proceeded. Without a word he motioned to Alexis to continue, and the
latter detailed word for word the conversation which he had overheard.
When he had concluded, he added, "Your Excellency must pardon me for
not having killed your enemies upon the spot, but the young English
lords had told me that it was necessary to lie quiet, whatever I
heard, and besides, the governor might have ridden off before I could
reach him."
The count stood for a minute silent when the narration ceased. "You
did well, Alexis," he said in a stern voice. "It is for me to judge
and sentence. I had thought that I, at least, was safe from treachery
among those around me. It seems I was wrong, and the traitor shall
learn that the kind master can be the severe lord, who holds the life
and death of his serfs in his hand." He was silent, and remained two
or three minutes in deep thought. "Go to the stable, Alexis. You will
be joined there soon by Ivan and Alexander. They will have their
instructions. After that Paul will come out; seize him and bind him
when he enters the stable. Now go. You have done well. Tell Paul, as
you go out, that I wish to see the steward."
A minute or two later the steward, a white-headed old man, who had
from childhood been in the service of the family, entered. "Demetri,"
he said, "will you tell Ivan and Alexander to go out into the stable?
They will find Alexis waiting for them. Order them, when Paul joins
them there, to aid Alexis in seizing him instantly. Give them your
instructions quietly, and without attracting notice. Above all do not
let Paul see you speaking to them. When you have seen them out, find
Paul, and order him to go to the stable and tell Alexis that I wish to
speak to him; when he has gone, join me here."
CHAPTER XV.
A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE
Count Preskoff's old steward received his orders with scarce a look of
surprise, singular though they must have seemed to him. A Russian is
accustomed to unquestioning obedience to the orders of his superior,
and although never before had Count Preskoff issued such strange and
unaccountable commands to the steward, the thought never occurred to
the latter of questioning them for a moment.
When he had left the room, the Count turned to the midshipmen, and his
brow relaxed. "I cannot tell you," he said, "under what obligation you
have placed me and my family. Little did we think that any little
kindness we might show to you, strangers and prisoners here, would be
returned by a service of a hundredfold greater value. The danger which
hangs over us may for the time be averted by your discovery. I know my
enemy too well to suppose that it is more than postponed, but every
delay is so much gained. I have news to-day that the Czar is
alarmingly ill. Should Heaven take him, it would be the dawn of a
better era for Russia. His son is a man of very different mould. He
has fallen into disgrace with his father for his liberal ideas, and he
is known to think, as I do, that serfdom is the curse of the empire."
"But surely," Dick Hawtry said, "if we draw out a document signed by
us and Alexis, saying that we overheard the plot to obtain false
evidence against you, the emperor would not believe other false
accusations which your enemies might invent?"
"You little know Russia," the count said. "I believe that Nicholas,
tyrannical and absolute as he is, yet wishes to be just, and that were
such a document placed in his hands, it would open his eyes to the
truth. But my enemies would take care that it never reached him. They
are so powerful that few would dare to brave their hostility by
presenting it. Nor, indeed, surrounded as Nicholas is by creatures
whose great object is to prevent him from learning the true wishes of
his people, would it be easy to obtain an opportunity for laying such
a document before him. Even were the attempt made, and that
successfully, such doubts would be thrown upon it, that he might well
be deceived. It would be said that the evidence of Alexis, a serf
devoted to his master, was valueless, and that you, as strangers, very
imperfectly acquainted with the language, might well have
misunderstood the conversation. Count Smerskoff would swear that he
was only repeating statements which Paul had previously made to him,
and that he only promised money because Paul insisted that, as a first
condition of his informing against me, he should receive funds to
enable him to leave this part of the country, where his life would
assuredly be unsafe. I will thankfully take such a document from you,
my friends, for it may be useful, but I must not trust too much to it.
Now come with me," he continued, as the steward reappeared. "You have
seen how a Russian noble can be kind to his serfs; you will now see
how he punishes traitors."
Followed by the steward and the two midshipmen, the count proceeded to
the stables. Here, by the light of the lantern, they saw Paul
standing, bound against the manger. His features were ghastly pale and
contracted with fear. His conscience told him that his treachery had
been discovered. Alexis and the two servants were standing by, in the
attitude of stolid indifference habitual to the Russian peasant.
"Demetri, you, Ivan, and Alexander will be the court to try this man
whom I accuse of being a traitor, who has plotted against my life and
liberty, who would have sent me to the gallows or Siberia, and seen my
wife and children turned beggared and disgraced on the world. You will
form the court, and decide whether he is innocent or guilty. If the
latter, I will pass sentence. Alexis and these English gentlemen are
the witnesses against him."
The midshipmen first, and then Alexis related the conversation they
had overheard.
"You have heard the evidence," the count said, turning to Demetri.
"What is your opinion? is this man innocent or guilty?"
"He is guilty," the old man said, "of the basest treachery towards the
best and kindest master in Russia, and he deserves to die."
"And so say we," said the other two together, looking with loathing
horror at the prisoner; for in Russia for a serf to conspire against
his master was a crime deemed almost equal in atrocity to parricide.
"You hear, Paul," his master said, sternly looking at him; "you have
been found guilty, and must die. Alexis, you restrained yourself for
my sake from taking the life of this wretch when you heard him
plotting against me; you will now act as executioner."
"Right willingly," the man replied, taking down a huge axe which hung
by the wall.
The wretched prisoner, who had hitherto maintained an absolute
silence, now burst into an agony of cries, prayers for mercy, and
curses. Seeing in the unmoved countenances of his judges that nothing
would avail, and that Alexis was approaching him; he screamed out a
demand for a priest before he died.
