THE BALLET DANCER'S HUSBANDS
15
us and making martyrs of us, they sneer at our
misfortunes. The lion lies upon the ground
chained, muzzled, vanquished; he can defend
bimself no longer, so they insult him and kick
bim as they pass by.
1 ' You shudder ; this horrifies you, does it not?
but these are not the only wrongs that have
been committed against you. I might remind
you of confiscations so multitudinous that the
official registers have proved insufficient to
contain the enumeration of them, of the heavy
fines which have transferred most of our prop-
erty into the keeping of our oppressors, and of
the innumerable and arbitrary imprisonments
to which we have been compelled to submit.
As for the transportations, who among you has
not seen some member of his family torn from
his home to people the solitudes of Siberia or
the Caucasus? You all know Prince Roman
-Sanguszko, who, stripped of all his greatness,
was condemned to make the journey from Var-
sovie to the Polar sea on foot. I, too, have
made this journey, like so many others. There
on those desert steppes, the best of our citizens
still live in company with thieves and assassins.
They are buried alive in the mines; they are
perishing with cold and starvation.
" Several attempts have been made to regain
our freedom since 1831, but they could not suc-
ceed. The nation had not yet suffered enough.
The heroic citizens who engaged in this struggle
for independence were taken prisoners and suf-
fered a martyr's death. I will not enumerate
the scenes of violence with which you are
familiar; I will only mention that of Janon,
where the victims were scourged to death at the
foot of Kosciusko's monument.
" To-day our situation'has become unbearable.
A citadel has been erected in our capital, at
Polish expense, and when the czar came to in-
spect it, he said to our municipal government:
" ' If you persist in your dreams of an inde-
pendent nationality, I will raze Varsovie to the
ground at the very first sign of au outbreak.
Varsovie will be destroyed, and certainly it is
not I who will rebuild it!'
"And since that time we have been like ne-
groes, cowering under the lash, trembling,
frightened, afraid to lift our eyes, lest'Some one
should read our despair. We caunot travel
without permission; if we are absent, we are
recalled, and we must obey or our estates will
be confiscated. We are surrounded with spies;
they live under our very roofs and eat at our
table. A person who believes that he is con-
fiding his hopes to a friend, is often delivering
himself to his executioner. A thoughtless re-
mark, a refrain sung under the influence of in-
toxication, the slightest token of remembrance,
a coiffure, a ribbon,any sign of mourn ing, a book,
a scrap of newspaper found in our possession,
suffice as a pretext for tearing an imprudent or
unfortunate man from his home at midnight,
and he is seen no more. We have lost all con-
fidence in those around us: terror has become
our normal condition. Relatives and friends
watch and distrust one another; the ties of
friendship and of relationship are broken.
" It is time to put an end to this terrible state
of things. What nation has ever borne torture
and trials more stoically than we? But this
time we have reason to believe that this, our
final and supreme effort, will be successful. For
ten years we have been perfecting arrangements
that will insure the simultaneous uprising of
the entire populace. The day appointed is at
hand. Are you ready? Do any of you deem
it advisable to wait still longer? If any one
has any objection to make to the date appoint-
ed, let him speak! The salvation of the coun-
try depends upon our decision."
The count paused. Each man looked at his
neighbor, but there was no response. At last
Lewinski said:
"Poland maybe able to offer a successful
resistance to Russia, but should Austria and
Prussia unite with Russia, upon what resources
do you count?"
" France will not allow us to be crushed by
three nations," replied the count.   ¦
" Did France offer us any aid in 1830?"
" She could not aid us then.    She was in the
midst of a revolution at that time."
"Who uttered that cruel phrase: 'Quiet
reigns in Varsovie?' "
" Those words are, in my opinion, entirely
misconstrued. I never have believed that the
person who uttered the phrase meant or felt it.
I believe it was intended merely as a satire.
But, in any case, it does not prove that we do
not have the sympathy of France.   It represents
the opinion of one man, not that of a great
nation."
Lewinski reflected a moment, then he said :
"Do you remember Kosciusko's reply to the
Polish refugees who urged him to return from
America in order to plead our cause before the
Directory? It was this: ' I do not know why,
in spite of the sympathy which exists between
the French and the Poles, the French always
desert us in our most trying moments. Louis
d'Anjou and Henri III. were fatal to us. The
elections of the Princes de Conti and Longue-
ville were not sustained by Louis XV. The
Duke d'Aiguillon permitted the first dismem-
berment of the kingdom. In 1794, when he
forced the King of Prussia to separate from
the coalition which had been formed against
France, the Republic would lend us no aid in
spite of our solicitations. Why then should
we entertain any but vague hopes to-day?' "
"But since that time the bond that unites the
two nations has been cemented with blood," re-
plied the count. "In Egypt, Italy, San Do-
mingo, Spain, Russia, Germany, everywhere
that Napoleon planted the eagle of France, the
white eagle fluttered by its side. Our brothers
fell by the walls of Paris, exclaiming 'Vive
l'Empereur' with their latest breath. They
watched over the conqueror at the island of
Elba; they fought for him again at Waterloo.
They would have gone with him to Saint
Helena had they been allowed to do so. Ah!
such services are never forgotten. France is
not ungrateful; she is a generous nation. More-
over, there is a close similarity of character,
tastes, manners, and interests between the two
nations. We are justly styled the Frenchmen
of the North. Our nation would be a bulwark
of defense for France against the invasion of
the barbarian hordes. No, Lewinski, it cannot
be that France will fail us."
