Sophy of Kravonia: A Novel

by Anthony Hope

  Produced by Bruce Albrecht, Mary Meehan and the OnlineDistributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net

  SOPHY OF KRAVONIA

  A Novel

  BY ANTHONY HOPE

  AUTHOR OF "THE PRISONER OF ZENDA," "THE INTRUSIONS OF PEGGY," ETC.

  NEW YORK AND LONDON HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS MCMVI

  Copyright, 1905, by ANTHONY HOPE HAWKINS.

  _All rights reserved._

  Published October, 1906.

  CONTENTS

  INTRODUCTION v

  PART I

  MORPINGHAM

  I. ENOCH GROUCH'S DAUGHTER 3

  II. THE COOK AND THE CATECHISM 10

  III. BEAUTIFUL JULIA--AND MY LORD 19

  IV. FATE'S WAY--OR LADY MEG'S 29

  V. THE VISION OF "SOMETHING BRIGHT" 40

  PART II

  PARIS

  I. PHAROS, MANTIS, AND CO. 45

  II. THE LORD OF YOUTH 55

  III. THE NOTE--AND NO REASONS 64

  IV. THE PICTURE AND THE STAR 72

  PART III

  KRAVONIA

  I. THE NAME-DAY OF THE KING 79

  II. AT THE GOLDEN LION 90

  III. THE VIRGIN WITH THE LAMP 101

  IV. THE MESSAGE OF THE NIGHT 110

  V. A QUESTION OF MEMORY 118

  VI. "IMPOSSIBLE" OR "IMMEDIATE"? 129

  VII. THE BARONESS GOES TO COURT 139

  VIII. MONSEIGNEUR'S UNIFORM 149

  IX. COUNTESS ELLENBURG PRAYS 159

  X. THE SOUND OF A TRUMPET 169

  XI. M. ZERKOVITCH'S BEDROOM FIRE 180

  XII. JOYFUL OF HEART 193

  XIII. A DELICATE DUTY 203

  XIV. HIS MAJESTY DIES--TO-MORROW! 216

  XV. A JOB FOR CAPTAIN HERCULES 225

  XVI. A FRENCHMAN AND A MATTRESS 235

  XVII. INGENIOUS COLONEL STAFNITZ 246

  XVIII. TO THE FAITHFUL CITY 258

  XIX. THE SILVER RING 267

  XX. THEY HAVE COLDS IN SLAVNA 280

  XXI. ON SATURDAY AT MIKLEVNI! 292

  XXII. JEALOUS OF DEATH 303

  XXIII. A WOMAN AND A GHOST 313

  XXIV. TRUE TO HER LOVE 325

  INTRODUCTION

  The following narrative falls naturally into three divisions,corresponding to distinct and clearly marked periods of Sophy's life. Ofthe first and second--her childhood at Morpingham and her sojourn inParis--the records are fragmentary, and tradition does little tosupplement them. As regards Morpingham, the loss is small. The annals ofa little maid-servant may be left in vagueness without much loss. Enoughremains to show both the manner of child Sophy was and how it fell outthat she spread her wings and left the Essex village far behind her. Itis a different affair when we come to the French period. The years spentin and near Paris, in the care and under the roof of Lady MargaretDuddington, were of crucial moment in Sophy's development. They changedher from what she had been and made her what she was to be. WithoutParis, Kravonia, still extraordinary, would have been impossible.

  Yet the surviving history of Paris and the life there is scanty. Only asketch is possible. A record existed--and a fairly full one--in theJulia Robins correspondence; that we know from Miss Robins herself. Butthe letters written from Paris by Sophy to her lifelong friend have,with some few exceptions, perished. Miss Robins accounts for this--andin view of her careful preservation of later correspondence, her apologymust be accepted--by the fact that during these years--from 1866 to1870--she was constantly travelling from town to town and from lodgingto lodging, as a member of various theatrical companies; this nomadicexistence did not promote the careful and methodical storage of herletters. It may, of course, be added that no such obvious interestattached to these records as gathered round Sophy's doings after she hadexchanged Paris and the Rue de Grenelle for Slavna and the Castle ofPraslok.

  When this migration has been effected, the historian is on much firmerground; he is even embarrassed sometimes by the abundance of material ofvarying value. Apart from public records and general memory (bothcarefully consulted on the spot), the two main sources flow from Sophy'sown hand. They are the Robins correspondence and the diary. Nearly tothe end the letters are very constant, very full, very instructive; butthey are composed with an obvious view to the tastes and interests oftheir recipient, and by no means always devote most space to what nowseems of greatest interest. In one point, however, Miss Robins's tastesprove of real service. This lady, who rose to a respectable, if not ahigh, position as a Shakespearian actress, was much devoted to the studyof costume, and Sophy, aware of this hobby, never omits to tell her withminute care what she herself wore on every occasion, what the otherladies wore, and what were the uniforms, military or civil, in which themen were arrayed. Trivial, perhaps, yet of great value in picturing thescenes!

  In her letters Sophy is also copious in depicting places, houses, andlandscapes--matters on which the diary is naturally not so full. Sothat, in spite of their great faults, the letters form a valuablesupplement to the diary. Yet what faults--nay, what crimes! Sophy hadlearned to talk French perfectly and to write it fairly well. She hadnot learned to write English well or even decently; the letters are, infact, a charnel-house of murdered grammar and broken-backed sentences.Still there emerge from it all a shrewdness and a rural vigor andraciness which show that the child of the little Essex farm-housesurvived in the writer.

