The Shadow of the Czar Part 54

To the waiting populace in the Zapolyska Square the time taken in recording the votes and in counting the same seemed unnecessarily long.

A great sensation had been created when the officials of the House reported to those near the doors that the princess herself had appeared in the Diet with an appeal for the rejection of the bill. The story gathered in detail as it pa.s.sed from mouth to mouth, and men on the outskirts of the crowd told how the princess with tears in her eyes had gone down on her knees before the a.s.sembly, and how Zabern, sabre in hand, had stalked up and down the chamber threatening to cut the throats of all who would not vote against the bill.

And when the hour of midnight began to toll, and Dorislas was seen to fling himself from his charger, and hurry up the steps of the Diet-house, for the purpose of recording his vote within the chamber, the interest grew to fever-heat.

Wild work had been going on in the square, but now the knowledge that the great division was taking place had a somewhat quieting effect upon the crowd. All eyes were turned towards the grand entrance, brilliant with light that streamed far out into the darkness, for from this entrance the result was to be proclaimed.

Ten minutes after midnight there was a movement at the head of the stairs; the gendarmes parted, and the white-haired clerk of the House was seen holding in his hand the paper inscribed with the momentous result. Dorislas appeared at the same instant and mounted his charger in readiness for the riot which he knew to be imminent.

Standing at the head of the steps the clerk raised his hand, and at that signal the crowd, which but a moment before had been surging this way and that, became instantly immobile. The square was a sea of upturned faces, each gleaming with painful curiosity. Even the cuira.s.siers extended along the front wall of the Diet-house forgot for a moment their discipline, and bent sideways in the saddle, eager to hear the result. The stillness of death prevailed. Not a movement. Not a word. Not a breath.

"People of Czernova," said the clerk, speaking in a voice that penetrated to every portion of the square, "in a House of one hundred and nineteen members, thirty-nine have voted for the Secular Appropriation Bill, and eighty against it. The measure therefore stands rejected by a majority of forty-one."

These figures seemed to show that the voting had been conducted strictly on party lines. The Muscovite members of the Diet numbered thirty-eight, or, with the addition of the Duke of Bora, thirty-nine.

The tale of the Poles was eighty-one; the vote of the absent Ravenna being deducted, the majority of forty-one was thus accounted for.

The publication of the figures was followed by a moment of bewildering silence. The Poles could not believe in such a victory, nor the Muscovites in such a defeat. Some among the crowd, supposing that the clerk had made an error in his statement, called upon him to read it again.

But now at the side of the clerk appeared the tall figure of Zabern, waving his helmet and greeting his adherents with a triumphant smile.

All doubt vanished. Exultant cries of "Slava! slava!" burst from Polish throats. The Muscovites replied by yells of execration. The two factions were intermingled; the triumph of the one evoked the fury of the other, and in a moment more the Zapolyska Square was transformed to pandemonium.

"Forward!" cried Dorislas, waving his sabre. "Clear the square."

And loud above the trampling and the din arose a carillon of bells from the cathedral of St. Stanislas, pealing forth a jubilation over the victory gained by the Latin Church.

Inside the House the excitement was equally great. Pole shook hands with Pole, for it was felt to be a splendid party triumph. The Muscovite members stared sullenly at each other, Lipski himself looking the very incarnation of malignity. More than a score of Polish deputies, after accepting splendid bribes, had betrayed him by voting with Zabern, and he was precluded from making their duplicity known by the fact that the procuration of a deputy's vote by bribery was an offence punishable by perpetual exclusion from the Diet.

Both parties streamed out into the corridors to discuss the event, leaving Brunowski and a dozen members in the chamber to pa.s.s the resolution: "That the military be withdrawn from the monasteries."

In a small apartment, adjacent to the hall of debate, sat Barbara, surrounded by her radiant ministers. An ardent politician, she was in her element on such nights as these.

"A two-thirds majority of the House!" she murmured with a glow on her cheek. "Thirty-nine for the bill, and eighty against it. What a triumph!"

"Thank heaven, our secret is safe!" said Radzivil. "Kossuth can have his gold."

"Another defeat for Russia!" grinned Zabern. "How Orloff will regret the roubles he has wasted!"

In pa.s.sing along one of the corridors Zabern encountered the Duke of Bora.

That ex-minister, long a traitor at heart, and a secret sympathizer with the aims of the Opposition, had at last cast off the mask, but on a very inopportune occasion as he now perceived. Hoping to profit by the antic.i.p.ated defeat of the ministry, and the consequent confusion, if not fall, of the princess, he had crossed to the opposite side of the House, and he had seated himself cheek by jowl with Lipski and his colleagues, only to see them suffer a most crushing defeat. His mortification, already great, was enhanced by Zabern's caustic smile.

