Moscow and St. Petersburg were counting the -days of her exile from the Court of Catharine: and when Charlie -thought of her in after years, the calm repose of his days of -convalescence, the aspect and furniture of his chamber in the old -Castle of Louga, the genial glow of the peitchka, the double window -sashes with their bright false flowers between, the Byzantine picture -of the Holy Virgin with its shining metal halo, and the varnished -panels of the walls, were all associated, as in a pleasant dream, -with the dark and beautiful eyes, the round taper arms, the white and -delicate hands on which so many diamonds glittered, the jetty hair -that was twisted in massive braids (yet fell in ringlets too) round -the superb head,--the graceful, floating, and statuesque figure of -Natalie Mierowna, always so richly, even coquettishly attired. -Natalie, so soft, so tender, and so true, in all the relations of -life and the amenities of society; and yet who could be so keen in -her hate, so fiery in her political rancour, when thinking of her own -injuries, and the terrible wrongs of the captive Ivan, whose adherent -she had become. - -Charlie Balgonie blessed the exile and choice of circumstances, all -so sudden and unforeseen, which had cast him in her path. He loved -her with all the passionate adoration so beautiful and winning a -woman could inspire in a young and ardent heart; nor was it long -before Natalie became aware of this, and was affected by the same -emotion. There was one glance given, by which "each read and -understood each other's soul." Lovers soon find means to comprehend -each other, and Mariolizza, who speedily guessed their secret, which -she certainly thought a dangerous one, found many excuses to leave -them often together. - -The long, long dream of his youth and early manhood,--the waking -dream of many a lonely hour of reverie in the summer woods, by the -seashore, or in the still hours of military duty, in camp and -bivouac--a fair face that would smile on him,--a girl to love, and -worship, and trust,--one who would trust and love him in return, was -embodied at last; and in Natalie he saw this hitherto imaginary -sphinx of whom he had been thinking, and for whom he had been waiting -so long. - -Her voice, her smile, her presence, seemed to fill the air he -breathed with a new charm, that made every nerve thrill, investing -the most simple and common wants of every-day life with sudden -delights and joys; in short, and in common phraseology, the poor -young man was "over head and ears in love." - -The declaration of his passion, and Natalie's acceptance of it, came -about just as others have done; and for three days after,--without -looking the future confidently or inquiringly in the face,--Balgonie -abandoned himself to the delight of his new and successful passion, -and forgot all about the troublesome Empress, her pressing dispatch, -and the terrors of Lieutenant-General Weymarn. - -How could he think of such, when seated in the half-curtained alcove -which opened off the drawing-room, on those calm April evenings; when -the soft breeze that floated over the vast forests came laden with -the odour of the spruce and fir boughs? Seated, with Natalie--in all -the glory of her youth, her beauty, and the flush of her first -love--by his side, often deftly and with rapid fingers weaving up the -coils of her heavy black hair (which would come down, somehow, on -these occasions); as she did so, displaying to greater advantage than -ever the magnificent contour of her bust, her white shoulders, and -taper arms, and adding even to the coquettish side glance of the -half-veiled eye, the most splendid of all her natural ornaments were -those great, heavy loose braids on which the sunlight shone. - -What was to be the future of all this? - -On the strong friendship of Basil Mierowitz he could fully rely; but -then Natalie was on bad terms with the vindictive Empress, and he, -Balgonie, was a soldier, and, according to the rules of the Russian -service, could not marry without permission from his colonel, who, at -present, would not dare to accord it, circumstanced as the bride -would be. - -Marry? What would the proud old Russian boyar say, or do, or think, -when he heard that the penniless Scot--the mere adventurer--the -soldier of fortune, was the accepted lover of his daughter, and that -he had dared to lift his eyes to her otherwise than in the way of -solemn and awful respect? - -If his High Excellency could have but peeped into the aforesaid -alcove on some of the occasions referred to! The mere fact of being -a Scot would not have conveyed much to the mind of the Count. If to -any unlettered Englishman of the present day, the names of Moldavia, -Croatia, Bulgaria, Servia, Pomerania, Grodno, Mingrelia, and so -forth, give but a vague idea of their whereabouts or history, it was -perhaps worse in the Count's instance; for so far as he, worthy man, -was concerned, or for all he knew to the contrary, the Land of Cakes -might have been in the flying island of Laputa. - -"He would be furious, no doubt," thought Balgonie; "but he might -soothe his troubled mind by flogging a few serfs, shooting a few -brown bears, and draining sundry horns of quass." - -Charlie had been present at more than one Russian marriage and -betrothal, and the coolness of the ceremony had excited his -astonishment and repugnance; for, in that country, those -life-enduring arrangements are concluded by a mere match-maker, who -makes the proposal, not to the girl, but to her father. He -remembered particularly the case of Lieutenant Tschekin's espousal -with the daughter of General Weymarn, who, having stated her dower to -the go-between,--a thousand peasants or so,--the gallant subaltern -was satisfied, and thus, as usual, the whole affair was settled -without the taste or inclination of the young lady being consulted or -considered. In Russia, the papa consents, and, according to some old -custom, mamma pretends to object and weep. - -"My daughter," said the General, "I have given you away in presence -of my aide-de-camp." - -"To one I know, father?" she asked. - -"No." - -"To whom, then?" she continued, perfectly undisturbed. - -"One you shall soon know--here he comes; and this is thy bridegroom, -daughter: art satisfied?" - -The young lady, of course, declared she was satisfied. She and the -Lieutenant placed their hands behind them, stretched out their necks, -pouting their lips for a very frigid kiss, and the matter was soon -concluded by a priest. - -When Balgonie thought of the delicacy and gentleness of Natalie, and -remembered the marriage of the Lieutenant Tschekin, he shrunk alike -from the idea of seeing her subjected to the mummery of a Greek -espousal and the vulgar horrors of a wedding feast and drinking bout -_à la Russe_. - -At last he began to wake from his dream, to find the stern necessity -of departing; and, indeed, the snub-nosed Podatchkine, who was always -hovering about, seemed as a perpetual reminder of the duty he was -neglecting. The lovers were solemnly betrothed in -secret,--Mariolizza was their only confidant,--and at present they -could but arrange to wait until they could mutually confide in Basil -Mierowitz, whom Natalie, ere long, expected to see. To write to each -other, save by special messenger, was deemed at present unwise; but -Balgonie would visit her as he returned again to Novgorod. - -So the last evening they were to spend together came; and they were -seated, wreathed in each other's arms, with Natalie's cheek resting -on Balgonie's shoulder, in an embowered rustic seat, not far from the -very place where he had so boldly crossed the swollen river on that -eventful night. - -Charlie's heart was full of sadness and bewilderment; he could but -mutter and whisper of his love and their hopes, and again and again -kiss Natalie on the cheek, on the lips and snowy neck, her hands and -arms, while her tears flowed fast; for she had all the cooing -tenderness of a ringdove now, and could only murmur from time to -time:-- - -"Oh, Carl, Carl--my own Carl!" and so forth; and, like other young -ladies similarly circumstanced on the eve of separation, believed -herself to be the most miserable being in the world. But amid all -this, she suddenly started and grew pale, on seeing a figure approach. - -"See, Carl, see!" she exclaimed: "that horrible woman must be ominous -of evil at such a time. Why has she been permitted to approach?" - -Balgonie saw, at a little distance, only a Russian gipsy girl, -possessed evidently of considerable personal attractions. She stood -timidly, and irresolute whether to advance or retire; and bowed her -head with great humility, while crossing her fine but dusky hands and -arms upon her breast. In old age the Russian female gipsies are as -remarkable for their extreme hideousness, as in youth they are famous -for personal beauty; so this young girl was full of picturesque -loveliness, and instead of being clothed in rags, as the wanderers of -her race are elsewhere, her costume was brilliant in colours and rich -in material. She had large glittering ear-rings; a gaudy kerchief -bound her black tresses; and her rounded cheeks being freely rouged, -added to the wonderful lustre of her dark and dusky eyes, and to the -generally theatrical character of her singular beauty and bearing. - -"Oh!" resumed Natalie, with something of a shudder, "'tis Olga -Paulowna: don't let her speak to us in our parting hour, Carl, lest -we be compelled to hear her sing, and that may perhaps bode evil. -The dvornick, I understand, has thrice by dog and whip driven away -this gipsy girl, who has come to the house again and again, -ostensibly to seek alms, but doubtless only to steal or work mischief -by her cunning; for though our Russian gipsies are not allowed to -pitch their tents on any land without the express consent of the -owner, this girl's brother, Nicholas Paulovitch (as he calls -himself), a half-blood, has permanently settled on our estate, -somewhere in the forests, though he is despised and loathed by the -peasantry, whom, doubtless, he loathes and hates most cordially in -turn. I do wish she would go away without being ordered to do so." - -Little did Natalie know that those ill-requited visits of the poor -gipsy girl had direct reference to the life and safety of him whose -hand clasped hers so tenderly and confidingly. - -"Faugh!" said Natalie, with increasing annoyance; "she is about to -sing,--something naughty no doubt,--but her voice will soon summon -the dvornick." - -Many of those female wanderers in Russia can sing divinely; and it is -on record that even the great Catalani was so enchanted by the -melodious voice of a gipsy girl at Moscow, that she took from her own -shoulders a superb shawl, which had been given to her by the Empress, -and placed it on those of the nomadic singer, "as a tribute from art -to nature." - -And Olga now began to sing with great sweetness one of those Russian -songs, by which the gipsies, to flatter the people, sought to -foretell the downfall of the Crescent; and many such prophetic -strains were current even during the war in the Crimea, as -foreshadowing the fate of the "sick man" at Constantinople. - - "Years after years shall roll, - Ages o'er ages glide. - Before the world's control - Shall check the Crescent's pride. - Banished from place to place, - Where'er the ocean's roar, - The mighty gipsy race, - Shall visit every shore. - - "But when the hundredth year - Shall three times doubled be, - Then shall the end appear - Of all their slavery. - Then shall the warlike powers - From distant climes return, - Egypt again be ours, - While the Turkish domes shall burn! - - "Again the Christian's cross - Shall over Stamboul wave, - And ruin, weeds, and moss, - Mark the last Sooltan's grave! - Again shall Christian bells - Ring where the Muezzins cry, - When across the Dardanelles - The Moslem hordes shall fly! - - "So Egypt shall be freed, - Her tribes return once more, - Their flocks and herds to feed - Where their fathers dwelt of yore: - When all our warlike powers - From distant climes return, - Then Egypt shall be ours, - While the Turkish turrets burn!" - - -The last line ended in a shriek, with which a cry from Natalie -mingled; for the cruel dvornick had been stealing through the thicket -unperceived, and now bestowed a heavy lash across the tender -shoulders of the cowering and shrinking girl; but ere he could repeat -it, Balgonie sprang forward, arrested the descending whip, and then, -placing in the hand of the singer a few Livonian groschen, bade her -hasten away, on which she departed, with tears of pain and gratitude, -after pressing his fingers to her lips; and, in her terror and -confusion, leaving her task undone--her warning of coming treachery -untold. - -"Oh, Carl!" said Natalie, laying her head again on Balgonie's breast, -"dearest Carl, I am so glad she has gone without anathematizing -us--or, or weaving some mischievous spell; for, smile as you may, I -can't help fearing those people! I am a true Russian, and dread the -evil eye!" - -Richer by a lock of dark and silky hair and a diamond ring (both the -objects of many a secret kiss), but leaving his heart behind him, in -one swift hour after this little episode, Balgonie had departed to -meet, and, for greater security, to travel in consort with, a caravan -of a hundred and fifty boors, who were conveying sugar from Moscow to -St. Petersburg. - -He was guided again by the sly Podatchkine, who had resolved to take -especial good care that the said caravan should be avoided. - -"God be with you, Hospodeen--God be with you--adieu," said the old -Count, lifting his square velvet cap courteously, as he bade farewell -to his guest at the porte-cochère. - -Balgonie so respectfully kissed the hands of Natalie and Mariolizza, -that none could have detected a difference in his manner to either; -and certainly none could have suspected that the tears of the former -were yet wet upon his cheek--her kisses lingering on his lip, that he -seemed to leave his soul upon her hand, and that the wrung hearts of -both were swollen with concealed emotion. - -"Uich!" thought Corporal Michail Podatchkine as he rode after the -officer into the deep forest, "I'd as soon think of kissing the foot -as the hand; who knows among what carrion either may have been stuck? -By St. Nicholas, I would rather eat a sheep's tail or a rump steak -from an old troop mare than kiss either." - -Some hours after Balgonie's departure, and when Natalie in the -solitude of her own room was abandoned to tears and unavailing -regrets, a trusted messenger from her brother arrived with a brief -note, written so enigmatically that none save herself could have -understood or deciphered it; but the spirit of it was briefly this:-- - -"All is arranged for freeing the prisoner of S. (chlusselburg) by a -stratagem. A dispatch that may counteract, if not baffle our plans, -and fatally compromise us all, has been sent by old Weymarn to St. -Petersburg. I know not who the bearer is; but be assured of this, -_he will never reach it alive_. We have set Podatchkine on his -track, and he, worthy Livonian, for two hundred roubles, would skin -his own father alive." - -After reading this pleasant epistle, little wonder is it that Natalie -was found by Mariolizza, as the twilight deepened, half senseless -upon her bed, cold, in tears, and utterly miserable. - - - - -CHAPTER IX. - -DELUDED. - -A lover has occasionally been likened to a fool, as being a man -possessed by one idea, his mistress. This was certainly somewhat of -poor Charlie Balgonie's state of mind. He saw only the dark eyes, -the half drooped lids, and the farewell glance of Natalie; so full of -hidden and tender meaning; and while thinking of her and of her last -words and promises, their mutual hopes of the future, based almost -entirely on Basil, he fell an easy prey to the plans and schemes of -the wily Corporal Podatchkine, who saw only his anticipated two -hundred silver roubles; and who, knowing the country as well as if it -had been every acre, rood, and verst his own property, led him on and -on he knew not where; but, at all events, two hours after they should -have met the caravan, they found themselves, to all appearance, lost -in a dense forest of dark pine trees. - -Failing the caravan, having now proceeded, as he believed, some -twenty miles or so, Balgonie had thoughts of passing the night at the -house of a friend of Count Mierowitz, a _duornin_, of whom he had -been told by Mariolizza, who laughingly assured him, that this -personage was "a fine Russian gentleman of the old school, who beat -his wife regularly every Thursday and Saturday with a whip of -thongs," and was seldom sober. - -Those duornins were country gentlemen, who held their lands by -knights' service, and were bound to attend the Czar on horseback in -time of war. Formerly it was sufficient to send a man well armed and -mounted; but Peter the Great first compelled them or their sons to -serve in person, if they could not pay for a substitute. - -In short, though he knew it not, Balgonie had been for the last two -hours riding merely in a wide circle, and, by the careful guidance of -Podatchkine, was now not many miles from the hut of the gipsy -woodman, Nicholas Paulovitch; and, consequently, he was much nearer -the Castle of Louga than he had the least idea of. - -On this night there was a glorious Aurora in the north, and full of -his love, his own tender thoughts, and inspired by the beauty of the -scene, it seemed to the somewhat provoked Podatchkine, that the -dreaming Captain was quite disposed to pass the night where he was. - -When the dense wood of stupendous pines opened into long vistas, the -whole northern quarter of the sky could be seen, illuminated from the -horizon to the zenith. Gloriously bright as the most brilliant -phosphorus, masses of fire arose in the form of columns that waved, -towered, and shot into the air, with streaks of fainter light -between. Anon they all blended and merged into each other with -renewed grandeur, aslant, or radiating from a centre, like the sticks -of a mighty fan. All that portion of the heavens seemed a mass of -shining gold, rubies, and sapphires, with a wondrous light streaming -over them, broadening, brightening, and deepening, then fading away, -to flash forth again in greater beauty and glory, while, as if to -enhance the magnificence of this illumination, many falling stars -shot across it, leaving in their train sparkles of light, more -brilliant even than the glory that blazed beyond. In black outline -between, and in the immediate foreground, towered the dark and solemn -pines, in solitude and silence. - -Not a sound was heard but the occasional snort of their horses, or -the cry of a distant wolf. - -Balgonie was surmising whether Natalie would be surveying the -beautiful natural illumination from her window, or from the terrace: -he forgot that it was nothing new to her. Certainly it proved of -little interest to Michail Podatchkine, who, under his thick beard, -growled at the officer for loitering. - -The Scottish islesmen call the streamers of the Aurora "the merry -dancers;" but the Siberians name them "the raging host:" and Balgonie -was reflecting what a relief their brilliance must prove to the -lonely hunters, who at that very time were pursuing the white bear -and the blue fox, far beyond the Lena, and along the shores of the -Icy Sea, when his attendant disturbed his reverie. - -"Well, Michail," said he, in reply to some remark in which the -Corporal, who saw nothing wonderful in the matter, urged that they -should proceed, "we have missed the sugar caravan, and cannot -discover the residence of the duornin I spoke of, so I am rather -provoked with you." - -"Oh, Excellency, who can withstand God or the Great Novgorod?" whined -the fellow, using an old Russian proverb. - -Jean Paul Richter says, "the more weakness, the more lying; force -goes straight, but any cannon-ball with cavities in it goes crooked." -Some such thought as this occurred to Balgonie, as he checked his -horse, and half turning round, with a stern expression in his face, -which the light in the north made sufficiently plain, he said:-- - -"Rascal! I fear you are deceiving me again!" - -Hustled up on his saddle, rather than in it, with his knees on his -holsters and his lance slung behind him, Podatchkine made many signs -of the cross, and called on St. Sergius and all the other -_moshtschi_, or saints of Russia, to bear witness that he was as -innocent as a young bear of any such foul idea; but only begged that -his Excellency would proceed, and assured him that the track they -were on must assuredly bring them, ere long, to some woodman's -dwelling. - -At this time, such is the slavish influence of superstition, that -Podatchkine, for mere fellowship, kept close to the very man against -whom he had formed the most fiendish schemes; for stories of the Wood -Fairies,--of the _Leechie_, or Forest-demon, whose fangs tore the -benighted asunder,--of the _Domovoi_, or mischievous Russian -Brownie,--of the _Vodianoi_, or smiling River-spirit, who lured -travellers to a watery doom,--of wolves and bears in ravening herds, -came fast upon his memory; for the forest was growing denser, and the -darkness deepened painfully after the Aurora faded away, and a few -solitary stars alone glinted through the openings between the broad, -flat, pendant branches of the intertwisted pines. - -The silence of the night was now broken only by the whistling croak -of the _valdchnep_, or great woodcock, as he darted from amid the -black gloom of a pine tree, or the lighter shadow of the graceful, -but, as yet, leafless birch; and the craven and clamorous anxiety -that had been giving real pangs, and even qualms of conscience, to -the superstitious Podatchkine began to subside, when the wood opened -a little, a red light appeared, and they approached the cottage of -Nicholas Paulovitch, the half-bred. - -It was, as already stated, built of logs, squared by the hatchet -outside and inside, and whitened by chalk: before it yawned a deep -draw-well, with a bucket, handle, and winch. - -"'Tis the cottage of a man I know. Here, Excellency, we can pass the -night," said Podatchkine, leaping from his horse and dutifully taking -Balgonie's bridle, as if to anticipate any proposition of proceeding -further. "There is a shed behind where I shall stable our horses: -Nicholas, I know, will make us welcome to his lodge." - -In a few minutes more, Balgonie found himself seated in the cottage, -the aspect of which struck him as being peculiarly comfortless, -dingy, and squalid, as he viewed it by the light of a _loutchin_, or -species of pine torch, which stood in a rusty iron holder on the -rough deal table, whereon lay a pack of frayed and dog-eared cards. - -On the walls were some rude images, stuck over with crumbs of black -bread, which attracted the flies in summer and the dirt at all times. -In a place of honour was a holy effigy, with some train oil flaring -before it in a tin sconce, as a species of votive lamp; for the -proprietor affected religion quite as much as Mr. Gamaliel Balgonie -did in a more civilised part of the world. - -The furniture consisted of a few plain stools, and some very dirty -bearskins spread on the floor in the corners, as beds; and on the -table was a pitcher of foaming and seething quass, with wooden bowls -to drink it by. - -Balgonie took in all these details at a glance. - -How great would have been his surprise, if he had known that after -riding so many miles, he was only a short distance from _her_, from -Natalie, who was now weeping bitterly and sleeplessly on the bosom of -her cousin for him, and for the fate she dreaded, and yet had not the -power to avert, or from which to save him. - -In addition to Podatchkine and the host, Nicholas Paulovitch, who -stood respectfully at a little distance from Balgonie, and was -appraising the exact value of his costume, arms, and ornaments, even -to Natalie's diamond ring, there was present another ill-visaged -fellow, with a powerful figure, square shoulders, and giant beard, -like every Russian of the lower order; eyes that were small and -piercing, like those of a mouse; a long, fierce nose and jagged -teeth, hair shorn off close above the eyebrows and brushed all down -straight from the crown of his head, which in form resembled a cone -or a pine-apple. - -This barbarian, who was dressed chiefly in a shoubah of sheepskin, -and had a small, but sharp, hatchet and dagger in his girdle, was a -Stepniak, from a district where nothing like a town was ever seen or -known, but whose aid and strength Paulovitch thought might be useful -and necessary in the work he and Podatchkine had cut out for -themselves in the night. - - - - -CHAPTER X. - -THE CORPORAL IN HIS OWN TRAP. - -Balgonie was rather weary after his long and desultory ride by rough -and unfrequented roads, chiefly devious forest paths; he felt -thirsty, and looked at the pitcher of quass. - -"Will his Excellency drink?" asked Nicholas Paulovitch, in his hoarse -and husky voice. - -Now as quass is simply a species of sour beer, made of rye and -oatmeal, coloured by a red berry, and is generally the beverage by -which the Russians wash down their coarse bread and salt, Balgonie -declined: the Stepniak proposed to add thereto a dash of train oil; -but the suggestion made the young officer shudder. - -"I have fortunately one bottle of Rhine wine," said the woodman, with -a rapid and furtive glance at his comrades; "his Excellency will -doubtless honour us by taking it with his supper, at least with such -fare as the forest produces, a stewed rabbit or so." - -"I thank you, good fellow. Where is this cottage situated?" - -"Situated," repeated Nicholas, with a quick and uneasy glance at the -Corporal, fearing there might be some discrepancy in their -information. - -"Yes, in what part of the country?" said Podatchkine; "for we -naturally wish to know." - -"Near Velie." - -"Then I am somewhere about forty versts from the Louga?" - -"Yes, Excellency, precisely," replied the rascal. - -"Hence, if my horse is fresh, I may reach Schlusselburg to-morrow?" - -"Scarcely, as it lies fully a hundred versts beyond Velie," said -Nicholas. - -"Is the distance so great?" exclaimed Balgonie, little knowing that -it was even more, and all unsuspicious of how these wretches were -deluding him.* - - -* The cottage of those assassins is said to have been situated ten -versts, or about eight miles distant from Louga on the road to Velie. -_Vide_ dispatch from General Weymarn to the Empress, dated 8th -August, "concerning Carl Ivanovitoh Balgonie, a Scottish Captain in -the Regiment of Smolensko."