Michael, we dare not lose Vera. It is her whim to let this boy live. We can keep him here to-night. Up to this he has not betrayed us.
[Tramp of soldiers outside, knocking at door.]
voice
Open in the name of the Emperor!
·43· michael
He has betrayed us. This is your doing, spy!
president
Come, Michael, come. We have no time to cut one another’s throats while we have our own heads to save.
voice
Open in the name of the Emperor!
president
Brothers, be masked all of you. Michael, open the door. It is our only chance.
[Enter General Kotemkin and soldiers.]
general
All honest citizens should be in their own houses at an hour before midnight, and not more than five people have a right to meet privately. Have you not noticed the proclamation, fellow?
michael
Ay, you have spoiled every honest wall in Moscow with it.
vera
Peace, Michael, peace. Nay, sir, we knew it not. We are a company of strolling players ·44· travelling from Samara to Moscow to amuse His Imperial Majesty the Czar.
general
But I heard loud voices before I entered. What was that?
vera
We were rehearsing a new tragedy.
general
Your answers are too honest to be true. Come, let me see who you are. Take off those players’ masks. By St. Nicholas, my beauty, if your face matches your figure, you must be a choice morsel! Come, I say, pretty one; I would sooner see your face than those of all the others.
president
O God! if he sees it is Vera, we are all lost!
general
No coquetting, my girl. Come, unmask, I say, or I shall tell my guards to do it for you.
alexis
Stand back, I say, General Kotemkin!
general
Who are you, fellow, that talks with such a ·45· tripping tongue to your betters? [Alexis takes his mask off.] His Imperial Highness the Czarevitch!
omnes
The Czarevitch! It is all over!
president
He will give us up to the soldiers.
michael
[To Vera.] Why did you not let me kill him? Come, we must fight to the death for it.
vera
Peace! he will not betray us.
alexis
A whim of mine, General! You know how my father keeps me from the world and imprisons me in the palace. I should really be bored to death if I could not get out at night in disguise sometimes, and have some romantic adventure in town. I fell in with these honest folks a few hours ago.
general
But, Your Highness——
·46· alexis
Oh, they are excellent actors, I assure you. If you had come in ten minutes ago, you would have witnessed a most interesting scene.
general
Actors, are they, Prince?
alexis
Ay, and very ambitious actors, too. They only care to play before kings.
general
I’ faith, Your Highness, I was in hopes I had made a good haul of Nihilists.
alexis
Nihilists in Moscow, General! with you as head of the police? Impossible!
general
So I always tell your Imperial father. But I heard at the council to-day that that woman Vera Sabouroff, the head of them, had been seen in this very city. The Emperor’s face turned as white as the snow outside. I think I never saw such terror in any man before.
·47· alexis
She is a dangerous woman, then, this Vera Sabouroff?
general
The most dangerous in all Europe.
alexis
Did you ever see her, General?
general
Why, five years ago, when I was a plain Colonel, I remember her, Your Highness, a common waiting girl in an inn. If I had known then what she was going to turn out, I would have flogged her to death on the roadside. She is not a woman at all; she is a sort of devil! For the last eighteen months I have been hunting her, and caught sight of her once last September outside Odessa.
alexis
How did you let her go, General?
general
I was by myself, and she shot one of my horses just as I was gaining on her. If I see her again I shan’t miss my chance. The Emperor has put twenty thousand roubles on her head.
·48· alexis
I hope you will get it, General; but meanwhile you are frightening these honest people out of their wits, and disturbing the tragedy. Good night, General.
general
Yes; but I should like to see their faces, Your Highness.
alexis
No, General; you must not ask that; you know how these gipsies hate to be stared at.
general
Yes. But, Your Highness——
alexis
[Haughtily.] General, they are my
