"We wanted you for Russia, not for ourselves," he added, after a pause. "You have already done the Empire a splendid service; and that's why you're regretted. Though, mark me, I don't say, now that things have turned out as they have, I should not have been a bit proud of you as a member of my family."
"What service do you mean? Saving my own skin?"
"No. Overthrowing the Grand Duke. He is completely broken. No trap could have snared him half so well. It has now come out that the disposition of the troops was his sole work; he himself arranged the very order of the trains; and the minute details which he executed were known to him alone. He laid his plans splendidly for his infernal purpose, and had you been the man he anticipated—the dare-devil who had killed Tueski—nothing could have saved the Emperor's life. But God in His mercy willed the overthrow of as clever a villain as was ever shielded by high rank. That particular slip no man could have possibly foreseen; but he made another which surprised me. Only a little thing, but enough. When I came to look closely into the business I found that he had worked out in the greatest detail all the arrangements for the last journey and the disposition of the troops, and had committed them to paper in a number of sealed orders. These he dated back to the previous Saturday; but only gave them out the last thing on Sunday night. His object was of course that when inquiries came to be made the dates on the papers should tell their own story and prove, apparently, that, as they had been given out on the Saturday, there would have been plenty of time for it to have leaked out to the Nihilists through some one of the many officials who would be in possession of it, at the time you proved it was known to the Nihilists. On that supposition there were a hundred channels through which it would have got out, and the Duke would have been only one among many in a position to divulge the secret. Like a fool he thus drew the coil close round his own body; and as soon as the Emperor knew that, my men made a search. That did the rest effectually."
"And what has happened to him?"
"What should happen to such a man?" answered the Prince, sternly.
"Death."
"Right. But the Emperor would not. He's as soft as a pudding. The man is imprisoned, that's all. For life, of course. But rats have an ugly trick of slipping out as well as into a dungeon. And if he ever does get out, boy, you will have one enemy powerful enough to make even you cautious."
"Keep him safe, then," I laughed. "For when I leave Russia, I want to leave all this behind me."
"You may look for trouble of some kind from the Nihilists, however."
"They are not taken very seriously by us English, Prince," I replied.