--_Utrecht Gazette_. - - -"But, Excellency, we may prove more able guides than Michail -Podatchkine," said the gipsy woodman; "for we--that is the Stepniak -and I--must proceed to St. Petersburg to-morrow, on a little piece of -business we shall have to perform together." - -"Poor devils!" thought Podatchkine, "if you take his body to St. -Petersburg, you will both be accused of murder and knouted, as sure -as my name is Michail; so I shall save my fifty silver roubles." - -Even at the present day in Russia, few will venture to receive or -meddle with a dead body, or attempt to succour a dying or a drowning -person, in dread of the dangerous accusations and extortions of the -police. - -A sound, as of footsteps, and of something like a drinking vessel -falling on the floor of an upper apartment, made the woodman start up -with an oath of astonishment and alarm. He hurriedly applied a -ladder to the trap which gave admission to this place, and ascended -into it; but returned almost immediately to say, "there was no one -there." The evident surprise and alarm of the three men at this -trivial occurrence, is said to have been the first cause of exciting -Balgonie's suspicion. - -He glanced at the Stepniak, who sat silently observant in a corner, -drinking his quass, with his feet resting against the rude peitchka, -or stone stove, which was built into the log wall of the cottage, and -when surveying his vast bulk and colossal stature, together with his -singularly ferocious aspect, the reflection occurred to him, that he -should have placed his pistols in his girdle instead of leaving them -in the holsters of the saddle. - -He was the reverse of timid; he was "brave even to rashness, and had -faced death many times" (to quote General Weymarn) since his career -of wandering began; but the idea certainly did flash upon his mind, -that his situation in that lonely forest had its perils, and that two -men more repulsive in aspect and in bearing than the gipsy and -Stepniak, he had never seen, even in Russia. - -Was it some mysterious and intuitive sense of danger drawing near -that made such thoughts pass through the steady mind of Balgonie? - -He and Podatchkine were both armed, and even were these men outlaws, -they would scarcely, he believed, dare to assault an officer on -military duty; besides, the very name of Schlusselburg, whither he -was proceeding, carried a wholesome terror with it; so dismissing his -casual suspicions, Charlie unbuckled his sword, and seated himself at -the table, on which a cold supper of stewed rabbits and coarse rye -bread was laid for the four who were present. - -A platter was placed for a fifth person whom Nicholas remarked to -Podatchkine in a growling tone was still abroad in the forest, or had -not returned from some place which was named in a whisper. - -With an affectation of extreme respect and courtesy, none of the -three worthies would seat themselves at the table, until Balgonie -specially invited and urged them in succession to do so. - -The bottle of Rhine wine was produced from the apartment above and -opened. The length of the cork and the dust on the bottle (wherever -it came from originally) argued well of the contents, and two horns, -one of which, had a handsome silver rim, were placed for the Captain -and the Corporal. - -The former was rather surprised to find such a drinking vessel as -this silver mounted cup in a place so squalid, and he was about to -lift and examine it, when Nicholas Paulovitch, with almost nervous -haste, filled it, and also that of the Corporal, to the brim. - -To the surprise of Balgonie, the latter exhibited some undisguised -alarm on seeing wine placed before _him_; it was an attention under -all the circumstances he neither wished nor expected; and so he -declined to drink of it, saying that he was "a true Russ, and would -adhere to the quass." - -"Nay, fear not, friend Michail," said the woodman, "'tis the best of -Rhine wine. The cup with the silver mounting is of course for his -Excellency the Hospodeen," he added with a quiet but grim -significance, which the wily Cossack quite understood, so he drained -the wine horn without further objection. - -Soon after having supped, and imbibed his full share of the wine -bottle, Balgonie expressed a desire for repose, as he wished to -depart by daybreak; but he had other reasons for retiring so early. -He did not much relish the society of the gipsy, the Stepniak, and -the Corporal of Cossacks; and he wished to indulge in reverie, to -commune with himself, and let the current of his thoughts run -undisturbed on Natalie and their adieus. - -"This way, Excellency," said Nicholas, with alacrity, lifting the -pine torch in its iron loutchin, and ushering him up the stair, a -mere common ladder, and through the trap-door into the little -apartment above, where his couch, composed merely of skins of the -bear and sheep awaited him, and where he could see the dark forest -and the occasional stars through a small window that gave light and -air to the place, which was so limited in size, that it somewhat -resembled a little cabin in a ship. - -Left in this miserable den to his own reflections and to -darkness--when Nicholas descended with the pine torch, carefully -closed the trap-door and secured it on the lower side by a wooden -bolt, moreover, softly removing the ladder--Charlie Balgonie placed -his sword conveniently at hand, and cast himself upon the pile of -skins that were to form his bed, and thought he had often fared worse -in the bivouacs of Silesia and Bavaria. - -"So--he is safe," said Nicholas Paulovitch, looking upward with a -grin of savage satisfaction at the closed trap, as he replaced the -loutchin on the table, and then closely scrutinised the Corporal, -whose eyes had already become red and inflamed. - -"Hush!" said Podatchkine, "take care." - -"Why?" asked Nicholas, in a hoarse whisper. - -"Because all may not be yet as you wish it, and in Russia sometimes -the tongue flays the shoulders and cuts off the head." - -"True," said the hitherto taciturn Stepniak, who was carefully -feeling the keen edge of his hatchet; "as the Tartars have it, 'when -you have spoken the word, it rules over you; while it is yet -unspoken, you rule over it.' But it seems to me, Michail -Podatchkine, that you have taken a great deal of trouble, and wasted -much time in the matter of this dispatch. As you passed through the -forest together, why the devil did you not give him a good -_tzchick_"--(which we can only render "prod")--"in the back with your -lance?" - -"Because, if a wound is found on him, folks might say he had been -murdered; and he must bear not a scar." - -"And neither shall you, friend Podatchkine," said Paulovitch with a -cruel grin. - -"Come--don't make unpleasant jests," growled the Corporal, with a -yawn and a shudder; "wounds have not been fashionable since Orloff -and Bernikoff supped with Peter III." - -"You grow wary as you grow older, Corporal." - -"I have no desire to travel with the next caravan to Siberia, with -one side of my head and face shaved, and an iron rosary, some five -pound weight, at my wrists." - -"Fear not--you will never see Siberia." - -"Then you have made all sure about this Ivanovitch Balgonie?" said -Podatchkine, whose utterance was becoming somewhat inarticulate. - -"Ay, sure enough; the cups were----" - -"The cups!" - -"The cup, I mean, was drugged with those black berries which grow in -the forest hereabout; the same stuff used by fine ladies to whiten -their hands." - -"But why the cup and not the wine?" - -"For this reason: I might have been constrained to drink with him; -and I had no desire to fall, like some one else, into a trap of my -own baiting." - -Podatchkine, on whom the powerful soporific with which his cup had -been drugged--the sleepy nightshade--had been rapidly taking effect, -and whose small cunning eyes had been opening and shutting -alternately, while a numbness stole with a weariness over all his -faculties, seemed suddenly to grasp at the terrible meaning of the -speaker. He gave a start--he essayed to rouse himself and shout, but -in doing so, toppled off his stool, and sank on the clay floor in a -profound slumber. - -"At last!" said the half-breed, administering a kick to the prostrate -figure; "at last he has gone to sleep; now to make sure that he shall -never waken more. Ah! the Asiatic! he was just getting suspicious at -the end." - -"There are two kopecs in his pocket," said the Stepniak, after -investigating the garments of the snorting Podatchkine, who was now -breathing heavily through his red snub nose, which between his -scrubby beard and his shock of hair, was almost the only feature of -his face that was visible. - -"Leave the kopecs where you found them!" said Nicholas, with a gipsy -oath. - -"Wherefore?" asked the Stepniak with surprise. - -"It will seem all the more honest in thee, my good Stepniak, when you -take the body--bodies, I should say--to the nearest military post. -You have but to say you found them dead in the forest." - -"And the wet clothing?" - -"Dew or rain--what a head you have!" - -"True--true; ah! what a man you are, Nicholas Paulovitch, so full of -bright thoughts! That idea would never have occurred to me." - -"Nor the other either. Quick, now; we have not a moment to lose!" - -They extinguished the pine torch, and tying the Corporal's hands -securely with a cord, carried him forth to the draw-well before the -cottage. Then they substituted that worthy warrior's heels for the -bucket which was usually appended to the rope, and permitting the -winch to revolve softly and gently, lowered him down, snorting and -gasping in his unnatural slumber, head foremost, into the deep dark -water below! - -The Stepniak turned the iron handle of the winch or windlass, while -the gipsy guided the rope with its heavy burden. He was deliberately -lowered down until only his heels remained above water, as the two -wretches could see by the starlight when stooping and peering into -the darkness below. - -The snorting had ceased now! - -The dying Corporal was heard to struggle with his hands, as if he -sought to free them from the cords; a few babbles filled with air -rose to the surface and burst. This continued for a minute, during -which all was silent elsewhere, save the half-suppressed breathing of -the two assassins, and the dreary sound of the night wind, as it -shook the dark branches of the giant pines that towered in solemn -gloom around them. - -Nicholas Paulovitch listened intently, and kept his eyes fixed on the -cottage where their other victim lay, as he doubted not, sunk in what -was intended to be his last sleep. - -Anon, all became still--deathly still--in the depths of the dark -well; the rope ceased to vibrate, and the bubbles came no more. - -"Let us leave him here for a few minutes, and now for the Captain and -his dispatch! By the time that we return, the Corporal will be as -stiff as if he stood for sale in the frozen market on the fête of St. -Nicholas!" said the gipsy, with one of his diabolical grins; while -the Stepniak, with a smile of satisfaction that showed all his huge -yellow teeth, smoothed down to his eyebrows the thick coarse black -hair that grew from the apex of his conical caput. - -They now re-entered the cottage, and again lighted the torch in its -iron loutchin. All remained just as they had left it; the quass -pitcher, the wooden bowls, the two cups, and the empty wine bottle -were on the table, and the platters, with the débris of their rustic -supper; but the superstitious gipsy felt a species of shudder come -over him, for when the torch flared up in the night wind and cast -strange shadows on the dingy and discoloured walls of the log-hut, it -seemed to his diseased imagination, for a moment, as if the outline -of the drowned Corporal still occupied the stool on which he had been -seated. - -"Come," said he huskily, "the dispatch!--and then for the other!" - -They listened intently, and placed the ladder against the trap-door. -All was still--not even the breathing of Balgonie was heard. -Ascending first, with a knife in his teeth, in case of unexpected -resistance, the gipsy knocked thrice on the trap without receiving -any response. He then withdrew the wooden bolt, pushed it up, and -introducing his head and shoulders, held aloft the pine torch, and -turned towards the bed of skins. - -It was unoccupied; and in a moment he saw that the bare and desolate -chamber was without a tenant! - -"Malediction!" he shouted; "he has escaped us--but how? -Search--search! He cannot be far off, after the dose I have given -him; search--and we must use our hatchets now!" - - - - -CHAPTER XI. - -OLGA, THE GIPSY. - -Balgonie had scarcely thrown himself at length on the soft, but not -very odorous, pile of skins which formed his couch, when a face -appeared at the little window, which was pulled open, and a voice -called to him in a low and earnest whisper: - -"Hospodeen--Carl Ivanovitch! Hospodeen, attend to me; but oh, be -silent, as you value your life!" - -He started up, softly approached the window, and saw, by the dim -starlight, a fair female face with very dark eyes, white and regular -teeth, and long, glittering ear-rings. - -"I have seen this face before," thought he; "but when, and where?" - -Balgonie, in truth, was too much of a lover to have more than one -female face ever before his eyes--that of Natalie Mierowna. - -"I am Olga, the gipsy," said the girl, humbly. - -"Olga! Olga! whom I saw at the house of Count Mierowitz this -evening?" - -"The same, Hospodeen!" (Balgonie expressed an exclamation of -astonishment to find her, as he thought, so far from that place.) -"You gave me a silver kopec once upon a time, at Krejko, when passing -through that town with Michail Podatchkine; and, this evening you -saved me from the whip of the dvornick, when for the third time I had -ventured near the Count's mansion, in a vain search for you, or the -Hospoza Mierowna." - -"In search of us--and for what purpose, girl?" - -"To warn you, that for nearly a month past, a plot has been formed to -deprive you of a valuable paper, and even of your life." - -"My life--when?" - -"On the first opportunity." - -"By whom--and where, girl--where?" - -"Here in this solitary hut--even now your assassins are in -consultation--listen." - -He placed his ear to the trap-door, and heard the murmur of hoarse -whispers below. - -"Hush," said Podatchkine, as already related, "take care!" Then -followed the question of the subtle and ferocious Stepniak, as to why -he had not given Balgonie a "prod" with his lance in the forest; and -the whole conversation in all its horrible details, up to the moment -when the wretched Corporal with death and terror mingling in his -soul, fell from his seat in a stupor. - -"Father in heaven!" exclaimed Balgonie, full of despair and horror, -as he mechanically felt for his fatal dispatch, to ascertain that it -was yet safe, "I have drunk of this drugged stuff, and am also lost!" - -"Nay," said the gipsy, hurriedly, "nay----" - -"I drank the accursed wine from a cup----" - -"True; but not from the cup which was intended for you." - -"How?--speak!--speak!" - -"The wine and the cups too were all stolen by Podatchkine, with many -other things, at different times, from the household of Count -Mierowitz. This night you were duly expected here, and thus a plan -was laid to destroy both you and your treacherous guide. Two cups -were fully and deeply drugged by my brother Nicholas: one was richly -mounted with silver; and knowing well that it was to be set before -you, I abstracted it barely an hour ago, substituting another of the -same kind, and now I have it here. Oh, Hospodeen, a narrow escape -you have had!" - -Balgonie began to breathe more freely; but, assured that never had he -run so narrow a risk of death, he felt, though enraged and furious, -his blood run cold, when contemplating the fate intended for him. -Peeping through a chink of the hatch or trap-door, he saw that the -ladder of access had been removed, and that the door of the squalid -cottage was open now, for the loutchin flared more than ever in the -night wind. It was then extinguished; but still he could see, and -hear them dragging forth the passive form of Corporal Podatchkine, -whom he supposed to be dead. - -Personally, Balgonie felt that he was no match for either of the -powerful giants below--men whose bodily strength was quite equal to -their ferocity, and whose daggers and hatchets might make mince-meat -of him. Moreover, they had now deprived Podatchkine of his sabre and -loaded pistols, and were thus more completely armed. Charlie had his -hand on his sword--a handsome Turkish sabre; but relinquishing the -ideas either of attack or defence, while the glow of rage rose in his -breast and cheek, he thought only of immediate flight. - -"If you would save your life and the dispatch of the Empress, follow -me this instant, and get your horse before they return: you have not -a moment to lose." - -It was the gipsy girl who spoke again, in her low earnest whisper, -and with perfect decision. - -"Then I owe my escape--my safety----" - -"To my gratitude. Pass through the window and descend by the wall." - -"Women," says a certain philosopher, "are not at all inferior to men -in coolness and courage, and perhaps much less in resolution than is -commonly imagined; the reason they appear so is, because women affect -to be more afraid than they really are, and men pretend to be less." - -Balgonie found that the courageous girl to whose guidance he now -trusted himself, had been enabled to reach the window by standing on -the roof of the outhouse, or shed, in which Podatchkine had stabled -their horses. The whole edifice being built of squared logs, was not -very high, and it afforded easy means of ascent and descent, by the -interstices consequent to its rude construction by the hatchet. He -soon leaped to the ground, and softly assisted her to descend. - -"Here is your horse: you see, Hospodeen, that your kindness to the -poor gipsy girl was not thrown away." - -Balgonie looked rapidly to his bit and girth, adjusted himself in his -saddle, hooked up the hilt of his sabre, and shortened his rein, -almost unaware of the black tragedy being so coolly and deliberately -acted on the other side of the cottage. - -"Ten versts farther from this will bring you to the monastery of the -Troitza, which you will know by its three domes. You have but to -ride straight westward by the forest path; God keep you, and may you -and the beautiful Hospoza be happy in your loves!" - -"Tell me, gipsy girl----" - -"Ah, I can foretell nothing, save that in love mere merit is of -little matter." - -"What is of most importance--beauty?" - -"No." - -"What then?" - -"Success, Hospodeen." - -He almost laughed, as he slipped into her hand two xervonitz (the -largest coins he had), and in a moment more was galloping over the -soft grass of the forest path she had indicated. - -"By Jove," thought he, as he spurred on, "I shall not be sorry when -this infernal dispatch is safe in the hands of old Bernikoff; and to -think of that wretch of a Podatchkine! I always expected the fellow -to be a rogue, but not of so deep a dye!" - -The unfortunate Corporal, now, as he deserved, hanging head foremost -downward in the draw-well, stark and stiff and cold, had been to all -appearance a good Russian, Balgonie reflected: he neither confessed, -fasted, nor did penance (too much bother all that would have been for -the Corporal of Cossacks); but he kept Lent regularly to all -appearance; made a sign of the cross fussily before and after every -meal; always went to church when in camp or quarters; and never -omitted his prayers and genuflexions at night, if in haunted places -or when passing a wayside cross, especially if any one was by. All -this was no doubt studiously hypocritical; and Charlie remembered -that his worthy Uncle Gram kept Fast-days and "Sabbaths" with stern -and gloomy rigour; that he said a long and sonorous prayer before -meals--a longer prayer after them; that he went thrice daily to kirk -at the ordained periods, and had nightly a noisy expounding and -out-pouring of the spirit that would have put the great John of -Geneva himself to the blush. - -"Ah," thought poor Charlie, as he trotted on his lonely way through -the darkened forest, "decidedly there are Podatchkines in Scotland as -well as elsewhere, and in Russia." - -The light was beginning to dawn, for it was the morning of one of the -first days of May, so long had he been detained by illness--shall we -say by love?--at the castle by the Louga, that Muscovite Eden, as now -it seemed to him. The birds were chirping merrily in the woods; and -in some places he saw the brown rocks shaded by a species of graceful -silver birch and dark rowan tree, similar to those that grew in his -native strath at home. - -By midsummer he knew that the birchen glades he traversed would be in -full foliage, and that the rowan berries would hang in ripe red -clusters among the thick green leaves; and that there, too, would be -grey lichens on the granite cliffs, and in their clefts soft emerald -moss, the wild strawberries, and the drooping bells of the purple -foxglove, just as he had seen them where the Earn "gurgling kissed -her pebbled shore" as it flowed towards the Tay. - -They seemed like old friends in that strange place, and with a sigh -of gratitude for his escape from a perilous and deadly snare was -mingled one of hope--a wish--a bootless wish, that one day he might -sit by the banks of the lovely Earn with Natalie by his side, amid -all the security his native land afforded, and under the white -blooming hawthorns that cast their sweet fragrance to the soft winds -of the Perthshire valley. - -Beloved Natalie--so fair and delicate, so dark haired and so -bright-eyed! Her diamond ring, and still more her lock of soft and -silky hair, brought all the charm and sense of her presence vividly -before him. He counted the brief hours since they had parted, and -sighed to think how many hours and days and weeks must inevitably -elapse before they met again. - -In memory and imagination, he conned over and over again each tender -speech and glance, each mute caress and passionate kiss, with every -circumstance and minutiæ of their occurrence and bestowal; and what -lover has not done so since time began, and apples grew, and roses -bloomed in Eden! Even his recent narrow escape and the gipsy's -gratitude were forgotten in the ardour of his thoughts. - -And he sighed again, when thinking how wild and insane were the -dreams in which he was indulging, as he touched his horse with the -spurs, on seeing the three shining domes of the Troitza, or monastery -of the Holy Trinity, rise before him amid the green woodlands. - - - - -CHAPTER XII. - -ST. PETERSBURG. - -After traversing a green valley some five or six miles in length, -bordered on each side by forests of fir trees, dark, solemn and -acutely conical, where the sunlight could scarcely ever penetrate to -the thick rank grass and herbage that grew below, and where a merry -gurgling brook rushed noisily along by the side of the narrow -horseway, Charlie Balgonie drew his bridle at the gates of the -Troitza monastery, when its white walls, its three great cupolas, -shaped each like a gigantic onion inverted, covered with plates of -burnished copper, and all painted and bestarred, were shining gaily -in the morning sun. - -There he was made welcome by the monks--quaint-looking men, in long -black caftans, with high black caps, fashioned like our modern hats, -but without brims, and having black veils floating behind over their -long, straight hair. He deposited some money with the treasurer, -declined the invitation of the sacristan to see the uncorrupted body -of some saint with an unpronounceable name, reposing in its shrine -like a silver bedstead, and its head begirt by a diadem with pearls -as large as pistol bullets; for the saint had been a martyr, who, in -the days of Ivan Basilovitch, the Tartars had rewarded for his -attempts to convert them by knocking out his brains; and now he was a -miserable mummified relic of humanity, before which, for many ages, -thousands of devotees had knelt and wept and smote their breasts in -paroxysms of prayer. Charlie waived the invitation; and after having -a good breakfast in the refectory, and there telling his story to the -monks, he was somewhat bewildered when informed by them, that after -all his (certainly circuitous) journey with Podatchkine on the -preceding evening and night, and after his riding since he had left -the cottage of the gipsy, he was still barely twenty miles from the -Louga! - -Was a spell cast upon him? was his horse bewitched, that he was to -continue travelling thus, and yet never make progress? It almost -seemed so; but one of the monks, a more shrewd man than his brothers, -explained the whole affair as being consequent to the cunning of -Podatchkine, and his scheme for destroying the dispatch-bearer. - -A large party of pilgrims on horse and foot were returning to St. -Petersburg that afternoon. With them Balgonie travelled for the -remainder of his journey; and, after traversing a wild and desert -tract of country, on the evening of the next day he had the pleasure -of beholding, in the distance before him, that new but vast and -splendid capital,-- - - "Proud city! Sovereign mother thou - Of all Sclavonian cities now,"-- - -covering the once wild waste whereon, before the time of Peter the -Great, the father of his country, a few wretched fishermen were wont -to contend with the wolves and bears for a spot to erect their -huts--where, as Count Segur says, winter reigned for eight months of -the year, rye was an article of garden culture, and a bee-hive a -curiosity. - -Its bulbous-shaped Byzantine domes, and tall needle-like spires, and -all its countless roofs, that rose beyond each other in ridgy -succession like the waves of the sea, and are generally like the sea -in colour, being of a brilliant green or an ashy hue, were now all -tinted redly by the rays of the setting sun, which cast the shadows -of its many bridges on the waters of the Neva and of the canals that -glided silently and darkly beneath them. - -As the sun sank beyond the Gulf of Finland, and the shadows deepened -on every plated dome and granite rampart, the great gilt crosses of -our Lady of Kazan (a fane which was ten years in building) and of -many other noble churches glittered, or rather seemed to burn like -stars, amid the deep blue of the cloudless sky beyond. - -Balgonie's satisfaction, on finding himself so near the end of his -journey, was somewhat clouded by a trivial circumstance. - -After entering the city by a palisaded barrier, where stood a guard -of the Regiment of Valikolutz, he checked his horse's pace, while the -caravan of pilgrims, whom he now wished to quit, traversed a long -street of small wooden houses that lay beyond. Here, close by the -margin of the Neva, lay a man with his loose caftan wet and dripping, -and a piece of sack or old canvas spread over his face. On his -breast lay his fur cap, as if to receive alms for his burial; for -none doubted that he was a poor drowned fellow just fished up from -the Neva, and that money was required of the religious and charitable -alike for his obsequies and masses for the repose of his soul. So -all the pilgrims from the Troitza threw something into the fur cap, -where denuscas, kopecs, even roubles and Polish ducats, jingled fast -together, while the passers muttered prayers and made signs of the -cross. - -All the caravan had passed, so the clatter of Balgonie's charger, -steel-scabbard, and accoutrements, seemed to create a different -effect on the attentive ear of the seemingly drowned man; for the -knave, who had only been acting, started up, and, with his spoil, -fled like a hare down one of the little alleys that opened off the -wooden street. He vanished in the twilight, yet not so quickly but -that Balgonie was able to recognise in his face and form, the bulky -and muscular half-bred, the gipsy, Nicholas Paulovitch. - -What had brought him to St. Petersburg? Was he still dogging the -luckless dispatch-bearer, or had he only fled thither that, among its -thousands, he might elude the punishment with which Count Mierowitz -would be sure to visit him, if the murder of the Corporal was -discovered? - -This episode made Balgonie feel uncomfortable, and suspicious that -other and hidden dangers yet menaced him, as he rode steadily but -watchfully through the densely crowded, but monotonously regular -streets of houses, which are stuccoed, white-washed, and decorated -with different colours, roofed with wood and iron, painted in most -instances green, and nearly all pillared and piazzaed--each long -vista, with its oil lamps, being terminated by domes and spires; and -erelong he saw the lights shining in the lofty windows of that -magnificent crescent, which, for a time, was the palace of -Catharine's most cherished favourite, "the fair-faced Lanskoi," as -Byron has it-- - - "A lover who had cost her many a tear, - And yet but made a middling Grenadier." - - -And now the melodious bells were ringing for vespers in the towers of -our Lady of Kazan--a Greek cruciform fane, which was founded as a -rival to St. Peter's at Rome, and named after the Tartar kingdom of -Kazan. It is the greatest church in the city, and one of high -sanctity. - -Along the northern margin of the Neva, a river broad as the Thames at -London Bridge, but (unlike the Thames) deep, blue, and transparent as -crystal, lined with solid granite quays, and bordered by many stately -palatial edifices, Balgonie pursued his way; but the stars were -shining at midnight on the vast sheet of water called the Lake of -Ladoga, before he, weary and worn with fatigue, dismounted beneath -the formidable gates of the castellated prison of Schlusselburg, -which had been strengthened and fortified anew by General Count -Todleben, whose arrest and quarrel with the Empress had made so much -noise three years before the time our story opens. - - - - -CHAPTER XIII. - -WHAT THE SECRET DISPATCH CONTAINED. - -Twenty-four miles eastward of the city, the small town and fortress -of Schlusselburg stand, at a point where the Neva issues from the -Lake of Ladoga, and on the left bank of the river. The little town -had then somewhere about three thousand inhabitants, who chiefly -lived by the manufacture of cotton and porcelain. - -On an island, where the river joins the lake and moats it round, is -built the fort, which is about four hundred yards square: its walls -are of stone, massive, and fifty feet in height, terminating in -battlements and turrets of antique form. - -The passage to this island is by a long drawbridge. - -The guard which kept this formidable state prison, where many a -hopeless sigh was wafted through the rusty bars of its prison grilles -across the waters of Ladoga, was composed entirely of a body of -dismounted Cossacks, selected for the purpose, as the task of keeping -or secluding the dethroned Emperor Ivan was one of no small -responsibility and importance; so these men were all Cossacks of a -high class, and were rather richly dressed. - -Their short blue jackets were elaborately embroidered with yellow -lace, and a multitude of gilt buttons, but were hooked across the -chest; their trowsers of scarlet cloth were loose, long, and gathered -into their boots, which were of brown Russian leather, and reached to -six inches above the ankle. Their busbies of black shining fur had -bright scarlet bags, tall white feathers, a cockade, and tasselled -cord. They were all