第49章
The taste of the day was obviously still a taste for the revolution, which retained its influence on the banks of the Neva.What she was doing was certainly very bold, and apparently she realized how audacious she was, because, with great adroitness, she would bring out immediately after some dangerous phrase a patriotic couplet which everybody was anxious to applaud.She succeeded by such means in appealing to all the divergent groups of her audience and secured a complete triumph for herself.The students, the revolutionaries, the radicals and the cadets acclaimed the singer, glorifying not only her art but also and beyond everything else the sister of the engineer Volkousky, who had been doomed to perish with her brother by the bullets of the Semenovsky regiment.The friends of the Court on their side could not forget that it was she who, in front of the Kremlin, had struck aside the arm of Constantin Kochkarof, ordered by the Central Revolutionary Committee to assassinate the Grand Duke Peter Alexandrovitch as he drove up to the governor's house in his sleigh.The bomb burst ten feet away, killing Constantin Kochkarof himself.It may be that before death came he had time to hear Annouchka cry to him, "Wretch! You were told to kill the prince, not to assassinate his children." As it happened, Peter Alexandrovitch held on his knees the two little princesses, seven and eight years old.The Court had wished to recompense her for that heroic act.Annouchka had spit at the envoy of the Chief of Police who called to speak to her of money.At the Hermitage in Moscow, where she sang then, some of her admirers had warned her of possible reprisals on the part of the revolutionaries.But the revolutionaries gave her assurance at once that she had nothing to fear.They approved her act and let her know that they now counted on her to kill the Grand Duke some time when he was alone; which had made Annouchka laugh.She was an enfant terrible, whose friends no one knew, who passed for very wise, and whose lines of intrigue were inscrutable.She enjoyed making her hosts in the private supper-rooms quake over their meal.One day she had said bluntly to one of the most powerful tchinovnicks of Moscow: "You, my old friend, you are president of the Black Hundred.Your fate is sealed.
Yesterday you were condemned to death by the delegates of the Central Committee at Presnia.Say your prayers." The man reached for champagne.He never finished his glass.The dvornicks carried him out stricken with apoplexy.Since the time she saved the little grand-duchesses the police had orders to allow her to act and talk as she pleased.She had been mixed up in the deepest plots against the government.Those who lent the slightest countenance to such plottings and were not of the police simply disappeared.Their friends dared not even ask for news of them.The only thing not in doubt about them was that they were at hard labor somewhere in the mines of the Ural Mountains.At the moment of the revolution Annouchka had a brother who was an engineer on the Kasan-Moscow line.
This Volkousky was one of the leaders on the Strike Committee.The authorities had an eye on him.The revolution started.He, with the help of his sister, accomplished one of those formidable acts which will carry their memory as heroes to the farthest posterity.
Their work accomplished, they were taken by Trebassof's soldiers.
Both were condemned to death.Volkousky was executed first, and the sister was taking her turn when an officer of the government arrived on horseback to stop the firing.The Tsar, informed of her intended fate, had sent a pardon by telegraph.After that she disappeared.She was supposed to have gone on some tour across Europe, as was her habit, for she spoke all the languages, like a true Bohemian.Now she had reappeared in all her joyous glory at Krestowsky.It was certain, however, that she had not forgotten her brother.Gossips said that if the government and the police showed themselves so long-enduring they found it to their interest to do so.The open, apparent life Annouclika led was less troublesome to them than her hidden activities would be.The lesser police who surrounded the Chief of the St.retersburg Secret Service, the famous Gounsovski, had meaning smiles when the matter was discussed.
Among them Annouchka had the ignoble nickname, "Stool-pigeon."Rouletabille must have been well aware of all these particulars concerning Annoucbka, for he betrayed no astonishment at the great interest and the strong emotion she aroused.From the corner where he was he could see only a bit of the stage, and he was standing on tiptoes to see the singer when he felt his coat pulled.
He turned.It was the jolly advocate, well known for his gastronomic feats, Athanase Georgevitch, along with the jolly Imperial councilor, Ivan Petrovitch, who motioned him to climb down.
"Come with us; we have a box."
Rouletabille did not need urging, and he was soon installed in the front of a box where he could see the stage and the public both.
Just then the curtain fell on the first part of Annouchka's performance.The friends were soon rejoined by Thaddeus Tchitchnikoff, the great timber-merchant, who came from behind the scenes.
"I have been to see the beautiful Onoto," announced the Lithuanian with a great satisfied laugh."Tell me the news.All the girls are sulking over Annouchka's success.""Who dragged you into the Onoto's dressing-room then? demanded Athanase.
"Oh, Gounsovski himself, my dear.He is very amateurish, you know.""What! do you knock around with Gounsovski?""On my word, I tell you, dear friends, he isn't a bad acquaintance.