  But for this Kravonian period--the great period--the diary is the thing.Yet it is one of the most unconscientious diaries ever written. It isfull of gaps; it is often posted up very unpunctually; it is sometimesexasperatingly obscure--there may be some intention in that; she couldnot tell into what hands it might fall. But it covers most of theground; it begins almost with Sophy's arrival in Slavna, and the lastentry records her discovery of Lord Dunstanbury's presence in Kravonia.It is written for the most part in French, and she wrote French, as hasbeen said, decently--nay, even forcibly, though not with elegance; yetshe frequently relapses into English--often of a very colloquial order:this happens mostly under the influence of anger or some other strongemotion. And she is dramatic--that must be allowed to her. Sheconcentrates her attention on what she conceives (nor is her instinctfar out) to be her great scenes; she gives (or purports to give) averbatim report of critical conversations, and it is only just to saythat she allows her interlocutors fair play. She has candor--and that,working with the dramatic sense in her, f
orbids her to warp the scene.In the earlier parts of the story she shows keen appreciation of itslighter aspects; as times grow graver, her records, too, change in mood,working up to the tense excitement, the keen struggle, the burningemotions of her last days in Kravonia. Yet even then she always findstime for a laugh and a touch of gayety.

  When Sophy herself ceases to be our guide, Lord Dunstanbury's notesbecome the main authority. They are supplemented by the recollection ofMr. Basil Williamson, now practising his profession of surgery inAustralia; and this narrative is also indebted to Colonel Markart,sometime secretary to General Stenovics, for much important informationwhich, as emanating from the enemy's camp, was not accessible to Sophyor her informants. The contributions of other actors in the drama, toonumerous to mention here, will be easily identified in their place inthe story.

  A word seems desirable on one other subject, and no mean one; for it iscertain that Sophy's physical gifts were a powerful ally to herambition, her strong will, and her courage; it is certain, too, that shedid not shrink from making the most of this reinforcement to her powers.All the authorities named above--not excepting Sophy herself--haveplenty to say on the topic, and from their descriptions a portrait ofher may be attempted. Of actual pictures one only exists--in thepossession of the present Lord Dunstanbury, who succeeded hisfather--Sophy's Earl--a few years ago. It is a pastel, drawn just beforeshe left Paris--and, to be frank, it is something of a disappointment;the taste of the 'sixties is betrayed in a simper which sits on the lipsbut is alien to the character of them. Still the outline and the colorare there.

  Her hair was very dark, long, and thick; her nose straight and fine, herlips firm and a trifle full. Her complexion was ordinarily very pale,and she did not flush save under considerable agitation of mind orexertion of body. She was above the middle height, finely formed, andslender. It was sometimes, indeed, objected that her shape was toomasculine--the shoulders a trifle too square and the hips too small fora woman. These are, after all, matters of taste; she would not have beenthought amiss in ancient Athens. All witnesses agree in describing hercharm as lying largely in movement, in vivacity, in a sense ofsuppressed force trying to break out, or (as Mr. Williamson puts it) of"tremendous driving power."

  The personality seems to stand out fairly distinct from thesedescriptions, and we need the less regret that a second picture, knownto have been painted soon after her arrival in Kravonia, has perishedeither through carelessness or (more probably) by deliberatedestruction; there were many in Kravonia not too anxious that even acounterfeit presentment of the famous "Red Star" and its wearer shouldsurvive. It would carry its memories and its reproach.

  "The Red Star!" The name appears first in a letter of the Parisperiod--one of the few which are in existence. Its invention isattributed by Sophy to her friend the Marquis de Savres (of whom weshall hear again). He himself used it often. But of the thing we hearvery early--and go on hearing from time to time. Sophy at first calls it"my mark," but she speedily adopts Monsieur le Marquis's more poeticalterm, and by that description it is known throughout her subsequentcareer. The polite artist of the 'sixties shirked it altogether bygiving a half-profile view of his subject, thus not showing the leftcheek where the "star" was situated.

  It was, in fact, a small birth-mark, placed just below the cheek-bone,almost round, yet with a slightly indented outline. No doubt a lover(and M. de Savres was one) found warrant enough for his phrase. Atordinary times it was a very pale red in color, but (unlike the rest ofher face) it was very rapidly sensitive to any change of mood or temper;in moments of excitement the shade deepened greatly, and (as ColonelMarkart says in his hyperbolic strain) "it glowed like angry Venus."Without going quite that length, we are bound to allow that it was, atthese moments, a conspicuous and striking mark, and such it clearlyappeared to the eyes of all who saw it. "La dame a l'etoile rouge," saysthe Marquis. "The Red-starred Witch," said the less courteous and morehostile citizens and soldiers of Kravonia. Sophy herself appears proudof it, though she feigns to consider it a blemish. Very probably it wasone of those peculiarities which become so closely associated andidentified with the personality to which they belong as at once toheighten the love of friends and to attract an increased dislike orhatred from those already disposed or committed to enmity. At any rate,for good or evil, it is as "Red Star" that the name of Sophy livesto-day in the cities and mountains of Kravonia.

  So much in preface; now to the story. Little historical importance canbe claimed for it. But amateurs of the picturesque, if yet there be suchin this business-like world, may care to follow Sophy from Morpingham toParis, to share her flight from the doomed city, to be with her in theStreet of the Fountain, at venerable Praslok, on Volseni's crumblingwall, by the banks of the swift-flowing Krath at dawn of day--to tastesomething of the spirit that filled, to feel something of the love thatmoved, the heart of Sophy Grouch of Morpingham, in the county of Essex.Still, sometimes Romance beckons back her ancient votaries.

  SOPHY OF KRAVONIA

  PART I

  MORPINGHAM