clean and soldier-like men, well moustached, and -sternly resolute in bearing; and all were armed with musketoons, -short sabres, and brass pistols. - -A guard of these men received Balgonie at the gate and drawbridge -with a profound military salute; and a picturesque aspect they -presented, as their arms flashed in the murky light of the great oil -lantern that swung in the dark, weird, and deep-mouthed archway, -where a massive portcullis showed its iron teeth, all red and rusted -by the mists of the Neva and the stormy blasts that swept across the -Lake of Ladoga. - -The great masses of the fortress, ghostly and shrouded, with faint -red lights gleaming out here and there; the enormous strength of the -gates, their planking, bolts, and bars; the thickness of the walls; -the number of embrasures and loopholes for cannon and musketry, all -converging to one point, the approach or river entrance; the number -of sentinels, and, more than all, the vast strength of the portcullis -and double gates, together with the difficulties he experienced in -procuring admission, though in uniform, and though a staff officer -bearing a dispatch of the Empress, all served to impress unpleasantly -on the mind of Charlie Balgonie a state of extreme watchfulness, of -suspicion, and mistrust; and also a sense of the vast responsibility -of the charge confided by Catharine to Colonel Bernikoff. - -That gallant officer and estimable personage had retired long since, -after a deep drinking bout, and would be--as Lieutenant Tschekin (the -son-in-law of General Weymarn), who was third in command of the -fortress, informed Balgonie--quite invisible till breakfast time -to-morrow, when the dispatch would be delivered to him: and a sigh of -real annoyance escaped Charlie, when he found that this odious paper -was to be yet some eight hours or more in his secret pocket. - -He repaired to the officers' guard-room at the barrier gate, and -there, wrapped in his cloak, without undressing (as he hoped next day -to exchange the atmosphere of Schlusselburg for that of some hotel in -the Vasili-Ostrov), lay down to sleep, and if possible to dream of -Natalie; but he had undergone too much toil for such gentle -phantasms, so he slept like a dormouse, till the sun was high in -heaven, unawakened even by the deep boom of the morning gun, a -36-pounder, as it pealed across the Lake of Ladoga; but ultimately he -was roused by Tschekin and Captain Vlasfief, a very handsome young -man, but a cruel and heartless _roué_, whom ultimately he detested. -These, after shaking him heartily, announced that Colonel Bernikoff -awaited him at breakfast, and was not in a mood to brook much delay. - -His hasty toilette was soon complete, and he was speedily ushered -into a plain, almost naked whitewashed apartment arched with stone. -Through its grated windows the morning sun shone cheerily, and the -blue waters of the lake could be seen with the white sails of many a -tiny coasting vessel. - -Here, at a table of plain Memel timber, destitute of cloth, but on -which massive silver vessels with rudely formed wooden bowls and -platters were oddly intermingled, was seated the Governor, who, like -the czars and boyars of old, still took quass for breakfast with -roasted beef or bear's ham, bread with caviare, greens with vinegar, -salted plums and other abominations. But Balgonie saw that coffee -and even tea, with ham, eggs, and kippered salmon, were prepared, -with other condiments, for those who, like himself, had nothing of -the Tartar in their blood. - -"Hail to you--I wish you health," said Bernikoff, courteously enough, -in the old Russian fashion, and presenting his hand to Charlie, who -took it, shuddering as he remembered the fate of Peter III.; "welcome -to Schlusselburg, Captain Ivanovitch Balgonie." - -Bernikoff, who wore a dark-green undress uniform faced with scarlet, -was a man well up in years; he had fierce and shining black eyes that -made soldier and serf alike quail beneath their gaze; yet they were -small, cunning, and twinkling eyes, the lashes of which were half -closed--the eyes of one who could act the cruel tyrant on one hand, -and the cringing slave on the other. He had a massive, square, and -brutal jaw, thin wicked lips, a nose as round as a grape-shot, close -short grizzled hair, and long snaky mustachioes. - -He was of Tartar blood, and came of those "warlike and merciless -tribes who studied nothing but the use of arms; who passed their -lives on horseback; who even lived on their horses in this sense, -that their chief food was horseflesh and the milk of mares; who, at -the same time, could go for days without food; and who, when they -took a city by storm, put all the inhabitants to the sword except the -working men." - -"Seat yourself, Captain, and proceed to breakfast, while I read your -dispatch," said the Governor. "Holy Sergius! it is from Catharine -Christianowna herself! The Czarina is great, but Heaven is higher!" -he added, placing the paper on his forehead, as he bowed over it; and -then taking an enormous pinch of Beresovski snuff, a most pungent -compound, from a gold box said to have been found in the pocket of -Peter III., he proceeded to peruse that document which had proved of -such trouble to the bearer. - -The eyes of Balgonie, Tschekin, and Vlasfief, who alone were present, -were fixed inquiringly upon him, and they could see that the contents -disturbed him greatly; he grew pale and flushed by turns; his brows -contracted to a terrible frown; a red spark of devilish light -glittered in his eyes, and his lips were compressed. - -"Ah, the Asiatics! the accursed Asiatics!" he muttered. This is a -most opprobrious epithet in Russia, and excited some surprise in his -hearers. - -He carefully folded the dispatch, and turning sternly to Charlie, who -was keeping his eyes on him and drinking his coffee the while, he -said:-- - -"Ivanovitch Balgonie, there is a feather in the seal--the usual sign -of _haste_ among us here in Russia; yet you have not troubled -yourself much with speed, for this dispatch is dated at Novgorod more -than a month back!" - -"Permit me to explain, Excellency," said Balgonie eagerly, and -anxiously too. - -"I shall be glad if you _can_ explain it," replied Bernikoff, with -increasing sternness. "I have known a general, a leader in ten -battles, degraded, knouted, and sent to hunt the ermine with a cannon -ball at his heels for a smaller dereliction of duty than this." - -Balgonie's heart beat very fast while he related his story--of his -being misled by a traitor twice; of the passage of the Louga at such -terrible hazard; of his subsequent illness; and the episode at that -log hut. - -"That you were in the guidance of a traitor, I knew before your -arrival; and I am extremely glad that he fell into his own snare," -replied Bernikoff, a little more calmly; "but this matter is -extremely awkward for you, and becomes more complicated every hour." - -After glancing again at the dispatch, and bending his keen, rat-like -eyes on Balgonie, he asked: - -"Were Basil Mierowitz or Usakoff, the grandson of Mazeppa, at the -Castle of Louga any time during your sojourn there?" - -"No, Excellency, neither of them were." - -"Spies say differently--but you can swear it?" - -"On my honour do I swear it! But why?" - -"I have had bad news from the head-quarters of your regiment, and -from Lieutenant-General Weymarn, since you left Novgorod." - -"And these tidings, Excellency?" - -"Are to the effect that your friends, the two subalterns, have both -deserted, with several soldiers, all of whom are natives of the -Ukraine." - -"Deserted!" - -"And are nowhere to be found, though pursued by a whole sotnia of -Cossacks." - -"Deserted!" reiterated Balgonie with real concern. - -"Yes--the cursed Asiatics!" replied Bernikoff, expectorating with -great vehemence, and thoroughly believing that each time he did so, -he cast out a devil. - -For some moments intense anxiety and alarm bewildered Balgonie, and -he felt himself grow pale at a time when six searching eyes were bent -with a doubtful expression upon him. He remembered the hostility, -the threatening and mysterious words of Natalie, and grew almost sick -with apprehension of he knew not what, as he muttered inaudibly-- - -"Basil deserted--and his cousin too! The whole family will be -inculpated and degraded. Oh, Natalie, my hapless love! Did General -Weymarn state this in _his_ dispatch?" he asked aloud. - -"He did, and at its end referred to you." - -"To me, Excellency?" - -"Yes; here is the document, and it concludes thus: 'as I and the -Regiment of Smolensko will shortly march into St. Petersburg, Captain -Carl Ivanovitch Balgonie need not return to Novgorod; but until then, -shall attach himself to your staff, and remain in Schlusselburg, -where, erelong, you may require all the good service he can render -you.--WEYMARN.'" - -Great were the mortification and disgust of Balgonie on learning that -he was to remain for an indefinite period in a place so revolting and -uncomfortable, and with no other society than that of three military -jailers,--cruel, hard-hearted, and avaricious Muscovites of the worst -kind; and with these orders died his hopes of revisiting, as he -intended, Louga, on his return, and of seeing Natalie again. - -Under ban as all the household of Mierowitz would be now, should he -ever see her more? Every way fate and the tide of events seemed to -be against him and her, already in the very dawn of their love. - -"And now, gentlemen," said the Governor, lowering his voice, "the -Empress's dispatch contains only two lines, thus: 'A scheme is formed -to free Prince Ivan. _Let him not fall alive into the hands of those -who come to seek for him!_' Nor shall he!" exclaimed Bernikoff with -ferocious enthusiasm, as he dashed a cup of vodka among his quass, -and drained the goblet, after shouting, "The health of Her Imperial -Majesty Catharine Christianowna--hurrah!" - -"Hurrah, hurrah!" added Vlasfief and the Lieutenant. - -Balgonie also, as in duty bound, essayed to "hurrah," but the sound -died away on his lips. - - - - -CHAPTER XIV. - -CHARLIE'S FIRST DAY IN SCHLUSSELBERG. - -Full of anxious thoughts, he passed more than half of the succeeding -day on the ramparts of the castled-prison, alone, avoiding Colonel -Bernikoff, Captain Vlasfief, and their subaltern, Tschekin, none of -whom were consonant to his taste, for all were deep gamblers and -heavy drinkers. - -His mind was full of care for Natalie and all her family. Some -desperate and revengeful plot, of which the desertion of her brother -and of his cousin Usakoff was but the beginning, the means to an end, -was certainly hatching--a plot that might too surely end in -bloodshed, in the savage punishment and the ruin of all. - -He sorrowed keenly for his two friends Basil Mierowitz and Apollo -Usakoff, for both were polished and educated gentlemen, men of a -class and style more common in some corps of the Russian army now, -than in those days. And there was poor Mariolizza, too--so brightly -beautiful, so happy, and so merry! Her love, her hopes and schemes, -would all be crushed and blighted, as well as his own. - -Balgonie was not without fears for himself, and of being compromised -in the affair; or, perhaps, lured into subtle state intrigues and -deep plots, in the failure or success of which he could have no -interest politically or personally, save in his love for Natalie--a -love that had changed the whole current of his ideas and opened up a -new realm of thought and incentive to action. - -Already he was beginning to revolt at the Russian service, and yet he -had been happy in the Regiment of Smolensko, and had found in the -land of his adoption, like every Scottish adventurer that has trod -the Russian soil, honours scarcely to be won at home. - -How long was he to be on the staff of this ferocious Commandant, and -in this horrible prison, where many an innocent victim was pining -hopelessly in chains and misery? "The mutual distrust in which -people live in Russia," says the Abbé Chappe D'Auteroche in his -scarce travels about this time, "and the total silence of the nation -upon everything which may have the least relation either to the -government or the sovereign, arise chiefly from the privilege every -Russian has, without distinction, of crying out in public, _slowo -dielo_; that is to say, 'I declare you are guilty of high treason, -both in words and actions.' All the bystanders are then obliged to -assist in arresting the person so accused; a father his son, and the -son his father, while nature suffers in silence. The accuser and -accused are at once conveyed to prison, and afterwards to St. -Petersburg, where they are tried by the Secret Court of Chancery." - -Thanks to this pleasant state of society, the chambers and chains of -Schlusselburg were seldom unoccupied. - -Vlasfief was hollow-hearted, avaricious, and sensual; Tschekin, the -Lieutenant, a slimy, cruel, reckless, and ignorant Muscovite; but old -Bernikoff was really a character whom Balgonie equally dreaded and -despised. - -His subtlety and oppression had been the means of reducing, at -different times, some thirty officers to the ranks, with permission -to serve and work their way up again; and many more were now cursing -him and their fate, at Irkutsk and remoter Siberia, for their -inability to purchase his mercy or good-will. When commanding at -Cronstadt, he had been detected once in the act of transmitting whole -sledge loads of government shot, shell, lead, and ropes, across the -frozen gulf for sale in Sweden; and also in buying at a cheap rate -base denuscas to pay the troops: but so trusted was the old rascal by -the Empress, that he always escaped the degradation, the hanging or -shooting, which, on those discoveries, were so freely meted out to -his subalterns. - -On the estate of Bernikoff a serf once amassed ten thousand roubles, -and offered them for the freedom of his daughter, who was about to be -married. - -"Let me see the girl!" was the reply. - -As a serf can possess nothing, the father trembled in his soul at -this demand, as his daughter, unfortunately for herself, was -beautiful. - -"Holy Sergius!" exclaimed Bernikoff, "what business has a serf with -ten thousand roubles; the girl and the money are alike mine!" - -And so he literally and lawfully seized them both. - -Though a savage soldier, like every old Muscovite, he was the slave -of mechanical devotion. No statue or picture of the Holy Virgin, of -St. Sergius, or St. Alexander Newski, was ever passed by him without -a profound reverence and a sign of the cross. To such effigies he -would address himself before he knelt even to the Empress: and before -them he had been known to kneel and kiss the ground five minutes -before or after he had knouted a miserable boor (whose pockets were -empty), or nearly slain a soldier by making him run the gauntlet, for -merely having the seams of his gloves sewn outward instead of in; for -wearing his hat on the left side of his head instead of the right; or -for some other offence equally heinous. - -And it was on the staff of this distinguished officer (temporarily, -however) that Charlie now, to his great disgust, found himself. - -On three sides, far around this island prison, stretched the waters -of Ladoga--the largest lake in Europe, being one hundred and thirty -miles long, by nearly ninety broad; full of rocky isles and dangerous -quicksands, over which, from its flat shores, sweep frequent and -perilous storms. - -From the somewhat dreary view of this small inland sea, whose -northern and eastern coast could not be discerned, he turned to -survey the fortress, with all its strength of gloomy walls, grated -windows, and frowning cannon, till suddenly his eye was arrested by a -very remarkable face, which was observing him from the sombre depth -of a strongly barred and arched window of the great tower. - -It was a pale face, but singularly handsome--grave, and even sad in -expression--a young man's face with the slightest indication of a -moustache, but for which, in its paleness and extreme delicacy of -feature and tint, it might have passed for that of a twin brother of -Natalie Mierowna! - -Suddenly it was detected by a Cossack sentinel, who shouted shrilly, -and slapped the butt-end of his loaded musketoon: on this, the face -instantly disappeared. - -This was he concerning whom Balgonie had brought that terrible -dispatch--Ivan, the deposed Emperor--the prisoner of Schlusselburg! - -"Twenty-three years!" thought Balgonie with a shudder; "twenty-three -years in that tower--since his very babyhood--oh, it is terrible!" - -Other ears had heard the shout of the sentinel; for now a man, who in -a boat had been fishing near the fortress, suddenly shipped a pair of -sculls, and pulled away towards the town with an air of alarm that -seemed equalled only by his dexterity. This fisher had been hovering -about the fortress all day. "Can he be the gipsy--the half-breed?" -thought Charlie: "ah! the dispatch is out of my hands now." - -Lieutenant Tschekin now approached with an invitation from Bernikoff -to join him at dinner, adding, "remember that with the Colonel, -eating is indeed a science, and temperance he views as mere want of -spirit." - -As they proceeded together through various archways and gates, the -shrieks and entreaties of a man apparently in mortal agony rang -through the echoing prisons with a horrible cadence, that chilled the -free blood in Balgonie's veins. - -A court through which they had to pass was crowded by soldiers, -formed in hollow square, and Balgonie was compelled to linger and -look on with Tschekin, who seemed rather to enjoy the spectacle. - -"Hah," said he, "the punishment is nearly ended--let us wait and see -the _batogg_!" - -It was a soldier being knouted, which is simply the Russian word for -"whipped." - -Stripped to the loins, he was strapped to an erect board, formed like -an inverted cone, and having three notches at the upper end, one to -receive his chin, and the other two his wrists, while the torturer -wielded a knout, the handle of which is usually eighteen inches long -with a thong of thirty-six inches. This is always boiled in milk, by -which process it swells and the edges become sharp, hard, and more -destructive. - -The whipper was skilful: he laid on his lashes from the neck to the -loins, so as to deal them at intervals of one inch artistically -apart, leaving a stripe of flesh between each; but these regulated -and omitted stripes, after receiving a fresh knout, he proceeded to -take off in succession, with wonderful and terrible precision, till -the man's entire back was a mass of blood, and he hung, fainting and -well-nigh speechless, by the wrists. - -"Oh, Excellency," he said, in an imploring voice, "remember that my -brother, Alexis Jagouski, aided you in escaping from the battle of -Zorndorff!" - -This was most true, but the story was a terrible one. At Zorndorff, -where the Russians were defeated with such slaughter and driven -towards the frontiers of Poland, the horse of Bernikoff was shot -under him, and he was in danger of being cut down by the Prussian -Hussars. In this sore extremity a Cossack named Alexis Jagouski took -his leader behind him on his crupper; but that personage, finding -that the double weight impeded the horse's speed, and that the -Hussars were close behind, shortened his sabre in his hand, and -plunging the blade into the body of his preserver, flung the corpse -from the saddle, and escaped alone. - -At this reminiscence Bernikoff only scowled more deeply; and now the -lacerated back of the sufferer was strewed with coarse gunpowder, to -which a match was applied. This is technically known as the -_batogg_, and the agony it produced is indescribable. - -The culprit was now cast loose, but was still able, according to the -slavish usage of the country, to crawl on his hands and knees towards -Bernikoff, and he gasped out:-- - -"Hospodeen--Excellency, I thank you humbly for this most merciful -punishment." - -"Begone, dog of an Asiatic!" replied the governor, kicking him in the -face; "when next you seek to fill your pipe, this will teach you to -keep your filthy fingers out of my tobacco pouch." - -These were the defenders of their country, the Holy Russia, among -whom a wayward fate had cast the Scottish palatine: the blood of the -latter boiled within him; but he knew too well that to expostulate -would be but to excite suspicion, and to court degradation and the -musket. Something, however, in the expression of his face did not -escape Bernikoff's keen and angry eyes. - -"Ivanovitch Balgonie, a superior can never act unjustly to his -inferior," said he sternly; and these words terribly embodied the -genuine spirit of the true Russian _Tchinnovnik_, or noble class. "I -am in the service of the state," he added; "and the state is the -Czarina!" - -Yet this upright Governor, who knouted the poor Cossack for pilfering -a pipeful of tobacco, had always a garrison double its actual -strength on paper, the pay and rations of the men of straw forming a -pleasant addition to his many secret perquisites, while his soldiers -starved and frequently begged food from the very prisoners they -guarded. - -It was neither hospitality nor love of society which had procured the -honour of an invitation for Balgonie; but Bernikoff shrewdly -suspecting that he might have some loose cash, resolved to possess -himself thereof at cards; so barely was a dinner of _shee_ (which is -identically Scotch broth), croquettes, with _purée_ of beet-root, -beef in the Hussar style, with salad of baked beet-root and biscuits, -dismissed, than champagne-cup, and vodka (or corn-brandy) punch -became the order of the evening; and Bernikoff, who was a great -gourmand, with his face flushed and his uniform open, after signing -the cross and bowing thrice to a picture of St. Sergius, sat down to -cards with Vlasfief and Tschekin, who were quite as sharp as himself, -and with poor simple-hearted Charlie Balgonie, who dreaded to -decline, circumstanced as he was on all hands; and who was glad when -allowed to quit the table with the loss, he never could understand -how, of twenty xervonitz, or pieces worth nine shillings sterling -each. - -"Now, Vlasfief--'tis you and I; rouge-et-noir!" exclaimed Bernikoff, -draining a goblet of vodka punch at a draught. - -"I am too weary to play, most excellent Colonel; pray excuse me," -urged the Captain, who had lost considerably to his senior also. - -"You, then, Tschekin?" said Bernikoff savagely. - -"I hav'n't a kopec to spare, Excellency!" - -"Well--I saw a pretty housemaid at your mansion in the town -yesterday--the daughter of a serf apparently." - -"Feodorowna?" - -"Very likely--with red hair and brawn eyes." - -"Ah! the same; she came with Madame Tschekin from the household of -her father, General Weymarn." - -"By all the devils, she is very like old Weymarn!" - -"She is the daughter of my old nurse, Colonel," said Tschekin -gravely, with an air of annoyance. - -"I don't care whose daughter she is!" - -"Well?" - -"I'll put a hundred silver roubles on her." - -"Done! I put her on the ace." - -"The ace hath lost!" exclaimed Bernikoff, with a shout of laughter. -"Holy Sergius! the girl is mine. To-morrow," he added, "I'll send a -corporal and a file of men for her, with a covered kabitka. See that -all her things are packed and ready, friend Tschekin, or write to -your wife about it, and say you have lost her at cards." - -"The devil!--Excellency--this can't be." - -"Why? I won her fairly." - -"But the girl is about to be married to her cousin." - -"_Was_, you mean; the cards have changed her destiny, like that of -the serfs whom Vlasfief drank away in champagne last night." - -So passed Charlie's first day at Schlusselburg. - - - - -CHAPTER XV. - -THE IMPERIAL PRISONER. - -Fortunately for Balgonie, there was a chaplain, or priest, of the -Russian Greek Church, attached to the fortress; and his society, at -times, tended to alleviate what he endured from having to associate -with such a human bear as Colonel Bernikoff,--an annoyance from which -he would only be relieved by the longed-for return of General Weymarn -and the Regiment of Smolensko to St. Petersburg. - -The ceremonies of religion retain in Russia all their pristine -influence, and afford the miserable and unlettered serf a short -season of relaxation from labour and severity during festivals, when -he may enjoy his can of fiery vodka and revel in intoxication. -Unlike many of the Russian clergy, who adopt the cowl merely as the -means of evading slavery in civil life, or slavery added to peril in -the army, and also as a chance of attaining to power and nobility, -Father Chrysostom, the Chaplain of Schlusselburg, was a humane, -gentle, and learned old priest, whom the Commandant had been depraved -enough to strike with his clenched hand on more than one occasion; -but prior to doing so, he had always contrived, oddly and -superstitiously enough, to have the chief badge of the father's -sacred office, his baretta abstracted and hidden. - -Through the good offices of the Chaplain, with the permission of the -Governor, which was yielded very unwillingly, Balgonie (whose -curiosity and commiseration were greatly excited) was presented one -evening to the deposed Emperor Ivan, and the particulars and -incidents of that interview made a deep and sad impression upon him. - -The entrance-door of the central tower was small, arched, and of -great strength. Above it were carved the Russian arms, first adopted -by Ivan Basilovitch in the sixteenth century: a spread-eagle, having -on its breast an escutcheon bearing St. Michael and a dragon, with -three crowns in chief for Muscovy and the two Tartar kingdoms of -Kazan and Astracan. - -On passing through a little paved court, grated over with iron, where -the royal recluse was permitted to breathe the external air, while a -sentinel trod to and fro above his head; another door-way, secured by -a portcullis grooved into the wall, gave access to the narrow stair -which led to his apartments. These were two in number: their windows -and doors were all grated with iron; and sentinels, with loaded arms, -watched every avenue by day and night. - -His sitting-room was plainly, even neatly furnished: its chief -ornaments being a pretty Madonna and some gaudy pictures of Muscovite -saints; and it had one window, which opened towards the vast expanse -of the Lake of Ladoga. - -Pale, handsome, and resigned, gentle in eye and manner, the poor -young Prince had grown to manhood in total ignorance of the outer -world and of all he had lost. He knew only the four walls of the -prison, the changing hues of the waves and clouds, the wild swans and -the waters of Ladoga. - -As related in our fifth chapter, the Prisoner of Schlusselburg was -the eldest son of the Princess of of Mecklenburg, -Elizabeth-Catharine, niece of the Empress Anne. His father was -Anthony Ulric, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, whose whole family was -banished Russia by the usurping Empress Elizabeth. - -The infant Ivan had been dethroned, after being a king for exactly -one year. - -During the reign of the Empress Catharine, he was detained in -Schlusselburg "under the denomination of a _Person Unknown_, and it -was given out that his senses were impaired, though it is pretty well -understood that this is without foundation." "His fate has been -particularly lamentable," continues a newspaper of the period; "torn -from the bosom of his family, he has now passed twenty-three years in -close captivity. The late Empress Elizabeth, towards the latter end -of her life, seemed disposed to treat this noble captive with -clemency and favour, either from sentiments of justice and -compassion, or to render two great personages more circumspect and -submissive." - -These personages were her successors, the unfortunate Peter III. and -Catharine II. - -Ivan's mother is said to have died of grief; but Duke Anthony Ulric -and his four other children were all confined for life in a house at -Horsens, a town of Jutland, at the extremity of the Baltic, where -they had a precinct of a mile English; but it was surrounded by high -palisades, beyond which they dared not venture under pain of death; -and there the Duke, old and blind, passed the last years of his -melancholy life. - -His youngest daughter, Elizabeth, "was a woman of high spirit and -elegant manners," according to Coxe, the traveller, who visited her; -"she possessed portraits of her father and mother, and even contrived -to procure a rouble of her brother Ivan, struck during his short -reign. It is difficult to conjecture how she could obtain a coin, -the possession of which was more than once punished by the Empress -Elizabeth as high-treason, and it is still more difficult to imagine -how she could secret it from the knowledge of her guards during her -long imprisonment." - -Confinement had rendered Ivan's features unnaturally pale and -delicate; and, by years of systematic constraint and oppression, his -fine, clear, and very beautiful dark eyes had a soft, subdued, and -chastened expression, that was singularly touching and winning. - -The tone of his