I next told of the secret mechanism; how I had seen it work; how it proved that the operator must have had exact knowledge of the train in which the Emperor would travel, and then how I had sprung on the line to stop the train. I left my actions after that to speak for themselves.
The impression created by my story was profound; due of course to the terrible and daring accusation I had levelled at the man who had accused me.
The Emperor remained wrapped in deep thought; and in the silence that followed, Prince Bilbassoff entered. I could tell by the quick glance he gave round the room and particularly at me, that he did not at all like the look of matters. He had heard something of the facts about me, and I believe he thought I had perhaps denounced him in the matter of the proposed duel with the Grand Duke.
"Lieutenant Petrovitch has asked for you to be present, Prince, to support some part of the explanation he has given of certain charges brought against him."
"As your Majesty pleases," replied the Prince bowing.
The Emperor resumed his attitude of intense thought, and then after some moments, he regarded me with a heavy frown and said very sternly and harshly:
"The story you tell is incredible, sir. It is a mass of contradictions. You say the Nihilists attempted to kill you, having decreed your death; and yet that you had never spoken to one until the night of the attempt. You say this woman whom you accuse of the murder of her husband did this horrible deed for your sake as the result of an intrigue—and yet that you had never seen her until almost the very hour when she sinned thus for your sake. You say that you listened to these Nihilist intrigues in the belief that you would be out of the country—yet you hold and have held for years a commission in my army. It is monstrous, incredible, impossible."
"There is another contradiction which your Majesty has forgotten," said I daringly. "That I, being as my enemies tell your Majesty, a Nihilist of the Nihilists and a leader among them, should yet have slain three of them with my own hand in defence of your Majesty's life and have turned the sword of the fourth into my own body. As your Majesty said yesterday, traitors of that kind should rather be welcome. But if your Majesty thinks that that is an additional proof of my guilt, my life is at your service still."
He looked at me as if in doubt whether to rebuke me for this daring presumption, or to admit his own doubt. But I did not give him time to speak.
"I have deceived your Majesty, however, though I wished to speak openly at the outset. I told you there was a key to all this of a most extraordinary fashion. There is; and I throw myself humbly on your mercy, Sire. The tales you have been told about me are all true to a point, and false afterwards. To a point all these horrible charges against Alexis Petrovitch are true; but what I have told you is true also. The key is—that I have only been Alexis Petrovitch for seven weeks. I am not a Russian, Sire, but an Englishman; and Prince Bilbassoff here has within the last few hours had proof of this."