Yes, replied the prince feircely, you and your fellow-prisoners have
endeavoured to insinuate yourselves into the favour of persons whom you
imagined entrusted with the secrets of the government: - being prisoners
of war, you formed contrivances for your escape, and attempted to
inveigle others to accompany your flight.
That every tittle of this accusation is false, my lord, cried Horatio,
there needs no more than the improbability of it to prove. - Indeed the
cruel usage we sustained, might have justified an attempt to free
ourselves, yet did such a design never enter our heads: - we were so far
from making use of any stratagems for that purpose, that we never made
the least overture to any of the guards, who were the only persons we
were allowed to converse with.
How! said the prince interrupting him, were not your privileges enlarged
by the interposition of a lady? - Did she not make you considerable
allowances out of her own purse, and frequently visit you to receive
your thanks? - And were you not emboldened by these favours to urge her
to reveal what secrets were in her knowledge, and even to assist you in
your escape? - You doubtless imagined you could prevail on her also to go
with you: - part of this, continued he, she has herself confessed: - it
will therefore be in vain for you to deny it: - if you ingenuously reveal
these particulars she has omitted, you may hope to find favour; but it
you obstinately persist, as your companions have done, in attempting to
impose upon me, you must expect to share the same fate immediately.
In speaking these words he made a sign to the soldier, who throwing open
a large folding door, discovered a rack on which one of the Swedish
officers was tied, and the others stood near bound, and in the hands of
the executioner.
This sight so amazed Horatio, that he had not the power of speaking one
word; - till Mullern, who happened to be the person that was fastened
upon the rack, cried out to him, - Be not lost in consideration, Horatio,
said he; are we not in the hands of Muscovites, from whom nothing that
is human can be expected? - rather prepare yourself to disappoint their
cruelty, by bravely suffering all they dare inflict.
Hold then, said Horatio, even Muscovites would chuse to have some
pretence for what they do; and sure the first favourite and
generalissimo of a prince, who boasts an inclination to civilize his
barbarous subjects, will not, without any cause, torture them whom
chance alone has put into his power, and who have never done him any
personal injury. - By heaven, pursued he, turning to the prince, we all
are innocent of any part of those crimes laid to our charge: - time,
perhaps, if our declarations are ineffectual, will convince your
highness we are so, and you will then regret the injustice you have
done us.
You all are in one story, cried the prince, but I am well assured of the
main point: - the particulars is all I want to be informed of: - but since
I am compelled to speak more plain, which of you is it for whose sake
you all received such instances of Edella's bounty? - Whoever tells me
that, even tho' it be the person himself, shall have both pardon
and liberty.
Impossible it is to express the astonishment every one was in at this
demand: five of them had not the least notion what it meant; but
Mullern, Horatio, and that friend to whom he had shewn the letter of
Mattakesa, had some conjecture of the truth, and presently imagined that
lady had been the incendiary to kindle the flame of jealousy in the
prince's breast. The affair, however, was of so nice a nature, that they
knew not how to vindicate Edella without making her seem more guilty, so
contented themselves with joining with the others, in protesting they
knew of no one among them who could boast of receiving any greater
favours from her than his fellows, but that what she did was instigated
merely by compassion, since she had never seen, or knew who any of them
were, till after she had moved the governor in their behalf: - they
acknowledged she had been so good as to come sometimes to the prison, in
order to see if those she entrusted with her bounty had been faithful in
the delivery of it; but that she never made the least difference between
them, and never had conversation with any one of them that was not in
the presence of them all. Mullern could not forbear adding to this, that
he doubted not but the persons who had incensed his highness into
groundless surmises, were also the same who had hindered her, by some
false insinuations or other, from continuing the allowance her charity
allowed them, and for the want of which they had since been near
perishing.
Prince Menzikoff listened attentively to what each said, and with no
less earnestness fixed his eyes on the face of every one as they
spoke. - Finding they had done, he was about giving some orders on their
account, when the keeper of the prison came hastily into the room, and
having entreated pardon for the interruption, presented a letter to the
prince, directed for brigadier Mullern, and brought, he said, just after
the prisoners were carried out.
Menzikoff commended his zeal in receiving and bringing it to him, as it
might possibly serve to give some light to the affair he was examining.
Having perused it, he demanded which of them was named Mullern? I am,
replied the brave Swede; and neither fear, nor am ashamed of any thing
under that name.