voice was also gentle and alluring. - -"Hospodeen," said he, presenting his hand to Balgonie, "I rejoice to -meet you, if one who leads a life so strange as mine can be said to -rejoice; but you are one to whom I may talk a little without -danger--eh, Father Chrysostom? And he has told me, Hospodeen, that -you are not a Russian, but a native of some island that is far away -in the sea. What are you? A Tartar--a Tcherkesse? Oh no, you -cannot be either. I know them; for they guard me," he added, with a -little shudder. - -"I am your friend, believe me, Ivan Antonovitch," replied Balgonie, -who was touched by the childlike simplicity of the poor recluse, who -was plainly attired in a caftan of fine green cloth, edged with a -narrow trimming of yellow fur; the square crowned cap, which he only -wore when in the grated court, was of the same materials. A small -gold cross was at his neck, a rosary of amber hung at his right -wrist, and a little pipe, the only luxury allowed him, was dangling -from one of his breast buttons. - -When in his presence, Balgonie always thought with horror of the -cruel tenor of the dispatch he had brought, and trembled for the -result of his friends' conspiracy. - -To teach Ivan anything, even to read or to write, was treason; yet he -had gleaned a little of his own history, and that of his family, from -the casual remarks of his guards and from the Chaplain, during the -long, long years of his captivity, the reason for which he failed to -understand, but the system of which had become as a second nature to -him; and the little he learned, made a deep, rather than a bitter -impression upon him. - -The whole energies of each successive Chaplain had been given to -preparing him for another and a brighter state of existence, and to -turning his hope's and wishes towards it, rather than to this world, -of which he was well-nigh weary if not utterly ignorant; and so much -was he impressed by the uncertainty of human life in general, and of -his own in particular, that daily, for years, he had seen the sun -rise from the waters of Ladoga in doubt whether he would see it set; -and nightly had he laid down his head without the assurance of being -a live man in the morning. - -Life had no charm--death no terror for Ivan. - -In his visits, which were frequent, as the young Prince had conceived -a great regard for him, Charlie Balgonie knew not upon what topics to -converse; for he experienced great difficulty in fashioning his -sentences and observations to suit a listener whose knowledge of the -external world and of all the machinery of life was so limited. In -those visits, Balgonie was always accompanied by the Chaplain, or -Captain Vlasfief, as the watchful and suspicious Bernikoff would by -no means permit them to have an interview alone. - -"I am so glad to have you for a friend, Ivanovitch Balgonie," the -Prince would say sometimes; "though Father Chrysostom assures me that -kings may have peers and soldiers, serfs and slaves, but, alas! they -can never have a friend! I have heard my guards say that I was once -a King--an Emperor; but I cannot remember when. It must have been -long, long ago, as Russia has had four monarchs since. I have not -even a dream of it--an Emperor? Yet I shall too probably die even as -Demetrius did. I cannot remember even my mother; for they tell me -that she died of sorrow, when I was brought here from a place called -Moscow. Do you, Hospodeen, remember yours?" - -"When I was but a child she died, to my sorrow. Had she lived, I -might not have been here in Russia to-day," replied Balgonie. - -"Well--but you may remember," persisted the young Prince. - -"True, your Highness; memories I have of a soft fair face that bent -over my little bed at night; of one who kissed and hushed me to -sleep; but those memories are faint or vivid, broken and uncertain, -according to my mood of mind; and strange it is that they come to me -more in dreams by night than thoughts by day, especially as I grow -older." - -"I should like to have some such dreams, but then I have nothing to -remember; I know not even my own age or when I came here," said Ivan -thoughtfully. "If I do dream, by night, I seem to hear only what I -hear by day--the voices of the Cossack sentinels, the screams of the -sea-birds, the dashing of the waves when the wind crosses the lake, -or the clanging of the castle bell. Then there are times when I -dream that I see Demetrius, and then I awake in a cold perspiration. -Tell me of the things that are being acted in the great world that -lies beyond the Lake of Ladoga, for Father Chrysostom speaks to me -only of Heaven." - -"It is said that the King of Prussia has agreed to the proposal -of--of--the Empress, about the county of Wirtemberg, in Silesia." - -"How, agreed?" - -"Count Biron is to have the estate as Duke of Courland, on paying -eight thousand guineas to Field-Marshal Count Munich," said Balgonie. - -The Prince sighed with a bewildered air, for all those names were -quite new to him. - -"And who is Count Biron?" he asked. - -"A friend of the Empress," said Father Chrysostom rather hastily, to -anticipate the reply of Balgonie. - -"Tell me something more. Nay, Father Chrysostom, don't chide us, -pray," said he, seeing that the white bearded chaplain looked uneasy -and rose to retire. - -"Conversation of this kind is strictly forbidden," said he; "and if -Captain Vlasfief was here----" - -"Oh!" exclaimed the Prince, with a shudder, but not of anger (he -seemed too gentle for that emotion), "don't talk of Vlasfief I -implore you. Pray tell me more news, Hospodeen; I shall learn all -the names in time, and try to remember them." - -"There are strange tidings from Warsaw," replied Balgonie, who began -to get bewildered and knew not on what to converse, if the most -simple topics of the day were forbidden; "a battle has been fought at -Slonim, between Prince Radzivil and the Russians, who defeated him -after a five hours' engagement, and the Princess Radzivil, who is -newly married and remarkably beautiful, fought on horseback among the -Polish troops." - -"Ah, Demetrius fought on horseback too," said the Prince, as if -speaking to himself, and a gesture of undisguised impatience escaped -the chaplain; "pray tell me something more, for no one ever speaks of -such things to me." - -"A new theatre has been opened at St. Petersburg," replied Balgonie -(who thought to himself, "the devil is in it, if I cannot speak of -_that_!"), "and there was represented an opera, entitled _Charles the -Great_." - -"Ah, I don't quite understand all that; say it again." - -Indeed, Balgonie might as well have spoken of carbonic gas or the -Atlantic cable, had he ever heard of such things; for the mind of the -young Prince could not comprehend the most simple matters of every -day-life. This was merely the result of his entire seclusion; but -the adherents of the Empress, her favourites and lovers, -industriously circulated through Russia the report that he was in a -state of idiotcy. - -"And this place that you spoke of?" he resumed enquiringly. - -"The theatre?" - -"Yes, Hospodeen; who lives in it?" - -"One of the actresses performed a magnificent cantata, in honour of -the Empress." - -"Ah! 'tis she, I understand, who keeps me here," said the Prince, -with a sad smile; and now in real terror, and quite repenting the -introduction he had brought about, Father Chrysostom rose to hurry -Balgonie away. - -As they were retiring, the Prince said:-- - -"Hospodeen, you have dropped something." - -It was the locket with Natalie's hair. - -"What is in this?" asked Ivan, with childlike interest. - -"A lock of hair, your Highness." - -"How odd! and you wear it, just as I wear my cross?" - -"It is the gift, the souvenir of a lady I love, and who loves me: a -countrywoman of your own." - -"A woman?" said Ivan, ponderingly. - -"Yes, Excellency." - -"I have never looked upon a woman's face, and know not what it is -like, though the Empress (whom God long preserve!) visited me when a -child, as I have been told. I have heard that they are not bearded -like men. I shall never see one, it is forbidden; yet--yet--as I -often tell Father Chrysostom, I have dreams by day--dreams of -something else than wild swans and bearded Cossacks--of something to -cling to, some one to love and be loved by. It must be this kind of -love you speak of--oh yes, it must!" said Ivan, as he gazed with -stupid, but reverent wonder at the lock of hair, ere he returned it -to Balgonie. - -"Poor young Prince!" exclaimed the latter, as the chaplain hurried -him away, and the portcullis clanged behind them in its grooves of -stone. - -The priest now urged upon Balgonie, that if his visits were to be -continued, the affairs of the outer world must in no way be referred -to, or the result might be most disastrous for all concerned. - -"The seclusion in which the prisoner is kept, has, I fear, impaired -his understanding," said Balgonie. - -"Hah! do you think so?" grunted Colonel Bernikoff, who overheard the -remark, as they issued from the tower of Ivan. "You must know, that -your genuine Russian is like a tiger, as some writer has it--a tiger -who licks the hand of his keeper, so long as he is chained; but who -tears him asunder when loose. The Empress quite understands this!" - -"How is it that you intrust me so freely to visit your prisoner?" -asked Charlie, who began to fear that Bernikoff might be laying some -snare for him, by according this hitherto unwonted permission. - -"Do you really wish to know?" - -"Yes, Colonel--why I in particular--I only?" - -"Because you are the safest man in Russia to have this liberty." - -"How?" - -"As a soldier of fortune,--a stranger among us,--you can have no -sympathy with anything but the strict and steady execution of your -duty; and the line of that," added Bernikoff, darting a keen glance -at the Scot, "as with us all, lies in fidelity to the Empress." - -"True," replied Balgonie, with something of sadness in his tone, and -very little of enthusiasm. - -"Thus, were I to order you to blow Ivan Antonovitch from the mouth of -a cannon, I should expect you to obey!" - -"I trust that no such test of my obedience will ever be necessary," -replied Balgonie, with a hauteur which Bernikoff was somewhat unused -to see among his subordinates. - -"We shall have some other and more troublesome prisoners in -Schlusselburg ere long," said the Governor, with knitted brows. - -"Whom do you mean?" - -"Old Count Mierowitz and his family. Warrants have been issued by -the Chancellor to arrest them all." - -"All!" said Balgonie, in a faint voice. - -"Yes, women as well as men: an escort of the Regiment of Smolensko -arrived at St. Petersburg yesterday with the Count and the Hospoza -Mariolizza. His daughter, who seems to be deeply involved in some -plot, has for the time effected her escape. But they will soon be -all before the Secret Chancery, and then the knout and the wheel will -be at work with a vengeance!" - -The reader may judge how these and similar remarks affected poor -Charlie, while the Governor, as if pleased that he could thus inflict -pain, walked away with a malicious smile on his sombre visage, -cramming tobacco into the bowl of his pipe. - -There were times, however, when the captive Prince, after his -acquaintance with Balgonie, was a little less resigned, and had -strange longings to see something of the great world that lay beyond -his prison walls, and the waves that lashed them; to see other faces -than those of the fierce and bearded Tchernemoski and Volga Cossacks -who guarded him; a longing even to do something great and daring, to -be remembered in after years with love and reverence; to be -remembered, as he said, "in tradition, like Demetrius." Then, -feeling all the utter hopelessness of such new aspirations, he would -strive to be contented, to repeat with fresh energy the daily prayers -set for him by Father Chrysostom, and to be grateful for life, lest -he should die even as Demetrius died. - -"Who is this Demetrius, of whom he constantly speaks, and whose fate -he fears so much may be his own?" asked Balgonie one day. - -"It is an old, but a strange and terrible story," replied the -chaplain. "When Ivan Basilovitch died about the end of the sixteenth -century, his widow was banished to Northern Russia by the new Czar -Feodor, whose Prime Minister urged that he could never reign in peace -or security unless he imitated the Turks by sacrificing all who were -nearly allied to the throne; so he exiled his mother, as I have said, -and ordered an officer to assassinate his younger brother Demetrius. - -"The officer, being a humane man, was filled with horror on receiving -an order so barbarous; but fearing alike to disobey, or to leave the -terrible task to be fulfilled by one less scrupulous, he took the -child with him to a remote district, travelling many days' journey -from Moscow. Then he wrote some words indelibly on the skin of the -little Prince, tied a cross of brilliants about his neck, laid him at -the door of a peasant's hut, and galloped away. - -"To the tyrant Feodor he gave a circumstantial detail of how and -where he had killed the infant Prince, and sought the promised reward. - -"'Receive it _thus_!' replied Feodor, who plunged a sword into his -heart, the further to suppress all proof of guilt. - -"The young tyrant died of a poison administered by his Chancellor, -and others inherited his crown; but all to perish miserably in -succession. And no less than four pretenders all appeared, each -calling himself Demetrius, to contest for the throne; and all the -land was deluged with blood. - -"Some twenty years after the alleged death of the brother of Ivan, a -young Cossack of the Volga was bathing in that river with some of his -companions, who saw with surprise that he had chained round his neck -a cross of brilliants, and that certain words in the old Muscovite -character were pricked upon his back. They were examined by a -neighbouring priest and found to be--- - - '_This is Demetrius, son of the Czar._' - - -"Then all exclaimed that the true Demetrius had been found at last, -and that a miracle from Heaven had saved him. His life was soon in -peril, so he fled to Holstein, the Duke of which, after keeping him -long in prison, sold him to the Emperor Michael, by whom he was -savagely quartered alive. And it is the fate of this hapless heir of -Russia, whose story he thinks in some points resembles his own -(although he really knows but little of his own annals), that haunts -the unfortunate Ivan in his gloomiest hours." - - - - -CHAPTER XVI. - -THE TRATKIR. - -With evident suspicion and mistrust, Bernikoff viewed the growing -intimacy between his prisoner Ivan and the Scottish Captain; and -though he neither recommended that it should cease or interdicted it, -as he might and perhaps ought to have done, he made many mental notes -thereof. - -Though Balgonie sympathised with Ivan to the fullest extent, he knew -too well the danger of doing more; and he felt that he had his own -share of secret sorrow and anxiety, and might yet have greater to -endure. The girl he loved with all the strength of a first and -romantic passion was already a political fugitive; her father and -cousin were prisoners, and perhaps in chains; her brother and his -kinsman, Usakoff, already viewed as criminals; and with the terrors -of despotism hanging over them all. - -Natalie a fugitive--and where? In the wild forests, perhaps, where -wolves and outlaws lurked: what perils and privations might she not -be suffering! Natalie so delicate, so pure, so gently nurtured, and -so highly bred. - -Balgonie was aware, also, that intimacy with the family of Count -Mierowitz, and the deep interest he had in their fate, was fraught -with personal peril to himself in such a land of tyranny as Russia. -Full of such thoughts as these one forenoon, he was leaning on a -cannon in one of those deep embrasures of the fortress which faced -the drawbridge communicating with the land. The guard was in the act -of lowering the bridge to permit a man to pass out. This person was -just parting from Bernikoff, with whom he had been for some time in -close and earnest conversation, and from whom he was evidently -receiving money--an unusual circumstance, as that distinguished -field-officer generally lavished more kicks and cuffs than thanks or -kopecs. - -On beholding this man, as he bowed humbly, cap in hand, cross the -bridge and disappear among the houses of the town beyond, Balgonie -experienced a species of nervous shock. He could not doubt that this -fellow, so gigantic in stature and powerful in muscular development, -in the coarse caftan and leathern girdle, with the long lock of -grizzled hair dangling behind his right ear, was Nicholas Paulovitch, -the murderer of Podatchkine, the gipsy woodman, and the swindling -mendicant of the barrier at the Neva. - -"This man here in Schlusselburg," thought Balgonie, with indignation -and alarm; "here in earnest conversation with Bernikoff! The spirit -of mischief seems to pervade the air again!" - -A few minutes afterwards the Cossack Jagouski who, as related, had -been so severely knouted by Bernikoff for pilfering a pipeful of -tobacco, came forward with tottering steps, and looking painfully -thin and feeble from recent suffering; and with the crouching bearing -of the Muscovite towards a superior, said that his Excellency the -Governor wished to speak with him in his quarters, whither Balgonie -at once repaired, after having, as military etiquette required, -buckled on his sword. - -"Carl Ivanovitch," said Bernikoff, who certainly had rather a -perturbed air, "some suspicious characters are in our vicinity, and -have actually been hovering in boats about the fortress. What think -you of that?" - -"Suspicious characters, Excellency--how?" - -"In a Tratkir of the town, one dropped this coin--a silver rouble of -the prisoner Ivan--Ivan the Unknown Person. To possess one, unless -as I do this, for proof of treason, is to court death or Siberia." - -"And from whom had you this?" - -"A spy," replied the Colonel curtly. - -"The man who has just left you?" - -"The same." - -"Nicholas Paulovitch," continued Balgonie, with increasing -astonishment at the other's coolness; "the assassin of the -Corporal--the wretch of whom I told you when I first arrived here!" - -"All that may, or may not be," replied Bernikoff, with a stern air, -almost amounting to rudeness: "when I require this devil of a fellow -no more, you may impale him, if you please; but molest him not at -present." - -"I do not see, Excellency, that all this in any way concerns me," -said Balgonie haughtily, as he lifted his hat, and put his sabre -under his arm, as if about to retire. - -"It does concern you thus far. I shall anticipate any attempt that -be made by those lurkers, whoever they may be. You must remember," -he added, lowering his voice, "the tenor of the dispatch you brought -me?" - -"Perfectly," replied Charlie, in a somewhat faint voice, as he knew -not how terrible or repugnant might be the duty assigned him by this -military despot. - -"Well, you shall pass forth into the town tonight, with a patrol of -twenty men, armed with sabres and carbines. Surround and search the -Tratkir in the main street, and compel all therein, who seem -suspicious, to produce their papers; and if they are without such, -bring them to me, and I shall question them, in a fashion of my own." - -By the laws of Russia, at that time, persons could not travel from -St. Petersburg, or even from place to place, without a passport, -describing their occupation, appearance, and route, which they were -not at liberty to alter; and in the rural districts, travellers -required a pass from the lord whose estate they may have been upon, -before they were at liberty to quit it. Without such a document, no -one would dare to furnish them with food or shelter, nor could a -postmaster give them horses, however high their rank, or great their -of reward. [Transcriber's note: the rest of this paragraph illegible -in scan.] - -"And I am to take twenty men with me?" said Balgonie, after an -unpleasant pause. - -"Yes! the bridge will be lowered for you after sunset. Whoever these -lurkers are, they have been seen and overheard; and this coin is -proof sufficient to warrant the transportation of a whole province. -Be they who they may, by every dome in sacred Mother Moscow, they -shall find me ready for them!" - -And Bernikoff grimly touched his small dagger, a species of weapon -which a Russian officer is seldom or never without, even in the -present day; and when Charlie Balgonie remembered how that same -dagger had been thrust into the throat of the half-strangled Peter -III., a flush of indignant hate and aversion crossed his honest face. -To him it was evident that the spirit of mischief or malevolence made -Bernikoff select him, as one whom he suspected of a friendly interest -in the family of Count Mierowitz, for this unpleasant duty, instead -of Captain Vlasfief, the Lieutenant of Schlusselburg, or any other -officer, who must have been better acquainted with the adjacent town -and all its places of entertainment, than he, a total stranger, could -ever be. - -But he was a soldier; he had no resource but to obey in silence; and -an angry sigh escaped him, as he stuck his loaded pistols in his -girdle, when the sun sank behind the green painted roofs of the -wooden town, and the evening gun boomed from the ramparts across the -Lake of Ladoga. - -Defiling in the twilight through the streets of Schlusselburg, he -marched straight to where he knew that the principal Tratkir, or -tea-house, was situated; and while his heart sank within him in fear -of _whom_ he might arrest,--perhaps Natalie herself,--he at once -surrounded the building, to prevent all egress, and to the evident -alarm and perturbation of all who were within. - -These tea-houses are no longer to be found in the capital of Russia -now, for there all the _restaurants_ are constituted and arranged -upon the French and German models; but they still exist in Moscow and -elsewhere; and under their roofs, the genuine Muscovite consumes what -would seem a fabulous amount of the Chinese plant. They are chiefly -the resort of soldiers, porters, and droski drivers, all of whom must -behave in a polite and orderly manner while there. All must enter -the great room where the tea is served, cap in hand, alike out of -respect for the company, and to the holy pictures, Souzdal daubs of -SS. Sergius, Alexander Newski, and so forth, which decorate the -walls; and all must salute the bar-keeper, after first saluting the -Holy Image, which is to be found in every Russian apartment, and -before which, a lamp of train oil is frequently burning. - -When the crooked sabres of the dismounted Cossacks were seen flashing -in the porch, and when Balgonie entered with his sword drawn, passing -along the narrow way between the numerous tables, at which the groups -were seated, amid an oppressive odour of strong tea, coarse tobacco, -and Russian leather from boots, caps, and girdles; many a peasant in -his canvas caftan, and many a stout moujik in his fur shoubah, felt -his heart quail with apprehension, he knew not of what; and every -saucer--the tea is not drunk from cups--was set down untasted, while -one or two men nearly choked themselves with their lumps of sugar; -for usually it is not put into the tea, but is retained in the mouth -of the drinker, so that, in a spirit of economy, the poor Muscovite -may indulge in two, perhaps three cups of his favourite beverage, and -use thereto but one piece of sugar. - -For his intrusion Balgonie apologised; this, though a very unusual -proceeding in a country so despotic, failed to reassure the tea -drinkers, who were all hushed in silence and expectation; and a girl -who had been singing for their amusement, crouched down in a corner -for concealment. - -Balgonie counted the number of persons in the Tratkir, and noted the -exact hour by his watch; he then proceeded, with a heart full of -anxiety and dread, to examine each person in succession, in reality -looking for those he had no wish to find. - -All who possessed the requisite papers, showed them; others proved, -all in succession, to be soldiers in uniform, moujiks, and droski -drivers, with their brass badges, sailors, and serfs; thus, after a -time, a load seemed to be lifted from the mind of the young officer. -As he turned to leave the apartment without a prisoner, the Cossack -Jagouski rather roughly dragged the singing girl from the nook where -she had sought concealment, and then Balgonie recognised the fine -dark face, the black eyes, and the large glittering ear-rings of Olga -Paulowna, the gipsy girl whom he had befriended at Louga--she who -saved him from a terrible fate in the forest. - -"Let the girl go free, Jagouski," said Balgonie; "I shall answer for -her if required." - -Olga drew a paper from her bosom and showed that it was her passport -from the Commandant of Krejko, permitting her to travel to and from -Schlusselburg. - -Jagouski saluted and withdrew a few paces; and now, as if the cloud -of doubt and dread Balgonie's arrival had cast over all was -dispersed, again the noisy hum of voices pervaded the long room of -the tea-house, and laughter even broke forth at intervals. - -"Olga," said Balgonie, "you here--so far from home?" - -"Yes, Hospodeen, for my home is anywhere, or wherever night finds me; -but I have news for you." - -"News--and for me?" - -"Yes," said she, sinking her voice to a whisper; "I have news of -Natalie Mierowna----" - -"Hush, for heaven's sake, girl!--hush!" said Balgonie with a nervous -start. - -"She is here----" - -"Here in this house?" - -"No, Hospodeen." - -"Where then?