Bernadotte smiled again. 'I have chosen one, Mr. Brook yourself. Who could undertake this business with a better hope of success? My Swedish diplomats are prejudiced against the Russians; you are not.'
'Your Royal Highness, I beg you…' Roger began.
But Bernadotte waved his protest aside and said firmly, 'I'll not take "no" for an answer, Mr. Brook. You have made it plain to me yourself that you have been deeply involved in Russian affairs, and are on intimate terms with leading members of their nobility, whose influence you can seek to aid our design. I have no one with such assets whom I could send. I will give you a lettre de marque similar to the one you have; then you can speak on behalf of my Government here as well as your own. Yes, I insist on it.'
'Then Your Royal Highness leaves me no alternative Roger sighed. 'When do you wish me to start?'
'At once. Our ex-master at least showed us that, having taken a decision, speed in executing it is the secret of
CAUGHT IN THE TOILS ONCE MORE 289
success. I will give orders for a frigate to sail with you tomorrow morning. At this season of the year the greater part of the Gulf of Finland is frozen over, but she could take you across to Revel and from there it is not much above two hundred miles to St. Petersburg. I will, of course, furnish you with money for the part of your journey you must make by sleigh, and for other expenses. I will also make your adieux to Their Majesties, on the pretext that I have sent you to report on the state of our garrisons upcountry, and forgot to tell them of my intention. For the few hours that you remain here, and when you return to inform me of the Czar's reactions, you will continue to be known as M. le Colonel Comte de Breuc. Wait upon me here, please, at seven o'clock in the morning. I will then give you the lettre de marque and instructions to the captain of the frigate.' Standing up to show that the interview was over, he smiled, shook Roger warmly by the hand and added:
'This has been a most interesting conversation, Mr. Brook. It is my earnest hope that it will bear fruit. And you may rest assured that your secret is safe with me.'
As Roger undressed in his icy, stone-walled chamber, he felt no elation that he had succeeded in his mission. He gloomily reflected that, through talking too much about his past, he had hung himself with his own petard, and landed himself with another long winter journey from which there was no saying when he would return.
When he reported to Bernadotte the next morning, the Prince Royal told him that he was sending sealed orders to the captain of the frigate. These, giving Roger's destination, would not be opened until the ship had left port. In the meantime, it would be given out that he was being conveyed on the first stage of his tour of inspection, up to Osthammar. From the Prince he received the lettre de marque and a not very large purse of gold; then he was taken by an adjutant down to the harbour and aboard the frigate.
It was still dark when they left the Castle, but soon afterwards a wintry sun came up to light the innumerable islands lying off the Swedish capital. After his last experience of sea travel, Roger hated more than ever the thought of going aboard a ship; but this time, in the comparatively sheltered waters of the Baltic, he was more fortunate. The sea was no more than choppy and, two days later, he was landed at Revel without having succumbed to seasickness.
After a night spent at the best inn, he hired a troika, had a good stock of provisions packed into it and set off along the road that crossed northern Estonia. In places it ran near enough to the Gulf of Finland for him to catch glimpses of fishing boats threading their way among the ice floes, where the gulf was not completely frozen over. As the road was a main highway it was in fair condition and kept open, but fifty miles a day was as much as he could average; so he spent nights at Rakvere, Narva and Gatchina.
At the last place he looked at a small palace with interest. It was there that Catherine the Great had made her son Paul, whom she greatly disliked, reside. Eccentric to a point that later developed into madness, he had spent his entire time drilling his own regiment of troops. As a great admirer of Frederick the Great, he had dressed his men in Prussian uniforms, but he carried discipline to a point when it became sadistic torture, making his men stand to attention for hours on end and having them flogged if they so much as eased a limb.
On March 3rd, his fourth day out from Revel, long after dark he entered St. Petersburg. Being familiar with the city he had himself driven to the Laughing Tartar, a big inn at which young Guards officers often gathered for drinking bouts. There he did not have to resort to any subterfuge, as he had many friends in the Russian capital, and was known to them all as Mr. Roger Brook.
To his relief he learned that the Czar was not, as he had feared might be the case, in Moscow supervising the mobilization of his army, but in residence at the Hermitage. By half past eight on the morning after his arrival, Roger had had himself driven out to the magnificent Palace, given his name to a Chamberlain and requested an audience.
He spent the next five hours in a vast waiting room, but it was comfortably furnished and had a number of large, porcelain stoves which kept it warm. Having nothing to do and there being nothing to read, he whiled away the time thinking about a variety of people, among them Bernadotte, Georgina, Napoleon, Droopy and the Czar Alexander.
The last was a most unusual monarch, for he was at the same time a revolutionary and an autocrat. His grandmother, the beautiful, licentious, cultured and intelligent Catherine, had given him as a tutor a Swiss named La Harpe, who was a disciple of Rousseau's. La Harpe had instilled into the young Prince the liberal ideas formulated in the Rights of Man, which were then agitating France and brought about the French Revolution. Alexander had imbibed them with enthusiasm and, on coming to the throne, had ardently desired to better the lot of his subjects in every way, even to the point of liberating all the serfs.
For this purpose he surrounded himself with young men who shared his ideas, in particular Counts Stroganoff and Novssiltzoff, and the charming Polish Prince Czartoryski. He also took into his favour Michael Speranskii, a brilliant bureaucrat. Among them they drafted plans for a Bill of Rights, based on the English Habeas Corpus Act, and to revolutionize the Government by turning it into a constitutional Monarchy, with an elected Diet.
But, in the event, only a few minor reforms were actually carried out. An endeavour to force the nobility to free their serfs would have brought about Alexander's assassination. Theoretically, he would have liked everyone to have rights; but, if put into practice, that would have undermined the god-like authority long vested in the 'Little Father' of the Russian people and, with regard to establishing a Parliament, that was well enough for prominent citizens to air their views in, but if it came to their telling him what to do and what not to do, that was utterly unthinkable.
His enthusiasm for the French Revolution had cooled when the leaders of the people had abused their authority and initiated the Terror. Horrified by the blood bath engulfing the nobility and bourgeoisie that followed, he had belatedly joined the other monarchs in their attempt to destroy the young Republic and restore law and order.
The Russian Army had fought better than those of any of her allies; but, after several bloody battles in which they had held their own, Napoleon's genius as a general had inflicted so severe a defeat on Alexander's forces at Friedland that he had been forced to ask for an armistice.