The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 193: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE YOUNG DUCHESS; OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QUALITY. ‘Oh, no,” exclaimed the Princess, shaking her beautiful head with a singular expression of coun- tenance: “the circumstances were very different. I myself am not very rightly acquainted with them—I merely seem to have a dim notion thereof floating in my brain; for no one has ever given me the narrative in detail, and the little that I do know has been gleaned from certain mysterious hints which my female dependants-have sometimes dropped in my hearing, or which I have otherwise heard whispered around me.” “Ah!” said Ethel, surveying the fair young creature with an additional interest, now that she learnt that there was a mystery of some kind or another attending upon her early being. ‘Of course, you know, my dear Ethel,” con- tinued Roxana, ‘that Siberia is a place of exile?” ‘You seem to shudder, dear Princess, when you think of it. Is the aspect of that dire wintry region so very awful that it has made such a powerful impression upon you ?” ‘‘Oh,” exclainied Roxana, smiling and opening her beautiful eyes quite wide, “you have mis- understood me, Ethel! I only know Siberia from what I have heard and read of it.” “IT thought you said that you were born there ?” ‘““And so I was: but when only a year old,” continued the Princess, ‘I was borne away from Tobolsk along with my father and taken into Russia. So you see, my dear Ethel, that from actual experience I know no more of that fearful hyperborean region than you do yourself.” Ethel was on the very point of asking the Princess whether her mother was dead—and if so, how long a time had elapsed since her decease— but she feared lest it might prove delicate ground to touch upon; and she remained silent. “You must know, my dear Ethel,” continued the Princess, ‘‘that my poor mother was herself an exile she had been banished into the wild Siberian clime!” “‘Good heavens!” exclaimed Mrs. Trevor, ‘do they banish duchesses and princesses in this man- ner in your country ?” ‘‘Ah! my mother was neither a duchess nor a princess when she was banished. Indeed, I know not to what family she belonged, nor what her position in life was: J] have never heard. But I fancy she must have been of humble condition— which did not however prevent her from being exceedingly beautiful.” “So I should conceive,” said Ethel, gazing with the most earnest interest upon Roxana. “Oh, you must not judgé by me!” exclaimed the young Princess, laughing: “for I have heard my dear father on one or two occasions observe that I by no means resemble my poor deceased mother. And an old nurse who brought me from Siberia, and who died some four or five years ago —she also used to look at me attentively some- times and declare that I did not take much after my maternal parent. But let me go back to what I was saying. Where was I?” “You were telling me, dear Princess, that your mother was not in a very high social posi- tion ” ‘*On the contrary—methinks she must have been in a very humble one; and this was most probably the reason they exiled her into Siberia —because she had the misfortune—or shall I call a a nee eT a 179 it the good, fortune ?—I know not which Alas, poor mother !—-to win the heart of a Prince of the Imperial House of Russia. You see, my dear Ethel,” pursued Roxana, wiping away a tear from her eye, “the tale is quite a romance at least so much as I know of it.” “Tt is indeed a romance,” said Ethel: “for I now foresee you are about to tell me that this illustrious Prince—who of course is none other than your father — followed the obscure young lady into her far-off place of exile and there married her !” ‘“'Yes—it was so,” rejoined the princess. ‘+ Ah, what devotion on the part of my father !—was it not? But from all that I have learnt, an interval | of at least two or three years must have occurred between the time when the object of this tender love was sent into exile, and the period when my father was enabled to find an opportunity and take measures to follow her. So you see, Ethel, that having once loved her, he retained her image deeply impressed upon his heart—he remained faithful and constant—and absence and separation impaired not the first freshness of the passion he had conceived for her !” ‘The history of Love’s deeds, and sacrifices, and incidents of noble daring, does not contain a finer episode than that which you are reciting to me, dear Princess ;’—-and Ethel sighed,.but in- wardly and inaudibly, as she thought of~her own devoted love and what cruel misadventures it had experienced. ‘“‘ And yet,” continued Roxana, “it was almost impossible that a history so romantic could be without its tragedy. My father had managed to conceal his princely rank at the time when he penetrated into Siberia—he had revealed it only to the venerable Greek priest, who was induced by the spectacle of so much devoted love to pro- nounce the nuptial blessing—and in addition to that priest, to three witnesses or confidants, one of whom was the old nurse that I just now told you 0 P ‘But I suppose the secret could not be very long kept?” said Ethel, deeply interested in the narrative. ‘* No,” responded Roxana,—“ barely two years. When I was a twelvemonth old, guards suddenly surrounded the humble tenement where we dwelt —they seized upon my father—tore him away from his wife—yes, tore him away from my poor mother! Ah, it is a sad history !—and—and he was brought back to St. Petersburgh.” The Princess paused, wiped away a tear from her eye, and then proceeded as follows :— ‘*T believe—but I am not sure—it is only one of the whispers which at one time I heard circu- lating about me—that those wretches of soldiers would not at first accede to my father’s earnest entreaty that he might be allowed to take me, his infant child, with him: but at length they yielded @ ‘““T should have thought, dear Princess,” said Ethel, gently, “that at your tender age—at that time only a year old—it would have been deemed more prudent to leave you with your mother ?” The Princess seemed struck by the observation : she reflected for a few moments—and then she said, ‘‘I never thought of this before!” ‘‘ Wowever,” interjected Ethel hastily—for she did not wish to leave the young and delicate COMO YN Wn) Colin