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