“She is safe,” replied the dwarf gravely, “and ’tis well that my master slept, for we must work to-night and travel to-night, if we would get her away, from the czarevna and from Kurakin.”
I had, by this time, arranged my disordered clothing and belted on my weapons, and now I hid a bag of gold upon my person.
“Was the money sufficient?” I asked eagerly.
He nodded gravely. “The souls were cheap this day,” he said solemnly. “I bought two for nine roubles and two kopecks, and the rest of the money I put into good liquor, and the drug that they keep in the Gostinnoi Dvor, in the street of sweet perfumes and spices and myrrh and aloes.”
By this he referred to the divisions of the Gostinnoi Dvor, or great bazaar, where every commodity had a separate street, and a man could find only silk merchants in one avenue, and dealers in jewels—opals and pearls and the great amethysts of Russia—in another.
“Come, then,” I said with impatience, “let us go!”
He nodded his assent, and without more delay we descended the stairs together, and I went to bid Maître le Bastien farewell. I found him burrowing, like a mole, in the cellar.
“The Prince Galitsyn means well to me,” the good man said earnestly, “but these Streltsi have already demanded a rouble apiece, a flagon of good brandy, and ten loaves of rice bread, besides the pickled mushrooms and the fine sterlet, that I would have kept for my dinner! Moreover, Michaud and I are spent with hard labour, but, praised be the saints! everything is buried now but the great vase, and that being for Sophia, I think they will leave it.”
“Unless they sell it to satisfy their stomachs,” I replied; “but adieu, Maître le Bastien, I go on a perilous enterprise, and may not soon see you again.”
The goldsmith wiped his eyes surreptitiously, and then shook my hand heartily.