By Nevas Waters.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIX, Issue 81, 3 April 1908, Page 6

By Nevas Waters.

Being *n Episode of the Secret History-of Alexnder-the First, Csar of All the Baaeme.

JOHN R. CARLING.

__ ADTHOB OF ,*"■■■ BHADOW Or TBS CZAB." "THE TlKEHtfa SKUU* """THB TTEISD KCSORE. , . $ ■/■ • XXXI. , Emioldened by these words, and mo'

"I BELONG TO WILFRID, NOT TO v YOU."

Emboldened by these words, and moved by a sudden impulse,' Marie kissed Wilfrid, placed her'arms about his neck, and, facing the Czar, said,' a- proud light shining from her eyes'— •

There -was a-spell of terrible silence, followed by an impulsive cry from the Czar;--" <■" -..' • • -..'-. "Marie!" More dead that alive, the Czarina leaned against the side of the alcove, her eyes set with a dreadful stare upon the face of the man whom she could not think of as her husband. To her he seemed a veritable stranger. And yet he had the right to take her from Wilfrid and do with her as he listed; and as her dazed mind realised this there broke from her bloodless lips a shivering, mournful | cry as of a soul for ever lost. As for the Czar, his mind was filled with consternation, rage, ana. embarrassment. Though he saw before him his missing wife secreted in an alcove with her lover, he was conscious of the ludicrousness of posing as an injured husband, seeing that he was himself caught in the very act of making love to Pauline. The latter was scarcely less agitated than Marie herself. The deception practiced by her during the preceding month was now laid bare to Wilfrid. She had hoped, by making a voluntary confession that night, to dull the edge of his anger. Too late now! After her first hasty glance at the alcove she stood with averted eyes, fearing to meet his reproachful gaze. Of the four, Wilfrid was the least embarrassed, though he knew not how to act in this dilemma.

"I belong to Wilfrid—not to you!"

Alexander -drew his sword with intent to wreak vengeance upon the man -who had stolen his wife's heart.

Pauline, trembling all over, threw herself in the Czar's'way.

"No, no!—for God's sake—your Majesty—you are risking your life!- Consider your rank—Sasha!"

Putting aside her detaining grasp, Alexander, his blade gleaning in his hand, advanced towards the alcove amid the screams of the two women.

With a movement, as swift as it was gentle, Wilfrid detached himself from Marie's arms, placed her behind him, drew his own blade and assumed an attitude of defence.

• "Leave this apartment to mc and to the Empress!" cried Alexander, pointing with his sword the way Wilfrid should" go-

"If the Empress bids mc," replied Wilfrid.

But no such bidding came from the white lips of the Empress, who had sunk half-fainting 'upon the seat within the alcove.

Wilfrid's words, the ; Czarina's attitude, put the finishing touches to the Emperor's fury. With a cry of "Look:to"yourself!" he rushed' upon the defiant Englishman, but, on the very point of making a savage lunge, Alexander stopped short; his sword dropped; and then, his face flushing purple and his eyes rolling jin their orbits, he fell prostrate on the floor. CHAPTER XXXH. FLIGHT. Startled at the strange turn of events, the three spectators stood, staring in doubt and fear at the unconscious figure. Was this collapse the stroke of death? Before they had time to ascertain for themselves there came an insistent knocking at the door, as of someone attracted by the screaming. Wilfrid walked forward and, opening the door just jwide enough to ascertain who the newcomer was, beheld Beauvais standing without. "The very man we want," he said, pulling the surprised doctor within and locking the door. "The Czar requires your aid." Beauvais, being a wise man, spent no time in asking irrelevant questions. Hurrying forward he knelt down, and examined the body of the fallen emperor. "An apoplectic stroke Takes after his father Paul," said Beauvais, as he loosened the Czar's military collar and bade Wi'frid bringrfcirn yar. carafe of water. " lB S& s sZ io JF?V:', '.asked"-Pauline. «TffiPß|_? l . Bu^S?n^rPe ;tuows." "I*Mr*OTJg< a will it-he 'before consciousness returns ?" she continued. "I cannot say. He may recover in an hour, in two hours, five; perhaps more. It is impossible to tell. Let mc have help, Baroness." With Wilfrid's aid Beauvais laid the Czar upon the ottoman, while Pauline summoned two maids to assist the doc- i tor's ministrations. This done she gently drew Wilfrid and the Empress to a small ante-room and, with downcast eyes and humble air, knelt before the latter. "Your Majesty " she began. "Majesty!" exclaimed the other. It frightened her to see Pauline suppliant at her feet. "Yes, for you are in truth the Czarina " j "Is this a conspiracy to mock mc, or is it really the truth? I cannot—l cannot believe it. It is so strange that I—that I should be—Ah! Would to heaven that I were not! What do I gain by the change? . Would that I were dead!" she murmured with a look of unutterable anguish. "O Wilfrid, Wilfrid, we are lost to each other." If Pauline ever felt remorse, she felt it at that moment as she contemplated these two, with whose affections she had wantonly sported for the sake of her own ambition. "Yes, reproach mc," she said, observing Wilfrid's grave eyes set upon her. "1 deserve your bitterest censure. My only excuse is that it was done for France—for France. I have acted wickedly, yet I repented, but—but it was too late! And I, too, have suffered—"

By the law of God and of man Marie belonged to her husband. Yet a rapid review of the facts, in particular the Czar's illicit love-making, made Wilfrid hesitate to resign her unconditionally to a man whom she abhorred, and who had avowed his intention of immuring her for life within a convent.

