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Michael Strogoff

J >> Jules Verne >> Michael Strogoff




"Ivan Ogareff!" she cried.

On hearing his name pronounced, the wretch started.
His real name known, all his plans would be balked. There
was but one thing to be done: to kill the person who had
just uttered it. Ogareff darted at Nadia; but the girl, a
knife in her hand, retreated against the wall, determined to
defend herself.

"Ivan Ogareff!" again cried Nadia, knowing well that
so detested a name would soon bring her help.

"Ah! Be silent!" hissed out the traitor between his
clenched teeth.

"Ivan Ogareff!" exclaimed a third time the brave young
girl, in a voice to which hate had added ten-fold strength.

Mad with fury, Ogareff, drawing a dagger from his belt,
again rushed at Nadia and compelled her to retreat into a
corner of the room. Her last hope appeared gone, when the
villain, suddenly lifted by an irresistible force, was dashed
to the ground.

"Michael!" cried Nadia.

It was Michael Strogoff. Michael had heard Nadia's
call. Guided by her voice, he had just in time reached Ivan
Ogareff's room, and entered by the open door.

"Fear nothing, Nadia," said he, placing himself between
her and Ogareff.

"Ah!" cried the girl, "take care, brother! The traitor
is armed! He can see!"

Ogareff rose, and, thinking he had an immeasurable ad-
vantage over the blind man leaped upon him. But with
one hand, the blind man grasped the arm of his enemy,
seized his weapon, and hurled him again to the ground.

Pale with rage and shame, Ogareff remembered that he
wore a sword. He drew it and returned a second time to
the charge. A blind man! Ogareff had only to deal with
a blind man! He was more than a match for him!

Nadia, terrified at the danger which threatened her com-
panion ran to the door calling for help!

"Close the door, Nadia!" said Michael. "Call no one,
and leave me alone! The Czar's courier has nothing to fear
to-day from this villain! Let him come on, if he dares!
I am ready for him."

In the mean time, Ogareff, gathering himself together
like a tiger about to spring, uttered not a word. The noise
of his footsteps, his very breathing, he endeavored to con-
ceal from the ear of the blind man. His object was to strike
before his opponent was aware of his approach, to strike
him with a deadly blow.

Nadia, terrified and at the same time confident, watched
this terrible scene with involuntary admiration. Michael's
calm bearing seemed to have inspired her. Michael's sole
weapon was his Siberian knife. He did not see his adver-
sary armed with a sword, it is true; but Heaven's support
seemed to be afforded him. How, almost without stirring,
did he always face the point of the sword?

Ivan Ogareff watched his strange adversary with visible
anxiety. His superhuman calm had an effect upon him.
In vain, appealing to his reason, did he tell himself that in
so unequal a combat all the advantages were on his side.
The immobility of the blind man froze him. He had
settled on the place where he would strike his victim. He
had fixed upon it! What, then, hindered him from putting
an end to his blind antagonist?

At last, with a spring he drove his sword full at Michael's
breast. An imperceptible movement of the blind man's
knife turned aside the blow. Michael had not been touched,
and coolly he awaited a second attack.

Cold drops stood on Ogareff's brow. He drew back a
step, then again leaped forward. But as had the first, this
second attempt failed. The knife had simply parried the
blow from the traitor's useless sword.

Mad with rage and terror before this living statue, he
gazed into the wide-open eyes of the blind man. Those
eyes which seemed to pierce to the bottom of his soul, and
yet which did not, could not, see -- exercised a sort of dread-
ful fascination over him.

All at once, Ogareff uttered a cry. A sudden light
flashed across his brain. "He sees!" he exclaimed, "he
sees!" And like a wild beast trying to retreat into its den,
step by step, terrified, he drew back to the end of the room.

Then the statue became animated, the blind man walked
straight up to Ivan Ogareff, and placing himself right before
him, "Yes, I see!" said he. "I see the mark of the knout
which I gave you, traitor and coward! I see the place
where I am about to strike you! Defend your life! It is
a duel I deign to offer you! My knife against your
sword!"

"He sees!" said Nadia. "Gracious Heaven, is it pos-
sible!"

Ogareff felt that he was lost. But mustering all his
courage, he sprang forward on his impassible adversary.
The two blades crossed, but at a touch from Michael's knife,
wielded in the hand of the Siberian hunter, the sword flew
in splinters, and the wretch, stabbed to the heart, fell life-
less on the ground.

