CHAPTER VI
THE EXCHANGE
"'Tis the way of the world," Heinrich Klausner had said to himself when he had locked himself into his attic after that memorable ball. "I am nobody. I am not recognized among living beings. I am empty air; people look through me without seeing me. In society I am alone with the servants. At table I sit beside a big dog. I am the sport of the court fool. If they think of me at all it is only to laugh at me. They promise me the daughter of a Samoyede chief to wife. Pretty girls put out their tongues at me when I ask them for a dance. And why? Because my name is Heinrich Klausner, and by profession I am only a doctor. Casimir every one kisses and embraces and exalts. Casimir's health is drunk. Casimir carries the national standard. The dignity of Starosta will one day be Casimir's. Casimir opens the ball. Casimir may do anything. All the girls adore Casimir. Casimir gives his right hand to the daughter of a prince at Vienna, and his left hand is good enough for my former sweetheart. Why? Because his name is Casimir Moskowski, and he has a noble title before his name. What if we were to change places? Then who would have the daughter of the Samoyede chief to wife, the Kamskatka lady?"
It was thus that the demoniacal idea was first hatched in his breast.
First of all, he induced the Starosta to send his son to St. Petersburg. In the foreign Universities they had frequently come across young democratic Russians belonging to the great league whose object it was to depose Tsar Alexander and put in his place the Grand Duke Constantine, and then to form from the provinces of Russia, Poland, Hungary, and Wallachia a confederation of constitutional states. The pillars of this project were the leading members of the Russian aristocracy.
Heinrich felt certain that if Casimir could be got to St. Petersburg he could easily be inveigled into this league. His enthusiastic spirit, responsive to every noble idea of liberty, would be unable to resist the temptation which would be all the stronger as it sprang from its most natural source, the love of the ardent and fanatical Poles for their country. Such a grand part would satisfy all his desires. He would be the Voivode of liberated Volhynia. His hands would hold the banner emblazoned with the Ureox of Grodno. His birth, his rank, his riches—everything would entitle him to the rôle of leader. It was impossible to conceive that he would refuse the offer.
When, then, the plans of the conspirators had so far matured that the day for the outbreak of the insurrection was already fixed upon, the revolutionary committee authorized Casimir to begin the rising in the Province of Volhynia, and, with this object, Casimir and Heinrich proceeded to Bialystok.
The St. Petersburg rising meanwhile was crushed as soon as it broke out. In vain they made the Russian soldiers believe that the "Constitutsyd" (the constitution) was the name of the consort of the Grand Duke Constantine—they preferred the Tsar to any such lady.
Thus all those who had been sent to provoke a popular rising in the provinces were obliged to fly for their lives so long as the frontier still remained open, and it was then that Heinrich betrayed his friend to Eskimov, the Governor of Grodno.
The pursuing Cossacks overtook them on the frontier. But the Cossacks only had orders to seize Casimir, so they let the doctor go.
Casimir, however, had taken the precaution to hand over all his papers to Heinrich, not only those on account of which they might prosecute him, such as the credentials of the revolutionary committee, but also the letters of introduction from his father to the Vienna magnates, the Sonnenburg princes. Nothing whatever was found upon him.