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Vera: or, The Nihilists

Czare. Sire, reflect before —

Czar. When can you have the proclamations ready, Prince Paul?

Prince Paul. They have been printed for the last six months, Sire. I knew you would need them.

Czar. That's good! That's very good! Let us begin at once. Ah, Prince, if every king in Europe had a minister like you —

Czare. There would be less kings in Europe than there are.

Czar (in frightened whisper, to Prince Paul). What does he mean? Do you trust him? His prison hasn't cured him yet. Shall I banish him? Shall I (whispers)…? The Emperor Paul did it. The Empress Catherine there (points to picture on the wall) did it. Why shouldn't I?

Prince Paul. Your Majesty, there is no need for alarm. The Prince is a very ingenuous young man. He pretends to be devoted to the people, and lives in a palace; preaches socialism, and draws a salary that would support a province. He'll find out one day that the best cure for Republicanism is the Imperial crown, and will cut up the "bonnet rogue" of Democracy to make decorations for his Prime Minister.

Czar. You are right. If he really loved the people, he could not be my son.

Prince Paul. If he lived with the people for a fortnight, their bad dinners would soon cure him of his democracy. Shall we begin, Sire?

Czar. At once. Read the proclamation. Gentlemen, be seated. Alexis, Alexis, I say, come and hear it! It will be good practice for you; you will be doing it yourself some day.

Czare. I have heard too much of it already. (Takes his seat at the table. Count Rouvaloff whispers to him.)

Czar. What are you whispering about there, Count Rouvaloff?

Count R. I was giving his Royal Highness some good advice, your Majesty.

Prince Paul. Count Rouvaloff is the typical spendthrift, Sire; he is always giving away what he needs most. (Lays papers before the Czar.) I think, Sire, you will approve of this: – "Love of the people," "Father of his people," "Martial law," and the usual allusions to Providence in the last line. All it requires now is your Imperial Majesty's signature.

Czare. Sire!

Prince Paul (hurriedly). I promise your Majesty to crush every Nihilist in Russia in six months if you sign this proclamation; every Nihilist in Russia.

Czar. Say that again! To crush every Nihilist in Russia; to crush this woman, their leader, who makes war upon me in my own city. Prince Paul Maraloffski, I create you Marechale of the whole Russian Empire to help you to carry out martial law.

Czar. Give me the proclamation. I will sign it at once.

Prince Paul (points on paper). Here, Sire.

Czare. (starts up and puts his hands on the paper). Stay! I tell you, stay! The priests have taken heaven from the people, and you would take the earth away too.

Prince Paul. We have no time, Prince, now. This boy will ruin everything. The pen, Sire.

Czare. What! is it so small a thing to strangle a nation, to murder a kingdom, to wreck an empire? Who are we who dare lay this ban of terror on a people? Have we less vices than they have, that we bring them to the bar of judgment before us?

Prince Paul. What a Communist the Prince is! He would have an equal distribution of sin as well as of property.

Czare. Warmed by the same sun, nurtured by the same air, fashioned of flesh and blood like to our own, wherein are they different to us, save that they starve while we surfeit, that they toil while we idle, that they sicken while we poison, that they die while we strangle?

Czar. How dare – ?

Czare. I dare all for the people; but you would rob them of common rights of common men.

Czar. The people have no rights.

Czare. Then they have great wrongs. Father, they have won your battles for you; from the pine forests of the Baltic to the palms of India they have ridden on victory's mighty wings in search of your glory! Boy as I am in years, I have seen wave after wave of living men sweep up the heights of battle to their death; ay, and snatch perilous conquest from the scales of war when the bloody crescent seemed to shake above our eagles.

Czar (somewhat moved). Those men are dead. What have I to do with them?

Czare. Nothing! The dead are safe; you cannot harm them now. They sleep their last long sleep. Some in Turkish waters, others by the windswept heights of Norway and the Dane! But these, the living, our brothers, what have you done for them? They asked you for bread, you gave them a stone. They sought for freedom, you scourged them with scorpions. You have sown the seeds of this revolution yourself! —

Prince Paul. And are we not cutting down the harvest?

Czare. Oh, my brothers! better far that ye had died in the iron hail and screaming shell of battle than to come back to such a doom as this! The beasts of the forests have their lairs, and the wild beasts their caverns, but the people of Russia, conquerors of the world, have not where to lay their heads.

