With that saying the marshal withdrew and having locked the door upon Katina, he darkly wended his way to the audience chamber.
With a view of rendering due honor to the imperial envoy it had been decided by Barbara that the reception should be attended with considerable pomp.
The Throne Hall was accordingly chosen as the place of interview—a magnificent apartment, its vaulted roof fretted with gold. The frescoes and pictures were adapted to appeal to the patriotism of those present, portraying, as they did, some of the noblest events in Polish history; among them the envoy might have seen more than one Russian defeat by Polish arms.
Ranged round the saloon, with back to the wall, were the finest and loftiest of the princess's uhlans. Clad in gleaming breastplates, and with burnished lances erect, they seemed in their rigidity and silence more like statues than men.
Barbara occupied the throne, a slender gold diadem resting on her dark hair, a purple robe of state looped gracefully over her dainty white attire.
On each side of the throne were her ministers, and the chief of her nobility. Patriots to a man, animated by a spirit of defiance to Russia, ardent for the restoration of Poland, they formed a chivalric band ready to die in defence of their fair princess.
The scene was striking and poetical; and more than once Paul, who was present, received a secret glance from Barbara, as if she would fain invite him to contrast her present state with that of the forlorn maiden wandering in the Dalmatian forest; and truly, it was a marvellous and brilliant contrast.
The emissary of the Czar was a man of giant stature clad in a gorgeous uniform. His countenance gave indications of a harsh and arrogant nature, nor did his countenance belie him; as a matter of fact he had been purposely selected by the Russian ministry in order that his objectionable manners, combined with the catechetical character of his mission might provoke recriminatory language from the young and proud princess, language that might afford Russia pretext for a quarrel with Czernova. Therefore Barbara, warned of this beforehand by Zabern, had determined that the envoy's speech, however provocative, should not tempt her to play the enemy's game.
To Paul and Zabern he was an object of secret loathing, both as the knouter of Katina, and also as an accessory to, if not the actual author of, the plot which had resulted in the destruction of the Czernovese Charter. Hard necessity precluded them from denouncing the hypocrisy of the man who came to demand the production of what he had himself destroyed.
"His grandfather did a noble deed," remarked Zabern in a whisper to Paul.