"That is reasonable," the count said. "Go into the house, Demetri, and
ask Papa Ivanovitch to come hither"--for in the family of every
Russian noble a priest resides, as a matter of course.
Presently the priest arrived with the steward.
"Papa Ivanovitch," the count said, "you are, I know, devoted to the
family in which your father and grandfather were priests before you.
You can, therefore, be trusted with our secret, a secret which will
never go beyond those present. You are here to shrive a man about to
die."
Then the count related the incidents of the discovery of the treachery
of the prisoner, and the priest, who shared with the serfs their
veneration and affection for their lord, could scarcely overcome his
repugnance and horror of the prisoner so far as to approach and listen
to him.
For five minutes all present withdrew from the stable, leaving the
priest and the prisoner alone together. Then the door opened and the
priest came out.
"It is finished," he said. "May God pardon the sinner!" and he moved
away rapidly towards the house.
Alexis spoke a word to his fellow-servants, and these lifted a heavy
log from the wood-pile in the courtyard, and carried it into the
stable. Then they seized Paul, and in spite of his screams and
struggles laid him with his head across the log. Alexis raised the
heavy axe in the air; it flashed in the light of the lantern; there
was a dull, heavy thud, and the head of the traitor rolled on the
ground.
"Now," the count said, unmoved, "put a horse into a cart, take picks
and shovels, and carry the body of this traitor out to the forest and
bury it there. Dig a hole deeply, that the wolves may not bring it to
light. Demetri will give each of you to-morrow fifty roubles for your
share in this night's work, and beware that you never let a syllable
concerning it pass your lips, even when you are together and alone.
Alexis, on you I bestow your freedom, if you care to have it, and
also, as a gift to yourself and your heirs after you, the little farm
that was vacant by the death of Nouvakeff last week."
So saying, followed by the two midshipmen who had been awed, but not
disapproving spectators of the tragedy, he returned to the house, and
led the way back to his study.
"You do not disapprove," he asked gravely, "of what I have done? It is
not, I know, in accordance with your English ideas, nor even in Russia
may a noble take a serf's life, according to law, though hundreds are
killed in fits of hasty passion, or by slow ill-treatment, and no
inquiry is ever made. Still, this was a case of life against life. My
safety and happiness and that of my dear wife and daughters were
concerned, and were the lives of fifty serfs at stake, I should not
hesitate."
Although the boys felt that the matter, if brought before an English
court of justice, might not be favorably considered, their sympathies
were so thoroughly with the count, that they did not hesitate to say
that they thought he could not have acted otherwise than he had done,
and that the life of the traitor was most justly forfeited.
"I shall now have a respite for a short time," the count said. "Count
Smerskoff will of course be perturbed and annoyed at the
non-appearance of his spy, and will after a time quietly set inquiries
on foot. But I will tell Demetri to give it to be understood that Paul
has asked for leave of absence for a few days to go to a distance to
visit a friend who is ill. He was always a silent and unsociable
fellow, and the others will not wonder at his having started without
mentioning his intention to any of them."
"What are we to say to the ladies, sir?" Jack asked. "We must invent
some reason for our mysterious absence."
"Yes," the count agreed. "I would not burden them with such a secret
as this on any account."
"I have an idea, sir," Jack said after a pause. "You know that
beautiful pair of ponies which were brought here yesterday for sale?
The ladies were in raptures over them, but you said that the price was
preposterous, and that the owner wanted as much for them as you had
given for your best pair of carriage horses. Now, sir, if you were to
order Alexis to go over at daybreak to the town to purchase them, and
have them at the door in a pony-carriage by breakfast-time, this would
seem to explain the whole mystery of the coachman's coming to see you,
and our private conference."
"It is a capital plan," the count assented; "admirable, and I will
carry it out at once. It is true I refused to buy them, for we have
all contributed to the extent of our means to enable the emperor to
carry on the war, and I am really short of money. But of course the
purchase of the ponies is not a matter of importance, one way or the
other."
Upon the party returning to the drawing-room, they were assailed with
questions; but the count told his daughters that their curiosity must
remain unsatisfied until after breakfast on the morrow; and with this
assurance they were obliged to be satisfied, although Olga pouted and
told Jack that he had entirely forfeited her confidence. Fortunately
it was now late, and the lads were not called upon long to maintain an
appearance of gayety and ease which they were very far from feeling.
When they retired to their rooms, they had a long talk together. Both
agreed that, according to English law, the whole proceeding was
unjustifiable; but their final conclusion was that things in Russia
were altogether different to what they were in England, and that,
above all things, it was a case in which "it served him right."
Nevertheless it was long before they got to sleep, and for weeks the
scene in the stable was constantly before their eyes, and the screams
and entreaties of the dying man rang in their ears.
The next morning the sight of the ponies delighted the girls, and in
their pleasure at the purchase they accepted at once the solution of
the mystery, and never thought of questioning whether the long
conference between their father and the midshipmen on the preceding
evening was fully accounted for by the gift of the ponies.
Five days elapsed, and then one morning a sergeant rode up with an
official letter for the count. The latter opened it and read an order
from the governor for him to transfer the English prisoners in his
charge to the bearer of the letter, who would conduct them to the
quarters assigned to them. Most reluctantly the count ascended the
stairs and informed the boys of the order which he had received.
"It is simply done to annoy me," he said. "No doubt he has heard that
you ride about the estate with me and are treated as members of the
family, and he thinks, and rightly, that it will be a serious
annoyance to me if you are transferred elsewhere. However, I can do no
less than obey the order, and I can only hope that you will spend most