Prince Paul. They have the headsman's block.

Czare. The headsman's block! Ay! you have killed their souls at your pleasure, you would kill their bodies now.

Czar. Insolent boy! Have you forgotten who is Emperor of Russia?

Czare. No! The people reign now, by the grace of God. You should have been their shepherd; you have fled away like the hireling, and let the wolves in upon them.

Czar. Take him away! Take him away, Prince Paul!

Czare. God hath given this people tongues to speak with; you would cut them out that they may be dumb in their agony, silent in their torture! But God hath given them hands to smite with, and they shall smite! Ay! from the sick and labouring womb of this unhappy land some revolution, like a bloody child, shall rise up and slay you.

Czar (leaping up). Devil! Assassin! Why do you beard me thus to my face?

Czare. Because I am a Nihilist! (The ministers start to their feet; there is dead silence for a few minutes.)

Czar. A Nihilist! a Nihilist! Scorpion whom I have nurtured, traitor whom I have fondled, is this your bloody secret? Prince Paul Maraloffski, Marechale of the Russian Empire, arrest the Czarevitch!

Ministers. Arrest the Czarevitch!

Czar. A Nihilist! If you have sown with them, you shall reap with them! If you have talked with them, you shall rot with them! If you have lived with them, with them you shall die!

Prince Petro. Die!

Czar. A plague on all sons, I say! There should be no more marriages in Russia when one can breed such vipers as you are! Arrest the Czarevitch, I say!

Prince Paul. Czarevitch! by order of the Emperor, I demand your sword. (Czarevitch gives up sword; Prince Paul places it on the table.) Foolish boy! you are not made for a conspirator; you have not learned to hold your tongue. Heroics are out of place in a palace.

Czar (sinks into his chair with his eyes fixed on the Czarevitch). O God!

Czare. If I am to die for the people, I am ready; one Nihilist more or less in Russia, what does that matter?

Prince Paul (aside). A good deal I should say to the one Nihilist.

Czare. The mighty brotherhood to which I belong has a thousand such as I am, ten thousand better still! (The Czar starts in his seat.) The star of freedom is risen already, and far off I hear the mighty wave democracy break on these cursed shores.

Prince Paul (to Prince Petrovitch). In that case you and I had better learn how to swim.

Czare. Father, Emperor, Imperial Master, I plead not for my own life, but for the lives of my brothers, the people.

Prince Paul (bitterly). Your brothers, the people, Prince, are not content with their own lives, they always want to take their neighbour's too.

Czar (standing up). I am sick of being afraid. I have done with terror now. From this day I proclaim war against the people – war to their annihilation. As they have dealt with me, so shall I deal with them. I shall grind them to powder, and strew their dust upon the air. There shall be a spy in every man's house, a traitor on every hearth, a hangman in every village, a gibbet in every square. Plague, leprosy, or fever shall be less deadly than my wrath; I will make every frontier a grave-yard, every province a lazar-house, and cure the sick by the sword. I shall have peace in Russia, though it be the peace of the dead. Who said I was a coward? Who said I was afraid? See, thus shall I crush this people beneath my feet! (Takes up sword of Czarevitch off table and tramples on it.)

Czare. Father, beware, the sword you tread on may turn and wound you. The people suffer long, but vengeance comes at last, vengeance with red hands and bloody purpose.

Prince Paul. Bah! the people are bad shots; they always miss one.

Czare. There are times when the people are instruments of God.

Czar. Ay! and when kings are God's scourges for the people. Oh, my own son, in my own house! My own flesh and blood against me! Take him away! Take him away! Bring in my guards. (Enter the Imperial Guard. Czar points to Czarevitch, who stands alone at the side of the stage.) To the blackest prison in Moscow! Let me never see his face again. (Czarevitch is being led out.) No, no, leave him! I don't trust guards. They are all Nihilists! They would let him escape and he would kill me, kill me! No, I'll bring him to prison myself, you and I (to Prince Paul). I trust you, you have no mercy. I shall have no mercy. Oh, my own son against me! How hot it is! The air stifles me! I feel as if I were going to faint, as if something were at my throat. Open the windows, I say! Out of my sight! Out of my sight! I can't bear his eyes. Wait, wait for me. (Throws window open and goes out on balcony.)