" If it was one of the Bonaparte family that
now reigned in France," said Lewinski, "I
should have some hope; but the Orleans family
will give us nothing more substantial than good
wishes."
"What does it matter?" interrupted the
count, " let us make the attempt. It is better
to die than to live as we are living."
"True!" said Lewinski; "still we should
choose our time with the utmost care. Do you
think the nation ripe for the revolt? That is
the point. Recollect that she has been under
the foreign yoke for seventy years. I am ready
to give my life, like yourself, but I could not
bear to be conscious of a fresh defeat, for each
failure tends to demoralize the country."
"Have you not the example of France be-
fore your eyes?" responded the count. " Has
she not likewise submitted to a foreign yoke?
Did she not suffer under English rule as terri-
bly as we have suffered under the Russian?
The English remained on French soil two
hundred years. Ah, well, the time came when
a woman was able to drive them away."
"Then we will attempt to drive away our
tyrants," cried Lewinski, rising, "and may
God judge us according to our works!"
At these words all the conspirators sprang
up; but the priest extended his hands warning-
ly, and when the tumult had subsided, he said,
gravely:
" Have you sufficiently considered the conse-
quences of what you are about to do?   I abjure
you to enter the combat in the name of the
Most High; but before you do so I wish you to
know the peril to which you expose yourself.
It is not only the risk of death that awaits you,
but exile and the confiscation of your property."
" We know this," they answered.
" While you are fighting for liberty," contin-
ued the priest, "your homes will be pillaged
and burned, your wives and your children will
be put to death."
" We know it," they responded once again.
" Nor is this all. Your enemies will slander
you through all Europe. Your purest actions
will be misconstrued. They will declare that
you have been vanquished when you have come
off victorious, in order to discourage the zeal of
your friends and prevent them from espousing
your cause; you will be called cowards, and
though you are soldiers who have taken up
arms for the defense of your country, you will
be stigmatized as Communists. Do you know
this?"
" We know it," they repeated.
"You will be obliged to endure fatigue, cold,
hunger and thirst; ""y°u wil1 be familiar with
every kind of humau misery; you will be oblig-
ed to spend the night in the open air exposed
to the rain and sleet; you will be compelled to
walk up to the cannon's mouth, equipped with
the rudest of weapons. If you are taken pris-
oners, they will assassinate you, and not one
among you all may live to transmit to posterity
the history of your heroic deeds."
"We know it! we know all this!" they ex-
claimed, as with one voice.
" And you are resolved?"
"Yes."
"All?"
"Everyone."
" Then come and receive the sacrament for
the dying, for as truly as there is a God we
who are assembled here will be the first to fall. "
As he spoke he drew aside a large curtain,
which concealed a rude altar, upon which stood
a crucifix, a chalice, and two silver candelabra,
brought from the neighboring church. All the
conspirators knelt. The priest, assisted by two
young men who acted as deacons, celebrated
mass; then, taking the chalice in his hand, he
distributed the consecrated elements among
those present. The chants, which still resound-
ed in the street, around the statue of the Virgin,
formed a musical accompaniment to this relig-
ious ceremony to which the attendant circum-
stances imparted an awe-inspiring solemnity.
When the rite was ended, the priest said:
"Now, my children, it is proper that you
should be informed of the day which we have
fixed upon."
"Isit near at hand?" asked one voice.
"Yes. The anniversary of the Resurrection
of our Saviour will be the day of our country's
resurrection."
The priest had scarcely uttered these words
than a cry was heard, followed by the fall of
a heavy body in the adjoining cellar. Every
one rushed toward the door. Count Ladislas
had snatched a caudle from the altar, and its
light revealed a lad who had fallen through the
window opening into the street, and who,
greatly terrified at meeting so many persons,
crouched in a corner like a wild animal caught
in a trap.
This youth was none other than the young
spy who had denounced Lewinski and his com-
panion to the police that same evening. Hav-
ing been ordered to watch near the monastery,
and having heard a murmur of voices on pass-
ing the window, he had leaned over the grating
to listen, and had fallen into the cellar.
In a second he was seized and dragged from
his hiding-place. Every one was threatening
him and trying to get a look at him. His feet
and head were bare, and his appearance was
poverty-stricken in the extreme. When he
spoke, and it was only with the greatest diffi-
culty that be could articulate a word he was so
overcome with terror, they discovered that he
was a Russian.
" He is a spy!" cried one voice.
"He will betray us!" cried another.
" He must die!" exclaimed a third.
But on hearing these words, a woman, who
had until now listened in silence, sprang for-
ward, and seized the boy's hand.
It was the Countess Wanda.
"Fear nothing, little one," she said. Then
turning to the excited men who were watching
her, she said :
"AVould you begin your holy work with a
murder?"
"The deliverance of our country depends
upon it," said Lewinski. " His life is of slight
consequence in comparison with the blood that
will flow if he speaks. Surrender him to us;
he must die!"
" He will not speak," said the countess.
" Whoisvill prevent it?"
"Iwiî,n"
"How?"
The countess turned to the trembling lad.
' ' Where is your mother?" she inquired.
"I do not know."
" Have you no mother?" she asked.
"No," he replied, hanging his head.
"No father?"
"No."
" Who takes care of you, then?"
" No one."
" Do you wish me to be your mother, little
one?" asked the countess gently.
The child looked at her in terror. He either
thought that she was mocking him or he did
not understand.
" I will be your mother," said Wanda, and
taking him by the hand she left the cellar and
went' up to her elegant hotel, while the con-
' spirators regained the crypt of the church, where