--oh, speak quickly!" - -"In the neighbourhood of Schlusselburg." - -Charlie felt his heart die within him at this intelligence, for such -a vicinity was full of peril. - -"Be to-morrow at noon on the road that leads to Tosna, and you shall -learn more; but do you know it, Hospodeen?" - -"I shall soon discover it--and the place?" - -"The skirts of the wood four versts from this." - -"Good--till then, adieu; and God be with you." - -Balgonie retired all unaware or heedless that his Cossacks were -secretly jesting at his whispering with the pretty gipsy; and through -the dark streets he marched them towards the great and sombre masses -of the fort which loomed between him and the star-lighted sky, his -heart the while being literally sick with alarm and dismay, in the -conviction, that the long-dreaded crisis was coming--that Natalie was -near, and the place of her concealment was known to a vagrant gipsy -girl, the sister of Nicholas Paulovitch, who, if he knew it not -already, might wrest the secret from her with the point of his knife, -for the information of him whose spy he was--the hateful Bernikoff! - -Ruin and sorrow were close at hand, indeed. - -On receiving the official but verbal report of Balgonie, and learning -that the visit to the identical tea-house where the dangerous rouble -was found had proved abortive, and that there was no one to be -knouted or hanged in the morning, Colonel Bernikoff became -transported with rage, and lifted his cane somewhat threateningly. -On this, Balgonie's hand was instantly laid on the hilt of his sword. - -"Beware, Excellency," said he firmly: "a blow to an equal is a foul -insult; to an inferior it is mean tyranny; and, in either instance, -blood alone should wash it out." - -On this the Colonel's rage assumed a new phase; he trod on his cocked -hat, and ordered the wax candles which he had always burning before -the image of his patron, St. Sergius, to be extinguished. He loaded -the effigy with the bitterest reproaches, and for that night left the -poor saint in total darkness, despite the intercession of Father -Chrysostom. - - - - -CHAPTER XVII. - -THE WOOD OF THE HONEY TREE. - -The noon of the following day saw Charlie Balgonie--after an anxious -and almost sleepless night--proceeding on foot along the road that -leads southward to Tosna, a little town which stands on a stream of -the same name, a tributary of the Neva, but some thirty versts -distant from Schlusselburg. - -His military ardour was already fading, so far as the Russian service -was concerned, amid his pressing anxiety for the dangers that menaced -Natalie; and he felt himself only a species of serf in an imperial -uniform. Unlike the Admirals Douglas, Mackenzie, Count Balmaine, and -hundreds of other Scotsmen who served the Empress by sea and land, he -had thoughtlessly omitted to stipulate, as they had more warily done, -that he was to be at perfect liberty, as a British subject, to return -to his native land whenever he felt disposed to do so. The poor -friendless boy--the kidnapped palatine, who had been rescued from the -burning wreck of the _Piscatona_, while floating adrift in the North -Sea--could know little how necessary such stipulations were when he -joined the Regiment of Smolensko as a cadet; and now he felt himself -literally a military slave of the ambitious and lascivious Catharine -II. - -Before him rose the tall fir trees of the forest where he was to meet -Olga--the Wood of the Honey Tree, as it was named from an episode -(related by Demetrius, the ambassador, in his History of Muscovy) -which occurred to a serf of Bernikoff's, Alexis Jagouski, father of -the same man whom he slew so wickedly and ungratefully in the flight -from Zorndorf; and the whole anecdote reads so very like one of the -adventures of Baron Munchausen, or Sir Jonah Barrington's "bounces," -that we may be pardoned translating it here. - -"This man," says Demetrius, "when seeking honey, got into a hollow -tree, where the bees had concealed such a quantity thereof, that it -sucked him up to the breast, and being unable to extricate himself, -he subsisted for two day upon honey alone, and finding that his -shouts were answered only by the echoes of the vast forest, he began -to despair of being freed from his sweet captivity. At last, to his -terror, there came a large brown bear from the Neva, to eat of the -honey which the old tree contained, and of which these animals are -greedily fond. As the bear was descending with hinder part foremost, -the poor serf caught hold of his loins. This sudden grasp among his -fur so terrified the bear, that he started and fled, and in doing so, -drew the peasant from that sweet prison, which otherwise had proved -his grave: hence was the forest named, the Wood of the Honey Tree." - -There, as Balgonie approached, all was still save the voice of the -valdchnep, or woodcock, and the hum of insects; he lingered for a few -minutes on the outskirts, just where the highway to Tosna dipped down -into a deep and gloomy dingle of intertwisted branches, which formed -a species of leafy tunnel overhead. - -Three miles distant to the northward, he could see the place he had -left, the gloomy Castle of Schlusselburg, moated round by the Neva -and Lake of Ladoga, jutting into the latter on its rock, its towers -wearing a sombre brown tint even in the noonday sunshine, as if no -light could brighten them; and the white flag of Russia was -fluttering on the summit of the keep, where Ivan was pining away the -years of youth in silence and seclusion. - -Balgonie heard a voice waking the echoes of the dingle; three notes -were struck on a tambourine, as a signal to him, and Olga approached -singing a verse of that prophetic song, which is so soothing to -Russian military and religious vanity:-- - - "But when the hundredth year - Shall three times doubled be; - Then shall the end appear - Of all our slavery. - Then shall the warlike powers - From distant climes return, - Egypt again be ours, - While the Turkish domes shall burn!" - - -"I have kept my appointment, Olga," said he. - -"And I mine," she replied gaily, while tripping towards him in a -playful manner; "now follow me, Hospodeen, and I shall take you to -those who will be right glad to see you." - -"First let us be sure that we are unwatched." - -"Right," said she; and stooping in her earnestness, her keen, dark, -and glittering eyes swept the whole landscape that lay between the -wood and Schlusselburg, and glanced keenly beyond the stems of the -trees into the dingles and vistas; but, save the birds on the -branches and the gnats revolving in the sunshine, no living thing was -visible. - -"Follow me, Hospodeen," said the gipsy; "we have not far to go." - -They descended into the dark dingle, or hollow, and then quitted the -highway; Olga gathering up her skirts that she might tread with -greater facility among the thick gorse and long rank grass, -displaying, as she did so, two very handsome and taper ankles cased -in scarlet stockings with elaborate clocks of yellow braid. - -She explained to Balgonie that, as there was no path to guide them, -her chief clues were a set of notches, cut to all appearance -carelessly, as if with a woodman's axe, on the bark of the great pine -trees. - -"These marks seem fresh, and recently cut--who made them?" asked -Balgonie. - -"The Hospodeen, Basil Mierowitz," she whispered. - -"Poor Basil!" responded Charlie, in a low tone. - -After toiling through the dense forest for more than half an hour, -pausing ever and anon to listen and watch whether they were observed, -they arrived at the foot of a grey granite cliff, the face of which -was screened, or nearly covered, by masses of depending ivy, -creepers, and green lichens, forming a background which, at a little -distance, blended with the greenery of the woods. - -"We have arrived," said she, turning, with a flush on her dark face -which made it radiantly beautiful. She struck three strokes on her -tambourine, and shook its bells. - -Charlie thought of her kinsman, Nicholas Paulovitch, and -instinctively grasped one of the pistols at his girdle, on seeing the -dark and bearded face of a man appear among the ivy leaves some -twenty feet above him. A rope ladder was lowered, and whatever -doubts or misgivings were in his mind, he felt himself constrained -now to go through the adventure to its end. - -He clambered up, and on the great screen of ivy being lifted aside, -found himself face to face with his old friend Basil Mierowitz, the -subaltern of his company, who, grasping both his hands with kindly -warmth of manner, led him into a cavern or grotto, one of a series of -many, into which the granite rocks had there been hollowed by some -long past convulsion of nature. - -Another hand was instantly laid on his,--a smaller and softer -one,--and two beautiful dark eyes were bending tenderly on his face. - -"Natalie!" he exclaimed, in a tremulous voice, and would have pressed -her to his breast, but for the presence of Basil and several other -men. - -Amid the twilight of the cavern, he could perceive its rough natural -walls and arch, with hazy but sunny rays that streamed faintly in the -background, athwart the obscurity, as if the vault communicated with -other galleries in the rock, through which the upper light of day -stole in by the crannies and chasms. He was also enabled to see, -that with Natalie, her brother Basil, and her cousin Usakoff, who had -been a Lieutenant of the Valikolutz Grenadiers, there were about -twenty men in the place, all clad in sheepskin shoubahs, canvas -doublets, or the caftan, the invariable dress of the Russian peasant, -and nearly all had red serge breeches, rough boots, and girdles of -rope or untanned leather. - -Though attired like woodmen or labouring serfs, all these men had -unmistakably the bearing of well-trained soldiers: all were strong, -active, and resolute in aspect; and Balgonie had no doubt that they -were those natives of the Ukraine, the deserters from the Livonian -frontier, of whom Bernikoff had spoken; for against the walls of the -cavern were ranged a number of muskets and bayonets, with sets of -accoutrements, sabres, and pistols. There, too, stood a regimental -drum, decorated with the imperial arms, and the forbidden name of the -Emperor _Ivan_! - -Every moment seemed to increase the perils that surrounded the -luckless Balgonie, for now he was in the very den of the conspirators. - -All carried in their girdles a dagger or knife and double brace of -pistols. They seemed to be chiefly soldiers of the Regiment of -Valikolutz: and his sudden appearance among them, in the full uniform -of the Smolensko Infantry, evidently excited, if it did not alarm -them; for discipline becomes so completely a habit--a second nature; -and, as if the presence of an epaulette rendered them uneasy, they -all withdrew into the back or more obscure portion of the cavern, -leaving him and their two leaders together. - -"Oh! Basil--Usakoff--my friends, if indeed I may yet dare to call -you so, and live," said Balgonie, in a voice that was broken by -emotion, "for what rash and dreadful purpose do I find you and these -unfortunate fellows here?" - -"You, and all Russia too, shall learn ere long," replied Mierowitz -calmly and sternly, yet with a grave and noble air, with which his -coarse canvas caftan assorted oddly. - -"And poor Natalie!" exclaimed Balgonie, in a tone of grief and -reproach; "have you no pity for her?" - -"Until Natalie informed me, I knew not, my friend, Carl Ivanovitch, -that _you_ were the bearer of that secret dispatch, which might have -cost you limb or life, when it was too late to arrest those I had set -upon your track." - -"Well, certainly, I was not much indebted to the good offices of your -rogue, Podatchkine." - -"The Corporal's orders were simply to abstract the document, and -bring it to me; not to slay its bearer, unless such a catastrophe -became unavoidable." - -"He fell into his own snare--a dark and deadly one." - -"Happily you escaped it; and I have saved two hundred silver roubles, -for the service of the Emperor." - -"Who do you mean?" asked Balgonie, in a whisper. - -"Ivan--the Prisoner of Schlusselburg!" exclaimed Usakoff, with -enthusiasm. - -"Alas!" added Balgonie, "you court but your own destruction." - -"Think not so; but join us, and share our perils and our glory," -replied the other. - -"I am bound by allegiance to the Empress." - -"You are but a tool in her hands, Carl Balgonie." - -"Perhaps so; but one with a devilish sharp edge, I hope," replied -Balgonie, who felt only genuine sorrow; and a silence of nearly a -minute ensued. - -The manner and voice of Basil Mierowitz were singularly soft and -winning, yet he was bold and resolute; and though a young man, he had -all the free and easy bearing of a courtly soldier, blended with -something of the calm severity of a priest--a manner that was very -impressive. - -The Polish and Cossack blood that mingled in the veins of Apollo -Usakoff gave a freer and bolder, perhaps a wilder, bearing and style -of language; his nose was aquiline, and expressed fierceness of -disposition; yet his features otherwise were essentially delicate and -noble, and his eyes were strangely beautiful in colour and variety of -expression. They were dark grey, encircled by a ring of light, clear -brown; and when he spoke, or became excited, the iris contracted and -expanded, as the blood flowed and ebbed in his fiery and enthusiastic -heart, for he was a grandson of the Hetman Mazeppa--that Pole, whose -story is so well known, and who, after being bound naked on a wild -and maddened horse, to punish him for having an intrigue with a noble -lady of his own country, was carried by his steed through woods and -wastes, and herds of wolves and bears, into the heart of the Ukraine, -where he lived to become the prince and leader of those wild Cossacks -who dwell upon the banks of the Dnieper. - -Sleeping in a cavern, among rough soldiers, on a bed of dried leaves -and moss, had not improved either the costume or the appearance of -Natalie Mierowna. With pain and sorrow,--almost with agony,--Charlie -Balgonie could perceive how her once rich dress of yellow silk, with -its trimmings of narrow ermine, was faded and soiled--even tattered -and worn; her laces and her soft hair alike dishevelled and uncared -for; and that already had a hunted and haggard expression been -imparted to her beautiful eyes, and soft, pale, delicate face. Anger -and pride alone remained; but both were for a time subdued by the -sudden presence of Balgonie, and the love she was compelled to -repress outwardly, at least, when before so many eyes. - -Katinka, the sturdy Polish attendant, who loved Natalie dearly, alone -seemed unimpaired by the hardships of a forest life. - -"Concerning the secret dispatch of the woman, Catharine -Christianowna, to the Governor of Schlusselburg," said Usakoff, -resuming the subject of conversation, "you, Carl, are perhaps aware -of its contents?" - -"Yes," replied Balgonie, and then paused. - -"Say on, my friend," said Usakoff; "we can hear anything now." - -"They were to the effect, that a scheme had been formed to free the -Unknown Person in Schlusselburg, and that he was not to be permitted -to fall _alive into the hands of any one who came to seek him_." - -"Savage orders, which there can be no mistaking." - -"Orders which Bernikoff is quite capable of fulfilling," added -Mierowitz in a sad and stern voice, while their listening followers -burst into low and whispered, but fierce imprecations against the -Empress. - -"Bernikoff is a man without one human sympathy," said Basil. - -"And no marvel is it?" exclaimed Usakoff, while the strange light -already described gleamed in his dark grey eyes; "his mother, like a -true Tartar woman, is said to have anointed her breasts daily with -blood, as she suckled him, even as Dion tells us the mother of -Caligula did, that her child might, in manhood, be merciless." - -Vlasfief they stigmatised as "the son of a goat," being originally a -boy of the great foundling Hospital at Moscow, where, when the -increase of children became so great that nurses could not be found, -the lacteal food of animals was introduced, and a herd of goats -adopted as wet-nurses for the establishment. - -"Carl," said Basil, taking the hand of Balgonie, "Natalie has told me -all." - -"All!" - -"Yes--all that passed in Louga. Dear Natalie has never had a secret -from me." - -"And you forgive me?" said Balgonie earnestly. - -"I do--but on this condition." - -"Oh name it, Basil!" - -"That if you do not join us, you will, at least, not actively oppose -our scheme." - -"I scarcely know what it is." - -"Know this then," replied the other emphatically, yet softly, "that -on its success depends the success of your love; for if it fails, -then all our lives are lost!" - -"You say that you love my cousin Natalie?" said young Usakoff, in a -somewhat loftier tone. - -"With all my heart--with all my soul, I do!" replied Balgonie, -pressing a hand of Natalie between his own. - -"Yet, Carl, if you valued generosity and loved pity--if you loved -glory and honour, as a soldier should, you would risk the loss even -of _her_,--yea, give her up, if necessary,--and join us!" - -"What would either life or glory be after such a sacrifice? Ah, my -friend, you never loved as I do!" replied Charlie, with some -irritation of manner. - -"Perhaps; but I have always thought how grandly terrible a figure was -made by Mohammed the Great, when, on a stage, before his discontented -army, he struck off the head of a favourite Sultana to convince his -soldiers that he preferred glory to love." - -"Cousin, cousin," said Natalie, who felt all the peril and delicacy -of her lover's position, "you talk thus to-day, when last night you -shed tears--yes, bitter tears for the loss of your sister. We were -all taken prisoners together, Carl--my poor father, Mariolizza, and -I. Bound with cords,--see, the marks are on me still," she added, -showing her white wrists, while her dark eyes filled with a dusky -fire,--"we were conveyed in a covered kabitka towards St. Petersburg, -on the way to which it broke down, in a wood near Paulovsk, not far -from the outer walls of the imperial gardens. There, in the -confusion, I was enabled to escape, by the aid of the gipsy girl -Olga, who, hoping some such chance might occur, had followed us afoot -from Louga; and through her further knowledge and assistance, I was -enabled to join my brother Basil here." - -"My dear old father--and my soft and tender Mariolizza--a blow must -be rapidly struck, if we would save them from greater horrors than -those they now endure!" exclaimed Basil: "the die has been cast now; -and if I cannot save them and our legitimate Emperor, we can at least -all perish together." - -"Dangers menace you closely; the roads around the fortress are -patrolled, and gun-boats watch the shores of the lake. A coin of -Ivan found in a tea-house----" - -"Malediction--yes! 'twas I, Carl, who dropped it there," exclaimed -Basil: "well, and this coin?" - -"Has roused all the suspicions of Bernikoff; and he knows that you -and your cousin have deserted from your posts in Livonia." - -"Already, does he know of this?" - -"Yes, with many other details." - -"Then," replied Basil Mierowitz, with growing sternness, "we have not -an hour to lose. Who informed him?" - -"Lieutenant-General Weymarn, by a special messenger, while I was -loitering at Louga." - -"So, so! By our Lady of Kazan, we must be prompt in action. I have -cruised thrice round Schlusselburg disguised as a fisherman, and know -well all the approaches." - -"Basil, Usakoff, I implore you by all you hold dear on earth and -sacred in Heaven to pause while there is yet time--to abandon your -wild scheme, and make your peace, if possible, with the Empress." - -"You were right to add 'if possible,' my friend," replied the other -calmly but bitterly. "Already compromised by desertion, my father -and betrothed wife chained in a fortress by the Neva, what terms -would Catharine offer us? Carl Ivanovitch," he added, with a lofty -smile, "I do not press you to join us, or seek to lure you into the -dangers of an enterprise the enthusiasm of which you cannot share. I -do not seek even to turn your presence as a trusted staff officer in -Schlusselburg to account, though it might further our objects, and be -the means, perhaps, by strategy, of saving many a valuable life. -Still less do I desire to turn to account your intimacy with the -young Emperor Ivan, though I envy you that great privilege. Even in -the love I bear my sister (though it might tempt you to cast your lot -with us--_with her_ shall I say?), I leave you unquestioned and free." - -"I thank you, Basil," said Balgonie sadly, and with a heightened -colour, caused by irrepressible annoyance at the last remark of -Mierowitz. - -"But we have all sworn before the altar of our Lady of Kazan, and the -image of St. Sergius, to devote our lives to the matter in hand; so -retreat is impossible--advice and entreaty alike unavailing." - -Balgonie felt an acute pang on hearing this; for he knew that in -Russia no place was esteemed as more holy than the church of our Lady -of Kazan in St. Petersburg. Around its shrine--the _sanctum -sanctorum_ of which no woman has ever entered--are the keys of -conquered cities, the banners of a thousand slaughtered armies, and -the batons and sabres of their leaders, the Frenchman, the Turk, the -Pole, the Persian, and the Dane, the Swede and the German; and he -knew, too, that no image, to the Muscovite mind, is more sacred than -that of St. Sergius--the same absurd idol which the Kazan column bore -with them at the battle of the Alma, and displayed in vain to the -advancing bayonets of old Sir Colin's Highland Brigade. - -"The blow once struck," resumed Basil, "we shall be joined by the -Cossacks of the Ukraine and the Don, among whom we have many -impatient adherents, and by all who hold of the Houses of -Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, of Holstein Grottorp, and of all who hate -Anhalt Zerbst; all Russia will soon follow, from the shores of the -Black Sea to those of the White--from Revel to the Ural Mountains. -We have not forgotten the reign of Elizabeth: how many noses were -slit, how many foreheads were branded, how many ears cropped, and -tongues shortened, and how many eyes were darkened for ever during -that time of tyranny; how many backs flayed by the knout; how many -nobles banished to Siberia, or drowned in prison vaults by the -swollen waters of the Neva. Pure nationality is dying now; but we -must revive Russia--not as it is ruled by a lascivious woman and her -jealous lovers, but Holy Russia of Peter the Great--strong, -invincible, and the terror alike of the Eastern and Western world. -Let us save our country from those who oppress it, and replace upon -its throne the Grand Duke, the Czar--the Emperor Ivan; for the right -given by God and by inheritance can never be destroyed!" - -A murmur of applause from his followers succeeded this outburst -(which we can render but feebly in English), and they clashed their -weapons in approval, while, fired by her brother's energy, Natalie -sung a verse of a well known Russian song:-- - - "Now, as of old, the sabre's ready, - And its might they'll feel afar, - When but three short words are utter'd, - God, our Country, and the Czar!" - - -"Without cannon, you cannot mean to assault a place so strong as -Schlusselburg, fortified as it has been by all the skill of -Todleben?" said Balgonie, after a pause. - -"Ask me not what we mean to do, Carl: for your own sake, my dear -friend, the less you know of us, and of our plans, the better. We -shall come upon you all when you least expect us, and in that hour -take no heed of what you see or hear. Mix yourself up with it as -little as you can: if we fail, we perish in our failure; if we -triumph, and Ivan is replaced upon his throne, be assured that Basil -Mierowitz will not forget the lover of his sister--the comrade of -many a brave and happy day with the Regiment of Smolensko. Now -adieu--and come hither no more, lest your steps be watched." - -Balgonie pressed the hands of his two friends, whom he viewed as -fated and foredoomed men; he kissed Natalie with a tenderness that -was alike sorrowful and despairing, for he trembled in his heart lest -he should never see her more; and, in another moment or so, like one -in a bewildering dream, he had descended the rope ladder, and was -traversing the forest--the Wood of the Honey Tree--forgetful or -oblivious of whether he was watched or not. - -He foresaw but woe and ruin now; and proceeded slowly back to -Schlusselburg, with his mind a prey to doubt, anxiety, and dread of -what might be the sequel to the impending catastrophe. He felt -assured of one thing only--that a deed, bold, reckless, and -desperate, would be the result of his friend's desertion from -Livonia, their political rancour, and personal desire for vengeance -on the Empress and her favourites. - -In that deed, and its too probable failure, he foresaw the -destruction of his love; and he felt bitterly that rather than have -known and lost Natalie, it would have been better had fate drowned -him when the Palatine ship was burned, or shot him when warring in -Silesia! - - - - -CHAPTER XVIII. - -DOUBT AND DREAD. - -Nearly all the events which followed the secret visit of Balgonie to -the conspirators will be found in the more recent histories of -Russia, and in the manifestoes published by the Empress Catharine at -the time--especially her _oukaz_ subsequent to the revolt of Basil -Mierowitz. - -On returning to Schlusselburg, Balgonie found the Governor, Colonel -Bernikoff, in a very bad humour indeed. The Grand Chancellor had -recently sent him a prisoner, with a note to the effect that he wrote -verses, and was otherwise a dangerous fellow--to keep him for a week -or two, and then get rid of him. He had thrice sent to the -Chancellor, to learn under what name the man was to be _buried_, for -the fellow was dead now--so much had the damp atmosphere of the lower -vaults disagreed with his poetical temperament; but no answer had -been returned, which was very annoying. So Bernikoff, whose patience -was never very extensive, was furious; but he strove to soothe his -ruffled feelings by several enormous pinches of the sharp snuff of -Beresovski, from the box which--as we have before hinted--had been -found in the fob of the late Peter III.; and by batooning, or beating -with his cane, the Cossack Jagouski, whom he had suddenly detected in -the act of praying secretly before the little image of St. Sergius, -which was his--Colonel Bernikoff's--own peculiar and particular -property. - -By the old laws of Muscovy, to be found worshipping at an image, -erected by, or the property of another, designing thereby to have a -share in the favour of the saint it represented, without being at any -expense, was punishable by a fine, to refund "the owner some part of -the money laid out for the said image;" but as the poor Cossack had -not a copper denusca wherewith to bless himself, the Governor took it -out of his back and shoulders (scarcely healed after his recent -knouting), with the aid of a knotted walking cane. - -"'To steal and to lie,' according to Bulharyn, a famous Russian -writer, 'are the two auxiliary verbs of our language,'" said the -Colonel, panting with exertion, as the Cossack crept away with a -glance of subdued ferocity in his stealthy eyes; "we take all that -for granted; but this slave has been stealing the interest of my -saint for himself!" - -He ordered an extra supply of wax candles to be lighted before the -image, and then he knelt, bowed, and muttered:-- - -"Holy St. Sergius, heed not the prayers of that rascal, he is only a -vile serf, a slave, a Cossack from the Ukraine. Thou hast been very -good to me, and shalt be treated handsomely. Candles of the finest -wax shall burn before thee all night. I will love and pray for thee, -so do thou protect and intercede for me, most holy Sergius!" - -And so he prayed till the dinner drum beat; and then, muttering an -oath as he tripped over his sabre, the old savage hobbled away, to -commit at least two of the seven deadly sins at table. - -"No tidings yet, Carl Ivanovitch, of those traitors!" said Bernikoff, -when he had somewhat recovered his breath, after a deep draught of -quass, the froth of which adhered to his grisly mustachio: "the -Captain Vlasfief, and my faithful friend Tschekin, with forty picked -Cossacks, and a clever guide----" - -"Nicholas Paulovitch, I presume." - -"The same," continued Bernikoff, with a fierce grimace on his lips -and a cruel leer in his eyes, as he masticated a huge mouthful of -green borsch with beef and eggs; "the same, sir,--and what then?" - -"Nothing, Excellency: but this oukha of sterlet is excellent. Well, -these and the forty Cossacks----" - -"Are scouring all the roads between this and St. Petersburg on one -flank, and between this and North Ladoga on the other; so the cursed -Asiatics cannot escape me." - -"Who will betray them to you?" asked Balgonie, making a terrible -effort to appear calm and unconcerned, as he played with his sword -knot and the tassels of his sash, and forgot to eat. - -"Who?" exclaimed Bernikoff, grinding his teeth, and eating very fast. -"Their own friends--their own dear comrades--adherents, which you -will. Russia is full of people, yea of many nations. The Empress -can reckon her faithful slaves by millions; yet, when a Russian hath -his hat on his head, its rim contains the only friend on whom he can -rely." - -"This is a severe libel on your country surely, Excellency." - -"'Tis truth though; so Basil Mierowitz, Usakoff, and the rest, are -all doomed men. No one was ever lost on a straight road; thus the -soldier who diverges from the straight line of duty must speedily -find himself face to face with degradation and death. Punishment to -those traitors will be swift and sure! So, I only fear that the -Grand Chancellor will never give me the pleasure of having them under -my judicious care in Schlusselburg. We have certain old vaults, -built below the tide mark by Ivan the Terrible, for some of those -people of Novgorod who leagued with the King of Poland. They are -always full of fog; and I am curious to know how long an able-bodied -prisoner might live there, or rather how long he would be in dying. -But excuse me, Hospodeen, I confess me to-morrow, and there rings the -bell for vespers already;" and making many Greek signs of the cross -and other genuflexions, Bernikoff, after having gorged himself at -table, hurried away to the chapel, where Father Chrysostom officiated. - -Charlie gladly sought the solitude afforded by the stockades and -outworks of the fortress on the side towards the Lake of Ladoga. -There, as elsewhere, was of course, a chain of sentinels; but they -did not interrupt his lonely communing with himself. - -By his interest in Natalie, by his deep love for her, and more than -all, perhaps, by his recent visit and interview, he already felt -himself "art and part" (to use a Scottish legal phrase), or -_particeps criminis_, with the rash adherents of Ivan. If one of -these deserted the cause in which they had embarked, then would their -lurking place be at once discovered, and the story of his recent -visit be revealed. - -He dreaded lest Bernikoff and others suspected his friendly interest -in the family of Count Mierowitz, and that more might yet be learned -of it; thus he would have experienced neither shock nor surprise, had -he, at any hour, in that land of treachery and espionage, seen either -Captain Vlasfief, Lieutenant Tschekin, or any other officer of the -fortress, advancing towards him sabre in hand, with an armed party, -to demand his sword, to make him a prisoner, and march him off to the -same prison which already held the old Count and Mariolizza, the -innocent betrothed of Basil, and might soon hold another, who was -dearer still--Natalie! - -"If I love her," he would say to himself at times, "why should I -shrink from sharing all that she suffers now--all she may yet endure? -Yet it would be wiser to watch well for her sake, and seek to save, -or bear her away; but how--and where to?" was the next bewildering -thought. - -And the generous Basil, the fiery and chivalrous Usakoff, oh that he -might save them too! He mourned for Usakoff, who was the very soul -of honour and heroism, the worthy grandson of that Mazeppa who, when -Charles the XII. was retreating from Pultowa, swam the Borysthenes by -the side of the fugitive king, and of whom the latter said in the -words of the bard;-- - - "Of all