Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 053.djvu/749

 1843.]

A Passage in the Life of a Maitre-d'Armts.

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A PASSAGE IN THE LIFE OF A MAlTRE-D'ARMES.

THE excitement produced in St Petersburg on the occasion of a rash conspiracy which had broken out on the inauguration of the Emperor Ni- cholas, had ample time to die away before the sentence pronounced upon the conspirators became known. Six months elapsed, months of terrible sus- pense and anxiety to the friends of the unfortunate prisoners. At length, on the 14th of July, the decision of the high court of justice appeared in the St Petersburg Gazette. Six- and - thirty of the accused were condemned to death, the others to the mines and to exile. My friend and patron, Count Alexis W, was included in the for- mer list; but an act of clemency on the part of the Emperor tempered the severity of justice, and only five of the condemned were left for exe- cution, while the remaining thirty- one had their sentence commuted to banishment. My friend's name was, God be thanked ! among the latter.

On reading this announcement, I rushed into the street, and ran, with- out once stopping, until I reached the house of his beloved Louise. Of her, for the present, it will be sufficient to say, that she was a young, lovely, and intelligent Frenchwoman, whose sister I had known in Paris, and to whose patronage, from her position as a first- rate modiste in St Petersburg, I was much indebted. Between this truly amiable woman and the Count had for some years existed an attachment, not hallowed, indeed, by the church, but so long and deeply-rooted in the hearts of both, and so dignified by their mutual constancy and worth, as to have won the sympathies even of the Count's mother and sisters. To return, however, to Louise, whom I found with a copy of the Gazette in her hand, and bathed in tears, but they were tears of joy

" He is saved 1" cried she, on see- ing me enter ; " thank God and the Emperor!"

The first moment of joy over, Louise's thoughts turned to the mo- ther and sisters of her lover. She calculated that the Gazette would only leave St Petersburg- by the post, of

that night, and that by sending off an express immediately the news might reach Moscow twelve hours sooner. She asked me if I knew a trusty mes- senger, who could start without de- lay to bear the glad tidings to the Count's family. I had a Russian ser- vant, an intelligent active fellow, and I offered his services, which she ac- cepted with delight. The only diffi- culty was the passport, and through the kindness of the ex-chief of police, Monsieur de Gorgoli, it was procured in half an hour. At the expiration of that time the courier set off, with a thousand rubles in his pocket for tra- velling expenses.

He arrived at Moscow fourteen hours before the post ; fourteen hours of mortal anxiety saved to the Count's mother and sisters.

The letter he brought back, was one of those that seem written with a feather plucked from an angel's wing. The old Countess called Louise her daughter, and the young girls named her their sister. They entreated that, when the day was known on which the prisoners were to set off for their banishment, a courier might be des- patched to Moscow with the news. I accordingly told my servant to hold himself in readiness to start, to his no small satisfaction ; for the Count's mo- ther had given him a thousand rubles for his first trip, and he trusted the second might be equally well re- warded.

There had not been an execution in St Petersburg for sixty years, and the curiosity and excitement caused by the anticipation of this one, were pro- portionably great. The day was not fixed beforehand, and the inhabitants of the capital got up each morning, expecting to hear that the bloedy tra- gedy had been enacted. I had re- quested a young Frenchman attached to Marshal Marmont's special mission, and who was on that account likely to have early information, to let me know when it was to take place; and on the evening of the 23d of July, he sent me word that the marshal and his suite had been invited to repair by four o'clock the following morning to the hotel of the French embassy,