Prince Paul (looking at his watch). The dinner is sure to be spoiled. How annoying politics are and eldest sons!

Voice (outside, in the street). God save the people! (Czar is shot, and staggers back into the room.)

Czare. (breaking from the guards, and rushing over). Father!

Czar. Murderer! Murderer! You did it! Murderer! (Dies.)

TABLEAU

End of Act II

ACT III

Same scene and business as Act I. Man in yellow dress, with drawn sword, at the door

Password outside. Væ tyrannis

Answer. Væ victis (repeated three times)

(Enter Conspirators, who form a semicircle, masked and cloaked.)

President. What hour is it?

First Consp. The hour to strike.

Pres. What day?

Second Consp. The day of Marat.

Pres. In what month?

Second Consp. The month of liberty.

Pres. What is our duty?

Fourth Consp. To obey.

Pres. Our creed?

Fifth Consp. Parbleu, Mons. le President, I never knew you had one.

Consps. A spy! A spy! Unmask! Unmask! A spy!

Pres.Let the doors be shut. There are others but Nihilists present.

Consps. Unmask! Unmask! Kill him! kill him! (Masked Conspirator unmasks.) Prince Paul!

Vera. Devil! Who lured you into the lion's den?

Consps. Kill him! kill him!

Prince Paul. En vérité, Messieurs, you are not over-hospitable in your welcome.

Vera. Welcome! What welcome should we give you but the dagger or the noose?

Prince Paul. I had no idea, really, that the Nihilists were so exclusive. Let me assure you that if I had not always had an entree to the very best society, and the very worst conspiracies, I could never have been Prime Minister in Russia.

Vera. The tiger cannot change its nature, nor the snake lose its venom; but are you turned a lover of the people?

Prince Paul. Mon Dieu, non, Mademoiselle! I would much sooner talk scandal in a drawing-room than treason in a cellar. Besides, I hate the common mob, who smell of garlic, smoke bad tobacco, get up early, and dine off one dish.

Pres. What have you to gain, then, by a revolution?

Prince Paul. Mon ami, I have nothing left to lose. That scatter-brained boy, this new Czar, has banished me.

Vera. To Siberia?

Prince Paul. No, to Paris. He has confiscated my estates, robbed me of my office and my cook. I have nothing left but my decorations. I am here for revenge.

Pres. Then you have a right to be one of us. We also meet daily for revenge.

Prince Paul. You want money, of course. No one ever joins a conspiracy who has any. Here. (Throws money on table.) You have so many spies that I should think you want information. Well, you will find me the best informed man in Russia on the abuses of our Government. I made them nearly all myself.

Vera. President, I don't trust this man. He has done us too much harm in Russia to let him go in safety.

Prince Paul. Believe me, Mademoiselle, you are wrong; I will be a most valuable addition to your circle; as for you, gentlemen, if I had not thought that you would be useful to me I shouldn't have risked my neck among you, or dined an hour earlier than usual so as to be in time.

Pres. Ay, if he had wanted to spy on us, Vera, he wouldn't have come himself.

Prince Paul (aside). No; I should have sent my best friend.

Pres. Besides, Vera, he is just the man to give us the information we want about some business we have in hand to-night.

Vera. Be it so if you wish it.

Pres. Brothers, is it your will that Prince Paul Maraloffski be admitted, and take the oath of the Nihilist?

Consps. It is! it is!

Pres. (holding out dagger and a paper). Prince Paul, the dagger or the oath?

Prince Paul (smiles sardonically). I would sooner annihilate than be annihilated. (Takes paper.)

Pres. Remember: Betray us, and as long as the earth holds poison or steel, as long as men can strike or woman betray, you shall not escape vengeance. The Nihilists never forget their friends, or forgive their enemies.

Prince Paul. Really? I did not think you were so civilized.

Vera (pacing up and down). Why is he not here? He will not keep the crown. I know him well.

Pres. Sign. (Prince Paul signs.) You said you thought we had no creed. You were wrong. Read it!

Vera. This is a dangerous thing, President. What can we do with this man?

Pres. We can use him.

Vera. And afterwards?

Pres. (shrugging his shoulders). Strangle him.

Prince Paul (reading). "The rights of humanity!" In the old times men carried out their rights for themselves as they lived, but nowadays every baby seems born with a social manifesto in its mouth much bigger than itself. "Nature is not a temple, but a workshop: we demand the right to labour." Ah, I shall surrender my own rights in that respect.

