“Would Rudolph like to be Czar?” asks the personage in black.
“A-a-ah!” exclaims the other, smiling and clasping his hands.
“Then bide your time.”
They wait behind a heavy curtain till the music ceases, and the dancers are gone, and the lights are extinguished, and the long saloon is dark and empty. Then the muffled stranger leads through a maze of galleries and corridors, unlocks, at length, a door, bids Rudolph enter, and Rudolph obeys. This apartment, also, is magnificent, but not so large as the other. At one side is a downy couch with golden-fringed drapery, and there the great Czar reposes. Upon the wall, near, hangs a sword.
“Take it down,” commands the personage in black; and Rudolph takes it down.
“Raise it,” is the second command, as they stand over the sleeping Czar; and Rudolph raises on high the gleaming sword.
“Strike!” And Rudolph strikes.
“Now return it to its place and follow me.” And Rudolph returns the weapon, dripping, to its place upon the wall, and follows back through the long galleries and corridors, and down the marble stairs, and out and away from the palace, and out and away from the city—away to a cave in the mountains. And the personage in black again commands, “Stay here and bide your time.”
Day after day there come to them, in their hiding-place, rumors, now of the murder of the Czar, now of strife and difference among his subjects over who shall be successor, and, finally, of an invasion by the neighboring monarchs, who, seeing the people at war among themselves, would profit by this opportunity to gain possession of the Empire.
“Now is your time!” says the personage in black to Rudolph, and he leads him into the midst of the battles, and teaches him so well the art of warfare, that from the ranks he soon rises to be Field-Marshal. Then, the personage in black always secretly counseling, Rudolph (always blindly obedient, he knows not why), following closely his instructions, defeats the invading armies in every battle, drives them out of the Empire, pursues them into their own provinces, and returns triumphant; and the people greet him with loud rejoicing, and lead him to the great throne-room, and robe him in the ermine-lined robe, and crown him with the jeweled crown, and shout till the echoes ring—“Hail, Rudolph, the Czar!” and, “Long live Rudolph, the Czar!”