第2章

Ermolai need have said nothing, for that matter, since Madame Matrena was aware of a stranger's presence in the sitting-room by the extraordinary attitude of an individual in a maroon frock-coat bordered with false astrakhan, such as is on the coats of all the Russian police agents and makes the secret agents recognizable at first glance.This policeman was on his knees in the drawing-room watching what passed in the next room through the narrow space of light in the hinge-way of the door.In this manner, or some other, all persons who wished to approach General Trebassof were kept under observation without their knowing it, after having been first searched at the lodge, a measure adopted since the latest attack.

Madame Matrena touched the policeman's shoulder with that heroic hand which had saved her husband's life and which still bore traces of the terrible explosion in the last attack, when she had seized the infernal machine intended for the general with her bare hand.

The policeman rose and silently left the room, reached the veranda and lounged there on a sofa, pretending to be asleep, but in reality watching the garden paths.

Matrena Petrovna took his place at the hinge-vent.This was her rule; she always took the final glance at everything and everybody.

She roved at all hours of the day and night round about the general, like a watch-dog, ready to bite, to throw itself before the danger, to receive the blows, to perish for its master.This had commenced at Moscow after the terrible repression, the massacre of revolutionaries under the walls of Presnia, when the surviving Nihilists left behind them a placard condemning the victorious General Trebassof to death.Matrena Petrovna lived only for the general.She had vowed that she would not survive him.So she had double reason to guard him.

But she had lost all confidence even within the walls of her own home.

Things had happened even there that defied her caution, her instinct, her love.She had not spoken of these things save to the Chief of Police, Koupriane, who had reported them to the Emperor.

And here now was the man whom the Emperor had sent, as the supreme resource, this young stranger - Joseph Rouletabille, reporter.

"But he is a mere boy!" she exclaimed, without at all understanding the matter, this youthful figure, with soft, rounded cheeks, eyes clear and, at first view, extraordinarily naive, the eyes of an infant.True, at the moment Rouletabille's expression hardly suggested any superhuman profundity of thought, for, left in view of a table, spread with hors-d'oeuvres, the young man appeared solely occupied in digging out with a spoon all the caviare that remained in the jars.Matrena noted the rosy freshness of his cheeks, the absence of down on his lip and not a hint of beard, the thick hair, with the curl over the forehead.Ah, that forehead - the forehead was curious, with great over-hanging cranial lumps which moved above the deep arcade of the eye-sockets while the mouth was busy - well, one would have said that Rouletabille had not eaten for a week.He was demolishing a great slice of Volgan sturgeon, contemplating at the same time with immense interest a salad of creamed cucumbers, when Matrena Petrovna appeared.

He wished to excuse himself at once and spoke with his mouth full.

"I beg your pardon, madame, but the Czar forgot to invite me to breakfast."Madame Matrena smiled and gave him a hearty handshake as she urged him to be seated.

"You have seen His Majesty?"

"I come from him, madame.It is to Madame Trebassof that I have the honor of speaking?""Yes.And you are Monsieur - ?"

"Joseph Rouletabille, madame.I do not add, 'At your service - because I do not know about that yet.That is what I said just now to His Majesty.""Then?" asked Madame Matrena, rather amused by the tone the conversation had taken and the slightly flurried air of Rouletabille.

"Why, then, I am a reporter, you see.That is what I said at once to my editor in Paris, 'I am not going to take part in revolutionary affairs that do not concern my country,' to which my editor replied, 'You do not have to take part.You must go to Russia to make an inquiry into the present status of the different parties.You will commence by interviewing the Emperor.' I said, 'Well, then, here goes,' and took the train.""And you have interviewed the Emperor?"

"Oh, yes, that has not been difficult.I expected to arrive direct at St.Petersburg, but at Krasnoie-Coelo the train stopped and the grand-marshal of the court came to me and asked me to follow him.

It was very flattering.Twenty minutes later I was before His Majesty.He awaited me! I understood at once that this was obviously for something out of the ordinary.""And what did he say to you?"

"He is a man of genuine majesty.He reassured me at once when Iexplained my scruples to him.He said there was no occasion for me to take part in the politics of the matter, but to save his most faithful servant, who was on the point of becoming the victim of the strangest family drama ever conceived."Madame Matrena, white as a sheet, rose to her feet.

"Ah," she said simply.

But Rouletabille, whom nothing escaped, saw her hand tremble on the back of the chair.

He went on, not appearing to have noticed her emotion:

"His Majesty added these exact words: 'It is I who ask it of you;I and Madame Trebassof.Go, monsieur, she awaits you'"He ceased and waited for Madame Trebassof to speak.

She made up her mind after brief reflection.

"Have you seen Koupriane?"