Vera. You must kill me first, Michael, before you lay a finger on him.
Pres. Michael, we dare not lose Vera. It is her whim to let this boy live. We can keep him here tonight. Up to this he has not betrayed us.
(Tramp of soldiers outside, knocking at door.)
Voice. Open in the name of the Emperor!
Mich. He has betrayed us. This is your doing, spy!
Pres. Come, Michael, come. We have no time to cut one another’s throats while we have our own heads to save.
Voice. Open in the name of the Emperor!
Pres. Brothers, be masked all of you. Michael, open the door. It is our only chance.
(Enter General Kotemkin and soldiers.)
Gen. All honest citizens should be in their own houses at an hour before midnight, and not more than five people have a right to meet privately. Have you not noticed the proclamation, fellows?
Mich. Ay, you have spoiled every honest wall in Moscow with it.
Vera. Peace, Michael, peace. Nay, Sir, we knew it not. We are a company of strolling players travelling from Samara to Moscow to amuse His Imperial Majesty the Czar.
Gen. But I heard loud voices before I entered. What was that?
Vera. We were rehearsing a new tragedy.
Gen. Your answers are too honest to be true. Come, let me see who you are. Take off those players’ masks. By St. Nicholas, my beauty, if your face matches your figure, you must be a choice morsel! Come, I say, pretty one; I would sooner see your face than those of all the others.
Pres. O God! if he sees it is Vera, we are all lost!
Gen. No coquetting, my girl. Come, unmask, I say, or I shall tell my guards to do it for you.
Alex. Stand back, I say, General Kotemkin!
Gen. Who are you, fellow, that talk with such a tripping tongue to your betters? (Alexis takes his mask off.) His Imperial Highness the Czarevitch!
Omnes. The Czarevitch! It is all over!
Pres. He will give us up to the soldiers.
Mich. (to Vera). Why did you not let me kill him? Come, we must fight to the death for it.
Vera. Peace! he will not betray us.
Alex. A whim of mine, General! You know how my father keeps me from the world and imprisons me in the palace. I should really be bored to death if I could not get out at night in disguise sometimes, and have some romantic adventure in town. I fell in with these honest folks a few hours ago.
Gen. But, your Highness —
Alex. Oh, they are excellent actors, I assure you. If you had come in ten minutes ago, you would have witnessed a most interesting scene.
Gen. Actors, are they, Prince?
Alex. Ay, and very ambitious actors, too. They only care to play before kings.
Gen. I’ faith, your Highness, I was in hopes I had made a good haul of Nihilists.
Alex. Nihilists in Moscow, General! with you as head of the police? Impossible!
Gen. So I always tell your Imperial father. But I heard at the council to-day that that woman Vera Sabouroff, the head of them, had been seen in this very city. The Emperor’s face turned as white as the snow outside. I think I never saw such terror in any man before.
Alex. She is a dangerous woman, then, this Vera Sabouroff?
Gen. The most dangerous in all Europe.
Alex. Did you ever see her, General?
Gen. Why, five years ago, when I was a plain Colonel, I remember her, your Highness, a common waiting girl in an inn. If I had known then what she was going to turn out, I would have flogged her to death on the roadside. She is not a woman at all; she is a sort of devil! For the last eighteen months I have been hunting her, and caught sight of her once last September outside Odessa.
Alex. How did you let her go, General?
Gen. I was by myself, and she shot one of my horses just as I was gaining on her. If I see her again I shan’t miss my chance. The Emperor has put twenty thousand roubles on her head.
Alex. I hope you will get it, General; but meanwhile you are frightening these honest people out of their wits, and disturbing the tragedy. Good night, General.
Gen. Yes; but I should like to see their faces, your Highness.
Alex. No, General; you must not ask that; you know how these gipsies hate to be stared at.
Gen. Yes. But, your Highness —
Alex. (haughtily). General, they are my friends, that is enough. And, General, not a word of this little adventure here, you understand. I shall rely on you.
Gen. I shall not forget, Prince. But shall we not see you back to the palace? The State ball is almost over and you are expected.
Alex. I shall be there; but I shall return alone. Remember, not a word about my strolling players.
Gen. Or your pretty gipsy, eh, Prince? your pretty gipsy! I’ faith, I should like to see her before I go; she has such fine eyes through her mask. Well, good night, your Highness; good night.
Alex. Good night, General.
(Exit General and the soldiers.)
Vera (throwing off her mask). Saved! and by you!
Alex. (clasping her hand). Brothers, you trust me now?
TABLEAU.
End of Act I.
ACT II.
Scene. — Council Chamber in the Emperor’s Palace, hung with yellow tapestry. Table, with chair of State, set for the Czar; window behind, opening on to a balcony. As the scene progresses the light outside gets darker.
Present. — Prince Paul Maraloffski, Prince Petrovitch, Count Rouvaloff, Baron Raff, Count Petouchof.
Prince Petro. So our young scatter-brained Czarevitch has been forgiven at last, and is to take his seat here again.
Prince Paul. Yes; if that is not meant as an extra punishment. For my own part, at least, I find these Cabinet Councils extremely exhausting.
Prince Petro. Naturally; you are always speaking.
Prince Paul. No; I think it must be that I have to listen sometimes.
Count R. Still, anything is better than being kept in a sort of prison, like he was — never allowed to go out into the world.
Prince Paul. My dear Count, for romantic young people like he is, the world always looks best at a distance; and a prison where one’s allowed to order one’s own dinner is not at all a bad place. (Enter the Czarevitch. The courtiers rise.) Ah! good afternoon, Prince. Your Highness is looking a little pale to-day.
Czare. (slowly, after a pause). I want change of air.
Prince Paul (smiling). A most revolutionary sentiment! Your Imperial father would highly disapprove of any reforms with the thermometer in Russia.
Czare. (bitterly). My Imperial father had kept me for six months in this dungeon of a palace. This morning he has me suddenly woke up to see some wretched Nihilists hung; it sickened me, the bloody butchery, though it was a noble thing to see how well these men can die.
Prince Paul. When you are as old as I am, Prince, you will understand that there are few things easier than to live badly and to die well.
Czare.