Page:The Czar, A Tale of the Time of the First Napleon.djvu/178

168 "That was nobly done, Ivan, and I thank you most heartily.—By the way, your friend Pope Yefim has made himself famous."

"How? By remaining in the city?"

"By daring to celebrate, with a solemn service, the Czar's coronation day, under the very beard of Napoleon. We have all heard of it."

"He never supposed he was doing anything extraordinary. The Prior of the Dominican Monastery, whom he consulted, agreed that he was right. I can tell you, Adrian, that good man himself was by no means in love with his countrymen. Though his religion is their own, and he kept his church open the whole time of the Occupation, scarcely a Frenchman darkened its doors, except a few officers of noble birth belonging to the old régime. As a rule, the soldiers of Napoleon are infidels. Sometimes, out of curiosity, they would stray into our churches. On the coronation day, a poor young fellow, a mere lad, stole into Pope Yefim's church, and was near paying dearly for his rashness; for a party of mujiks set upon him after the service, taking him for a spy. They might have killed him; but—strangest chance of all—my friend Michael, whose thoughts by day and dreams by night are only of slaying Nyemtzi, interposed to save this one, saying he knew him, and had received a kindness at his hands. I spoke to the youth, and he told me he had been religiously brought up, and said the very sound of a church-bell, and the sight of men kneeling in prayer, seemed to do him good, though he could not understand a word of the service."

"A queer taste," said Adrian, shrugging his shoulders. Then to his orderly, who had just entered the tent, "Bring us the best supper you can get, and more champagne."

"Adrian," asked Ivan, "where is Leon?"

Adrian's face assumed a sorrowful expression. "Gone to