The frequent visits and questions of the field-marshal Galitzin always threw the Princess into fits of passion.
“What right have you to treat me like this?” she would say in an imperative voice. “What reason have I given for such treatment?”
“Written orders from a higher power—the will of the empress!” answered, panting and puffing, the secretary, Oushakoff.
In the capacity of secretary to the Commission which had been appointed, he had large means placed at his disposal. Therefore, continually complaining of fatigue, of a mass of occupations, and even of pains in his spine, he lingered over the evidence, brought forward a multitude of facts, began a long correspondence about her affairs, and in general led the good-natured Galitzin by the nose, and on the savings made from the money allotted for the keep of the captive managed to buy a nice little house in the courtyard already belonging to him in the Gorokhoviya.[39]
In the interval, the false testament found among the papers of Tarakanova was shown to her.
“Well, what have you to say to that?” asked Galitzin.
“I swear by the Almighty God, by eternal damnation, that I am the author of none of those unfortunate papers. I was told all that.”
“But they are in your own handwriting.”
“Perhaps—it interested me.”
“Then you do not wish to confess to anything, or explain the truth?”