The fencing master, p.8
THE FENCING MASTER, page 8
“‘I am on the point of embarking on an insane enterprise, which will take me out of myself, and perhaps endanger not only my future but even my present existence. Send me word that the time may come when you will love me; thus will my life be enlightened by a ray of hope and I will remain unfettered.’
“I imagined that this letter had been written with the idea of frightening me and, like the others, it was never answered.
“After an interval of four months, the following came to hand: — ’ I am returning at once, my first thought is for you. I love you as much, nay, even more than when I left you. You can no longer save my life, but you may be able to make me love it.’
“His persistence, the mystery concealed in the last two letters, the tone of sadness which pervaded them, determined me to send an answer, not indeed by a letter such as the Count was doubtless hoping for, but with a few words of consolation, and yet I concluded by telling him that I did not love him and never should love him.
“‘It seems strange to you,’ interrupted Louise, ‘and I see you smile; virtue appears to you inconsistent with poverty. Remember it was with me a matter of education too. My poor mother, left an Officer’s widow, without any means, had reared Rose and me very carefully. When sixteen years old we lost her and with her the tiny pension, our only source of livelihood. My sister became a florist and I a dressmaker. My sister fell in love with your friend and yielded to him.
“I impute no crime to her; I think it quite right to bestow one’s person where the heart is already given. But I had not yet met the man I could love and as you see I posed as an innocent woman without really meriting the distinction.
“Meanwhile New Year’s day came round. Among the Russians New Year’s day is a great holiday You have not seen one yet but you will very shortly. For this day at least, the nobleman and the peasant, the princess and the dressmaker, the general and the private, fraternise. The Czar welcomes his subjects; twenty-five thousand invitations are distributed more or less by chance through the streets of St. Petersburg.
“At nine in the evening the Winter Palace is thrown open and the twenty-five thousand guests pour through the saloons of the Imperial residence, which for the remainder of the year is barred to all but the aristocracy. The men appear in dominos or fancy dress; the women in their ordinary costumes.
“Madame Xavier had given us tickets, so we decided to make up a party for the Palace. Such a party was quite practicable, for incredible though it may sound, in spite of the immense crowd there was no disorder, not an insult, not even a theft, though one might search in vain for a soldier.
The respect inspired by the Emperor extends to all classes and the most modest girl is as safe there as in her mother’s bedroom.
“We had arrived about half an hour and were so crowded in the White Drawing room, that we did not think it possible it could contain another soul, when suddenly the orchestras in every room struck up the Polonaise. Loud cries of ‘The Emperor, the Emperor,’ were heard on all sides. His Majesty appeared in the doorway, leading the dance with the English Ambassadress and followed by the whole Court.
“Everyone presses forward, then the crowd gives way and is divided by a clear space ten feet wide; the throng of dancers sweep along, — a torrent of diamonds, feathers, velvet and perfume. The cortège once past, everyone pushes, struggles and presses forward. Cut off from my two companions, I try in vain to join them. I catch a momentary glimpse of them borne away by the crowd, and almost immediately I lose sight of them. In vain I search for them; I cannot pierce the human wall which separates us, and I am left alone in the midst of twenty-five thousand people.
“At this supreme moment when utterly distracted I was about to seek protection from the first man I met, a domino approached me and I recognized Alexis.
“‘What, alone? ‘said he.
“‘Oh! It is you, Count,’ I cried seizing his arm, so terribly frightened was I at finding myself alone in such a crowd. ‘I beg you to take me away and order a carriage that I may go home.’
“‘Allow me to escort you there and I shall be grateful to fortune for granting me more than all my solicitations have procured.’
“‘No, I beg you, a public conveyance’
“‘It is impossible to procure a public conveyance at this time of night, everyone is arriving, none departing. Stay for an hour at least.’
“‘No, I want to go.’
“‘Then make use of my sleigh, I will get my people to escort you and since you do not wish to see me, well, you will not see me.’
