University of Virginia Library

11. XI.

In the castle a superb banquet was improvised. Music,
guests, and rare dishes were brought together with
wonderful speed, and the choicest wines of the cellar
were drawn upon. Prince Boris, bewildered by this sudden
and incredible change in his fortunes, sat at his father's
right hand, while the Princess filled, but with much

more beauty and dignity, the ancient place of the Princess
Martha. The golden dishes were set before her,
and the famous family emeralds—in accordance with the
command of Prince Alexis—gleamed among her dark
hair and flashed around her milk-white throat. Her
beauty was of a kind so rare in Russia that it silenced
all question and bore down all rivalry. Every one acknowledged
that so lovely a creature had never before
been seen. “Faith, the boy has eyes!” the old Prince
constantly repeated, as he turned away from a new stare
of admiration, down the table.

The guests noticed a change in the character of the
entertainment. The idiot, in his tow shirt, had been
crammed to repletion in the kitchen, and was now asleep
in the stable. Razboi, the new bear,—the successor of
the slaughtered Mishka,—was chained up out of hearing.
The jugglers, tumblers, and Calmucks still occupied
their old place under the gallery, but their performances
were of a highly decorous character. At the least sign
of a relapse into certain old tricks, more grotesque
than refined, the brows of Prince Alexis would grow
dark, and a sharp glance at Sasha was sufficient to correct
the indiscretion. Every one found this natural
enough; for they were equally impressed with the elegance
and purity of the young wife. After the healths
had been drunk and the slumber-flag was raised over the
castle, Boris led her into the splendid apartments of his
mother,—now her own,—and knelt at her feet.

“Have I done my part, my Boris?” she asked.

“You are an angel!” he cried. “It was a miracle!
My life was not worth a copek, and I feared for yours. If
it will only last!—if it will only last!”

“It will,” said she. “You have taken me from poverty,
and given me rank, wealth, and a proud place in the
world: let it be my work to keep the peace which God
has permitted me to establish between you and your
father!”

The change in the old Prince, in fact, was more radical
than any one who knew his former ways of life would
have considered possible. He stormed and swore occasionally,
flourished his whip to some purpose, and rode
home from the chase, not outside of a brandy cask, as
once, but with too much of its contents inside of him:
but these mild excesses were comparative virtues. His
accesses of blind rage seemed to be at an end. A powerful,
unaccustomed feeling of content subdued his strong
nature, and left its impress on his voice and features.
He joked and sang with his “children,” but not with the
wild recklessness of the days of reisaks and indiscriminate
floggings. Both his exactions and his favors diminished
in quantity. Week after week passed by, and there was
no sign of any return to his savage courses.

Nothing annoyed him so much as a reference to his
former way of life, in the presence of the Princess Helena.
If her gentle, questioning eyes happened to rest
on him at such times, something very like a blush rose
into his face, and the babbler was silenced with a terribly
significant look. It was enough for her to say, when

he threatened an act of cruelty and injustice, “Father, is
that right?” He confusedly retracted his orders, rather
than bear the sorrow of her face.

The promise of another event added to his happiness:
Helena would soon become a mother. As the time
drew near he stationed guards at the distance of a verst
around the castle, that no clattering vehicles should pass,
no dogs bark loudly, nor any other disturbance occur
which might agitate the Princess. The choicest sweetmeats
and wines, flowers from Moscow and fruits from
Astrakhan, were procured for her; and it was a wonder
that the midwife performed her duty, for she had the fear
of death before her eyes. When the important day at last
arrived the slumber-flag was instantly hoisted, and no
mouse dared to squeak in Kinesma until the cannon announced
the advent of a new soul.

That night Prince Alexis lay down in the corridor, outside
of Helena's door: he glared fiercely at the nurse as she
entered with the birth-posset for the young mother. No
one else was allowed to pass, that night, nor the next.
Four days afterwards, Sasha, having a message to the
Princess, and supposing the old man to be asleep, attempted
to step noiselessly over his body. In a twinkle
the Prince's teeth fastened themselves in the serf's leg,
and held him with the tenacity of a bull-dog. Sasha
did not dare to cry out: he stood, writhing with pain,
until the strong jaws grew weary of their hold, and then
crawled away to dress the bleeding wound. After that,
no one tried to break the Prince's guard.

The christening was on a magnificent scale. Prince
Paul of Kostroma was godfather, and gave the babe the
name of Alexis. As the Prince had paid his respects to
Helena just before the ceremony, it may be presumed
that the name was not of his own inspiration. The father
and mother were not allowed to be present, but they
learned that the grandfather had comported himself throughout
with great dignity and propriety. The Archimandrite
Sergius obtained from the Metropolitan at Moscow a very
minute fragment of the true cross, which was encased in a
hollow bead of crystal, and hung around the infant's neck
by a fine gold chain, as a precious amulet.

Prince Alexis was never tired of gazing at his grandson
and namesake.

“He has more of his mother than of Boris,” he would
say. “So much the better! Strong dark eyes, like the
Great Peter,—and what a goodly leg for a babe! Ha!
he makes a tight little fist already,—fit to handle a whip,
—or” (seeing the expression of Helena's face)—“or a
sword. He'll be a proper Prince of Kinesma, my daughter,
and we owe it to you.”

Helena smiled, and gave him a grateful glance in return.
She had had her secret fears as to the complete conversion
of Prince Alexis; but now she saw in this babe a
new spell whereby he might be bound. Slight as was her
knowledge of men, she yet guessed the tyranny of long-continued
habits; and only her faith, powerful in proportion
as it was ignorant, gave her confidence in the result
of the difficult work she had undertaken.