The Czar was the first to break the silence.

"An interesting tableau!" he said with a bitter sneer. "The guilty wife and her paramour hiding from the husband's gaze."

Wilfrid's eyes flashed dangerously, though he was compelled to admit that the accusation was excusable in the circumstances.

"A word of caution, Sire. We Courtenays are not accustomed to take insults, even-from emperors." -. •

"Brave words from the hero that fled the duel!"

"There was no fleeing on the part of Lord Courtenay," said Pauline. "He would have met your Majesty, but when on his way to the rendezvous he was seized by my orders and brought to Runo."

"An act of treason!" commented the Czar, the autocrat asserting himself above the lover.

"It was saving your life," was Pauline-3 answer, a tacit assumption of Wilfrid's superior swordsmanship that galled Alexander's vanity. "Stand aside from my wife!" he cried angrily to YYufric.

"Your wife! How can that be when but a few minutes ago you disowned her?"

The charge was true, and the Czar could not deny i„

Scarcely knowing what to say or do in his embarrassment he looked hard at his wife, she at him. Usually so loving she now seemed a veritable piece of marble; it was impossible to understand so strange a change. Pauline in refusing his love had snown some pity for him, but Marie, in holding aloof, displayed' not a trace of affection or regret; her manner was as though she had never known him.

As he looked, a ne v feeling stole over his heart; four weeks* absence seemed to have made her more beautiful. With that inconsistency characteristic of human nature he now began to desire what but a short time ago he had been willing to discard.

Whether this change of feeling was due to Marie's very coldness, or to Pauline's rejection of him, or to jealousy of Wilfrid, or to all three causes working together, certain it is that Alexander found his affection for Marie, long-sus-pended, beginning to revive; if she had made but one stop towards him he would have been willing to receive her. It was impossible to believe that he had lost her for. ever. He wished that Pauline and Wilfrid were not present that ne might take her by the hand and speak the tender words of the old days; surely, then, her hardness .would relent?

An impulsive step forward on his part caused the Czarina to cling shudderingly to her new protector.

She swayed and would have fallen had not the Czarina held her up by the wrists.. For a few moments they continued in this attitude, till the Czarina, pitying Pauline's unhappy look, stooped and kissed her.

"Wilfrid!" she gasped. "Remember your promise. Do not—do not give mc up to this man. I shall die if he touch mc! God forgive me—if I do wrong! I cannot—l cannot let you go. 1 am yours—yours only."

"I forgive you," she murmured, raising the other.

The Czar stood perfectly confounded at his wife's declaration.

"Alas! I cannot forgive myself," murmured Pauline bitterly. ■

"She calls him 'Wilfrid'!. Says she is 'his alone'! Good God! is this the language of innocence?"

An embarrassing silence followed, broken at length by Marie.

"She is not in her right mind," intervened Pauline hastily. "She "

"If I am Empress," she said with a sad smile, addressing Wilfrid, "show your loyalty by doing my will. Aid mc to escape. the Czar recovers he will order your arrest and mine. I will not lose my liberty. I must fly at once." Wilfrid was quite alive to the necessity for her immediate flight. Her relation with the Czar was, in his opinion, a question to be decided at some other time; for the present she must not remain at Runo while the Czar's anger and jealousy were still hot upon him.

But the Emperor cut her short before she could make the necessary explanation.

"It is easy to see that. He has corrupted her nature."

"The Czarina," said Wilfrid, though it grated upon him to use the title, "has lived at Runo as purely as a vestal maiden. My word of honour upon it." In view of Marie's attitude at that moment the Czar might be pardoned for declining to accept Wilfrid's statement.

Yet how could he give her aid when police and spies—as the Czar had said— were everywhere on the look-out for him? Should he be recognised, not only his own flight, but that of the Empress would be frustrated.

"Your word! Yours!" he retorted with ineffable disdain.

"Mine," returned Wilfrid. "And never yet did Courtenay speak falsely, or— sign a placard that hi* father had died of apoplexy!"

"Your Majesty," said he after awhile, "the only asylum that I can think of is the British Embassy, which we can reach by water along the Neva and Fontanka Canal, and thus perchance elude the police. Lord St. Helens will be honoured by your confidence. Within the Embassy you may remain ' concealed till some plan be devised for your escape, or till friends shall have effected a reconciliation between you and the Czar." Marie shivered. "Even supposing your presence at the Embassy should become known, you cannot be removed by force nor can the Czar enter without leave! You will, in fact, be able to treat him on equal terms."

"By heaven, you die for that saying!" cried Alexander, clapping his hand upon his sword-hilt.

"Faith! 'tis hard if one must die for speaking the.truth!"

"Get you from the side of that lady,'' said the Czar, nis eyes blazing with wrath.

"Do not leave mc, Wilfrid!" murmured Marie.

"The Czar bids, but the Czarina forbids!" returned Wilfrid. "Honour enjoins mc to obey the lady."

"By what right do you constitute yourself her champion?"

... "By the right,of every man to protect a woman, even the wife of another, from injustice."

Marie caught eagerly at Wilfrid's suggestion. To get away at once was her one desire. Pauline, too, approved of the scheme.

"You_ have threatened an innocent lady with life-long imprisonment in a convent. From such fate as that it shall be my duty to defend her."

"A boat shall be ready at Silver Point within ten minutes," she said as she gave an order to that effect.

(To be continued daily.)