“‘My goodness! I would rather’
“‘Listen, you must take one of these alternatives, either stay here, or accept my sleigh, for I presume you are not thinking of walking, seeing you are alone and considering how cold it is.’
“‘Very well, take me to your carriage.’
“Alexis at once obeyed. However there was such a throng of people that we were more than an hour in getting to the door which opened on to the Admiralty Square. The Count summoned his servants and the next minute a stylish looking sleigh, which was in reality nothing but the framework of a closed coupé drew up before the door.
“I got in immediately giving Madame Xavier’s address; the Count took my hand and kissed it, shut the door, uttered a few polite words in Russian and I was whirled away.
“A moment later the horses seemed to double their speed and the driver attempted to check them in vain; I tried to cry out, but my shouts were drowned by those of the coachman. I attempted to open the door, but behind the glass there was a kind of blind and I could not find the spring. After further useless attempts I fell exhausted on the seat of the carriage, convinced that the horses had run away and that we should be dashed to pieces at the corner of the street.
“At the end of a quarter-of-an-hour however they pulled up, the door was opened and I was so distracted that I threw myself out of the carriage; but, now that all danger was over, my legs gave way beneath me and I thought I was going to be ill.
“At this supreme moment, a shawl was thrown over my head and I felt myself being laid on a couch. With an effort I got rid of the covering and found myself in a strange room with Count Alexis standing near me.
“‘You have deceived me,’ I cried, ‘this is scandalous, sir,’
‘Pardon me,’ said he. ‘If I had allowed this opportunity to escape me, I should never have obtained another. For one moment at least in my life I shall be able to tell you’
“You shall tell me nothing, Count,’ I cried jumping up, ‘and you are going to order them to take me home immediately, or you are no gentleman.’
“‘Give me a single hour, in the name of Heaven, to talk to you, to look at you. It is so long since I spoke to you or saw you.’
“‘Not a minute, not a second. Understand, you are to let me go at once, this instant.’
“‘Will neither my adoration, nor my love, nor my prayers’
“‘No, no, no!’
“‘Then listen to me. I see that you do not love me, that you never will love me. Your letter gave me a faint hope, but your letter has deceived me; well and good, you condemn me, I accept the verdict. I ask for five minutes only; if at the end of five minutes you demand your liberty you shall have it.’
“‘You swear that I shall be free at the end of five minutes.’
“‘I swear it.’
“‘Then, speak,’
“‘I am rich, Louise, I am of noble birth, I have a mother who adores me and two sisters devoted to me; from my childhood I have been waited upon by servants eager to obey my slightest wish and yet in spite of everything I am stricken with the disease which victimises so many of my countrymen; an old man at twenty, for having obtained my majority too young, I am tired of everything, sick of life, bowed to death.’
“‘This disease has become the Nemesis of my life, no balls, no festivities, no illusions, no pleasures can tear down the leaden pall which separates me from the world. War with its intoxications, its dangers, its fatigues, might have some effect on my mind possibly, but the whole of Europe is wrapt in a profound slumber and there is no Napoleon now to awaken it.’
“‘I was weary of everything and was about to set out on my travels when I caught sight of you. and I don’t mind confessing that my first feeling for you was little more than a whim; I wrote to you, supposing that I had merely to write for you to yield. Contrary to my expectation, you gave no answer; I wrote again, for your silence piqued me; what I took at first for a mere ephemeral fancy, had developed into real and lasting love. I did not attempt to combat the feeling, for fighting against myself merely weakens and depresses me. I wrote to you that I was leaving and I left.
“‘Once more at Moscow I hunted up my old comrades; they found me gloomy, unsettled, bored, and credited me with ideals to which I could lay no claim. They thought I was chafing under the yoke which oppresses all of us, they mistook my protracted reveries for philosophical reflections; they pondered over my speeches and my intervals of silence; then supposing that my sadness concealed some deep secret, they took this secret to be the love of liberty and offered to let me join in a conspiracy against the Emperor.’
