The Daughter of an Empress

"Work! You will work, princess?" whispered Marianne.

"I will learn it!" said she, and with a constantly quickened step they

approached the outlet of the garden.

The gate which led out into the street was wide open; soldiers in

Russian uniform had been stationed before it, keeping back with their

carbines the curious Romans who crowded around in great numbers, glad of

an opportunity to get a peep into the so-long-closed charmed garden.

"See, there she comes, the garden fairy!" cried they all, as Natalie

neared the gate.

"How beautiful she is, how beautiful!" they loudly exclaimed.

"That is a real fairy, a divinity!"

Natalie heard none of these expressions of admiration--she had but one

object, one thought. She wished to leave the garden; she wished to go

forth; she had no regrets, no complaints, for this lost paradise; she

only wished to get out of it, even if it was to go to her death.

But the soldiers stationed at the gate opposed her progress.

Natalie regarded them with terror and amazement.

"They cannot, at least, oppose my voluntary resignation of my property,"

said she. "Away with these muskets and sabres! I would pass out!"

And the young maiden boldly advanced a step. But those weapons stretched

before her like a wall, and Natalie was now overcome by anguish and

despair; the inconsolable feeling of her total abandonment, of her

miserable isolation. Tears burst from her eyes, her pride was broken,

she was again the trembling young girl, no longer the heroic woman; she

wept, and in tremulous tone, with folded hands, she implored of these

rough soldiers a little mercy, a little compassion.

They understood not her language, they had no sympathy; but the

crowd were touched by the tears of the beautiful girl and by the sad

lamentations of her companion. They screamed, they howled, they insulted

the soldiers, they swore to liberate the two women by force, if the

soldiers any longer refused them a passage. Dumb, unshaken, immovable,

like a wall stood the soldiers with their weapons stretched forth.

Through the hissing and tumult a loud and commanding voice was suddenly

heard to ask, "What is going on here? What means this disturbance?" An

officer made his way through the crowd, and approached the garden gate.

The soldiers respectfully gave way, and he stepped into the garden.

"Oh, sir," said Natalie, turning to him her tearful face, "if you are an

honorable man, have compassion for an abandoned and unprotected maiden,

and command these soldiers, who seem to obey you, to let me and my

companion go forth unhindered."

The Russian officer, Joseph Ribas, bowed low and respectfully to her.

"If it is the Princess Tartaroff whom I have the honor of addressing,"

said he, "I must in the name of my illustrious lord, beg your pardon for

what has improperly occurred here; at his command I come to set it all

right!"