Vera (pacing up and down behind). Oh, will he never come? will he never come?

Prince Paul. "The family as subversive of true socialistic and communal unity is to be annihilated." Yes, President, I agree completely with Article 5. A family is a terrible incumbrance, especially when one is not married. (Three knocks at the door.)

Vera. Alexis at last!

Password. Væ tyrannis!

Answer. Væ victis!

(Enter Michael Stroganoff.)

Pres. Michael, the regicide! Brothers, let us do honour to a man who has killed a king.

Vera (aside). Oh, he will come yet.

Pres. Michael, you have saved Russia.

Mich. Ay, Russia was free for a moment when the tyrant fell, but the sun of liberty has set again like that false dawn which cheats our eyes in autumn.

Pres. The dread night of tyranny is not yet past for Russia.

Mich. (clutching his knife). One more blow, and the end is come indeed.

Vera (aside). One more blow! What does he mean? Oh, impossible! but why is he not with us? Alexis! Alexis! why are you not here?

Pres. But how did you escape, Michael? They said you had been seized.

Mich. I was dressed in the uniform of the Imperial Guard. The Colonel on duty was a brother, and gave me the password. I drove through the troops in safety with it, and, thanks to my good horse, reached the walls before the gates were closed.

Pres. What a chance his coming out on the balcony was!

Mich. A chance? There is no such thing as chance. It was God's finger led him there.

Pres. And where have you been these three days?

Mich. Hiding in the house of the priest Nicholas at the cross-roads.

Pres. Nicholas is an honest man.

Mich. Ay, honest enough for a priest. I am here now for vengeance on a traitor!

Vera (aside). O God, will he never come? Alexis! why are you not here? You cannot have turned traitor!

Mich. (seeing Prince Paul). Prince Paul Maraloffski here! By St. George, a lucky capture! This must have been Vera's doing. She is the only one who could have lured that serpent into the trap.

Pres. Prince Paul has just taken the oath.

Vera. Alexis, the Czar, has banished him from Russia.

Mich. Bah! A blind to cheat us. We will keep Prince Paul here, and find some office for him in our reign of terror. He is well accustomed by this time to bloody work.

Prince Paul (approaching Michael). That was a long shot of yours, mon camarade.

Mich. I have had a good deal of practice shooting, since I have been a boy, off your Highness's wild boars.

Prince Paul. Are my gamekeepers like moles, then, always asleep?

Mich. No, Prince. I am one of them; but, like you, I am fond of robbing what I am put to watch.

Pres. This must be a new atmosphere for you, Prince Paul. We speak the truth to one another here.

Prince Paul. How misleading you must find it. You have an odd medley here, President – a little rococo, I am afraid.

Pres. You recognise a good many friends, I dare say?

Prince Paul. Yes, there is always more brass than brains in an aristocracy.

Pres. But you are here yourself?

Prince Paul. I? As I cannot be Prime Minister, I must be a Nihilist. There is no alternative.

Vera. O God, will he never come? The hand is on the stroke of the hour. Will he never come?

Mich. (aside). President, you know what we have to do? 'Tis but a sorry hunter who leaves the wolf cub alive to avenge his father. How are we to get at this boy? It must be to-night. To-morrow he will be throwing some sop of reform to the people, and it will be too late for a Republic.

Prince Paul. You are quite right. Good kings are the enemies of Democracy, and when he has begun by banishing me you may be sure he intends to be a patriot.

Mich. I am sick of patriot kings; what Russia needs is a Republic.

Prince Paul. Messieurs, I have brought you two documents which I think will interest you – the proclamation this young Czar intends publishing to-morrow, and a plan of the Winter Palace, where he sleeps to-night. (Hands paper.)

Vera.I dare not ask them what they are plotting about. Oh, why is Alexis not here?

Pres. Prince, this is most valuable information. Michael, you were right. If it is not to-night it will be too late. Read that.

Mich. Ah! A loaf of bread flung to a starving nation. A lie to cheat the people. (Tears it up.) It must be to-night. I do not believe in him. Would he have kept his crown had he loved the people? But how are we to get at him?

Prince Paul. The key of the private door in the street. (Hands key.)

Pres. Prince, we are in your debt.

Prince Paul (smiling). The normal condition of the Nihilists.