“‘Great Heavens! ‘I cried in dismay, ‘of course you refused?’
“‘I wrote to you; my answer to them depended on this last chance; if you loved me, my life would no longer be my own but yours and I should have no right to dispose of it. If you did not answer me, I should know that you did not love me, and what became of me would be a matter of indifference. A conspiracy would be a diversion. It would end in the scaffold if we were discovered; but as the idea of putting an end to my existence had occurred to me more than once, it would be something to escape the trouble of committing suicide.’
“‘My God! can it be possible that you really thought that.’
“‘I am telling you the truth, Louise, and here is a proof of it. Come! ‘added he rising and taking a sealed packet from a small table, ‘I could not know that I was going to meet you to-day; I did not expect even to see you again. Read this payer.’
“‘Your will!’
“‘Made at Moscow, the day after I joined the conspiracy.’
“‘My goodness! you left me a fortune of thirty thousand roubles.’
“Since you would not love me during my life I was desirous that at least you should have a pleasant souvenir of me after my death.’
“‘But as regards the conspiracy, your death or suicide, you have given up all that?’
“‘Louise, you are at perfect liberty to depart, the five minutes are up; but you are my last hope, you alone can make life supportable. When once you have gone from here you will never return; I give you my word of honour, as a gentleman, that when once the street door is closed behind you I shall blow out my brains.’
“‘You must be mad.’
“‘No, I am only bored.’
“‘You would not do such a thing.’
“‘Try me.’
“‘Sir, in the name of Heaven.’
“‘Listen Louise, I have struggled against it to the bitter end. Yesterday I made up my mind to finish it; to-day I met you again, I decided I would throw one more stake, in the hope of winning the game. I risked my life on the chance of happiness; I have lost, I will pay.’
“If Alexis had said such things in the delirium of fever I should not have believed them; but he spoke in his natural voice with his usual composure, in fact his tone was rather gay than sad; so that I began to think that he was indeed speaking the truth and that I should be obliged to give in. I looked at the handsome young man so full of life who wanted but me to complete his happiness. I called to mind his adoring mother and his merry-hearted sisters; I fancied I saw him bleeding and disfigured, while they wept in agony, I put it to myself, what right had poor insignificant I to shatter such a brilliant career, such high hopes. I must confess it, such devotion began to bear its fruit.
“I too, in the silence of the night, in the depth of my heart, had sometimes thought of this young man, who never had me out of his thoughts. On the point of leaving him for ever I saw more clearly into my soul. I discovered that I loved him and I remained.
“Alexis had spoken the truth. His life had hitherto lacked one thing — love. For two years now he has been in love with me, and he is happy or appears to be so. He has abandoned the foolish conspiracy which he entered solely from weariness of existence. Vexed at the restrictions imposed upon our meetings by my position at Madame Xavier’s, unknown to me he rented this shop for me For the last eighteen months I have been living altogether a different life, taking up the studies I dropped in my youth, such as a distinguished man expects to find in the woman he loves, when alas! he has ceased to love her. This accounts for the change you have noticed when comparing me with my position. You must admit I did right to stop you, and only a flirt could have acted otherwise; since I love him, I cannot love you.”
“I do, and I see too whose influence you relied upon to second my petition.”
“I have already invoked his aid.”
“Very good, but I refuse to avail myself of it. It is all very well, but my pride forbids.”
“Come, do you want us to quarrel, and never see each other again?”
“That would be cruel, for I know no one here but you.”
“Well, look upon me as a sister and let me act.”
“You wish it.”
“I insist upon it.”
At that moment the door opened and Count Alexis Vaninkov appeared on the threshold.
