Part 19 (2/2)
Twice there had been a summons at the door of the cabinet, but each time, threatened by your pistol, the czar had ordered that he was not to be disturbed. Now, as you came to the end of all you had to say--as you told how you had returned to St. Petersburg, and why you had waited so long before the killing, hoping also to find the other and to kill him, too, you put the pistol almost in Alexander's face, and with a loud laugh of exultation--for you were mad, then, mad--you pulled the trigger.”
CHAPTER XVII
LOVE, HONOR AND OBEY
The princess paused and bent her head until it almost touched me. I waited, wondering how it could be that the czar still lived. When death was so near, within a few inches of his face, what could have saved him?
”Hus.h.!.+” she continued. ”The end is not yet--not quite yet. You pulled the trigger, but the charge in the pistol did not explode. That is what you thought, when you leaped backward and raised the hammer for another trial. But it was even worse than that, for there was no charge to explode; the pistol was not loaded. Your poor mind, so overburdened, had forgotten the most necessary thing of all, and you had not prepared your weapon for the work it had to do. You discovered your error too late; but the czar had discovered it also.”
”He was bigger and stronger than you. With a bound he was upon you. He seized the pistol and tore it from your grasp, and then, while he held you--for you were still weak and he always was a giant--he struck you with it, bringing it down again and again upon your unprotected head, until your brains were battered out, and were spattered upon the floor, the walls, and even the ceiling of the room. And then, when you were quite dead, killed by the hand of the czar himself, when he for once in his life was spattered with real blood, with blood that he had shed in person and not by deputy, His Imperial Majesty staggered to the door, called for a.s.sistance, and fainted.”
Again she left me, this time crossing the room and throwing herself upon a couch, where she cried softly, like one who has an incurable sorrow which must at times break out in tears. After all, tears are the safety valves of nervous expansion, and there are times when they save the heart and the brain from bursting. I knew that, and I left her to herself. But I also believed that she had not yet told me quite all; that there must be a sequel to all this, and I was soon to hear it.
After watching her for a long time, I left my seat and went to her.
She raised her head from the pillow, and looked at me, and I have never seen such a combination of emotions expressed in one glance, as there was in her eyes at that instant. Love for me, sympathy for the fate of the man whose story she had told, sorrow for that poor sister.
”There is more?” I asked.
”Very little more. I have not yet told you why I am a nihilist, and that is what this story is for. Yvonne was my most intimate friend. I loved her as I would have loved--no,--better than I could have loved a sister. Her brother Stanislaus, was my betrothed. We were to have been married within the year when Yvonne was taken away. Now you know all”; and she turned her head away again. I could see that she had dreaded this confession.
”No, not all, yet,” I said. ”What became of the officer who made all the trouble?”
”He returned,” she replied, without again raising her eyes.
”Where is he now?”
”He is here.”
”Here? In St. Petersburg?”
”Yes.”
”Do you know him? Do you see him?”
”Yes, frequently. He was here last night.”
”Will you tell me his name?”
”No.”
”Shall I tell it to you?”
”Shall you tell it to me! Do you mean to say that you know it?”
”I can guess it.”
”Well?”
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