"I sympathize with you, and probably if I were Katina I should be tempted to do even as she would. But I am Zabern, you see, and the princess's government is my first care. Were Orloff in neutral territory you might shoot him without hindrance from me--and glad would I be to hear of his death--but on Czernovese ground--no! We should have to respect the devil himself if he should come in the character of ambassador."
The distant fanfare of trumpets now rose and fell on the air, signal that the envoy had arrived at the entrance of the palace.
"Is he come here in pomp, to be graciously received by the princess, to be feasted by her ministers, while I, his victim, scarred with the knout for refusing to become his plaything, am to remain still and do nothing to avenge myself? Your state policy to the winds," she cried passionately. "Stand aside. You shall not stay my hand."
She made as if she would have escaped from the apartment, but Zabern, on the watch for this movement, intercepted her and placed his back against the door.
"Nay, Katina, here you must remain till Orloff shall have quitted Czernova."
She recognized the futility of resistance, and turning away with her face very white, and speaking very slowly, she said,--
"Then if you prevent me from killing Orloff I will kill myself." Her words startled Zabern from his cynical composure. For a moment he hesitated whether to leave her, for Katina looked as if she fully intended to carry out her threat.
"Be it so," he said, coldly. "The guilt will not be mine. Better that maid perish by her own hand than that the liberties of a whole people be destroyed."
With that saying the marshal withdrew and having locked the door upon Katina, he darkly wended his way to the audience chamber.
With a view of rendering due honor to the imperial envoy it had been decided by Barbara that the reception should be attended with considerable pomp.
The Throne Hall was accordingly chosen as the place of interview--a magnificent apartment, its vaulted roof fretted with gold. The frescoes and pictures were adapted to appeal to the patriotism of those present, portraying, as they did, some of the noblest events in Polish history; among them the envoy might have seen more than one Russian defeat by Polish arms.