our band, - Though firm of heart and strong of hand, - In skirmish, march, or forage, none - Can less have said or more have done - Than thee, Mazeppa! on the earth - So fit a pair had never birth, - Since Alexander's day till now, - As thy Bucephalus and thou; - All Scythia's fame to thine should yield, - For pricking on o'er flood and field." - - -So worthy of such an ancestor, was he, too, to perish? - -This was, indeed, a miserable mood of mind in which to pass the -nights and days of inactivity--of suspense and anxiety in which none -could share, in that strong, guarded, and somewhat lonely fortress, -which was washed, as we have said, on one side by the Neva, and on -the other by the Lake of Ladoga, the very ripples of whose waves -sounded hatefully in the ears of Balgonie. - -"Oh," thought he, "to be with Natalie on the side of a green and -breezy Scottish mountain--on any part of the shore of free and happy -Britain! to be with her there in peace and security, far, far from -this land of suspicion and ferocious despotism, of state intrigues -and savage punishments, where every second man is the spy upon, and -the betrayer of, his fellow." - -Britain he might never see more: and now he found himself vaguely -speculating on the probable comforts and public amusements afforded -by Siberia, and those growing cities of the sorrowing and the -banished, Tobolsk and Irkutsk, on the banks of the Lower Angara. - -He feared to look much, or often, towards the distant Wood of the -Honey Tree, lest watchful eyes might be upon him to gather hints -therefrom; still more did he fear to visit Natalie again, lest, by -doing so, he might lead to the discovery and arrest of all: so the -days and nights of dread, of longing, and suspense, passed slowly -after each other now. - -The barriers of rank and wealth--the wealth afforded by the Count's -estates and mines, his populous villages of serfs, and vast forests -of timber--had all been removed now, and Natalie was reduced to a -level lower even than her lover's; yet he cursed the mad schemes that -had brought about such a revolution, and tossed feverishly and -sleeplessly on his bed, when he thought of Natalie Mierowna,--his own -loving and beloved Natalie,--so delicate and so tender, with her -white soft skin and silky hair, her earnest and beautiful eyes, -lurking among stern and outlawed soldiers in yonder damp cavern of -the rocks, upon her bed of leaves and moss, at the mercy, perhaps, of -any adherent of Basil's, who, to save his own head, might prove a -traitor to them all! This dread was ever before him. - -The whole affair reminded him of some of the old Scottish raids or -Jacobite plots, of years long passed away; and it was fated to -resemble the former more strongly in some of its features, as the -dark sequel will show. - -The guards and sentinels at Schlusselburg were doubled; the patrols -were incessant by land, while on the lake the gun-boats of Admiral -Mackenzie cruised near the walls; the cannons were loaded; the -watch-words changed sometimes twice within four-and-twenty hours; and -the general state of preparation for a sudden attack was unremitting: -but time passed on quietly until the night of the fifteenth of -September, when the crowning catastrophe came. - - - - -CHAPTER XIX. - -THE NIGHT OF THE 15TH SEPTEMBER. - -The past day had been unusually gloomy for the season. The sun had -set in fiery clouds beyond the spires of St. Petersburg. The night -was without a moon, and a strong east wind rolled the waters of -Ladoga in billows of inky hue against the massive walls of the -fortress in foam and fury on one side, while on the other, the waters -of the Neva, swollen by recent rains, gurgled and chafed round the -mouldy and moss-grown piers of the drawbridge. - -The wind moaned with a sullen sound past the mouths of the cannon, -and whistled drearily through the deep embrasures and the loopholes -for musketry in the casemates. Thunder had been heard at times, but -afar; Elias, as the Russians poetically phrase it, was driving his -chariot among the stars. Lightning had reddened all the lake, and -cast the weird shadow of the castle athwart it for an instant; and, -that a complete and melodramatic omen of impending evil might not be -wanting, a huge sea-bird had perched upon the castle clock, and -forcing round the hands, struck midnight four hours before the proper -time. - -Since morning roll-call, Jagouski, the knouted, beaten, and ill-used -Cossack, had been missing; he had quitted the fortress on some -trivial pretence and had not since returned; patrols had seen nothing -of him. Then Colonel Bernikoff was more than ever on the alert; but -Balgonie, who now deemed anything better than the torture of -suspense, had gone weary and feverishly to bed, to court for a time -the happiness of oblivion, after having spent nearly the entire day -upon the lake with an armed boat's crew, patrolling by water. - -From sleep, however, a sudden sound aroused him: he looked at his -watch, and saw that the hands indicated twelve o'clock, midnight. - -What had he heard? - -In another moment the sound came again--the drums were beating to -arms! He heard the clamour of hoarse Muscovite voices in court and -corridor; the clanging of the castle bell; and he saw the gleam of -torches reddening the old black walls and towers, and flaring on the -grated windows as they were borne to and fro. - -His heart was beating with wild anxiety as he threw on his staff -uniform, belted his sabre about him, placed his pistols in his -girdle, and hurried forth to meet--it might be to cross blades--with -the only friends he had in Russia! - -As he crossed the castle-yard by torchlight, he could perceive that -the Cossacks, clad in their short blue jackets, red loose breeches, -short boots, and tall, black, woollen busbies, were falling into -their ranks with musketoon and sabre; and that the gunners were -standing by their cannon with port-fires lighted: the latter casting -a pale, ghastly, and unearthly glare upon the yawning embrasures, the -walls of the fortress, and on their own stolid visages, which were -pale and cadaverous as those of people usually who are hastily -summoned from sleep in the night. - -As a staff officer who had no particular post, Charlie Balgonie knew -that his duty attached him chiefly to Bernikoff, whom he now met -hurrying forth in uniform, with a great cocked hat thrust angrily -over his cunning and twinkling eyes, which were sparkling with anger, -while every hair of his grizzled mustachioes, though these were long -and snaky, bristled with excitement. There was a dangerous pallor in -his visage; his square jaw looked still more tiger-like in contour, -as his teeth were clenched; and he had his sabre drawn. - -By his side were his two favourite brother officers, who in face, -form, and bearing, bore indications of being each, originally, a serf -of the lowest, basest, and most unthinking kind--Captain Vlasfief, -cruel and hollow-hearted, with his unfathomable smile; and Lieutenant -Tschekin, the slimy, savage, and unscrupulous Muscovite. With these -came several officers of the Cossack guard, with their elevated -eyebrows, black mustachioes, their keen features, the plumes and -cockades in their black fur caps, and their glittering costumes, -forming altogether a striking and picturesque group, when seen by the -light of several torches, which streamed through the deep and small -arch, or doorway, of the keep in which Ivan was confined. - -The portcullis of this tower was up; and Balgonie could perceive its -row of lower bars, like a line of black fangs in an open jaw, between -him and the outline of the lighted archway. - -"What is the matter, Colonel Bernikoff," asked Balgonie; "what is the -cause of all this alarm?" - -"Matter enough! We have had an _alerte_--the place seems to be -invested by troops--Infantry of the Line, by all the devils--the head -of a column--look for yourself, Balgonie!" exclaimed Bernikoff, with -an oath. - -To omit the Christian name of a person addressed, and that of his -father also, is a direct insult in Russia; but Balgonie heeded it not -then. He hurried to the curtain wall which faced the landside, the -outer gate, and drawbridge, and then, by the light of a torch, he -could see that which certainly seemed to be the head of a column--a -front rank of nearly fifty men, clad in the hideous uniform then worn -by the Russian army, before it was altered, a few years after, by the -superior taste of the notorious Major Semple Lisle, a Scottish -adventurer,* who was well known as a lounger about St. James's Park, -London, in 1804. Their coats were green, lined and faced with red, -very tight in the body, with preposterously long skirts, tight -breeches, and boots to the knee, with small cocked hats, having long -flannel flaps to cover the ears in winter. - - -* _Vide_ "Life of Major J. G. Semple Lisle, written by himself. -London, 1800. Printed for W. Stewart, 194, Piccadilly." - - -By the light of the same torch, Balgonie could see the bayonets -fixed, and that two officers, with their sabres drawn, and a drummer, -were in front of their little line. Having possession of the parole -and countersign, which, no doubt, had been betrayed to them by the -absent Jagouski, the whole party had contrived to delude the -_Putparooschick_ (sub-lieutenant) in charge of the outer guard, and -were now past the first barrier, and had actually taken possession of -the drawbridge, which they had lowered across the Neva. The gate and -guns of the second barrier were yet to be forced or passed; and thus -these midnight visitors were in a species of trap. - -Too well could Balgonie recognise in the two officers--Basil -Mierowitz, wearing the familiar uniform of the Regiment of Smolensko; -and Usakoff, in the gay trappings of the Grenadiers of Valikolutz; -and now, for the second time, their drummer beat a _chamade_, or -summons for a parley, but as yet there was no response. - -Balgonie hastened after Bernikoff and the other officers. They had -now ascended to the chamber of the unfortunate Ivan, from whose -presence they had somewhat roughly expelled the chaplain, Father -Chrysostom. On entering, he found that the royal recluse had sprung -from bed, inspired by natural alarm, on finding his chamber suddenly -entered at midnight, and full of armed men; but Ivan manifested no -indignation--he was too gentle, too subdued, and completely broken in -spirit for that. - -His singularly beautiful face was very pale; there was a strange -calmness in his manner; and whatever he thought or anticipated, there -was more of calm inquiry than of fear in his tone and in the -expression of his fine soft eyes. Over his night-dress he had thrown -a _robe-de-chambre_ of fine scarlet cloth edged with white ermine; -and in this attire, with his long hair and delicate features, so -chastened in expression by long solitude and complete seclusion from -the outer world, he seemed more like a tall handsome woman, than a -young man of three and twenty years. - -"What is this you tell me, Colonel Bernikoff," he was asking, as -Balgonie entered; "my unhappy life threatened say you?" - -"Even so," said Bernikoff hoarsely, while averting his stealthy eyes -from the young man's open and earnest face; "even so, Ivan -Antonovitch; but your death will not be of our seeking." - -"Whose then, whose then?" - -"Your friends." - -"Oh, what dreadful paradox is this?" asked the Prince calmly; "must I -die, even as Demetrius died?" - -"Yes," replied the other hoarsely. - -"And wherefore?" - -"There are those without the gates who seek you, and you must not -fall alive into their hands," said Captain Vlasfief sternly, as he -felt the point of his sabre with a finger. - -"Alas! I do not understand who can come to seek me!" replied the -poor Prince, shuddering now, while an expression of horror began to -spread over his fine face,--a horror gathered from the fierce and -relentless aspect he read in the visages of those around him,--and he -withdrew a pace or so towards his bed, saying, in a touching voice:-- - -"Ah, do not leave me, good Colonel Bernikoff, or at least give me a -sword--a sword----" - -"Fool--child--dolt! thou with a sword, and for what purpose?" -thundered Bernikoff, as he sought to lash himself into the requisite -pitch of fury; "for what purpose, I say?" - -"That I may defend myself." - -"'Tis needless," said Tschekin, with a cold smile; "we shall take -every care of you." - -"Oh, Carl Ivanovitch Balgonie, my friend, my good friend! you I can -trust--you I can command--come hither, and remain by my side," said -the Prince, in an imploring accent, as a solemn foreboding came upon -him when he saw the sabres stealthily drawn from their scabbards on -every side, and even the terrible Nicholas Paulovitch drawing near, -dagger in hand, with his long lock of hair, his scowling front, and a -cruel expression, the very lust of blood, in his deep-set stony eyes. -"Carl, Carl," cried Ivan; "your hand!" - -"Captain Balgonie--_he_ here!" roared Bernikoff, with one of his -terrible maledictions. - -"Oh Excellency!" implored Balgonie, scarcely knowing what he should -ask or urge. - -"Begone, sir, to the barrier gate, and keep the guard there to their -duty--begone, sir, I command you, on your allegiance to the Empress!" - -To refuse or linger were alike impossible, though a wild cry of -entreaty escaped the lips of the young Prince, who sprang forward, -but was thrust roughly back towards his couch by many hands and many -levelled weapons. - -The sword of Damocles, which had hung over his unhappy head so long, -was about to descend at last! - -Balgonie, his heart swollen almost to bursting with shame, rage, and -grief, rushed down the stair of the keep; but at the foot, and just -as he passed where the old Chaplain Chrysostom was saying devoutly on -his knees the prayers for the _dying_, he heard a shrill and -protracted cry of agony ring through the vaulted tower--a cry that -made his blood run cold! - -Humanity, generosity, and all his own good impulses would have drawn -him back to the side, and, if possible, to the aid, of Ivan; but the -force of discipline, and a knowledge of his own utter powerlessness, -made him pause: for he was but one man--a young officer--a foreigner, -too, opposed to a whole garrison of ferocious and unscrupulous -soldiers. - -When, from the inner barrier gate, he looked up to the window of -Ivan's room, he saw that the lights had been extinguished and all was -darkness now. - - - - -CHAPTER XX. - -MORNING OF THE 16TH SEPTEMBER. - -When Bernikoff appeared with his group of officers, Charlie Balgonie -perceived that there were spots of blood upon his long, white leather -gauntlets, that his sabre blade was broken off within six inches of -the hilt, and that a terrible expression of ferocity clouded his -features and those of all around him, the glare of the uplifted -torches now paling as the light of day stole in, adding to the -sinister significance of their faces. - -At that moment the drummer of the summoners beat a _chamade_ for the -third time, and Bernikoff, advancing to the klinket, or wicket, in -the palisades of the second inner gate, opened it, and, with a great -sternness of manner, demanded what they required. - -"The release of His Imperial Majesty Ivan IV.," replied Basil -Mierowitz, in a firm voice, while courteously saluting Bernikoff, in -recognition of his superior rank. - -"If I refuse----" - -"You do so at your own peril," replied Basil, as sternly and as -proudly as if, instead of a few discontented deserters and -enthusiasts, the whole armies of Russia were at his back. - -"You cannot be mad enough, Basil Mierowitz, to think of assaulting -us?" - -"That may or may not be, Excellency, according to circumstances," was -the reply. - -"What troops are these under your orders?" - -"A guard of honour for the Emperor, if you peacefully comply--the -first portion of an investing force, if you refuse," replied -Mierowitz; but a sinister gleam of triumph flashed in the malicious -eyes of Bernikoff, who gathered more of his real weakness from this -evasive reply, than the rash young noble intended. - -"Listen, Colonel Bernikoff," he continued, while drawing from his -breast a long paper of official aspect, to which several green and -scarlet seals were attached: "Her Majesty Catharine II.--for a time -of all the Russias--having come to the conclusion of resigning the -imperial crown (convinced at last that she has no claim, thereto), -and of replacing it on the head of the Emperor Ivan (son of Anthony -Ulric, Duke of Wolfenbuttel), whom she now feels herself compelled to -acknowledge as her lawful sovereign, though basely deposed in infancy -by her predecessors, the Empress Elizabeth, and the Emperor Peter -III.; therefore she hereby commands you, Colonel Bernikoff, Governor -of her Castle of Schlusselburg, to set the Prince at liberty, with -all speed and honour." - -For a document and summons of this artful and remarkable nature, -Bernikoff was altogether unprepared. For a moment he grew deadly -pale, but for a moment only, and glanced at the startled faces of -those around him. Had he been too precipitate in bloodshed? - -"Where is Her Majesty just now?" he asked. - -"In the palace of the Czars, at Novgorod." - -"Was Novgorod so empty of all the great nobles and officers of -Russia, that a document of such a nature was entrusted to a mere -Lieutenant of Infantry--a deserter from Livonia?" said Bernikoff, -with sudden rage. "'Tis an imposture--a forgery; there is but one -God in Heaven--one monarch on earth, the Empress Catharine; and you, -Mierowitz, and all who league with you, are but base dogs and -traitors!" - -"Forward!" cried Basil, brandishing his sabre; "storm the -gate--bayonet all who oppose us!" - -"Long live Ivan Antonovitch--long live the Emperor!" exclaimed his -soldiers, rushing forward. But the klinket in the palisades was at -once closed, and secured against them by an enormous transverse beam -of wood; and though a confused volley of musketry was exchanged -between them and the main guard, no one was struck, save Bernikoff, -who staggered back into the arms of Vlasfief, having been bayoneted -in the breast by the deserter Jagouski, who drove his weapon between -the palisades, nearly finishing what Basil had begun by the blow of a -musket but, which crushed the Colonel's hat, and nearly fractured his -skull. - -"Ah! dogs and Asiatics, you have struck me!" shouted Bernikoff, whose -voice was hoarse with rage and pain. "Dost know the penalty of -wounding an officer--of striking a soldier who wears a decoration?" - -"Accursed Tartar, I neither know nor care. I revenge my brother's -death at Zorndorf, my own wrongs, and the murder of Peter III.!" -replied the exulting Cossack, with a bitter laugh. - -"May my right hand wither, and my tongue cleave to the roof of my -mouth, when most I need them both, if I have not a terrible vengeance -for all this work!" cried Bernikoff. "Vlasfief, Tschekin, show them -their Prince!" - -While the undaunted Basil and his friend Usakoff, with their -soldiers, proceeded to wheel round a cannon of the outworks, a -32-pounder, for the purpose of blowing open the klinket of the inner -barrier; and while Balgonie, a silent but excited and sick-hearted -spectator of the whole affair, lingered close by, heedless whether -the round-shot and grape, with which they were charging the gun, came -his way, or not,--a window in the first story of the keep was dashed -open, and while every torch and every eye were uplifted to the place, -a terrible spectacle, which hushed all into momentary silence, was -exhibited. - -It was the dead body of the young and handsome Ivan, suspended by the -neck, at the end of a rope, stripped even of his night-dress, cold -and white as the marble of Paros, and gashed with ten gaping wounds; -for, as we are told in the newspapers of the period, "the unfortunate -prince had struggled some time for his life, and even broke the -Governor's sword in the conflict; but assistance was called for, and -another bloody assassin (Vlasfief) appeared, who finished the horrid -work." - -An exclamation of dismay and grief escaped Balgonie, on beholding -this appalling spectacle; the weird and ghastly horror of which was -enhanced by the uncertain light in which it was exhibited, and which -imparted a wavering and almost life-like action to the corpse, as -with its long hair floating, head and arms pendent, it swayed to and -fro in the morning wind against the castle wall. - -"_Hospodi pomilui! Hospodi pomilui!_"* cried Basil Mierowitz, -covering his face with his hands, and permitting the musket with -which he had armed himself to fall to the ground with a clash, which, -together with his most mournful exclamation, alone broke the silence. - - -* Lord have mercy upon us! - - -"'Behold,' said Bernikoff, in cruel triumph, while blasphemously -using the words of Ezekiel--"'behold, I take away from thee the -desire of thine eyes with a stroke!' Glory to God and to the -Empress! This is your Emperor--now let him head your troops. -Doubtless he will make a fine figure on the Imperial throne." - -"Oh! Bernikoff," exclaimed Basil, "you are like Judas, as we may see -him at the Kazan church--one hand on the mouth denoting treachery, -and the other on a bag of money." - -"Thou liest, Lieutenant! my fingers know more of the grip of steel -than of gold," said the other furiously, as he hurled the hilt of his -broken sabre at the speaker. - -"So--so--this has been your work and decision?" - -"Yes--how do you like it?" was the mocking reply. - -"Thou art a cruel judge; but remember the law of Peter the Great----" - -"Which makes the judge answerable for his decision?" - -"Yes." - -"Then shall I content me, traitor, and be answerable for my decision -as well as for its execution. I have done my duty to the Czarina." - -"You have done a deed for which hell must blush and angels weep," was -the forcible reply of Mierowitz, who seemed so overcome by grief and -horror as to lose all self-possession; for he now ordered his men to -disperse to the woods--to seek safety in flight; and then calmly -taking off his sword-belt and sash, he threw them on the ground -saying-- - -"Since my Imperial master is dead, further resistance would be vain -in me." - -He was almost immediately afterwards struck to the earth, and made -prisoner by Lieutenant Tschekin, who, with a party of dismounted -Cossacks, had stolen through the casemates and galleries to a postern -opening on the rear of the drawbridge, and these, after firing a -confused volley with their pistols and musketoons, fell with their -sharp crooked sabres upon the now thoroughly disheartened adherents -of Mierowitz. Lieutenant Usakoff and Jagouski alone made any -vigorous resistance, resolving not to be taken alive. - -Fighting desperately, almost back to back, the former armed with the -sabre of Mazeppa, and the latter with a musket, and both bleeding -from many wounds, they were driven through the outer barrier towards -the town. On the pathway Jagouski stumbled over a comrade, and was -taken; but Apollo Usakoff, with a shout in which triumph and despair -were mingled, leaped into the Neva, the waters of which swept him -away, and he was seen no more by his pursuers. - -When Tschekin's Cossacks joined in the _mêlée_ with the fugitives, -Balgonie sprang through the klinket, sword in hand, resolved to -succour his friend at all hazards, and fortunately arrived just in -time to save him (when struck down and trod under foot) from the -bulky giant Nicholas Paulovitch, who, with a clubbed musket, was -about to give him a blow that must inevitably have proved fatal. - -Paulovitch he ran through the heart--or at least the place where his -heart might be supposed to have been--and spurning him off the blade -with his foot, hurled the snorting ruffian to the ground, and raised -his friend, with the assistance of a soldier and Lieutenant Tschekin. - -"Made prisoner, and by you too, Carl!" said Basil, reproachfully and -in a low voice, for he was faint with wounds and bruises. - -"By me, but to save you." - -"Seek rather to save Natalie, if you can," he whispered; "she is, she -is--" - -"Where, _where_?" said Balgonie, impetuously and imploringly. - -But there was no reply. Basil had fainted, and was borne into the -Castle of Schlusselburg, a prisoner of State. - -Balgonie never saw the face of his friend again! - -So ended, for a time, a scheme, the importance of which was only -equalled by its bold recklessness--the scheme of two subaltern -officers to revolutionise the vast empire of Russia, and to subvert -the firm dominion of Catharine II., one of the most powerful and -popular, though licentious, monarchs that ever sat on the barbarous -throne of the Czars; and such was the terrible sequel to the _Secret -Dispatch_ of Balgonie. - -Day had completely broken when he was summoned by Bernikoff. -Shuddering as he passed through the court of the Castle and under the -very window where the corpse was yet swaying mournfully to and fro in -the morning breeze that swept from the broad waters of the vast lake, -whose ripples were shining like gold in the first beams of the -autumnal sun, Charlie sought the presence of this detestable -personage, the thunder of whose wrath he feared was about to descend -upon himself. - -He found the Colonel in his shirt sleeves, and almost covered with -blood, which was flowing from a wound in his breast and another on -the head, from whence it was trickling to the ends of his long and -snaky grey mustaches. To both of these cuts the barber was about to -apply dressings, while the patient solaced himself by scheming out -some dreadful punishment for Jagouski, who, with several others, had -fallen into his gentle hands, and by uttering deep oaths, and -imbibing deep draughts from a great wooden bowl of quass, dashed with -fiery vodka. - -Balgonie, whose thoughts ran chiefly upon how to discover and succour -Natalie, was roused to attention by Bernikoff saying grimly-- - -"Carl Ivanovitch Balgonie, for aiding in the capture of the rebel -Mierowitz, I thank you; suspicions I had, but they are gone. You are -now, perhaps, to rejoin the Regiment of Smolensko, and shall bear a -dispatch from me to Lieutenant-General Weymarn and Lieutenant-Colonel -Caschkin (who are both in St. Petersburg), relating the affair of the -last twelve hours. Vlasfief shall prepare it, and I will sign it. -Place a feather in the seal, lest the Captain lingers as he did at -Louga! Here, Carl Ivanovitch, taste the quass; 'tis the _trisna_ of -Ivan the Unknown Person!" - -There was something so horrible in this levity and impiety to the -Cossacks, that even they exchanged uneasy glances, for the trisna at -funeral feasts is a mixture of rum, beer, and wine, and is an ancient -Sclavonian beverage. When it is handed round, all stand up -uncovered, the clergy recite a solemn prayer, and at its close the -trisna is drunk to the health of the departed Christian soul; so -Balgonie shuddered, as he thought of the gashed and dishonoured -corpse that swung by the neck without the castle wall. - -This emotion did not escape the fierce eyes of Bernikoff, though his -wounds were most severe, and his mind was wandering. - -"Nay, look not at me thus, Scot," said the genuine old Russian -fatalist; "God willed it that Prince Ivan should be put in my charge; -and the devil, together with my duty to the Empress, inspired me to -destroy him. What is done, is done, and is the will of God; and you -know, or ought to know, our Muscovite proverb--the Czar is high, and -God is everywhere!" - -"Three times has this old reprobate mentioned that terrible Name, and -each time bowing his sinful head!" thought Charlie, with disgust and -wonder. - -"Hah!" resumed Bernikoff, pursuing his own thoughts, and clenching -his teeth in rage and pain, "did that suckling of a Lieutenant think -to deceive me--I, who have been forty years in the Russian army, and -have to deal with the most cunning scoundrels between the Black Sea -and the Baltic! Jagouski, too, I'll fill his mouth with gunpowder, -put a fuse between his teeth, and blow his head off. By St. Sergius, -I will! But, holy Saint, alleviate these pangs, by ever so little, -and this night six pounds of the finest white wax shall burn before -thee." He gnashed his teeth with pain, and added, "Be ready to ride -in an hour, Captain; till then, leave me." - - - - -CHAPTER XXI. - -UNDERGROUND. - -The Empress's court of Secret Chancery soon decided on the fate of -Basil Mierowitz; the Count, his father, and his cousin Mariolizza, -who had been passive, though suspected in the matter, had their cases -taken into future consideration, so they were kept close prisoners -while their properties and possessions were given up to pillage and -military execution. Basil was condemned to be broken alive upon the -wheel; but the Empress, who had a particular tenderness for handsome -men, "mitigated his punishment to the less severe one of being -beheaded." - -A brief paragraph in the _London Gazette_ of the 23rd October records -this brave fellow's death, just fourteen days after his rash affair -at Schlusselburg: - -"M. Mierowitz, in pursuance of