“What!” cried the Marshal.
“Monsieur le Marechal, who had the imprudence to bring such dangerous grapes to the datcha des Iles, and—and—”
“And the other?” asked Koupriane, more and more anxiously.
“Listen there,” said Rouletabille, pointing toward the Emperor’s cabinet.
The sound of tears and sobs reached them. The grief and the remorse of Matrena Petrovna passed the walls of the cabinet. Koupriane was completely disconcerted.
Suddenly the Emperor appeared. He was in a state of exaltation such as had never been known in him. Koupriane, dismayed, drew back.
“Monsieur,” said the Tsar to him, “I require that Natacha Feodorovna be here within the next two hours, and that she be conducted with the honors due to her rank. Natacha is innocent, and we must make reparation to her.”
Then, turning toward Rouletabille:
“I have learned what she knows and what she owes to you—we owe to you, my young friend.”
The Tsar said “my young friend.” Rouletabille, at this last moment before his departure, spoke Russian?