Ivan the Terrible; or, Dark Deeds of Night — page 164: what you’re looking at

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160 ‘Tet us stay, on the contrary,” said Vaninka, holding back her attendant by the wrist with an almost masculine grasp; “‘ let us remain until that house fall in upon them, so that we may be certain not one of them can escape.” ‘‘Oh, my God!” cried Annouschka, ‘‘have pity on my poor brother, whom Death hurries thus unprepared into thy presence !” ‘© Yes, yes, pray; that is good,” said Vaninka; ‘‘for it is their bodies that I would destroy, not their souls. And she stood motionless, with her arms crossed, gazing intently on the flames of the hurning house, while her attendant knelt and rayed. F The conflagration did not last long. The house was of wood, the chinks being stopped with tow, as in the dwellings of all the Russian peasariry ; ev that the flames burst forth from the four corners at once, and, excited by the violence of the storm, left nothing after the lapse of a few minutes but an immense funeral pile. Vaninka followed with an ardent eye the progress of the des- troying element, trembling in the constant expectation of seeing the spectre of some half-burnt victim rush from amidst the flames. At last the roof fell.in, and Vaninka, relieved ofall fear, then re- traced her way to the general’s house, into which, favoured by the capacity that Annouschka possessed of going out and in at all hours either of the day or night, the two females entered without being seen. The next day, the news of the burning of the “‘ Red House ” was’ received throughout St. Petersburg. Four balf-consumed corpses were dug from the ruins; and, as three of the general’s slaves Were missing, no doubt was entertained but that three of the bodies in question, which were too much dis- figured te be individually identified, were those of Demetrius, Daniel, and Alexis; as.to the fourth, it was certainly that of Gregory. The cause of the fire, however, remained a secret to everybody. The house was isolated, and the snow-drift was so violent, that no one had met the two females on the deserted road. WVaninka was sure of her attendant; hersecret, then, had died with Demetrius. But now remorse took the place of fear. The young girl, so inflexible in the execution of the deed, quailed before its remembrance ; and it seemed to her that by reposing the secret of her crime in the bosom of a priest, she would be relieved of. her frightfal burden. She resorted, therefore, to an ecclesiastic highly, respected for his piety and charity, and related to him, under the seal of confession, all that had passed. The priest was horror-struck at the recital. Divine mercy is without bounds, but human forgiveness has its limits. The priest refused Vaninka the absolution sbe solicited. Such refusal was terrible, for it banished her from the holy table; and this would be remarked, as it could only be attributed to some unheard-of fault, or some crime unknown. Vaninka fell at the feet of the priest, and in the name of her father, upon whom her shame would heap dishonouz, supplicated him to mitigate the rigour of his sentence. The priest reflected profoundly, and at length thought he had found the means of preventing such consequences; this was, that Vaninka should approach the holy table with the other young maidens, the priest stepping before her as he did before the others, but only saying to her, ‘‘ Pray and weep ;” and the persons present, deceived by these demonstrations, would believe that she, like her companions, had receiveil the sacrament. This was all that Vaninka could obtain. This confession took place towards the seventh hour of the evening; and the solitude of the church, joined to the obscurity of night, had even heightened its frightful character. The priest re- turned home, pale and trembling; his wite, Elizabeth, waited for him alone, having put her little daughter Arina, who was eight years old, to bed in an adjoining chamber. On perceiving her husband, the woman uttered a cry of terror, so changed and haggard was his appearance. He endeavoured to re-assure her, but the trembling of his voice only served to augment her fears. ah wished to know the cause of his emotion, but he refused to tell her. Elizabeth had heard on the previous evening of the illness of her mother, and she thought her husband had received some bad news. Besides, the day was Monday, which is considered unlucky by the Russians; in going out in the morning she had met a man in mourning ; and these constituted too strong an union of presages not to announce a misfortune. She accordingly burst into tears, crying, ** My