The Young Duchess; or, Memoirs of a Lady of Quality — page 202: what you’re looking at

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188 guarantees against her escape and against the pos- sibility of her reunion elsewhere with the Grand Duke. But it would seem as if the precaution was needless and that the image of the Imperial Prince was not very strongly impressed upon her mind ; for scarcely had a twelvemonth elapsed after her separation from the Grand Duke and her child, when she fled—yes, she did manage to make her escape—but it was with the connivance —aye, and in the company too, of a handsome young fellow—an aide-de-camp of the Governor!” Lady Langport started and gave vent to an ejaculation of dismay. — ‘What!’ she cried: “ Mildred a profligate ? Mildred guilty of such flagrant wantonness ? Oh, but perhaps you judged hastily, and the young man who accompanied her may have been inspired only by motives of a chivalrous generosity to suc- cour one whom he beheld the victim of cruellest persecution !” . Again did a scornful smile play upon the thin lips of the Russian Ambassador, as he shook his head, saying, ‘It is pardonable in you as a mother to resist unto the very last against the evi- dences of your own daughter’s profligacy : but you mist disabuse yourself on the point, madam, and yield to conviction. Your daughter Mildred fled with a paramour—and no trace of either re- mained. At that time I was Ambassador at Con- stantinople; and as it happened that the Governor of Tobolsk was a nephew of mine, I received from him a full account of all the proceedings. Thus, madam, when at that period I was introduced to you at Constantinople, and when you told me that you were Miss Malcolm of St. Petersburgh, I naturally concluded that you were the Miss Mal- colm of Tobolsk also; and every detail of the conversation which took place tended to con- firm the impression. Indeed, methought it was even with a sly covert irony that you spoke of having been a great traveller in your time, and that you had journeyed thousands and thousands of miles. And therefore, believing you to be the Miss Malcolm who had escaped from Tobolsk, I took prompt measures to capture you and send you off into the heart of Siberia. However, you fled :—and fortunate enough, as I have before de- clared, was it that you by some means or another received a timeous warning. I think you told me, madam, that you married Lord Langport a very few weeks after you fled from Constantinople ?” Yes,” was the response. ‘Ah !” said the Ambassador: “ and thus, as the name of Miss Malcolm from that moment ceased to be heard of in Europe, I concluded that Mildred had sunk into the seclusion of utter pro- fligacy with some new paramour. Then years passed away—and the incidents which I am now about to mention belong to 1838.” Lady Langport made a movment of increasing curiosity ; and Count Olonetz continued as fol- lows :— ‘‘ Yes—it was in the year 1838 that Mildred was next heard of. She was then in Australia. She was living in Sydney, with an Englishman whose name I do not now choose to mention. She accompanied that Englishman to India; and from something that transpired it became known to the Russian Consul at Bombay that Mildred was endeavouring to renew her correspondence with the Grand Duke. Indeed, she had written q THE YOUNG DUCHESS; OR, MEMOIRS OF A LADY OF QUALITY. a letter to his Imperial Highness: but it did not reach the post—for the person to whom she en- trusted it handed it over to the Russian Consul. The person who betrayed her in this manner was none other than her paramour the Englishman. Thus profligacy prepared the way for its own punishment. The Russian Consul’s measures were promptly taken in concert with the Eng- lishman, who was in his pay. Mildred was seized—placed on board a vessel—conveyed up the Persian Gulf—borne through Asia Minor to the mountains of the Caucasus—and thence sent back to her old place of exile in Siberia !” ‘Good God !” moaned Lady Langport, clasp- ing her hands together: ‘‘ wretched, wretched Mildred! Oh, how many thousands and thou- sands of miles must she have journeyed !” ‘‘Many thousands and thousands,” said Olonetz coolly. ‘‘ Well, madam, do you know,” he continued, again with a slight tincture of irony in his tone, “ that this daughter of yours is a perfect heroine of eudurance and perseverance ; and if all her courage and astuteness—her bold daring—and her fearless encounter of perils which would appal even the minds of strong men,—if all these qualities, I say, had been displayed in some grand, righteous, and sacred cause she would have won immortal renown! I will explain my- self. It was in 1839 that Mildred was borne back to Tobolsk : and would you believe it—in three or four years she managed to escape again! —and on this occasion I cannot say that it was in company with any handsome aide-de-camp. In the year 1845 I was Ambassador at the Court of Madrid ; and behold! I was one day waited upon by an Englishman, who came to me with an air of mystery, and who after somg circumlocu- tion informed me that he was the person who had betrayed Mildred into the hands of the Russian Consul at Bombay. I asked what he required of me ; and he proceeded to state that Mildred was at that moment in Madrid—he had seen her—he had recognised her—he had traced her to her lodgings; but he was not sure whether she had perceived him. On receiving this communication I lost no time in sending an attaché to Mildred. He found that she had recognised the English- man; and she knew therefore that it was he who now sought to betray her a second time into the hands of her Russian enemies. But she wasina state of destitution and unable to flee from Madrid: she was ill, desponding, and temporarily deprived of all the wondrous energy which had sustained her throughout so many trials and ad- ventures. No wonder that such a reaction had taken place!” “ Alas, poor Mildred!” murmured Lady Lang- port. “My attaché pitied her,’ resumed Count Olonetz; ‘and he at once gave her the assur~ ance on my behalf that I would take no steps to send her back to Siberia. For,’ he said to her, ‘ the profligacy of your conduct is well known to him who was once your husband ; and it will be utterly useless for you to seek, by means of cor- respondence or otherwise, to regain over that imperial heart a sway which is lost for ever. Your daughter,’ continued the attaché, ‘has been reared in the belief that you have long been dead, so that she may never have to blush on account Of a mother’s wantonness, Surely you will not NOO a) ©) = A