his sentence, was publicly beheaded on -Wednesday last; he behaved at his execution, as he had done -throughout the whole transaction, with the greatest resignation. Six -of the soldiers and under-officers who were engaged with him ran the -gantelope the same day; they were so severely whipped that it is said -three of them are since dead. Many more are to be punished. One, -Usakoff, a Lieutenant in the Regiment of Welikolutz (_sic_) who was -privy to the design, was accidentally drowned." - -Notwithstanding his rank and years, old Count Mierowitz was retained -in a dungeon among a number of miserable Russian rogues and Polish -prisoners, clad in filthy sheepskin shoubahs, many of them being -afflicted with the terrible disease known as _plica polonica_, or -matted hair, which hung over their necks in clotted lumps, every tube -being swollen and dilated with globules of blood. - -The lower vaults of Schlusselburg were those built by Ivan the -Terrible, for the reception of a few of the revolters of Novgorod, -after he had put twenty-five thousand of her citizens to the sword. -They were such prisons as--let us hope--are no longer in use, even in -Russia, although the London press has asserted that, until lately, -exactly such _oubliettes_ or dungeons were in active operation, and -never without tenants, under the royal rule of the deposed Francis -II., and prior to the remodelling of Italy by Victor Emmanuel. - -They were like the frightful cells of the Bastile, which Victor Hugo -has described in "Notre Dame;" those of the Inquisition at Goa or -Madrid, or of old castles of the middle ages; but apart from the -happily departed horrors of such places, even English jails have been -little better than living graves within the memory of many now alive; -for one of the greatest glories of modern civilisation, in all -countries, has been the amelioration of prisons and their government, -and the substitution of mercy and protection in their general economy -for that irresponsible despotism and wanton cruelty which have formed -such ample materials for the romancer and novelist to excite -compassion and even dismay. - -Yet it is exactly such a place--a prison of the middle ages--a rival -to that Chillon to which Byron's genius has given a greater name than -ever its terrors won it--we are now about to describe: one of the -lower vaults of Schlusselburg, a den, the floor of which was below -the rocks whereon the seals of Ladoga basked in the sunshine, and -which was consequently liable to be flooded during those inundations -that at certain seasons, overflow all the country for a great way -north, so that no crops will grow save upon the eminences. - -Vaulted with stone, it was nearly square, and measured twelve feet -each way, with a floor that sloped down at one end, having been -unevenly hewn out when the rock was pierced; and from a portion of -this rock sprang the solid arch of granite blocks which formed the -roof. A narrow slit, six inches broad by twelve high, and having -even in that small space a thick iron bar, admitted to the interior a -feeble ray of light. This slit was partly built of stone, but its -sill was the living rock of Schlusselburg. It opened towards the -lake, but gave no prospect save the clouds, for it was high up in the -wall; yet the melancholy cries of the waterfowl and of the seabirds, -which often came up the Neva from the Baltic, were heard through it -at times. - -The prisoner, when seated on the stone bench which formed a bed or -seat alternately, could only see the changing hues of the sky and -patches of cloud, and know by the darkness which gradually obscured -this mere shot-hole that day was passing away, and that another -night, chill, dark, dreary, and hopeless, was at hand. - -As the floor sloped down some twelve inches or more, the lower end -was always full of water, into which the slime that gathered on the -vault of the arch fell at intervals with a regular plash that, to the -silent and apparently forgotten prisoner, became maddening in its -monotony of sound, by day and night, by morning and evening, by dawn -and sunset. Then, as the tides rose and fell, or as the waters of -the vast inland lake of Ladoga are affected by the Baltic stopping -the downward flow of the Neva, or by rains flooding the many -tributaries that join them, so did this dark pool in the dungeon rise -and fall, when the current oozed through secret and unknown channels -or crannies in the granite rocks. - -It was in this vault, or one of those adjoining--such a den as that -in which Dante placed his Demon--that the betrayed wife of Count -Orloff, the beautiful daughter of the Empress Elizabeth, was drowned, -ten years after the date of this history, when the waters of the Neva -rose ten feet; and, as they subsided, bore her body to the Gulf of -Finland. - -No one could live very long in such a place--low, damp, cold, and -horrible. And well did Bernikoff know this, when, in the blind -transports of rage and agony resulting from his double wounds, he -barbarously consigned Natalie Mierowna to such a place--ay, even -Natalie, the soft and delicate, the highly-bred and tenderly-nurtured -daughter of Count Mierowitz; and she had now been in the underground -vault for three days and nights,--seventy-two hours,--which to her -had resembled a horrible and protracted nightmare. - -She was ignorant as yet of her brother's execution, a week before. -Betrayed by one of their most trusted adherents as the price of his -own liberty, she and Katinka had been taken. Of the fate of the -latter she knew nothing: a mere Polish waiting-maid, a pretty -soubrette, she had too probably become the lawful prey of the -Cossacks, whom Natalie had last seen in the forest, with terrible -significance rattling their dice on a kettle-drum head. - -For herself, the poor girl only knew that she was placed there to -await the pleasure of the Empress and the Grand Chancellor. - -Hope was dead completely in her heart; and though the desire to live -was strong, her former life seemed all a dream, or something that had -happened long, long ago! - -Crouching on a damp pallet that lay on the couch of stone, her hair -dishevelled, her dress more than ever torn, discoloured, and -disordered, her snowy arms and hands stripped of every ornament and -ring, her tender feet well-nigh shoeless, her eyes half closed and -surrounded by dark inflamed circles, her cheeks sunk and haggard,--it -would be difficult to recognise in her the once beautiful and -brilliant Natalie, whose coquetry had excited the ready jealousy of -Catharine in that fatal Mazurka; the Natalie of the imperial _salons_ -at Moscow, at Oranienbaum, or the palace of Tsarsky Selo; or the -Natalie of that princely old château near the Louga--the proud, -bright-eyed, and beautiful girl whom Charlie Balgonie had loved, and -worshipped as a goddess. - -As she crouched in a species of stupor beside a wooden bowl of stale -water and a mouldy loaf of black bread, there seemed to be no breath -in her tender nostrils, no sound in those little ears over which the -black hair rolled in unheeded masses--no sound save the monotonous -plash of the dropping slime. She was pale as white marble,--cold as -death,--a prey to utter confusion rather than profound grief. There -were times when she felt and thought and knew of nothing: but there -were others when all the past--the memory of her ruined house, her -shattered love, her slaughtered friends, their fatal project, and her -lost position in society--brought a cruel and keen pang to her heart, -and made her writhe and start and wring her hands, but not weep; for -she had not a tear left; and her hard dry eyeballs were the only warm -part of her shuddering frame. - -Seventy-two hours had she been there, yet the time seemed so long -already, that she knew not whether it were seventy-two days or the -same number of weeks. - -When she did rouse herself to steady reflection and the realities of -her position, thought well-nigh drove her mad. - -Her old father--his sturdy figure, his venerable beard and white -eyebrows, his silver hair queued by a simple ribbon, his quaint -old-fashioned costume of the first Peter's time, rose vividly before -her; and with a gush of memory came all his peculiarities of -disposition, his warmth of heart and temper, his kindness and -irritability, his pride of race and family. Where were all these now? - -Her lover too--his voice, and eyes, and gentle manner came next, to -add to her pangs; for him too must she relinquish for ever: no -shelter was there now for her save the cold grave, which was perhaps -to receive them all! Basil, Usakoff, and Mariolizza--alas! terrible -though her own sufferings, she little knew those to which the fairer -beauty and more unwary tongue of Mariolizza had subjected that -unhappy girl. - -The excellent taste, the polished education, and high accomplishments -of Natalie, which were so far superior to those of most ladies of her -own rank and country then, gave a greater poignancy to the horrors of -reality and imagination; yet imagination could supply no horror but -what was real and sternly so. - -Their princely old dwelling amid the pine forests--never more would -she see its dome of polished copper shining in the sun, or the wooded -domain that stretched for uncounted versts around it; or her father's -patrimonial village, nestling by the Louga, which bore his rafts of -timber to the sea, and by night reflected the glare of those furnaces -which were another source of his vast wealth, and the means of -procuring a thousand luxuries. - -Better would it have been, had she and they and all succumbed to -Catharine's iron rule, than sought the freedom of Ivan IV; but it was -too late--too late, now! - -Was it all a dream from, which she must awaken? Strange it was, that -as weariness, sleep, or a stupor stole over her, scraps of songs, -frivolous ones especially, airs from operas, and so forth, occurred -to her drowsy ear, as if her brain was turning; and to these the -filtering plash and the sound of the rising waves and wind without -seemed to mark a cadence. - -Suddenly a scream escaped her: she was in total darkness. Amid her -sleep or stupor, a fourth night had come on--a night of storm too; -for she heard the roar of the autumn rain, as it descended like a -vast sheet upon the lake without. - -Cold and slimy things had often crossed her slender ankles, making -her shrink and shudder: but now she became sensible that her feet -were completely immersed in water; that the wind was bellowing -without and rolling the waves against the rocks; and that the current -of the lake was flooding the floor of her vault, and rising fast -within it. - -It rose with appalling rapidity: and now the terror of a dreadful -death made Natalie utter a succession of piercing shrieks, mingled -with prayers to heaven. But her cries were unheard; for the same -cold, icy tide that flooded her cell, filled all the corridors by -which it and others on the same floor were approached. - -Rapidly it rose, this dark, silent, and terrible tide--rapidly and -without a sound. - -She sprang upon her stone couch, but already the pallet was floated -away. Up yet rose the invading water, and it was soon nearly to her -waist; and gasping and shuddering cries were mingled with her -prayers. A little more, and the narrow slit through which she could -hear the bellowing wind and see the black clouds careering past one -red and fiery northern star--the last gleam of life and of the outer -world--would vanish from her eyes, as she perished in that miserable -tomb: even as the Princess Orloff and many others have done, helpless -and unheeded in their dying agony--drowned miserably, like the prison -rats that swam around them. - -In the last energies of her despair, she made her way to the -enormously thick door which closed this trap of stone, and, applying -her lips to the joints, shrieked loudly again and again for succour, -and beat wildly and fruitlessly with her tender hands upon its -massive planks and iron bolts. - -Her brain seemed bursting, for she was suffocating as the air -lessened. She thought she saw a red light shining through the -crannies of the doorway; but whether this were fancy or reality, it -was impossible to say, as a faintness came over her, and she sank -down choking and drowning in the dark flood that rose within the -walls and against the door of the prison. - - - - -CHAPTER XXII. - -OVER THEIR WINE. - -Heavy and sad was the heart of Charlie Balgonie when, on the evening -of the 16th September, that which was subsequent to the episode at -Schlusselburg, he saw the domes and towers of St. Petersburg -glittering in gold and bronze, in green and fiery or fantastic -colours, amid the rich glow of a ruddy sunset; and where rising from -the haze of the vast city, the polished cupola of St. Isaac's -Cathedral, and the slender spire of the Admiralty, like a needle of -flame, seemed to float in mid air. - -As he entered the first guarded barrier, he met a party of Lancers -riding at a trot, their tall fur caps having scarlet kalpecs and -large plumes, their lances, each with a long bannerole of the same -colour, waving in the wind. They escorted a covered kabitka, or -waggon, and were led by the Count de Balmain, a Scottish officer, -who, in after years, stormed Kaffa, in the Crimea. - -"Whither go you, Count?" he asked. - -"For Schlusselburg--the place of sorrow." - -"With a prisoner, of course?" - -"Yes, I regret to say, with the niece of Count Mierowitz, with -Mademoiselle Mariolizza. She is to be confined under a warrant from -the Grand Chancellor--poor girl!" - -Sadder and heavier grew the honest heart of Balgonie, as the escort -and its hearse-like carriage passed on; and, as he looked after it, -the fair merry face, the full and voluptuous figure, the gay manner, -and remarkable _finesse d'esprit_ of the betrothed of poor Basil, as -he had last seen her at Louga, came back vividly to memory now. - -Balgonie was at St. Petersburg when Mierowitz was executed, and when -other horrors followed. Moreover, he was closely and repeatedly -interrogated by the Grand Chancellor, the Privy Councillor, Count -Panim, by Count Orloff (the present lover of the Empress), and by -General Weymarn, as to all he knew and had seen of the -conspirators--so closely, that nothing surprised him so much as to -find that no suspicion was attached to himself. But being a soldier -of fortune, who possessed nothing in the world but his sword and his -epaulettes, he was not worth suspecting by the Imperial Government. - -Ere long, the name of Natalie came before the Secret Chancery, as a -prisoner in Schlusselburg; and, like the rest, she was tried and -condemned in absence, undefended and unheard; and sentenced, too, -amid the solitude of her prison. - -To Balgonie the charm of life seemed to have passed away; and, during -the week or two that followed his return to St. Petersburg, dreary, -weary, and unmeaning, indeed, seemed the routine of his duties as -aide-de-camp at the vast parades, the brilliant receptions, the -courts-martial, and other public affairs to which he followed his -_chef_, General Weymarn, at the palaces of Tsarsky Selo or -Oranienbaum, and elsewhere, while ignorant of the fate of -Natalie--while the very life of her he loved hung in the balance. - -When compared with their fate, how happy seemed those lovers, who, -though separated for a period, could look confidently forward through -the long succession of hours, of days and nights, of weeks, and -months, or even years, and reckon with certainty on the time of -reunion! With him and Natalie, time stretched into a length that -seemed interminable: their future had no background; their separation -was one without hope. - -Charlie, in his desperation, applied to the Marquis de Bausset and to -Sir George Macartney, then the Ambassadors from France and Britain; -and both received his verbal prayers--he dared not write on such a -subject--for mercy to the Count's family: but they were unheeded; and -the Ministers replied only by bows, grimaces, and shrugs of their -diplomatic shoulders. Their interference was impossible--quite; and, -unfortunately, his old patron, Admiral Thomas Mackenzie, was with the -fleet in the Black Sea. - -The suspicions excited against his Regiment and the Grenadiers of -Valikolutz, might procure the banishment of both; he feared it in the -form of service in Siberia, or at the Crimean lines of Perecop. In -either case, unless Weymarn stood his friend, how could he hope to -succour Natalie! - -At every tea-house, hotel, and café, his uniform of the Smolensko -Infantry, and the knowledge that he was the staff officer who had -been in Schlusselburg, and who brought the first tidings of the late -affair, made him an object of special interest; but the subject was -alike a perilous and painful one. Walls have many ears in Russia; so -he was compelled to be silent, or discreet, even to rudeness, though -the following declaration, which was issued by the Empress, might -have allayed his fears:-- - - -"We, Catharine the Second, by the Grace of God, Empress and Sovereign -of all the Russias, &c., &c., make known to our Regiment of Smolensko -Infantry that, according to the equity which we exert towards our -faithful subjects, we cannot represent to ourselves, without profound -grief, how much that regiment must be afflicted, for having among its -officers a wretch in the person of Mierowitz: nevertheless, as the -crime of one man cannot affect those who had no part in it, and that, -besides, we know the bravery with which the regiment has -distinguished itself upon all occasions, its attachment to strict -discipline, and its exactness in the military duty of our empire; -therefore we grant it, through our imperial good-will, the same -assurances of protection which it has in all times deserved. In -consequence, we forbid all and every one, to reproach or upbraid the -said regiment concerning the treason of Mierowitz, under pain of -incurring our indignation, and drawing on themselves the effects of -our just resentment. - -(_Signed_) "CATHARINE." - - -Hope seemed to revive a little after the issue of this conciliatory -oukaz; but it was speedily dashed, when Balgonie, on returning from -Cronstadt, whither he had been sent by General Weymarn, suddenly met -Captain Vlasfief face to face, near the palace of the favourite -Lanskoi. - -This personage he would have avoided like a toad or a leper; but from -him only might he learn something of her he loved in Schlusselburg, -that hateful place to which the Captain was returning; so, -overcoming, or rather concealing, his repugnance, he adjourned with -him to a café, and ordered wine. - -"I dare say you have heard," said Vlasfief, with a strange leer in -his eyes, as he tossed his hat and sabre on one sofa and deposited -his jack-booted limbs on another, "how the estates of the Count and -those of Usakoff have been sold or gifted away; pillaged and ravaged -by Lanskoi with a party of Tchernemoski Cossacks; and that the -plunder has been stored up in Schlusselburg?" - -"Something of all this I have heard," replied Balgonie, when the -waiter had filled their glasses and withdrawn, "and--and--but you -have there two ladies of the Count's family?" - -"True--Mademoiselle Mariolizza, who was engaged to Mierowitz, and the -Count's daughter: one beautifully fair, the other black-haired like a -Pole. Poor girls!" he continued, while leisurely filling the large -china bowl of a tasselled pipe, which suspiciously resembled one -Charlie had often seen the old Count smoking, "I remember them both -in happier and brighter times; but those who play with fire will, you -know, be burned. The sentences on all have been found, recorded, -and, in two instances, executed; and they are truly terrible!" - -"Executed--the sentence!" repeated Balgonie, in a faint voice. - -"Yes; you have been four days at Cronstadt: well, in those four days -many things have been done--a light; thank you. The Count is now -travelling towards Tobolsk under an escort of Balmain's Lancers. -There he will have to hunt the ermine, cultivate asafœtida, or dig -in the mines, with a collar at his neck, for the remainder of his -days; but for the ladies of his family, a more severe punishment was -reserved: ah! he is a stern fellow, old Panim!" - -"How--what? Vlasfief, you jest?" - -"'Tis no jest: we don't jest on such matters in Russia," replied -Vlasfief, who was too thorough a _roué_--too "used up," in fact--to -care for what any woman might suffer or undergo; for every human -emotion and sympathy were dead in this man now. - -"What new horrors am I to hear?" exclaimed Balgonie, with passionate -vehemence, as he dashed his heavy Turkish sabre on the table. - -Vlasfief smiled sourly, and his cunning eyes twinkled. - -"You are a Scot, like Balmain," said he disdainfully; "and as the -Turks--those accursed unbelievers--say, but truly, 'Those who have -never seen the world think it is all like their father's house.' -Pass the bottle--'tis Cracow wine this, and not worth four ducats the -flask. In short, the--the two ladies of the Count's family, in the -wildness of their grief,--Mariolizza especially,--on hearing of the -death of Mierowitz, permitted their tongues to run riot, and to say -such things of Her Imperial Majesty and some of her favourites, such -as Count Orloff, Lanskoi, the Grenadier, and so forth, as no woman -would pardon, you understand; so they are to be given in succession -to _le maître d'entre les épaules_--the master of the shoulders," -added Vlasfief, with a species of laugh at the strange expression -which he saw gathering in Balgonie's face. - -"Explain, I implore you, explain!" asked the latter, with quivering -lips, as he set down a crystal goblet of Hungarian wine untasted on -the table. - -"Mademoiselle Mariolizza--but you don't drink fairly, Ivanovitch--has -received six blows of the knout. The torturer is a new man, and -mangled her cruelly. She has had her tongue cut out, and her -forehead branded with the executioner's mark;* and she goes to -Siberia as soon as she recovers: but she will never reach it alive, -even if she escapes the fever that has now seized her; for as the -whole family has been degraded,--declared infamous and without -protection,--being tongueless, she will become the prey of the -Cossacks en route. Once beyond the Volga, we never know what -happens. The Count's daughter will undergo exactly similar -punishment; and, if she survives it, they will be mercifully -permitted to travel together: and there ends the House of Mierowitz, -which boasts of its descent from Ruric of Kiev--Ruric the Varagian of -Old Ladoga!" - - -* The latter punishment is abolished now. - - -With wonderful coolness of manner, over his wine and pipe, almost -with an occasional jest, the cruel and snakelike Vlasfief--who, as a -parvenu of the foundling hospital (the son of a goat), hated the -hereditary aristocracy--detailed these matters; and Balgonie felt as -if a black cloud enveloped him. He heard the Captain talking; but -his mind and thoughts were far, far away; and, after a time, he found -himself alone. - -Vlasfief had mounted and ridden off; and mechanically, like an -automaton, Balgonie had bidden him adieu at the portico of the café, -and returned to finish his wine, as one in a waking dream: nor was it -until the bell of St. Isaac's tolled midnight, when the lights were -burned low, the fire in the peitchka had died away, the decanters -were empty, and he saw a drowsy waiter hovering near him, that he -rose to depart; for to him, now, all places seemed alike. - -In the street a shower of tears revived him; and he wept unseen, like -a great boy, while grinding his teeth and twisting his mustaches like -a furious and desperate man. Russia, her laws, her rulers, her very -air, he loathed and detested. But what was he to do?--which way was -he to turn?--was he to permit these horrors, and live? - -He had been present when the Regiment of Smolensko guarded the -punishment of Madame Lapouchin, one of the most beautiful women of -the Imperial Court, where she shone like a planet, was loved, -admired, and more than once was fought for. An alleged conspiracy -brought her to the knout in all her nude loveliness, in the light of -open day; and Charlie remembered that sickening scene, before the -eyes of assembled thousands, and how, as the Abbé d'Anterroche -records, "in a few moments all the skin of her tender back was cut -away in small slips, most of which remained hanging on her shift. -Her tongue was cut out immediately after; and she was banished into -Siberia." - -"Oh Natalie, Natalie!" he could but repeat, while he wrung his hands; -and thus the dawn of day found him. - -After mature consideration of his position, his powerlessness, and -the difficulties that beset him, with the horrors impending over -Natalie, poor Charlie Balgonie felt maddened, crushed, and -heart-broken. Could he see her perish without a struggle, an effort, -however reckless, fruitless, and futile, on her behalf, even if he -pistoled the executioner? Could he know that she too, probably, -would die, in agony and mutilation, a horrible and ignominious -death,--she, so gentle, delicate, and pure,--and would he survive it? - -"Hearts will break in this life," says a recent writer; "it is the -nature of them; but if God wills it, and it were possible, it is -honester, braver, and nobler to live than to die." Most true; but to -live is to hope. Balgonie vaguely, but sternly, resolved that he -would do something, or--like the hero of a melodrama--"die in the -attempt;" but being a poor, bewildered, loving young fellow, he could -in no way practically see what that something might be. - -Let not the reader flatter himself or herself that their own beloved -country was entirely free from legal barbarism at this time; for in -the very year of Ivan's murder,--the fourth year of the reign of His -Majesty George III.,--a woman was burned at the stake in Ilchester -for poisoning her husband. During the reign of his son, more than -one head was chopped off for treason; and women were flogged by tap -of drum, for petty theft, at the Market Cross of Edinburgh. Neither -need the superstitions of the poor Muscovites excite surprise, when -we find, in 1867, Highlanders in Scotland putting clay figures into -running streams to bring consumption and wasting upon their enemies; -burying a living cock (as the Pagan sacrificed to Hermes) to cure -epilepsy; and a woman in Somersetshire* cooking toads in a pan, -exactly as the "black and midnight hags" did in the days of Macbeth, -for the amiable purpose of bewitching her neighbours. So truly does -the world reproduce itself, in spite of its boasted civilisation. - - -* Western Gazette, September, 1867. - - -The next day was not far advanced when Balgonie was summoned by -General Weymarn, whose staff he had been resolving to quit; but for -what purpose, or whither to go, he knew not. With something of a -shudder, he beheld the Stepniak--the comrade and confederate of the -late Nicholas Paulovitch--leaving the General's quarters. - -Save that he wore the scarlet livery of his new trade,--torture and -death,--he was unchanged, and was the same hideous and ill-visaged -giant--with square shoulders, enormous beard, mouse-like eyes, hair -shorn off straight across the beetlebrows, and the pine-apple shaped -head--whom Balgonie had seen in the hut where the wretched -Podatchkine perished. He was now public executioner of St. -Petersburg: under his felon hands had poor Mierowitz and Mariolizza -been, and erelong would Natalie be! - -Weymarn was a grave and stern, yet not unkind, old soldier; and, on -perceiving that his young aide-de-camp looked pale, he spoke to him -with unusual kindness, and added:-- - -"I am sorry to say, that I have a new duty of importance for you to -perform." - -"Thanks, General; any excitement is better than--than idleness." - -"True. You will have to ride to Schlusselburg with an escort, -composed of six Cossacks of the Imperial Guard, and bring hither in a -kabitka the sum of eighty thousand roubles, which are there in canvas -bags, _sealed_. They have been levied on the estates of the Count -Mierowitz. You will receive them from the officer commanding there: -give a signed receipt, and deliver them into the Imperial Treasury." - -Balgonie bowed in silence. - -The General, who, of course, knew well the corrupt venality of the -Russian service, added:-- - -"If the sum is brought entire to the Treasury, Carl Ivanovitch, a -reasonable gratuity will, of course, be paid you." - -"Excellency, I require none for doing my duty, either in this or any -other matter," replied Balgonie coldly, even haughtily. - -"As you please, sir,--as you please. Some among us might be less -particular," said the old General, tugging his grisly mustaches. -"And stay; by-the-bye, there is a prisoner in Schlusselburg, whose -sentence is to be executed to-morrow, in presence of the assembled -troops and people here----" - -Balgonie thought of but _one_ prisoner there; and an icy chill came -over him, as Weymarn said-- - -"With the escort and the kabitka, Captain, you will, at the same -time, bring the