Chapter Chapter 30 · THE CZAR’S COURIER
. THE CZAR’S COURIER
ALL the members of the council simultaneously started forward. A courier
from the Czar arrived in Irkutsk! Had these officers for a moment
considered the improbability of this fact, they would certainly not have
credited what they heard.
The Grand Duke advanced quickly to his aide-de-camp. “This courier!” he
exclaimed.
A man entered. He appeared exhausted with fatigue. He wore the dress
of a Siberian peasant, worn into tatters, and exhibiting several
shot-holes. A Muscovite cap was on his head. His face was disfigured
by a recently-healed scar. The man had evidently had a long and painful
journey; his shoes being in a state which showed that he had been
obliged to make part of it on foot.
“His Highness the Grand Duke?” he asked.
The Grand Duke went up to him. “You are a courier from the Czar?” he
asked.
“Yes, your Highness.”
“You come?”
“From Moscow.”
“You left Moscow?”
“On the 15th of July.”
“Your name?”
“Michael Strogoff.”
It was Ivan Ogareff. He had taken the designation of the man whom he
believed that he had rendered powerless. Neither the Grand Duke
nor anyone knew him in Irkutsk, and he had not even to disguise his
features. As he was in a position to prove his pretended identity,
no one could have any reason for doubting him. He came, therefore,
sustained by his iron will, to hasten by treason and assassination the
great object of the invasion.
After Ogareff had replied, the Grand Duke signed to all his officers
to withdraw. He and the false Michael Strogoff remained alone in the
saloon.
The Grand Duke looked at Ivan Ogareff for some moments with extreme
attention. Then he said, “On the 15th of July you were at Moscow?”
“Yes, your Highness; and on the night of the 14th I saw His Majesty the
Czar at the New Palace.”
“Have you a letter from the Czar?”
“Here it is.”
And Ivan Ogareff handed to the Grand Duke the Imperial letter, crumpled
to almost microscopic size.
“Was the letter given you in this state?”
“No, your Highness, but I was obliged to tear the envelope, the better
to hide it from the Emir’s soldiers.”
“Were you taken prisoner by the Tartars?”
“Yes, your Highness, I was their prisoner for several days,” answered
Ogareff. “That is the reason that, having left Moscow on the 15th of
July, as the date of that letter shows, I only reached Irkutsk on the 2d
of October, after traveling seventy-nine days.”
The Grand Duke took the letter. He unfolded it and recognized the Czar’s
signature, preceded by the decisive formula, written by his brother’s
hand. There was no possible doubt of the authenticity of this letter,
nor of the identity of the courier. Though Ogareff’s countenance had at
first inspired the Grand Duke with some distrust, he let nothing of it
appear, and it soon vanished.
The Grand Duke remained for a few minutes without speaking. He read the
letter slowly, so as to take in its meaning fully. “Michael Strogoff, do
you know the contents of this letter?” he asked.
“Yes, your Highness. I might have been obliged to destroy it, to prevent
its falling into the hands of the Tartars, and should such have been the
case, I wished to be able to bring the contents of it to your Highness.”
“You know that this letter enjoins us all to die, rather than give up
the town?”
“I know it.”
“You know also that it informs me of the movements of the troops which
have combined to stop the invasion?”
“Yes, your Highness, but the movements have failed.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that Ichim, Omsk, Tomsk, to speak only of the more important
towns of the two Siberias, have been successively occupied by the
soldiers of Feofar-Khan.”
“But there has been fighting? Have not our Cossacks met the Tartars?”
“Several times, your Highness.”
“And they were repulsed?”
“They were not in sufficient force to oppose the enemy.”
“Where did the encounters take place?”
“At Kolyvan, at Tomsk.” Until now, Ogareff had only spoken the truth,
but, in the hope of troubling the defenders of Irkutsk by exaggerating
the defeats, he added, “And a third time before Krasnoiarsk.”
“And what of this last engagement?” asked the Grand Duke, through whose
compressed lips the words could scarcely pass.
“It was more than an engagement, your Highness,” answered Ogareff; “it
was a battle.”
“A battle?”
“Twenty thousand Russians, from the frontier provinces and the
government of Tobolsk, engaged with a hundred and fifty thousand
Tartars, and, notwithstanding their courage, were overwhelmed.”
“You lie!” exclaimed the Grand Duke, endeavoring in vain to curb his
passion.
“I speak the truth, your Highness,” replied Ivan Ogareff coldly. “I
was present at the battle of Krasnoiarsk, and it was there I was made
prisoner!”
The Grand Duke grew calmer, and by a significant gesture he gave Ogareff
to understand that he did not doubt his veracity. “What day did this
battle of Krasnoiarsk take place?” he asked.
“On the 2d of September.”
“And now all the Tartar troops are concentrated here?”
“All.”
“And you estimate them?”