mother is dead !” The priest in vain strove to comfort her by affirming that his trouble did not proceed from that; the poor woman, pre-oceupied by this single idea, could only answer all his protestations by the continual ery, ‘‘ My mother is dead!” ‘24 MAGG Pray, I permit you.” © THE RED HOUSE AT ST. PETERSBURGH. a? At last, however, in order to bring her to reason, he acknowledged that his emotion proceeded from the recital of a crime which he had just heard in the confessional. But Elizabeth shook her head ; it was an artifice, she said, to conceal from her the misfortune she had, heard; and, instead of calming herself, she became more violent. Her tears ceased, and were succeeded by strong hysterics; until the priest, thus painfully clrcumstanced, made her swear to keep the secret—and the sanctity of the confessional was violated. The little Arina was awakened by the first cry of her mother 5 and, restless, and curious to know what was passing between her parents, she got up, listened at the door, and heard all. The day of communion arrived; the church of St. Simeon was crowded with the faithful; and Vaninka was kneeling before the balustrade of the choir; behind her were her father and his aide-de- camp, and behind them were their domestics. Arina was also in the church, with her mother. The curious child wished to see Vaninka, whose name she had heard pronounced on that terrible night when her father failed in performing the most sacred duty imposed on a priest. While her mother was praying, there- fore, she quitted her chair, and glided amongst the communicants almost as far as the balustrade. Arrived there, she was stopped by the group of the general’s domestics. But Arina had not come so far to be so easily defeated in her object. She endeavoured to pass between them ; they opposed her; she per- sisted, and one of them repulsed her with such brutal roughness that the child was thrown backwards, her head striking against a brick in her fall. She got up, with her head bleeding ; and, smart- ing under the infliction, exclaimed, in the exasperation of the moment, ee wy ‘© You are very proud for aslave! Is it because you belong to thie ereat lady that burnt the ‘ Red«Honse ?’” site These words, pronounced in a loud voice, and in the midst of the silence which preceded the sacred ceremony, were heard by every- body present. dds They were answered by a thrilling shriek. Vaninka had fainted. The next day the general was at the feet of Panl the First, and related to him, as to his emperor and judge, all this long and terrible history, which Vaninka, crushed under the long struggle she had sustained, had revealed to him during the night that had followed the scene in the church. | fe The emperor, after this strange avowal, remained thoughtful for an instant ; and then, raising himself from the easy chair in which he had reclined during the narration of the unfortunate father, he went to a bureau, and wrote the following decision :— . war “‘The priest, having violated that which ought to remain in-. violable, namely, the secrets of the confessional, will be exiled to Siberia, and deprived of his priest’s office. His wife will accompany him; she is guilty in not having respected the character of a minister of the altar. The little girl will not quit her parents. Annousehka, the femme-de-chambre, will likewise go to Siberia, for not having made known to her master the conduct of his daughter. I preserve all my esteem for the general, and [ Jament with him. As to Vaninka, I do not know any punishment that could be in- flictedon her. I see in her the daughter of a brave soldier, whose whole life has been consecrated to the service of his country. Be- sides, the extraordinary mode in which the crime was discovered seems to place the culprit out of the limits of my severity. It is herself that I charge with her own punishment. If I comprehend her character rightly—if she still possess any sentiment of dignity— ne heart and her remorse will trace the course she ought to ollow. The emperor put this paper, open, into the general’s hand, and ordered him to carry it to the Count de Pahlen, governor of St. Petersburg. : The next day the orders of the emperor were executed. Vaninka entered a convent, where, towards the end of the same year, she died of shame and grief. . The general sought death, and found it, at the Battle of Austerlitz. a NOTICE.—In our next Number will be commenced a new and highly in- teresting Story, entitled, - : THE IMPALEMENT, | A STORY OF EASTERN LIFE. NOW PUBLISHING, | A NEW AND STARTLING TALE. BLACK HAWKE, THE HIGHWAYMAN. ONE PENNY WEEKLY, ORDER EARLY, eomichbooks,com