Part 46 (1/2)
I--I crave a pardon for that act for which I have ever been truly penitent.”
”A pardon is granted,” was the reply in a firm, deep voice. ”You killed my brother Nicholas under compulsion. But on account of your open confession and the service rendered to me by these revelations, I must forgive you. I see that your actions have, all along, been controlled by Serge Markoff. Now,” he added, ”what more can you tell me regarding this maladministration of the police?”
Danilovitch threw himself upon his knees and kissed the Emperor's hand, thanking him deeply and declaring that he would never take any further part in the revolutionary movement in the future, but exercise all his influence to crush and stamp it out.
Then, when he had risen again to his feet, he addressed His Majesty, saying:
”The Secret Police, as at present organised, manufacture revolutionaries. I was a loyal, law-abiding Russian before the police arrested my brother and my wife illegally, and sent them to Siberia without trial. Then I rose, like thousands of others have done, and fell into the trap which Markoff's agents so cleverly prepared. No one has been safe from arrest in Russia--”
”Until to-day,” the Emperor interrupted. ”The ukase I have written is the law of the Empire from this hour.”
”Ah! G.o.d be thanked!” cried the man, placing his hands together fervently. ”Probably no man can tell the many crimes and injustices for which General Markoff has been responsible. You want to know some of them--some within my own knowledge,” he went on. ”Well, he was responsible for the great plot in Moscow a year ago when the little Tzarevitch so narrowly escaped. Seventeen people were killed and twenty-three were injured by the six bombs which were thrown, and nearly one hundred innocent persons were sent to Schusselburg or to Siberia in consequence.”
”Did you formulate that plot?” the Emperor asked.
”I did. Also at Markoff's orders the one at Nikolaiev where the young woman, Vera Vogel, shot the Governor-General of Kherson and two of his Cossacks. Again at Markoff's demand, I formed the plot whereby, near Tchirskaia, the bridge over the Don was blown up; fortunately just before Your Majesty's train reached it. It was I who pressed the electrical contact--I pressed it purposely a few moments too quickly, as I was determined not to be the cause of that wholesale loss of life which must have resulted had the train fallen into the river. Another attempt was the Zuroff affair, when an infernal machine charged with nitro-glycerine was not long ago actually found within the Winter Palace--placed there by an unknown hand in order to terrify Your Majesty. But I tell you the hand that placed it where it was found was that of Serge Markoff himself--the same hand which killed His Imperial Highness the Grand Duke Peter in order to prevent His Highness telling Your Majesty certain ugly truths which he had accidentally discovered.
And,” he went on, ”there were many other conspiracies of various kinds conceived for the sole purpose of keeping the Empire ever in a state of unrest and the arrest of hundreds of the innocent of both s.e.xes.
Indeed, explosives--picric acid, nitro-glycerine, melinite and cordite-- were supplied to us from a secret source. Sometimes, too, when I furnished a list of, say, ten or a dozen of those implicated in a plot, the police would arrest them with probably thirty others besides, people taken haphazard in the streets or in the houses. Whole families have been banished, men dragged from their wives, women from their husbands and children, and though innocent were consigned to those terrible oubliettes beneath the level of the lake at Schusselburg, or in the Fortress of Peter and Paul. To adequately describe all the fierce brutality, the gross injustice and the ingenious plots conceived and financed by Serge Markoff would be impossible. I only speak of those in which I, as his unwilling catspaw, have been implicated.”
Her Highness and myself had listened to this amazing confession without uttering a word.
The Emperor, intensely interested in the man's story, put to him many questions, some concerning the demands of the Party of the People's Will, others in which he requested further details concerning Markoff's crimes against persons, and against the State.
”This man in whom for years I have placed such implicit confidence has played me false!” cried the ruler presently, his face pale as he struck the table fiercely in his anger. ”He has plotted with the Terrorists against me! He has been responsible for several attempts from which I have narrowly escaped with my life. Therefore he shall answer to me-- this cunning knave who is actually my brother's a.s.sa.s.sin! He shall pay the penalty of his crimes!”
”All Russia knows that at Your Majesty's hands we always receive justice,” the Revolutionist said. ”From the Ministry, however, we never do. They are our oppressors--our murderers.”
”And you Revolutionists wish to kill me because of the misdeeds of my Ministers!” cried the Emperor in reproach.
”If Your Majesty dismisses and punishes those who are responsible, then there will be no more Terrorism in Russia. I am a leader; I have bred and reared the serpent of the Revolution, and I myself can strangle it-- and I promise Your Majesty that as soon as General Markoff is removed from office--I will do so.”
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
THE EMPEROR'S COMMAND.
Again the Emperor turned to his table and scribbled a few lines in Russian, which he handed to the man.
It was an impressive moment. What he had written was the dismissal in disgrace of his favourite, the most powerful official in the Empire.
”I shall receive him in audience to-night, and shall give this to him,”
he said. ”The punishment I can afterwards consider.”
Then, after a pause, he added:
”I have to thank you, Danilo Danilovitch, for all that you have revealed to me. Go and tell your comrades of the Revolution all that I have said and what I have done. Tell them that their Emperor will himself see that justice is accorded them--that his one object in future shall be to secure, by G.o.d's grace, the peace, prosperity and tranquillity of the Russian nation.”
Then the Emperor bowed as sign that the audience was at an end, and the man, unused to the etiquette of Court, bowed, turned, and wis.h.i.+ng us farewell, walked out.
”All this utterly astounds me, Trewinnard,” said His Majesty, when Danilovitch had gone. He was speaking as a man, not as an Emperor.
”Yet what Tattie has revealed only confirms what I suspected regarding the death of my poor brother Peter,” he went on. ”You recollect that I told you my suspicions--of my secret--on the day of the fourth Court ball last year. It is now quite plain. He was ruthlessly killed by the one man in my _entourage_ whom I have so foolishly believed to be my friend. Ah! How grossly one may be deceived--even though he be an Emperor!” and he sighed, drawing his strong hand wearily across his brow.