The Count was a handsome young man of twenty-five or twenty-six, fair in complexion and of slender build, half Tartar and half Turk, who held the position of Lieutenant in the Horse Guards. This privileged corps had been for a long time under the direct command of the Czarevitch Constantine, the brother of the Emperor Alexander, and at that period Viceroy of Poland. In accordance with the custom of the Russian officers, who never lay aside their military dress, Alexis was in uniform and displayed on his breast the crosses of St. Vladimir and of Alexander Nevski, and on his neck the third-class order of Stanislas-Augustus. At sight of him Louise rose with a smile.
“Welcome, Count,” said she, “we were talking of you, allow me to present to your Excellency the fellow-countrymen of whom I have spoken, and on whose behalf I entreat your patronage.” I bowed and the Count replied with a graceful inclination, and then spoke with a wonderfully pure accent, spoilt perhaps by a tinge of affectation.
“My dear Louise,” said he, kissing her hand, “I fear my patronage is of little account, but I can give your friend some useful advice. My travels have taught me to gauge the good and the bad side of my fellow-countrymen, and I can give your protégé many hints; meanwhile I will at once enable him to start a connection by offering him two pupils, my brother and myself.”
“That is a beginning, but it is not enough; did you not say something about the post of fencing master in some regiment?”
“Yes, but since yesterday I have been told that there are already two fencing masters in St. Petersburg, one a Frenchman, the other a Russian. Your compatriot, my dear Sir,” added Vaninkov, turning towards me, “is called Valville I will not speak of his accomplishments; he has succeeded in pleasing the Emperor, who has raised him to the rank of Major and decorated him with several orders; he is fencing-master of the Imperial Guards. My fellow-countryman is a splendid fellow, who possesses no other fault in our eyes than that of being a Russian, but this is not regarded as such in the eyes of the Emperor. His Majesty, to whom he formerly gave lessons, has made him a Colonel and presented him with the third-class order of St. Vladimir. You do not wish to begin by making either of these two your enemy, I presume?”
“Certainly not,” I replied. “Very well then, you must not appear to be poaching on their preserves; announce an assault-at-arms, give your performance, and let it be evident that you are up to your work. Then, after your reputation has been noised abroad, I will give you a humble letter of recommendation to the Czarevitch Constantine, who for the last day or two has been staying at his castle at Strelna, and I trust that at my request he will deign to forward your petition to his Majesty.”
“Well, that is splendid,” said Louise, delighted at the Count’s friendliness towards me; “you see I spoke the truth.”
“Yes, and the Count is the kindest of patrons, just as you are the most delightful of women. I will leave you to entertain him in this happy frame of mind, and to prove that I have taken his advice to heart, I am going to draw up my programme this very evening.”
“Excellent,” said the Count. “Now, excuse me, Sir, but I want a little bit of advice on local matters. Since I am to give an assault-at-arms to make myself known and not for the sake of the money, ought I to issue free invitations as if to a party, or would it be better to make a charge as if for a show?”
“Oh! make them pay, my dear Sir, or no one will come. Make the tickets ten roubles each, and send me a hundred; I will undertake to get rid of them.”
No one could have been more gracious. My ill feeling towards him was at an end, so saying good-bye I left the house.
Next day my notices were distributed and a week later I had given my assault, in which neither Valville nor Siverbruck had a share, but only some amateurs, Poles, Russians and French. It is not my intention to give a description of my exploits or the number of the cuts I gave and received. Suffice it to say, that during the performance the Comte de la Ferronayes, our ambassador, engaged me to teach his son, the Vicomte Charles, and during the next two days I received most encouraging letters, and among others one from the Duke of Wurtemburg, who was anxious for me to teach his sons, while the Count Bobrinski enrolled himself as a pupil.
When I paid my next visit Count Vaninkov said to me, “Well, everything has gone splendidly. Your reputation is established, it only needs recognition from the Emperor to consolidate it. Look, here is a letter addressed to the aide-de-camp of the Czarevitch; he has already heard of you. Present yourself boldly before him with your petition to the Emperor; flatter his military vanity and get him to countersign the paper.”
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