“At about four hundred thousand men.”
Another exaggeration of Ogareff’s in the estimate of the Tartar army,
with the same object as before.
“And I must not expect any help from the West provinces?” asked the
Grand Duke.
“None, your Highness, at any rate before the end of the winter.”
“Well, hear this, Michael Strogoff. Though I must expect no help either
from the East or from the West, even were these barbarians six hundred
thousand strong, I will never give up Irkutsk!”
Ogareff’s evil eye slightly contracted. The traitor thought to himself
that the brother of the Czar did not reckon the result of treason.
The Grand Duke, who was of a nervous temperament, had great difficulty
in keeping calm whilst hearing this disastrous news. He walked to and
fro in the room, under the gaze of Ogareff, who eyed him as a victim
reserved for vengeance. He stopped at the windows, he looked forth at
the fires in the Tartar camp, he listened to the noise of the ice-blocks
drifting down the Angara.
A quarter of an hour passed without his putting any more questions. Then
taking up the letter, he re-read a passage and said, “You know that in
this letter I am warned of a traitor, of whom I must beware?”
“Yes, your Highness.”
“He will try to enter Irkutsk in disguise; gain my confidence, and
betray the town to the Tartars.”
“I know all that, your Highness, and I know also that Ivan Ogareff has
sworn to revenge himself personally on the Czar’s brother.”
“Why?”
“It is said that the officer in question was condemned by the Grand Duke
to a humiliating degradation.”
“Yes, I remember. But it is a proof that the villain, who could
afterwards serve against his country and head an invasion of barbarians,
deserved it.”
“His Majesty the Czar,” said Ogareff, “was particularly anxious that you
should be warned of the criminal projects of Ivan Ogareff against your
person.”
“Yes; of that the letter informs me.”
“And His Majesty himself spoke to me of it, telling me I was above all
things to beware of the traitor.”
“Did you meet with him?”
“Yes, your Highness, after the battle of Krasnoiarsk. If he had only
guessed that I was the bearer of a letter addressed to your Highness, in
which his plans were revealed, I should not have got off so easily.”
“No; you would have been lost!” replied the Grand Duke. “And how did you
manage to escape?”
“By throwing myself into the Irtych.”
“And how did you enter Irkutsk?”
“Under cover of a sortie, which was made this evening to repulse a
Tartar detachment. I mingled with the defenders of the town, made myself
known, and was immediately conducted before your Highness.”
“Good, Michael Strogoff,” answered the Grand Duke. “You have shown
courage and zeal in your difficult mission. I will not forget you. Have
you any favor to ask?”
“None; unless it is to be allowed to fight at the side of your
Highness,” replied Ogareff.
“So be it, Strogoff. I attach you from to-day to my person, and you
shall be lodged in the palace.”
“And if according to his intention, Ivan Ogareff should present himself
to your Highness under a false name?”
“We will unmask him, thanks to you, who know him, and I will make him
die under the knout. Go!”
Ogareff gave a military salute, not forgetting that he was a captain of
the couriers of the Czar, and retired.
Ogareff had so far played his unworthy part with success. The Grand
Duke’s entire confidence had been accorded him. He could now betray it
whenever it suited him. He would inhabit the very palace. He would be
in the secret of all the operations for the defense of the town. He thus
held the situation in his hand, as it were. No one in Irkutsk knew him,
no one could snatch off his mask. He resolved therefore to set to work
without delay.
Indeed, time pressed. The town must be captured before the arrival of
the Russians from the North and East, and that was only a question of a
few days. The Tartars once masters of Irkutsk, it would not be easy
to take it again from them. At any rate, even if they were obliged to
abandon it later, they would not do so before they had utterly destroyed
it, and before the head of the Grand Duke had rolled at the feet of
Feofar-Khan.
Ivan Ogareff, having every facility for seeing, observing, and acting,
occupied himself the next day with visiting the ramparts. He was
everywhere received with cordial congratulations from officers,
soldiers, and citizens. To them this courier from the Czar was a link
which connected them with the empire.
Ogareff recounted, with an assurance which never failed, numerous
fictitious events of his journey. Then, with the cunning for which he
was noted, without dwelling too much on it at first, he spoke of the
gravity of the situation, exaggerating the success of the Tartars and
the numbers of the barbarian forces, as he had when speaking to
the Grand Duke. According to him, the expected succors would be
insufficient, if ever they arrived at all, and it was to be feared that
a battle fought under the walls of Irkutsk would be as fatal as the
battles of Kolyvan, Tomsk, and Krasnoiarsk.
Ogareff was not too free in these insinuations. He wished to allow
them to sink gradually into the minds of the defenders of Irkutsk.
He pretended only to answer with reluctance when much pressed with
questions. He always added that they must fight to the last man, and
blow up the town rather than yield!