At the same moment, the door was thrown open. The
Grand Duke, accompanied by some of his officers, appeared
on the threshold. The Grand Duke advanced. In the
body lying on the ground, he recognized the man whom he
believed to be the Czar's courier.

Then, in a threatening voice, "Who killed that man?"
he asked.

"I," replied Michael.

One of the officers put a pistol to his temple, ready to fire.

"Your name?" asked the Grand Duke, before giving
the order for his brains to be blown out.

"Your Highness," answered Michael, "ask me rather
the name of the man who lies at your feet!"

"That man, I know him! He is a servant of my brother!
He is the Czar's courier!"

"That man, your Highness, is not a courier of the Czar!
He is Ivan Ogareff!"

"Ivan Ogareff!" exclaimed the Grand Duke.

"Yes, Ivan the Traitor!"

"But who are you, then?"

"Michael Strogoff!"


CHAPTER XV
CONCLUSION

MICHAEL STROGOFF was not, had never been, blind. A
purely human phenomenon, at the same time moral and
physical, had neutralized the action of the incandescent
blade which Feofar's executioner had passed before his
eyes.

It may be remembered, that at the moment of the ex-
ecution, Marfa Strogoff was present, stretching out her
hands towards her son. Michael gazed at her as a son
would gaze at his mother, when it is for the last time. The
tears, which his pride in vain endeavored to subdue, welling
up from his heart, gathered under his eyelids, and volatiliz-
ing on the cornea, had saved his sight. The vapor formed
by his tears interposing between the glowing saber and his
eyeballs, had been sufficient to annihilate the action of the
heat. A similar effect is produced, when a workman
smelter, after dipping his hand in vapor, can with impunity
hold it over a stream of melted iron.

Michael had immediately understood the danger in which
he would be placed should he make known his secret to any-
one. He at once saw, on the other hand, that he might
make use of his supposed blindness for the accomplishment
of his designs. Because it was believed that he was blind,
he would be allowed to go free. He must therefore be
blind, blind to all, even to Nadia, blind everywhere, and
not a gesture at any moment must let the truth be sus-
pected. His resolution was taken. He must risk his life
even to afford to all he might meet the proof of his want of
sight. We know how perfectly he acted the part he had
determined on.

His mother alone knew the truth, and he had whispered
it to her in Tomsk itself, when bending over her in the dark
he covered her with kisses.

When Ogareff had in his cruel irony held the Imperial
letter before the eyes which he believed were destroyed,
Michael had been able to read, and had read the letter which
disclosed the odious plans of the traitor. This was the
reason of the wonderful resolution he exhibited during the
second part of his journey. This was the reason of his un-
alterable longing to reach Irkutsk, so as to perform his mis-
sion by word of mouth. He knew that the town would be
betrayed! He knew that the life of the Grand Duke was
threatened! The safety of the Czar's brother and of
Siberia was in his hands.

This story was told in a few words to the Grand Duke,
and Michael repeated also -- and with what emotion! -- the
part Nadia had taken in these events.

"Who is this girl?" asked the Grand Duke.

"The daughter of the exile, Wassili Fedor," replied
Michael.

"The daughter of Captain Fedor," said the Grand Duke,
"has ceased to be the daughter of an exile. There are no
longer exiles in Irkutsk."

Nadia, less strong in joy than she had been in grief, fell
on her knees before the Grand Duke, who raised her with
one hand, while he extended the other to Michael.

An hour after, Nadia was in her father's arms. Michael
Strogoff, Nadia, and Wassili Fedor were united. This was
the height of happiness to them all.

The Tartars had been repulsed in their double attack on
the town. Wassili Fedor, with his little band, had driven
back the first assailants who presented themselves at the
Bolchaia Gate, expecting to find it open and which, by an
instinctive feeling, often arising from sound judgment,
he had determined to remain at and defend.

At the same time as the Tartars were driven back the
besieged had mastered the fire. The liquid naphtha having
rapidly burnt to the surface of the water, the flames did
not go beyond the houses on the shore, and left the other
quarters of the town uninjured. Before daybreak the
troops of Feofar-Khan had retreated into their camp, leav-
ing a large number of dead on and below the ramparts.

Among the dead was the gypsy Sangarre, who had vainly
endeavored to join Ivan Ogareff.

For two days the besiegers attempted no fresh assault.
They were discouraged by the death of Ogareff. This man
was the mainspring of the invasion, and he alone, by his
plots long since contrived, had had sufficient influence over
the khans and their hordes to bring them to the conquest
of Asiatic Russia.

