"I do not confess; I simply affirm that Natacha had an understanding with the Nihilists.""Who plotted their abominable attacks against the ex-Governor of Moscow.""Sire, since Natacha had an understanding with the Nihilists, it was not to kill her father, but to save him.And the project of which you hold here the proofs, but of whose character you are unaware, is to end the attacks of which you speak, instantly.""You say that."
"I speak the truth, Sire."
"Where are the proofs? Show me your papers.""I have none.I have only my word."
"That is not sufficient."
"It will be sufficient, once you have heard me.""I listen."
"Sire, before revealing to you a secret on which depends the life of General Trebassof, you must permit me some questions.Your Majesty holds the life of the general very dear?""What has that to do with it?"
"Pardon.I desire that Your Majesty assure me on that point.""The general has protected my throne.He has saved the Empire from one of the greatest dangers that it has ever run.If the servant who has done such a service should he rewarded by death, by the punishment that the enemies of my people prepare for him in the darkness, I should never forgive myself.There have been too many martyrs already!""You have replied to me, Sire, in such a way that you make me understand there is no sacrifice - even to the sacrifice of your a'mour-propre the greatest a ruler can suffer - no sacrifice too dear to ransom from death one of these martyrs.""Ah, ah! These gentlemen lay down conditions to me! Money.Money.
They need money.And at how much do they rate the head of the general?""Sire, that does not touch Your Majesty, and I never will come to offer you such a bargain.That matter concerns only Natacha Feodorovna, who has offered her fortune!""Her fortune! But she has nothing."
"She will have one at the death of the general.Now she engages to give it all to the Revolutionary Committee the day the general dies - if he dies a natural death!"The Emperor rose, greatly agitated.
"To the Revolutionary Party! What do you tell me! The fortune of the general! Eh, but these are great riches.""Sire, I have told you the sercet.You alone should know it and guard it forever, and I have your sacred word that, when the hour comes, you will let the prize go where it is promised.If the general ever learns of such a thing, such a treaty, he would easily arrange that nothing should remain, and he would denounce his daughter who has saved him, and then he would promptly he the prey of his enemies and yours, from whom you wish to save him.I have told the secret not to the Emperor, but to the representative of God on the Russian earth.I have confessed it to the priest, who is bound to forget the words uttered only before God.Allow Natacha Feodorovna her own way, Sire! And her father, your servant, whose life is so dear to you, is saved.At the natural death of the general his fortune will go to his daughter, who has disposed of it."Rouletabille stopped a moment to judge of the effect produced.It was not good.The face of his august listener was more and more in a frown.
The silence continued, and now the reporter did not dare to break it.He waited.
Finally, the Emperor rose and walked forward and backward across the room, deep in thought.For a moment he stopped at the window and waved paternally to the little Tsarevitch, who played in the park with the grand-duchesses.
Then he returned to Rouletabille and pinched his ear.
"But, tell me, how have you learned all this? And who then has poisoned the general and his wife, in the kiosk, if not Natacha?""Natacha is a saint.It is nothing, Sire, that she has been raised in luxury, and vows' herself to misery; but it is sublime that she guards in her heart the secret of her sacrifice from everyone, and, in spite of all, because secrecy is necessary and has been required of her.See her guarding it before her father, who has been brought to believe in the dishonor of his daughter, and still to be silent when a word would have proved her innocent; guarding it face to face with her fiance, whom she loves, and repulses because marriage is forbidden to the girl who is supposed to be rich and who will be poor; guarding it, above all - and guarding it still - in the depths of the dungeon, and ready to take the road to Siberia under the accusation of assassination, because that ignominy is necessary for the safety of her father.That, Sire - oh, Sire, do you see!""But you, how have you been able to penetrate into this guarded secret?""By watching her eyes.By observing, when she believed herself alone, the look of terror and the gleams of love.And, beyond all, by looking at her when she was looking at her father.Ah, Sire, there were moments when on her mystic face one could read the wild joy and devotion of the martyr.Then, by listening and by piecing together scraps of phrases inconsistent with the idea of treachery, but which immediately acquired meaning if one thought of the opposite, of sacrifice.Ah, that is it, Sire! Consider always the alternative motive.What I finally could see myself, the others, who had a fixed opinion about Natacha, could not see.And why had they their fixed opinion? Simply because the idea of compromise with the Nihilists aroused at once the idea of complicity! For such people it is always the same thing - they never can see but the one side of the situation.But, nevertheless, the situation had two sides, as all situations have.The question was simple.