These false statements would have done more harm had it been possible;
but the garrison and the population of Irkutsk were too patriotic to let
themselves be moved. Of all the soldiers and citizens shut up in this
town, isolated at the extremity of the Asiatic world, not one dreamed of
even speaking of a capitulation. The contempt of the Russians for these
barbarians was boundless.
No one suspected the odious part played by Ivan Ogareff; no one guessed
that the pretended courier of the Czar was a traitor. It occurred very
naturally that on his arrival in Irkutsk, a frequent intercourse was
established between Ogareff and one of the bravest defenders of the
town, Wassili Fedor. We know what anxiety this unhappy father suffered.
If his daughter, Nadia Fedor, had left Russia on the date fixed by the
last letter he had received from Riga, what had become of her? Was she
still trying to cross the invaded provinces, or had she long since been
taken prisoner? The only alleviation to Wassili Fedor’s anxiety was
when he could obtain an opportunity of engaging in battle with the
Tartars--opportunities which came too seldom for his taste. The very
evening the pretended courier arrived, Wassili Fedor went to
the governor-general’s palace and, acquainting Ogareff with the
circumstances under which his daughter must have left European Russia,
told him all his uneasiness about her. Ogareff did not know Nadia,
although he had met her at Ichim on the day she was there with Michael
Strogoff; but then, he had not paid more attention to her than to the
two reporters, who at the same time were in the post-house; he therefore
could give Wassili Fedor no news of his daughter.
“But at what time,” asked Ogareff, “must your daughter have left the
Russian territory?”
“About the same time that you did,” replied Fedor.
“I left Moscow on the 15th of July.”
“Nadia must also have quitted Moscow at that time. Her letter told me so
expressly.”
“She was in Moscow on the 15th of July?”
“Yes, certainly, by that date.”
“Then it was impossible for her--But no, I am mistaken--I was confusing
dates. Unfortunately, it is too probable that your daughter must have
passed the frontier, and you can only have one hope, that she stopped on
learning the news of the Tartar invasion!”
The father’s head fell! He knew Nadia, and he knew too well that
nothing would have prevented her from setting out. Ivan Ogareff had just
committed gratuitously an act of real cruelty. With a word he might
have reassured Fedor. Although Nadia had passed the frontier under
circumstances with which we are acquainted, Fedor, by comparing the date
on which his daughter would have been at Nijni-Novgorod, and the date of
the proclamation which forbade anyone to leave it, would no doubt have
concluded thus: that Nadia had not been exposed to the dangers of the
invasion, and that she was still, in spite of herself, in the European
territory of the Empire.
Ogareff obedient to his nature, a man who was never touched by the
sufferings of others, might have said that word. He did not say it.
Fedor retired with his heart broken. In that interview his last hope was
crushed.
During the two following days, the 3rd and 4th of October, the Grand
Duke often spoke to the pretended Michael Strogoff, and made him
repeat all that he had heard in the Imperial Cabinet of the New Palace.
Ogareff, prepared for all these questions, replied without the least
hesitation. He intentionally did not conceal that the Czar’s government
had been utterly surprised by the invasion, that the insurrection had
been prepared in the greatest possible secrecy, that the Tartars were
already masters of the line of the Obi when the news reached Moscow, and
lastly, that none of the necessary preparations were completed in the
Russian provinces for sending into Siberia the troops requisite for
repulsing the invaders.
Ivan Ogareff, being entirely free in his movements, began to study
Irkutsk, the state of its fortifications, their weak points, so as to
profit subsequently by his observations, in the event of being prevented
from consummating his act of treason. He examined particularly the
Bolchaia Gate, the one he wished to deliver up.
Twice in the evening he came upon the glacis of this gate. He walked
up and down, without fear of being discovered by the besiegers, whose
nearest posts were at least a mile from the ramparts. He fancied that he
was recognized by no one, till he caught sight of a shadow gliding along
outside the earthworks. Sangarre had come at the risk of her life for
the purpose of putting herself in communication with Ivan Ogareff.
For two days the besieged had enjoyed a tranquillity to which
the Tartars had not accustomed them since the commencement of the
investment. This was by Ogareff’s orders. Feofar-Khan’s lieutenant
wished that all attempts to take the town by force should be suspended.
He hoped the watchfulness of the besieged would relax. At any rate,
several thousand Tartars were kept in readiness at the outposts, to
attack the gate, deserted, as Ogareff anticipated that it would be, by
its defenders, whenever he should summon the besiegers to the assault.
This he could not now delay in doing. All must be over by the time
that the Russian troops should come in sight of Irkutsk. Ogareff’s
arrangements were made, and on this evening a note fell from the top of
the earthworks into Sangarre’s hands.
On the next day, that is to say during the hours of darkness from the
5th to the 6th of October, at two o’clock in the morning, Ivan Ogareff
had resolved to deliver up Irkutsk.