“You will have to tell her, Zénaïde,” her father said, gravely.
At that moment we heard a step upon the stair, and looking up, saw madame standing just above us. Her robe was black, and the mantle about her head, and out of its shrouding folds showed a face like that of a corpse.
“She need not tell me,” she said in a strange wild voice; “I heard it all. Let me die too! Let me go out and tear these ruffians with my hands and die battling with them! May they be torn limb from limb, and their wives and children left desolate, as I am desolate!”
She threw her hands over her head with a frantic gesture as she invoked the wrath of Heaven. Then she came down, her eyes staring out of her white face, yet seeming not to see us, or anything but the door. We thought her mad, and no doubt for the moment she was. Ramodanofsky, springing forward, caught her and held her back. She shrieked aloud and struck at him with her fists, but he held her in a grip of iron. Mademoiselle Eudoxie came running at the sound of the screams, and Pierrot and the man who had attended her from the Kremlin. But in a moment it was over, and she fell across the boyar’s arm in a deathlike swoon, the foam upon her lips. Very gently he lifted her and carried her up the stairs, followed by Zénaïde and mademoiselle, who were eager to minister to the poor, afflicted creature, so horribly bereaved.
CHAPTER XXIX.
A DESPERATE DEFENSE.
I stood in the lower hall with the two men. Pierrot addressed me at once in French.
“I have been talking with this fellow, M. le Vicomte,” he said, in his deliberate way, “and I find that we may be in some danger. He belongs to the household of the czarevna, and knows a number of the soldiers. A report has spread that the Boyar Ramodanofsky is here, and they confuse this gentleman above stairs with the dead man. They never had any proof of the other’s death, and this man seems to think that they are still thirsty for his blood. Then they have learned that you were a friend of Dr. von Gaden’s, and that it was you who interfered to save mademoiselle.”
I put a few questions in Russian to the court usher, and found that Pierrot had not exaggerated. If the rumors were true, the situation was serious; and if it was even suspected that Madame von Gaden was here, it might precipitate an attack more determined than that on the Ramodanofsky house. I was sorely perplexed. It was at best extremely perilous to take the women through the streets, and at that hour, altogether too great a risk. Yet, if the house should be attacked, there would be no way of defending it. My nationality would not save me. I knew that the Danish resident, Butenant von Rosenbusch, had hardly escaped with his life, and he had done nothing to provoke the fury of the mob. If Ramodanofsky’s identity was known, it would ruin rather than help us. However, no remedy suggested itself, and I saw no resource but to abide our fate and hope for the best. Sophia was beginning to gain control, and we could count upon her friendship and that of Galitsyn. Ramodanofsky had told me that a call would be issued for a general council for the purpose of legally electing Ivan and Peter czars of all the Russias, and declaring Sophia Alexeievna regent. This was the beginning, and a vigorous government once organized under the czarevna, I had no doubt that she could control the insurrection, although the indemnity demanded by the Streltsi was likely to impoverish the imperial exchequer.
I told Pierrot to secure the house carefully, and use all precaution, and then went to hear tidings of madame’s condition. Mademoiselle Eudoxie came out of the room where they had carried her, and told the boyar and me that she had recovered consciousness, and seemed grateful for their care; clinging to Zénaïde for consolation, since some words of hers had brought the relief of tears to the poor, half-crazed woman.
Ramodanofsky and I were left alone, and I was bringing another light to put on the table, when he suddenly rose and went to the window. I looked at him in astonishment, for he was not a man of rapid movements. After a glance out, he silently signaled to me to join him. As I approached, he stood aside and pointed down into the street. A strange spectacle met my astonished gaze. In the darkness, I could just distinguish the crowd of people that were silently forming in a circle about the house, as if in fear of being disappointed of their anticipated prey. The boyar and I looked at each other in silence; I saw the fire of the warrior burning in his eyes, but my thoughts were all for the three helpless women in the inner room.