"Ah, dear duke, you don't seem quite so cheerful as you did last week on the Long Terrace. Payment within one hour after the division," he continued, exhibiting the duke's written pledge, "was not that our agreement? May I trouble your grace, then, for the sum of ten thousand roubles, since our majority has exceeded twenty? Ten thousand roubles is rather a large amount, but you will doubtless recoup yourself from Orloff's Bribery Fund."

If looks had power to kill, Zabern would certainly have fallen dead beneath Bora's savage glance. Unable, however, to evade the fulfilment of his word, the duke reluctantly wrote out a check for the required amount.

"An unforeseen circ.u.mstance has enabled you to win this wager," he said, curtly.

"Yes, it was a very fortunate--ah!--circ.u.mstance for us," drawled Zabern, as he walked away with the check in his pocket, "but as to its being unforeseen!--" He finished the sentence with a short laugh.

"Duke of Bora, you must be the biggest fool in Czernova not to suspect the game I've played."

Averse to the noisy demonstrations, friendly or hostile, which her presence in the crowded streets was certain to evoke, Barbara lingered for some time in the Diet-house, conversing with the deputies of both parties, and charming even the rugged hearts of the Muscovites by her gracious and winsome manner.

When the streets were reported quiet she drove back to the Vistula Palace, accompanied by Zabern and Paul, the latter of whom from a side gallery had watched the course of the debate.

The trio retired to the White Saloon.

"That pistol-shot has wrought us so much good, marshal," observed Barbara, "that I feel quite capable of forgiving the a.s.sa.s.sin."

"Then your Highness shall have an opportunity of doing so," replied Zabern, "since he, or rather she, is in the next apartment."

He stamped heavily on the floor thrice. A door opened, and there entered Katina Ludovska with her sister Juliska, not now garbed in male attire, as when awaiting the princess's landau in the forest-road, but dressed each in her own pretty Polish costume.

They advanced with a somewhat timid air and knelt, till requested by the wondering princess to rise. They were not strangers to her, for she had often witnessed their fencing feats in the _salle d'armes_.

"This lady," said Zabern, indicating Katina, "craves pardon for shooting at the princess, without obtaining her Highness's permission, but at the same time she can plead that she was acting under the command of Marshal Zabern."

"Explain," said the princess, haughtily, and with a flash of her eyes that made even the bold Katina quail.

"It was well known to the Diet," began Zabern, cool and unabashed, "that your Highness was opposed to the Appropriation Bill. Six votes only were wanted to secure its rejection.

"Now, if at the present crisis some desperado would only oblige us by seeking to kill your Highness, the attempt would create such a feeling of sympathy among the secessionist members of our party that not only would the required six votes be captured, but many more in addition.

"I therefore resolved that such outrage should take place. But the deed must have every appearance of reality. Blank cartridges might suggest a mock attempt, but real bullets, missing your Highness's person by a hair's-breadth only, would disarm all suspicion.

"Accordingly, I made overtures to the finest pistol-shot in Czernova, Katina Ludovska, who consented to the plan.

"Do not accuse me of recklessly hazarding your Highness's life, since I was fully convinced that Katina's hand would not fail, for Juliska of her own accord gave me striking proof of her sister's unerring marksmanship. She bade Katina regard her as the princess, and while Katina stood revolver in hand upon the steps of the inn-door, Juliska rode fearlessly past on horseback six times in succession; and on each occasion Katina sent one shot through the brim of her sister's hat, while the second whizzed close to her temple.

"This experiment convinced me of Katina's ability to do the trick, and success has justified my opinion. A bold liberty on my part, your Highness, but pardonable, considering the object I had in view."

Barbara's first emotion of breathless amazement was followed by a sense of anger, as she recalled the dreadful sensation that came over her when the hot bullet whizzed past her face.

"Remember," pleaded Zabern, cognizant of Barbara's feelings, "remember that your Highness gave me _carte blanche_ to do whatsoever I pleased, provided that I could but secure the rejection of the Appropriation Bill."

This was true, but who could have guessed that Zabern would have resorted to such a desperate remedy?

"And you could devise no other plan than this for defeating the bill?"

"None, though I racked my brain for a week."

Barbara's anger began to yield to a mournful feeling. It was her belief that no state can flourish long on duplicity. If her chief minister could maintain her in power only by resorting to trickery such as this, then, indeed, the day of her fall could not be far distant.

"It is past," she murmured. "I am scathless, and the bill is rejected; what more should I desire?" And then, addressing Katina and her sister, she said, "You played a very hazardous game as well with your own lives as with mine. Why, marshal, you ordered the guards to fire upon the fugitives!"

"Nikita was in the plot, your Highness, and had taken the precaution to serve out blank cartridges to your _corps du garde_; so the volley was a harmless one. But I confess my heart was in my mouth when I saw Captain Woodville taking aim with his pistol. Fortunately he tripped up in the very act of firing."

"I little thought that I was taking aim at Mistress Katina," smiled Paul, "and grateful am I that she did not return the shot. And so Nikita was in the plot? Why, the rogue vowed that one of the two was Russakoff!"