culprit here." - -"And--and this pris--on--oner, Excellency?" faltered the poor fellow. - -"Is Jagouski, the Cossack, who so severely wounded Colonel Bernikoff -when in the execution of his duty." - -Charlie breathed more freely. - -"An order will be necessary for you--a special order: since the -affair of that wretched young fellow Mierowitz, we cannot be too -particular, so take this:-- - - -"'_To the officer commanding in Schlusselburg._ - -"'You are hereby directed to deliver to Captain Carl Ivanovitch -Balgonie, of the Smolensko Regiment, the prisoner who is to be -executed to-morrow. - -"'WEYMARN, _Lieutenant-General._' - - -"For the delivery of the money, here is a separate order from the -Treasurer--adieu." - - - - -CHAPTER XXIII. - -WILL HE SUCCEED? - -As Balgonie left the presence of General Weymarn, a sudden light -broke through the darkness of his mind--an unlooked-for thought and -hope suddenly inspired him, and a prayer of thanks to Heaven rose to -his lips therefore. No prisoner was actually designated by name in -the written order of the General! - -Thus, in lieu of the Cossack Jagouski, he would demand that Natalie -Mierowna be given into his custody; and with her he would escape, -quit Russia and the service of the Empress at all risks. - -He had no papers--no leave of absence, or passport; but, as the -epaulette is an all-powerful badge in Russia, his uniform and his -sabre would be passports enough. For the rest, he must trust to his -own love and courage, and to his knowledge of the country. But then -there was the Cossack escort--how was he to rid himself of it? The -same kind Heaven which favoured and inspired him now, would not fail -to do so, he hoped, when the crisis came. - -While his best horse was being saddled and accoutred, and even when -the escort was at the door, he consulted, till the last moment, the -map of Russia, and also that of Finland, which was not ceded to the -latter till forty-four years after; and he made notes of his proposed -route. Escape by sea, by the Lake of Ladoga, or by the shores of the -Gulf, were alike impossible. - -There was no way for it but to ride, at all hazards, towards the -frontier of Finland, or the shores of the Lake of Saima; they would -there be safe beyond pursuit--safe among the hospitable Swedes, who -are always hostile to the grasping and aggressive Russians. And so -for nearly an hour he sat, compass in hand, calculating the chances -and measuring the distances, while his brain grew giddy, and his -heart was sick, with mingled hope, anxiety, and a love that was full -of terror and compassion. - -At last he saw his way clearly, as he thought, through Viborg, from -Schlusselburg, north-westward, in safety. He put all the money he -possessed--not much, certainly--about his person in gold; filled his -cartridge-box with ammunition, and buckled on his sabre. - -"By this time to-morrow," he muttered, as he glanced at his watch, -"the game will have been won or--lost!" - -He then mounted, with a resolute heart, and set forth, having with -him a light kabitka, or covered waggon, drawn by a single horse, and -attended by his escort--six Malo-Russian Cossacks who wore the -uniform of Hussars, and who were all stout, athletic, and -noble-looking fellows, whose clean-limbed, active, and hardy little -horses, unmatched for strength and speed, made Balgonie speculate -painfully and anxiously on his slender chance of outstripping them, -if pursued. - -It was considerably past the noon of an October day--a dark, -lowering, and ominous day--when they set out for Schlusselburg, and -erelong the rain began to fall heavily, soaking the Hussar finery of -the Cossacks of the Guard; but Charlie Balgonie rode silently on at -their head, heedless of the blinding torrents and the bellowing wind; -though he little knew that as the darkness increased, and the early -night drew on, that the waters of the lake and river were rising -fast, and that a peril, of which he had no conception, already -menaced the existence of Natalie. - -But her voice seemed to be ever whispering in his ear-- - -"Carl, Carl--my beloved Carl, come to my aid--save me--help me, if -you love me!" - -When they were mid-way to Schlusselburg, the kabitka driver, who was -either sleepy or tipsy, fell awkwardly from his seat, and broke his -right arm. What was to be done now? - -No Cossack of the Guard would condescend to supply his place, and for -more than an hour the party remained halted in a desolate spot, near -a pine wood, while looking about to capture the first peasant, serf, -or civilian of any kind, whom they might meet, and press him into the -service, as a temporary whip, in the employ of the Empress. - -A skulking and somewhat sulky boor, in a fur cap and canvas caftan, -leather leggings and bark shoes, who had been smoking his pipe under -a great tree, was, erelong, discovered, dragged forward, and, with -sundry oaths and threats, commanded to mount the shaft and act as -driver, which he did, with a reluctance he was at no pains to conceal. - -Knowing how necessary it was to control or to conciliate this new -acquisition, Balgonie asked him a few questions, with sternness, but -yet with politeness. - -The serf was a singularly handsome young man, with eagle-like eyes, -and an aquiline nose, that was almost hooked; he was without his -mustache, which seemed to have been recently shaved off; but he had a -curly red beard, with a complexion of well-nigh Asiatic darkness. - -"Trust me, dear Carl Ivanovitch," said he, in a low and impressive -voice, that was strangely familiar to Balgonie. "My disguise, I -find, is complete indeed, when it deceives even you; but speak in -French." - -"Your disguise--yours?" - -"Yes,--I am Apollo Usakoff," he added through his teeth. - -"Heaven be blessed for this new omen of success!" exclaimed Balgonie, -in French. "And you were not drowned?" - -"No; I swam down the Neva, under water, escaping many a bullet--got -ashore, and reached the old place in the wood, where Olga, the gipsy, -stained my face, trimmed and dyed my beard, as you see. She is quite -an artist, that girl! Even Mariolizza would not know me now." - -Balgonie sighed as the poor fellow spoke. Mutilated and disfigured -as she was now, would he have known _her_? He evidently knew nothing -of the barbarities to which she had been subjected, so Balgonie -resolved, mercifully, to keep him in ignorance; and they proceeded at -an easy pace together, he keeping his horse close by the shaft of the -kabitka, on which the pretended peasant rode; and, as they spoke in -French, a language unknown to their ignorant and half-savage escort, -Usakoff, in referring to the late event and its failure, poured out -all the bitterness, the hate, and fury of his soul, against the -Government, the Councillors, and the rule of the Empress; and, of -course, entered with fervour into the scheme of an escape with -Natalie. But still their ultimate plans were undecided, when they -saw the red flash of the evening gun, as it pealed from -Schlusselburg, amid the murky haze of a wet and stormy sunset; and -erelong they saw the lights that glittered at times from amid the -massive towers and black outline of that old castle (the scene of so -many terrors, sufferings, and atrocities) streaming and wavering on -the turbulent waters of the lake, and the wet slime of the sluices -and ditches. - -When, all dripping and jaded, the escort halted and dismounted under -the castle arch, Balgonie found that some changes were taking place -in the executive of the fortress. - -Bernikoff, whose wounds had been inflamed to gangrene, by passion, -rage, and vodka, was at that moment actually on his death-bed, with -Father Chrysostom kneeling by his side. The old sinner was in all -the agonies and terrors of reviewing his past life on one hand, and -anticipating the coming change on the other. Many pounds of perfumed -wax candles were flaming now round the effigy of St. Sergius, whom, -in weak and querulous accents, he implored for intercession, -alternately with the Chaplain, to whose cassock he clung tenaciously, -and to whom he was mingling threats of punishment, if he permitted -him to fare ill in the other world, or omitted masses for his soul's -repose. And that superstition and absurdity might not be wanting -amid this solemn but repulsive scene, from which Balgonie hurried -away with more disgust than pity, Bernikoff was dying in the habit of -a _friar_, with cowl, cord, beads, and sandals, hoping even on his -death-bed, as Ivan the Terrible hoped, when similarly arrayed and -disguised, to cheat the devil, if that dread personage came for his -sinful soul. - -The cowl and other paraphernalia he had obtained from the -Chamberlain, or wardrobe-keeper, of the Troitza monastery near the -Louga--a cowl that had lain on the mummy of the uncorrupted saint in -the silver shrine;--and almost with his last breath, he threatened -Father Chrysostom with a drum-head court-martial for venturing to -hint that this attempt to mask his past life was vain without true -repentance. - -Leaving this scene, Balgonie presented the order of General Weymarn -and that of the Treasurer, to Captain Vlasfief, who was now in -command, and to whom he stated that "the prisoner referred to was -Mademoiselle Natalie Mierowna." - -"Carl Ivanovitch," said the Captain, "you cannot think of leaving -to-night in such a storm of wind and rain?" - -"I've seen worse in Silesia," said Balgonie, looking to the locks of -his pistols. - -"What of that?" - -"But the _verbal_ order of the General was most peremptory." - -"Ah!--and you have brought a kabitka for the money?" - -"A kabitka for the prisoner also--so be quick, Captain." - -"'Tis a large sum in roubles," mused the other. - -"I am in haste to be gone!--the prisoner--you hear me, sir?" said -Balgonie impatiently. - -"By all the devils, you seem more anxious about the prisoner than the -treasure!" responded Vlasfief sulkily, as he knocked the ashes from -his pipe, but still delayed to move. - -"You have my orders--I come in the name of the Empress--let there be -no delay, Captain Vlasfief," was the curt reply. - -"Bring in two Cossacks of the escort; the money is here in seventy -bags, each containing a thousand roubles." - -"Excuse me, but the order of the Imperial Treasurer says expressly -_eighty_ sealed bags of a thousand each," said Balgonie, trembling -with anxiety, yet compelled to appear to take an interest when he -really felt none. - -"Ten thousand are missing," said Vlasfief, leisurely, refilling his -pipe. - -"Missing!" - -"Yes. Suppose," he added in a whisper, "suppose we divide the lost -sum between us, and offer a thousand to the Treasurer." - -"Impossible, sir!" said Balgonie, with a fiery and impatient manner. - -"Well, well--there are the other ten sealed bags," added Captain -Vlasfief, with a dark and stealthy frown of greed and hate, as the -Cossacks tossed the whole among the straw of the kabitka: "it matters -little; but I hope you may not find the road beset, and so lose the -whole." - -"To be forewarned, sir, is to be forearmed," said Balgonie, touching -his pistols; for he quite understood the treachery implied, and only -trembled lest it might mar his dearest plans. "And now, sir, for my -prisoner." - -"If she be not drowned; for the lower vaults are apt to be flooded on -such a night as this," said Vlasfief spitefully. - -Writhing under the keen glances of this low-born Muscovite, Balgonie -felt that all now depended upon his outward and assumed bearing of -coolness and carelessness. Night favoured him in this, and his face -was almost concealed. Could any one then have read his heart, as he, -Usakoff, two Cossacks, and two soldiers of the main-guard made their -way down, down through dark and slimy passages and stairs, till they -were foot deep and then knee deep in the water that flooded the low -and humid corridors, off which were the arched doors of numerous -cells--corridors where spiders spun their webs, rats were swimming, -and terrified bats flew wildly to and fro! - -Erelong they reached the door, through the crannies of which -despairing cries and painful gaspings had been heard, and, after -unlocking, forced it open by main strength. - -"A great flood of water poured from the aperture amid the darkness," -says the _Utrecht Gazette_, "and with it came the body of the poor -lady, who was well-nigh drowned." - -So the red light seen by Natalie was no fancy, but that of the lamp -which was borne by one of those who came just in time to save her -from the same terrible death by which the Princess Orloff perished. - -Lest all might be perilled by a recognition, Balgonie was compelled -to retire and leave her in the Chaplain's hands till she was restored -to consciousness, to warmth, and till she was habited anew; and he -passed three dreadful hours of doubt and anxiety, while pacing to and -fro in the cold and gloomy archways of the fortress, and having to -conceal his face when she was brought forth and supported into the -kabitka, to which two _fresh_ horses were now traced. Usakoff sprang -on the shaft and flourished his whip; then the Cossacks and Balgonie -put spurs to their chargers, and clattered over the wet drawbridge, -just as the passing bell for the departure of Bernikoff's tortured -spirit rang ominously and solemnly on the stormy gusts of that black -and gloomy night. - -Balgonie, instead of proceeding by the way he had come, avoided the -town of Schlusselburg, and wheeled off to the right, committing -himself partly to the guidance of Usakoff, and quite in ignorance -that, about an hour before, Vlasfief, who could by no means let so -many roubles escape without paying toll, had beset two of the roads -by chosen followers of his own--men whom he hoped might pass for some -of the adherents of the late Prince Ivan, rescuing the daughter of -the exiled Count Mierowitz. - -A strange incident occurred before the interment of old Bernikoff, -who had a pompous military funeral. The bottom of his grave was -found to be on fire! - -A Scottish doctor (named Rogerson, we believe) at Catharine's Court -attempted to explain this phenomenon, as resulting from a species of -ironstone which was saturated with the phosphorus supplied by the -bones of old interments, and which had been ignited by the friction -of the sexton's shovel; but the superstitious Russians took a very -different and much more diabolical view of the matter, and laughed to -scorn the learned opinion of the Scottish pundit. - - - - -CHAPTER XXIV. - -CONCLUSION. - -Their horses were tolerably refreshed by the halt at Schlusselburg, -and the nags which drew the light kabitka had been quite unused, so -the whole party pushed on at a brisk pace, by the road towards the -frontiers of Finland, the Cossacks of the escort, whatever they -thought, making neither remark nor inquiry, as they trusted -obediently and implicitly to the officer who led them; but the -darkness of the October morning, the deep and muddy, stony and rough, -nature of the roads, and the violence of the storm, erelong began to -have a severe effect upon their cattle, and, to the great -satisfaction of Balgonie, two of the troopers gradually dropped to -the rear, and were seen no more. - -Now the Corporal of the Cossacks ventured to hint, that "perhaps they -were not pursuing the way they had come, as the lights in St. Isaac's -Cathedral must have been visible long ago;" but Balgonie replied, -haughtily and briefly, that he "had _special_ orders." - -Then the Corporal urged a short halt, as the horses were sinking; but -again Balgonie replied, that he "had peculiar orders, and must push -on." - -After passing a little village with a windmill, several miles from -the shore of the Lake of Ladoga, the road dipped down into a dark -hollow, between impending crags of granite, the grey faces of which -were already beginning to brighten in the first light of the lagging -October sun. The rain and wind were over; the hollow way was fall of -rolling and perplexing mist; but Usakoff affirmed with confidence -that he knew the country well. - -Out of the grey vapour, from both sides of the path, there flashed, -redly and luridly, five or six muskets! One bullet struck white -splinters from the kabitka eliciting a shriek from its occupant; -another whistled through the mane of Charlie's horse; and a third -killed one of the Cossacks, who died without a groan, for it passed -fairly through his temples. - -The way was beset by armed men, whose numbers and disposition the dim -light, or, rather, the darkness and the mist, alike served to conceal. - -"Make way, in the name of the Empress!" cried Balgonie, dashing -forward, with his sabre drawn; "Nay, I command you, on your peril and -allegiance!" he added, as the threatening words of Vlasfief occurred -to him; and, to his astonishment and dismay, he saw that personage -actually appear, mounted and armed, wearing a regimental hat and -plume, with a kind of dark green tunic, or patrol jacket, richly -braided with gold, and trimmed heavily with black fur. His party, -who seemed all on foot, were clad like peasants, but were armed with -muskets, which they were rapidly casting about and reloading. - -"Halt, in the name of the Empress--halt, I command you! for this is -_not_ the way to St. Petersburg, whither the prisoner and treasure -were to be conveyed. Treason! treason!" shouted the Staff Captain -Vlasfief. - -Balgonie fired a pistol at his head; but the Captain's horse reared, -or was compelled to do so by bit and spur, for the bullet pierced its -throat; and with an oath, Vlasfief fell on the pathway, entangled in -the stirrups as the animal sank under him. - -The three remaining Cossacks, who were somewhat bewildered by the -attack, by the appearance of Vlasfief, whom they knew, and whose -confident bearing confirmed certain gathering suspicions that -something was wrong as to their route, now drew their sabres, aimed -several blows at Usakoff's head, and endeavoured to cut the reins of -his horse, or stab it between the shafts, as he lashed the animal -almost to racing speed, and the light kabitka jolted, rolled, and -bounded along the rough road behind it. - -By another pistol-shot Balgonie rid himself of the Cossack Corporal, -whose bridle arm he broke, while facing about and galloping in rear -of the kabitka; and now with wild hallooes, the entire party of armed -men followed it on foot, with all speed, up a steep slope, over which -the path wound. - -Usakoff ground his teeth, for he was without weapons, and passive in -the flying combat; but, being fertile in expedients, he tore open a -bag of roubles, and scattered them on the upland road with a ready -and reckless hand. - -The bright silver coins proved too exciting for the cupidity of the -pursuers, who loitered to pick them up, tumbling, scrambling, rising -and falling over each other, with shouts, curses, and maledictions, -their fire-arms sometimes exploding the while; and so the whole were -speedily left behind, as the kabitka, guarded now by Balgonie alone, -was driven along a lonely and unfrequented road, that led to the -little town of Pomphela. - -"Thanks, dear Usakoff--thanks for your presence of mind," said -Balgonie; "I had forgot all about those roubles." - -"Silver has achieved for us what neither our lead or steel would have -done!" - -"But, to lighten the kabitka, let us throw out those remaining -bags--this perilous lumber, the intended recapture of which has -nearly cost us our lives--honour--all, at the hands of Vlasfief." - -"Nay, nay, never! Lumber, say you? The roubles are Natalie's--hers -and mine--hers and yours, when you wed her; they have saved us once, -and may do so again," replied Usakoff cheerfully, as the sun burst -forth in his clear October splendour, and they saw the dome-shaped -cupola of the Church of Pomphela rising with a golden gleam from amid -the white morning haze. - -There Balgonie's uniform and a display of gold and roubles operated -powerfully on the Postmaster, who, without asking for passports or -other papers, at once, and in the name of the Empress, supplied them -with fresh horses for the frontier, towards which, after procuring -some proper nourishment and restoratives for Natalie, they pushed on -without a moment of unnecessary delay. - -"Ah," thought Balgonie, with a shudder and a prayer; "had Jagouski's -name not been omitted in that order of Weymarn, where would she have -been now?" - -Pale with sorrow and long suffering, her face was still beautiful, -though sorely wasted; the deep thoughtful eyes had yet a wealth--a -world of tenderness in their liquid depths; and the long dark hair -was thick, soft, and wavy as ever, as it fell in masses behind the -small, compact, and finely-formed head. - -Yet withal, her wretchedness had been extreme, having been so -suddenly and rudely rent from all those habits of luxury and tender -nurture, which had become, as it were, a second nature; and often, -very often, had it occurred to her in her later misery of soul "that -the repose of the grave is sweet, and that there cometh after death a -levelling and making even of things which would at last cure all her -evils." - -But all was changed now; and, as she laid her head on Charlie's -breast, she felt content--almost happy; and the horrors that hung -over her family alone prevented her, as yet, from being completely so. - -No trace of pursuers were behind them now, though their flight must -by this time have been known both in the capital and at -Schlusselburg. But in those days there were neither railroads nor -electric telegraphs; so, riding on more leisurely, Balgonie changed -horses again near Viborg, and erelong the great Lake of Saima -appeared before them, with the distant hills of Swedish Finland -beyond its friendly waters. - -A boat was procured there; the kabitka was abandoned; and, with a -shout of joy, Usakoff assisted the Finnish boatman to hoist the great -lug-sail to catch the breeze of a balmy and beautiful evening, as -they bade a long farewell to Russia and all its terrors. - -In a quaint old Church of Finland, by the eastern shore of the Lake -of Saima, and in view of its little archipelago of granite isles,--a -lonely little fane, buried amid groves of plum and cherry trees, -built of wood and painted red, with a little holy bell jangling in -its humble belfry,--Charlie Balgonie and his fugitive bride were -united by the old Curate, with the consent of the Lutheran Bishop of -Heinola; and there a thousand roubles spent among the poor spread in -the primitive district a happiness, the tradition of which is still -remembered with many a grateful exaggeration. - -After this, poor Usakoff, finding himself perhaps, as a third person, -rather in the way, left them to become a soldier of fortune; and he -is supposed to have perished in one of the Polish struggles for -freedom; at least, they heard of him no more, after their final -journey to Scotland. - -Two years before these events, it would appear that Charlie's uncle, -"the godly and upright" Gamaliel Balgonie, merchant, magistrate, and -elder, had departed in peace to sin no more, leaving the lands and -possessions of Balgonie unimpaired; and a long tombstone in that -famous city of the dead, the Howff of Dundee, records at length all -the virtues which his contemporaries in general and the Presbytery in -particular believed him to possess. - -So Carl Ivanovitch became once more Balgonie of that Ilk; and the -roubles of Natalie added many a turret and many an acre to his -patrimonial dwelling in beautiful Strathearn. - - - - -L'ENVOI.--ILLUSTRATIVE NOTE. - -To convince the reader how nearly History has been followed in the -previous pages, we shall take the liberty of inserting the subsequent -manifesto, published with reference to the death of Ivan IV. - - -"By the Grace of God, we, Catharine the Second, Empress and -Autocratrice of all the Russias, &c., &c., to all whom these presents -may concern: - -When by the divine will, and in compliance with the unanimous desires -of our faithful subjects, we ascended the throne of Russia, we were -not ignorant that Ivan, son of Anthony, Prince of -Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, and of the Princess Anne of Mecklenburg was -still alive. This Prince, as is well known, was immediately after -his birth unlawfully declared heir to the imperial crown; _but_, by -the decrees of Providence, he was soon after irrevocably excluded -from that high dignity, and the sceptre was placed in the hands of -the lawful heiress, Elizabeth (daughter of Peter the Great), our -beloved aunt of glorious memory. - -"After we had ascended the throne, and offered up to Heaven our just -thanksgivings, the first object that employed our thoughts, in -consequence of _that humanity which is so natural to us_, was the -unhappy situation of that Prince, who was _dethroned_ by _divine -Providence_, and had been unfortunate since his birth. - -"To prevent, therefore, ill-intentioned persons from giving him any -trouble, or from making use of his name to disturb the public -tranquillity, we gave him a guard, and placed about his person two -officers, in whose fidelity and integrity we could confide. These -were Captain Vlasfief and Lieutenant Tschekin, who by their long -military services deserved a suitable recompense, and a station in -which they might pass quietly the remainder of their days. They were -accordingly charged with the care of the Prince, and were strictly -enjoined to let none approach him. Yet all these precautions were -not sufficient.... - -"A _Put-parooschick_ (a sub-lieutenant) of the Regiment of Smolensko, -a native of the Ukraine, Basil Mierowitz (grandson of the first rebel -that followed Mazeppa), took it into his head to make use of this -Prince, to advance his fortune at all events, without being -restrained by a consideration of the bloody scene that such an -attempt might occasion. In order to execute this detestable, -dangerous, and desperate project, he contrived, during our absence in -Livonia, to be upon guard in the fortress of Schlusselburg, where the -guard is relieved every eight days; and the 15th of last month, about -two in the morning, he called out the main guard, formed it in line, -and ordered the soldiers to load with ball. Bernikoff, Governor of -the fortress, came out of his apartment, and asked Mierowitz the -reason of the disturbance, but received no other answer from this -rebel than a blow with the butt-end of his musket. - -"Captain Vlasfief and Lieutenant Tschekin seeing that it was -impossible to resist such a superior force, and considering the -unhappy consequences that must ensue from the deliverance of THE -PERSOX who was committed to their care, after deliberating together, -took the only step that they thought proper to maintain public -tranquillity, which was to _cut short the days of the unfortunate -Ivan_. Mierowitz, on seeing the dead body of the Prince, was so -confounded by a sight he so little expected, that he acknowledged his -temerity and guilt, and discovered his repentance to the troops, -whom, about an hour before, he had seduced from their duty, and -rendered the accomplices of his crime. - -"Then it was that the two officers who had nipped this rebellion in -the bud, joined the Governor of the fortress in securing this rebel, -and bringing back the soldiers to their duty. They also sent to our -Privy Councillor Count Fanin, _under whose orders they acted_, a -relation of this event, which, though unhappy, has nevertheless, -_under the protection of Heaven_, prevented still greater calamities. -This Senator despatched immediately _Pulovnick_ (Colonel) Caschkin, -with sufficient instructions to maintain tranquillity on the spot (or -where the assassination was committed), and sent us, at the same -time, a circumstantial account of the whole affair. In consequence -of this, we ordered Lieutenant-General Weymarn, of the division of -St. Petersburg, to take the necessary information on the spot; and -the confession of the villain himself, who has acknowledged his crime. - -"Sensible of its enormity and consequences with regard to the peace -of our country, we have referred the whole affair to the -consideration of our Senate, which we have ordered, jointly with the -Synod, to invite the three first classes and the Presidents of all -the Colleges to hear the verbal relation of General Weymarn, who has -taken the proper informations, to pronounce sentence in consequence -thereof, and to present it to us, for confirmation of the same. - -"CATHARINE." - - -By a singular species of sophistry, the guilt of Ivan's death is -thus, by a subsequent document, transferred to Basil Mierowitz:-- - -"As the violent death of the unfortunate Prince Ivan was the -immediate consequence of the desperate attempt of Mierowitz, so must -this officer be considered as the principal cause of this -assassination--nay, even regarded as _the murderer of that unhappy -Prince_." - -To this, five Russian Bishops appended their signatures. - -Vlasfief was made a General, and his Lieutenant a Colonel, in the -following year, with a pension of ten thousand roubles each. - - - -THE END. - - - -PRINTED BY W. 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