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however, not an easy matter to induce him to perform the ceremony;
our nationality, the haste, and the hour—it was now long past
midnight—aroused his suspicions, and he looked long and
searchingly at mademoiselle’s muffled figure. It was certain that I
would never have prevailed over his scruples without Mentchikof’s
signet ring. The sight of it had an immediate effect upon him, and
shook his resolution; he dared not offend the all-powerful favorite,
and in ignorance of the extent of the risk involved, he finally yielded a
reluctant consent to my persuasions, and went into the center of the
church for the ceremony. Najine was agitated, and clung to my wife
for support and encouragement, realizing that it was a decisive step,
and that she was imperilling her lover’s liberty and perhaps his life,
for if the czar’s mood changed it might be the simplest way to make
her a widow. M. de Lambert’s own face was pale, but with emotion
rather than anxiety, and he stood beside his bride, the picture of a
gallant soldier. Mademoiselle had thrown back her hood, and I
thought, as I looked at her in the light of the tapers that they held in
their hands, that I had never seen a bride more lovely in all the
splendid attire of the court, than this young girl in her long gray cloak
that fell from throat to feet, the fur-lined hood thrown back, and her
face fair and pale as a white lily against the gloom of the vast interior
of the cathedral. There were no lights behind us, only those before
the altar; and they served to increase the darkness of the nave while
illuminating the splendid golden iconostase, blazing with precious
jewels around the faces of Madonnas; above was the great dome,
about us were the mighty pillars with their images of saints and
martyrs, rising one above another, while on every side from the
golden background loomed the dark forms of pictured angels and
archangels; and on the pavement beneath our feet had knelt,
generation after generation, the Grand Dukes of Muscovy and the
Czars of all the Russias.
My wife and I and our attendants stood a little apart to witness the
ceremony, while the white-haired priest united the lovers. Softly
intoning the service, he placed two golden crowns upon their heads
and, clasping their hands in his, led them three times around the
great taper that he had lighted in the center of the church, and which
shone like a star. I looked at the picture that they made with strange
reflections: here was a young and beautiful woman willing to forego
the splendors of a throne to become the wife of a French soldier,
preferring his love to a power that might have been almost absolute
with the czar; for I had seen enough to be convinced that Peter loved
Najine with all the strength of his fierce nature, and that she could
have swayed him as no other woman ever would. How strange is the
course of destiny! Here was a woman who might have been
Empress of all the Russias and she preferred to be the wife of a
gallant gentleman of the French King’s household. After all, was not
her choice wise? For her undoubtedly, but for some women
impossible. There are souls that covet the slippery heights of power,
that long to rule the destinies of men, and there are women to whom
a lot of domestic obscurity would mean bitter unhappiness. I could
not imagine Catherine Shavronsky content with such a fate; she
would fight for power, while she lived, and wade through the mire of
personal degradation to obtain her goal. No cost would be too great,
no sacrifice too supreme, for her consuming ambition. Such were my
thoughts while I stood listening to the solemn words that made
Najine Zotof the wife of Guillaume de Lambert,—strange reflections,
no doubt, yet I believe that my wife’s were nearly identical, only that
she had a woman’s quick sympathy for the young girl’s emotion; a
woman’s appreciation of her purity and truth, which not even the
most splendid temptations of a court could sully or corrupt. As for the
two lovers themselves, they were too absorbed in each other, too
devoutly attentive to the priest, to be conscious of any world outside
their own, and I saw Zénaïde’s eyes moist with sympathy as she
watched them. The last words of the benediction spoken, M. de
Lambert turned to us with radiant eyes, and Najine threw herself into
my wife’s arms with a little sob of deep emotion.
“I owe all to you, monsieur,” M. de Lambert said warmly, as he
clasped my hand; “I have been a rash fool, and without you would
have failed miserably.”
“Nay,” I replied, smiling, “you were no fool in the one quarter where
wisdom was most desired, monsieur; and you owe much, too, to
Madame de Lambert.”
He smiled at the name, and glanced at Najine, who turned now to
me with her own sweet manner, thanking me for all my kindness to
her until I was myself embarrassed, feeling that I scarcely deserved
so much, and so turned it aside with a jest.
“Nay, madame,” I said, “do not thank me too much for making you
the wife of a poor man, when,” I added in a low tone, “you might
have been an empress.”
She looked up at her husband with a glance of proud affection.
“Not so, M. l’Ambassadeur,” she said with spirit. “I owe you the more
thanks, since no queen could be more happy than the wife of a
brave and loyal man.”
M. de Lambert bent his head gracefully and kissed her hand. “I am
more fortunate than an emperor,” he replied.
“You are both more fortunate,” Madame de Brousson said quietly; “a
loyal heart is richer than a crown, and you are happier in each other
than either emperors or kings.”
Meanwhile the priest who had performed the ceremony was eager to
be rid of us, and, knowing the perils of delay, I too became impatient,
and urged upon M. de Lambert the necessity of immediate
departure. We had previously decided upon the road that they
should travel, and I sent Touchet to Mentchikof with a verbal
message that would inform him that the deed was done, and nothing
now remained but to get the pair off as speedily as might be. Events
had crowded upon each other, but it was now near dawn, and it was
necessary for them to leave Moscow while the darkness remained.
Mentchikof had furnished me with a pass that would open the gates
for them, and I had previously arranged a change of horses for M. de
Lambert, anticipating the necessity of his departure, whether he
married mademoiselle or not. The priest hurried us out of the
cathedral, and Zénaïde and I rode with them a little way to a spot
where we could leave the carriage and go to our quarters with
Pierrot, while Touchet was to overtake them with the woman,
Neonila, and attend them on their hurried journey to France. Najine
parted from my wife with tears, for, after all, she had been sorely
tried, and was young and estranged from her kindred, and about to
go to a strange land to begin a new life far from family and friends;
yet so great and so trusting is the love of woman that it will endure all
things and believe all things for him who has won it. It touched both
Zénaïde and me to observe M. de Lambert’s tender appreciation of
her fears and her regrets, for he had that fine gentleness that
belongs to the greatest courage,—the tenderness that is a part of a
noble spirit. When my wife bade Najine adieu, she turned to him with
grave admonition.
“Be considerate of her, monsieur,” she said warmly, “for she is
leaving her guardians, her country, her friends, for your sake alone—
and there is no richer gift than a good woman’s heart.”
M. de Lambert took my wife’s hands in his, and pressed them to his
lips.
“Madame,” he replied, with a thrill of strong emotion in his voice, “I
love you for your own goodness and, most of all, for your love for
Najine. Fear not that I shall fail in appreciation, for, madame, I value
her love above all the riches of this world, as the one gift without
price.”
With these words we parted from them and stood watching the
carriage as it rolled away with Najine’s fair face outlined dimly in the
darkness. They went off together into the night upon a perilous and
uncertain journey, but as happy in their confidence as the most
fortunate of married pairs; and my wife and I watched and listened,
and then we looked up and saw the clouds drifting away and the
stars shining. It seemed a happy omen.
CHAPTER XXVI.
MADAME ZOTOF.