XVI IDENTIFICATION 253

XVII PETER BECOMES A CONSPIRATOR 266

XVIII FACE TO FACE 276

XIX YAKIMOV REVEALS HIMSELF 291

XX THE RUSSIAN PAYS 308

XXI THE INFERNO 326

XXII RETRIBUTION 343

XXIII A VISITOR 357

_The_
VAGRANT DUKE

THE VAGRANT DUKE

_PROLOGUE_

_At the piano a man sat playing the "Revolutionary Etude" of Chopin. The
room was magnificent in its proportions, its furnishings were massive,
its paneled oak walls were hung with portraits of men and women in the
costumes of a bygone day. Through the lofty windows, the casements of
which were open to the evening sky there was a vista of forest and
meadow-land stretching interminably to the setting sun. The mosquelike
cupola of a village church, a few versts distant, glimmered like a pearl
in the dusky setting of wooded hills, and close by it, here and there,
tiny spirals of opalescent smoke marked the dwellings of Zukovo
village._

_But the man at the piano was detached, a being apart from this scene of
quiet, absorbed in his piano, which gave forth the turbulence which had
been in the soul of the great composer. The expression upon the dark
face of the young musician was rapt and eager, until he crashed the
chords to their triumphant conclusion when he sank back in his chair
with a gasp, his head bent forward upon his breast, his dark gaze fixed
upon the keys which still echoed with the tumult._

_It was at this moment that a door at the side of the room was opened
and a white-haired man in purple livery entered and stood in silence
regarding rather wistfully the man at the piano, who raised his head
abruptly like one startled from a dream._

_"What is it, Vasili?" asked the musician._

_The servant approached softly a few steps._

_"I did not wish to intrude, Highness, but----"_

_As the old servant hesitated, the young man shrugged and rose,
disclosing a tall, straight figure, clad in a dark blue blouse, loose
trousers and brown boots liberally bespattered with mud. The glow of the
sun which shot across his face as he came forward into the light, showed
swarthy features, level brows, a straight nose, a well turned chin, a
small mustache and a generous mouth which revealed a capacity for humor.
He was quite calm now