“Poor Pierrot!” he exclaimed at once, “I must notify him; the man has been beside himself.”
My conscience smote me that I had never once thought of the poor fellow.
“Where is he?” I inquired, as I proceeded hastily to divest myself of my petticoats, for I was anxious to feel like a man once more.
“He is scouring Moscow,” Von Gaden said; “he came here, towards morning, and told me that you had gone into a courtyard to make an inquiry and had never come out, and when he followed and searched, he found the court and house both deserted. I have been twice to the palace to petition for aid in the search for you, and Pierrot is like one possessed. Tell me, man, how came you here, and in this garb?”
I gave him, as briefly as I could, the history of my adventure, and saw that his keen mind at once grasped the serious phase of the situation. He looked at me gravely.
“Homyak took the packet?” he repeated thoughtfully, as I concluded. “A sorry messenger, but an old tool of Ramodanofsky’s. I saw the dwarf, not a half-hour since, going towards the Streltsi quarters. I wonder,” he added musingly, “if he had already delivered his packet, or was drawn away from his errand to feast his eyes upon that disgusting scene. You have come back upon an eventful day, M. de Brousson; to-day, the officers of the Streltsi will be subjected to the pravezh.”
“Is it possible that the Streltsi have carried that point?” I exclaimed in surprise. “That means mutiny.”
The doctor bowed his head gravely.
“It means,” he said, “that the government is not strong enough to resist a force of twenty-two thousand men, the only disciplined force in Russia to-day. The officers are to be scourged in the quarters of the Streltsi, and there is intense excitement in the city and at the Kremlin.”
“This is hideous!” I exclaimed. “Who are the officers?”