One last word. I will never go to Siberia for I have the means to
cheat you out of the pleasure of sending me there, and when you
read this, I shall have been an hour dead.
ALEXIS DURNIEF.
"Well," demanded his majesty, "what have you to say?"
"Nothing."
"Nothing!"
"No."
"Have you arrested her?"
"I have not."
"Where is she now?"
"In her own home. I took her there this morning. Listen for a moment,
and I will tell you how that occurred."
Then I related in detail the story of my struggle with Durnief, the
rescue of Zara, her heroism in assisting me, and I told of the final
capture and imprisonment of the captain. But his majesty shook his head
in a doubt.
"I believe Durnief's letter. She is a nihilist," he said. "She must be
arrested." I shook my head, but he did not see the motion and
continued: "I believe that the princess is the friend to whom poor
Michael referred. He was in love with her and nothing short of the love
of a woman could have made him disloyal to me. Yes, I believe that she
is what Durnief says she is. I order you to place her under arrest at
once."
"She shall not be arrested," I said, coldly.
"What!" he cried, "you dare to disobey me?"
"Yes," I replied, "I dare to disobey such an order as that. It shall
not be."
"Are you a traitor, also? Was Michael right?"
There was that sneering smile upon his face now, but I held my ground.
"I am not a traitor, but I will not carry out your request, and I will
not permit it to be carried out." He was aghast at my effrontery. He
could only gaze at me in amazement, too greatly confounded for speech;
and I continued: "Listen to me one moment, your majesty."
"I will not listen to you. The road to Siberia may be traveled by you
as well as by the friends whom you apprehended last night, and by
heaven, you shall follow it!"
"You forget one thing," I said. "You have forgotten----"
"What have I forgotten?"
"The Fraternity of Silence."
"Bah!"
"I foresaw this moment, your majesty, and my men have their orders to
meet it. If I am molested, every nihilist who was arrested last
night--every one who was in prison in the city before that time--will
be liberated in an hour, and you have not soldiers nor policemen enough
to stop the tide that will flow against you then. Your empire will
crumble like dust, and your life will go out like the snuffing of a
candle. For the present, I am the Czar of Russia, and you are only
Alexander Alexandrovitch." He sat still and looked at me with staring
eyes. "You are only a man, after all, monsieur," I continued more
softly. "In your fears for the safety of your family, for your empire,
and for yourself, you are led to do unjust things. Only an hour ago you
said that you owed me a debt that you could never repay. You do owe me
a debt, and you can repay it if you will forget for a moment that you
are a monarch, and remember that you are a man. You can repay all you
owe me, and more, if you will still be my friend, and forget that this
scene has occurred; and when you have done that, I will tell you that
Zara de Echeveria is to be the wife of Daniel Derrington; is to leave
Russia forever with her husband, and were she the worst nihilist in the
empire--and I know that she is not--she will be far away from any
temptation to do you harm, and under the guidance of one who has proven
his devotion to you. I will tell you more: I will leave the direction
of the affairs of the fraternity in the hands of one of my men who is
as expert as I am, and who is in every way as worthy of your
confidences as I have proven myself to be--Canfield."