However, the defenders of Irkutsk kept on their guard,
and the investment still continued; but on the 7th of Octo-
ber, at daybreak, cannon boomed out from the heights
around Irkutsk. It was the succoring army under the com-
mand of General Kisselef, and it was thus that he made
known his welcome arrival to the Grand Duke.

The Tartars did not wait to be attacked. Not daring
to run the risk of a battle under the walls of Irkutsk, they
immediately broke up the Angara camp. Irkutsk was at
last relieved.

With the first Russian soldiers, two of Michael's friends
entered the city. They were the inseparable Blount and
Jolivet. On gaining the right bank of the Angara by
means of the icy barrier, they had escaped, as had the other
fugitives, before the flames had reached their raft. This
had been noted by Alcide Jolivet in his book in this way:
"Ran a narrow chance of being finished up like a lemon in
a bowl of punch!"

Their joy was great on finding Nadia and Michael safe
and sound; above all, when they learnt that their brave
companion was not blind. Harry Blount inscribed this ob-
servation: "Red-hot iron is insufficient in some cases to de-
stroy the sensibility of the optic nerve."

Then the two correspondents, settled for a time in
Irkutsk, busied themselves in putting the notes and impres-
sions of their journey in order. Thence were sent to Lon-
don and Paris two interesting articles relative to the Tartar
invasion, and which -- a rare thing -- did not contradict each
other even on the least important points.

The remainder of the campaign was unfortunate to the
Emir and his allies. This invasion, futile as all which at-
tack the Russian Colossus must be, was very fatal to them.
They soon found themselves cut off by the Czar's troops,
who retook in succession all the conquered towns. Besides
this, the winter was terrible, and, decimated by the cold,
only a small part of these hordes returned to the steppes
of Tartary.

The Irkutsk road, by way of the Ural Mountains, was
now open. The Grand Duke was anxious to return to
Moscow, but he delayed his journey to be present at a
touching ceremony, which took place a few days after the
entry of the Russian troops.

Michael Strogoff sought Nadia, and in her father's pres-
ence said to her, "Nadia, my sister still, when you left Riga
to come to Irkutsk, did you leave it with any other regret
than that for your mother?"

"No," replied Nadia, "none of any sort whatever."

"Then, nothing of your heart remains there?"

"Nothing, brother."

"Then, Nadia," said Michael, "I think that God, in al-
lowing us to meet, and to go through so many severe trials
together, must have meant us to be united forever."

"Ah!" said Nadia, falling into Michael's arms. Then
turning towards Wassili Fedor, "My father," said she,
blushing.

"Nadia," said Captain Fedor, "it will be my joy to call
you both my children!"

The marriage ceremony took place in Irkutsk cathedral.

Jolivet and Blount very naturally assisted at this mar-
riage, of which they wished to give an account to their
readers.

"And doesn't it make you wish to imitate them?" asked
Alcide of his friend.

"Pooh!" said Blount. "Now if I had a cousin like
you --"

"My cousin isn't to be married!" answered Alcide, laugh-
ing.

"So much the better," returned Blount, "for they speak
of difficulties arising between London and Pekin. Have
you no wish to go and see what is going on there?"

"By Jove, my dear Blount!" exclaimed Alcide Jolivet,
"I was just going to make the same proposal to you."

And that was how the two inseparables set off for China.

A few days after the ceremony, Michael and Nadia
Strogoff, accompanied by Wassili Fedor, took the route to
Europe. The road so full of suffering when going, was a
road of joy in returning. They traveled swiftly, in one
of those sleighs which glide like an express train across
the frozen steppes of Siberia.

However, when they reached the banks of the Dinka,
just before Birskoe, they stopped for a while. Michael
found the place where he had buried poor Nicholas. A
cross was erected there, and Nadia prayed a last time on
the grave of the humble and heroic friend, whom neither
of them would ever forget.

At Omsk, old Marfa awaited them in the little house of
the Strogoffs. She clasped passionately in her arms the
girl whom in her heart she had already a hundred times
called "daughter." The brave old Siberian, on that day,
had the right to recognize her son and say she was proud
of him.

After a few days passed at Omsk, Michael and Nadia
entered Europe, and, Wassili Fedor settling down in St.
Petersburg, neither his son nor his daughter had any occa-
sion to leave him, except to go and see their old mother.

The young courier was received by the Czar, who at-
tached him specially to his own person, and gave him the
Cross of St. George. In the course of time, Michael
Strogoff reached a high station in the Empire. But it is
not the history of his success, but the history of his trials,
which deserves to be related.

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